The Year She Stopped Being Crazy for Him novel Chapter 278

"Hassan, you're back? Why are you home so late?" Gardenia called out, her eyes fixed on a spot right behind Natalie. "Didn't you get off work ages ago?"

Natalie turned her head to see Hassan striding directly toward her, a dark frown marring his features. "What are you doing out here?"

Natalie smiled brightly and tilted her head. "Just having a friendly little chat. I was also testing the waters to see if I could find a good angle to shove someone into the pond. My hands have been feeling a bit itchy lately."

"Stop talking nonsense," Hassan scolded softly, gesturing with his head toward their home. "Go back inside. I need to talk to you about something."

Standing awkwardly on the sidelines, Gardenia suddenly interjected, "Could I possibly pick Adrian up to have dinner with me tonight?"

Hassan paused briefly before shooting her a cool glance. "He's over at the main estate."

Gardenia lowered her gaze, putting on an impressively pitiful display of heartbreak.

Natalie gave her a side-eye, her eyes narrowing in sheer disgust.

Unsurprisingly, a second later, she heard Hassan fold. "I'll call Cecily and see if I can have Adrian brought over for the evening."

Gardenia's manufactured sadness vanished, instantly replaced by a glowing smile. "Thank you so much!"

She stepped intimately close to Hassan's side. "Let's walk back together. I've easily hit my step count for the day. I did ten thousand steps."

The man merely gave a noncommittal hum of agreement.

Natalie tugged on the dog's leash and let out a loud, exaggerated yawn as she listened to the two of them casually chatting back and forth.

She pulled out her phone and checked a message Jude had sent just moments ago.

[Doesn't the Carlson Group have a huge bidding conference coming up? The competition is completely brutal. I heard Gardenia is actually one of the lead directors on it. Wow, what's wrong with you? You're completely useless compared to her.]

Natalie: [Gardenia literally just brought you up.]

Jude: [You guys are together right now? Doing what? What exactly did Gardenia say about me?]

Natalie: [She said you talk way too much nonsense.]

Jude: [...]

Hassan briefly turned his head to glance at her screen.

Natalie remained entirely focused, her head bowed as her fingers flew across the keyboard.

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