Chapter 83

“Hurry up and go. You’ll miss the cruise.”  

“So you just don’t want to do anything with me, without any complaints.”  

“I’m not complaining. I just want to do what I’m supposed to do. Only what’s between employer and employee.”  

“Hmph!”  

“Then, President, if you would…”  

Diane was about to ask Edward to leave now.  

“You’re my reading assistant. You’ve been getting paid without working. Oh! You did it once, right? But after that one time, I came to Agris, so you’ve been idle again.”  

She felt uneasy at his sudden mention of this.  

“I’m Young Master Leon’s tutor, and I came to Agris as a substitute because his lessons were put on hold.”  

“Fine, let’s count following Leon’s lessons up to here. Then what about my reading assistant job?”  

“Excuse me?”  

What was he going to say now?  

“If you followed to Agris instead of being a tutor, then you can go on the cruise instead of being my reading assistant.”  

“How does that make sense?”  

“Why not? Getting paid for doing nothing is even more shameless and unreasonable. Are you really that shameless?”  

“President, this is unfair. Those are two completely different jobs. I’ll only do what I’m supposed to do.”  

Edward glared at her after she spoke.  

She glared right back.  

She resented how he made her want to be with him, how she wanted to follow his lead even when he was being unreasonable.  

Stop shaking me up!  

He could shake her whenever he wanted, but she… she couldn’t.  

‘Please, don’t do this.’

“Fine. Then read to me.”  

“Excuse me?”  

What was he talking about now?  

She was dumbfounded.  

“It’s a bit awkward to read here, right? Read in the lobby.”  

“What do you mean?”  

“Forget the cruise.”  

Though he said it lightly, anger weighed down his entire body.  

But Diane was just as angry.  

“President! Please say something that makes sense. If I read to you in the lobby, what will people…”  

“Think? They’ll probably think Edward Wale is getting a lesson from his nephew’s reading tutor. Does it matter? I don’t care.”  

“….”  

Of course he didn’t care.  

She felt her face flush with anger as she glared at him.  

“It’s good that you glare at your employer, but since you get paid, come down and read to me. Because of you, I can’t even go on my cruise for the first time, so my mood is awful. So pick a book that suits my taste. Oh! There should be some books in the lobby. They were just for decoration, but now they’ll be used.”  

“President!”  

“What!”  

“…Why do you keep calling me ‘you’!”  

Diane called out to Edward confidently, but all she could do was say things like that.  

She had no real grounds to refuse his demand to read to him, and even if she did, he would just keep coming up with excuses.  

“I call you ‘you.’ What else should I call you? I tried my best to be polite and call you ‘Miss Diane,’ but you keep doing whatever you want. I’m not an employer who insists on manners. I like you…”  

“President!”  

Diane, wanting to stop him, shouted so loudly that her voice echoed down the corridor.  

“What! Why do you keep calling me! And you, stop calling me President. I hate it!”  

“I’ll go on the cruise! That’s what you want, right? I’ll wear the clothes!”  

Diane snatched the bag from his hand.  

‘I like you…’  

What was he about to say!  

She absolutely could not hear whatever he was about to say.  

He must not know her feelings, and she didn’t want to confirm his either.  

And with such a stubborn man, going on the cruise was better than reading to him in the lobby.  

Not everyone in the hotel was going on the cruise, but just imagining being in the lobby, reading to him while he said and did whatever he pleased, ignoring everyone’s stares, made her shudder.  

Besides, even if he wasn’t that kind of person, wasn’t it strange for a grown man to listen to his nephew’s tutor read to him?  

In this situation, she realized how ridiculous it was to get caught up in his claims about her job.  

Maybe she’d already been soft on him.  

Maybe the reason she couldn’t quit as a tutor was that she didn’t want to.  

“No! If you want to go on the cruise, stop calling me President.”  

Lost in her own thoughts about being drawn to him, Diane was snapped back to reality by Edward’s voice, as if he was shaking her by the hair.  

She felt as if a glass bowl had shattered in her mind, and almost grabbed her neck.  

If she wanted to go on the cruise, she couldn’t call him President.  

What kind of nonsense was that!  

“Then I don’t want to go on the cruise, President!”  

“Then should we meet in the lobby? No, right? You don’t want that, do you?”  

Diane’s mouth hung open and her face twisted.  

Why was she so affected by this man?  

“See, you want to go on the cruise. Call me Edward.”  

“No!”  

She wanted to smack her own chest.  

What kind of employee calls their boss by name?  

Even setting aside her position, he didn’t care what others thought at all.  

She was the only one feeling flustered and embarrassed.  

She’d rather have been shaken by the Duke.  

This was worse—he was more childish than Leon. What was so appealing about this man?  

She must have really eaten something wrong that day at Lina Orphanage.  

But at her immediate, firm answer, he stared at her persistently.  

“Then…”  

After a few seconds of silence, he spoke again. Oddly, his gaze was deeper than before.  

“Call me whatever you want. But from now on, I’ll call the woman I like by her name. Diane.”  

Thump!  

Her heart dropped somewhere far away.  

Yet, as if she had two hearts, another one was still pumping hard in her chest.  

He’d finally said it.  

Why was he doing this to her!  

He might not lose anything by confessing, but she could lose everything she’d valued—her beliefs, her pride.  

If he kept getting closer, she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to resist and would do anything he wanted, afraid she’d never be able to leave him.  

No matter what his feelings were, they could never be a normal couple.  

If she fell deeper for him, she was scared she’d always want to be by his side, even if his feelings ended at any moment and left her hurt.  

No!  

She couldn’t let that happen.  

Just as her feelings for the Duke had faded into the past, she needed to quickly sort out this fluttering for Edward and return to her peaceful old self.  

So, even though she couldn’t possibly understand his words, she looked at him with a blank face, pretending not to hear a thing.  

“Diane.”  

He called her again.  

But this time, she avoided his gaze and bowed her head.  

No matter how hard she tried to keep a blank face, she could feel her eyes shaking when she met his. She couldn’t hide that.  

“Diane.”  

Why did he keep calling her!  

He called her again, and finally, she ducked her head and slammed the door, going back into the room.  

She leaned against the door, but her racing heart made even her back vibrate against it.  

“Hurry up, get dressed, Diane.”  

Edward, who had stirred up her heart, was just behind the door, and his voice rang out loud enough for the whole hallway to hear.  

His voice now sounded not just carefree, but cheerful.  

Wicked man!  

Shameless man!  

Diane bit her lower lip and squeezed her eyes shut.  

I didn’t hear anything.  

I didn’t understand anything.  

So I’m fine.  

She repeated that to herself several times, and finally changed quickly into the clothes she’d snatched from Edward.  

Maybe she was giving herself another excuse that she had no choice but to accept the clothes and go on the cruise because she couldn’t win against him.  

But even now, she thought she had no choice.