The Day I Quit Him (Autumn and Mars) novel Chapter 328

Chapter 328

Autumn didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“Alright, you can handle the arrangements.”

She rubbed her round belly. “By the way, Owen, what has your mom been up to lately?”

Margaret Bennett had said she would come visit every day, but she hadn’t been around recently.

“My grandma hasn’t been feeling well,” Owen said. “I was planning a big family dinner, but with Grandma sick, everyone’s worried. My mom went back to take care of her.”

Autumn nodded.

“Your grandma’s health is the most important thing.”

“Don’t worry, I’m here for you.”

Autumn shot him a sidelong glance. “You’re great and all, but you’re still a guy.”

Owen was indignant. “What’s wrong with being a guy?”

“You mean there are secrets you can’t tell me?”

Autumn glared at him.

“You’re twisting my words on purpose!”

“I just mean that girls have their own secrets, stuff we can’t really talk about with guys.”

Owen didn’t believe her.

“Oh yeah? Name one thing I don’t know.”

Autumn raised an eyebrow. “You’re asking for it. Don’t come crying to me later when I give you a

hard time.”

“I won’t.”

Seeing how cocky he was, Autumn decided to take him down a peg.

“How much do you know about lipstick? Do you know the difference between a classic, powerful red and a flirty, date–night shade?”

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“I do.”

Like a magician, Owen pulled two tubes of lipstick from his pocket.

Autumn took them and gasped. “Wow, these really are a classic red and a date–night shade. When did you buy these?”

Owen didn’t seem like the type to have these things ready.

“I bought them because I knew you wanted them.”

Autumn’s eyes went wide.

*How is that possible? I’ve been itching to do my makeup, but ever since I got with Owen, I haven’t bothered.*

She hadn’t mentioned it to anyone, either.

*Can Owen actually read minds or something?*

“I don’t believe you. You must have asked someone.”

Owen’s expression faltered. “Are you trying to get out of it?”

The truth was, he did have help. More than one person, in fact.

Owen had no clue what Autumn actually liked, so he’d used the most brute–force method: he

bought one of every kind and was just waiting for her to mention a specific type so he could pull out the right one.

Standing to the side, Julian Moore’s face lit up with understanding.

No wonder a lipstick had fallen out of Owen’s pocket during the last meeting while everyone watched. So *that’s* what that was about!

Autumn didn’t notice the change in Julian’s expression. Though still puzzled by Owen’s

uncharacteristic behavior, her attention quickly shifted.

“Alright, alright. You handle the charity auction. I just wanted to get out for a bit.”

“If there’s nothing else, you guys can go get back to work. I want to rest.”

Seeing that Autumn was already trying to shoo them away, Owen gave a helpless smile. “Okay, get some rest.”

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Owen left with Julian.

Autumn pulled her phone out from under her pillow and looked up Teafall Peaks online.

Because it was so remote, there was barely any information about the place.

Finding nothing of interest, Autumn was about to close the app, feeling bored.

But suddenly, a DM notification popped up, showing she’d received a new message.

Autumn jumped. She was a very private person. Back when she was working, she would even post on Facebook using strict friend lists, never making a rookie mistake like letting her private life leak.

She was even more careful with her apps–location services and friend request settings were all turned off, and she never wasted much time on them anyway.

Getting a random DM out of the blue, a million thoughts flashed through Autumn’s mind.

But in the end, she decided to open it.

[Hi ma’am, I saw you liked a video about Teafall Peaks. Are you interested in the place?]

Autumn froze when she saw the message.

“I liked a video?”

She quickly backed out to check and realized she had indeed accidentally thumb–slipped and liked a video about Teafall Peaks.

Her first instinct was to unlike it, but she figured that would just look suspicious, so she left it.

[Ma’am, are you still there?]

When Autumn didn’t reply, the person sent another message in a reasonably polite tone.

Autumn wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but she could sense a certain urgency in their words.

Not knowing what they wanted, Autumn thought for a moment and replied with a [?].

The person seemed thrilled to get her response.

[Great, you’re there! So, ma’am, I’m from Teafall Peaks, and I…]

[I just saw you liked the video so I wanted to ask!]

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[Ma’am, why are you interested in Teafall Peaks?]

[I mean… is there anything I can help you with?]

The person was messaging rapidly. The sentences were choppy, as if they were typing whatever came to mind and hitting send immediately.

Autumn thought for a moment and, instead of mentioning her mother, said she had happened to try some tea from Teafall Peaks and was a little curious about the place.

[Oh, so you’ve tried our Misty Tea!]

[Misty Tea is amazing, ma’am! If you like it, I can connect you with the tea farmers. Guaranteed direct source, totally fresh and authentic!]

Autumn raised an eyebrow, not quite sure what to make of this person.

[And you are?]

After she sent that, the previously chatty person suddenly went silent.

A long time passed, so long that Autumn thought they wouldn’t reply, when another message came through.

[I’m a college student from Teafall Peaks. I’m a junior right now.]

That made even less sense to Autumn.

If they were a college student, that meant they must have earned their way out of Teafall Peaks.

If they wanted to promote the place, they could have just made a social media account or something. DMing random people who liked a video was just too weird.

What if people mistook them for a scammer?

*Isn’t that how those scams work? Someone pretends to be a girl selling tea from her village just to rip people off?*

*What is this person really after?*

[What do you want?]

Autumn wasn’t in the mood to play games. She directly asked them what their motive was.

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The person seemed surprised by her directness.

After a pause, they also chose to be direct: [My parents and grandfather passed away from illness a while ago, and now I have no way to pay for my tuition or living expenses, so I’m trying to make some money.]

Autumn scoffed.

[If you need money, what you should be doing is getting a part–time job. You know yourself that Teafall Peaks isn’t famous. How are you ever going to make money with this needle–in–a–haystack approach?]

The person didn’t reply again.

Autumn shook her head. *People these days are so weird.*

Just then, her phone rang. She pushed the strange encounter to the back of her mind and answered the call.

After she hung up, she was about to check if the person had messaged back, but then the ever–busy Nina suddenly sent her a text. Autumn immediately and happily started chatting with her, completely forgetting about the weird stranger.

What she never expected was that on the day of the charity gala, she would come face–to–face with this online stranger.