Chapter 174 The Party B Who Loves You
It was almost eleven, and the video conference showed no signs of ending. Caroline had to work tomorrow. She came to the study door and pointed toward the bedroom, signaling to Leopold inside that she was going to sleep.
When Leopold saw her, he said to Allegra, "Hold on a second."
He walked over to Caroline, wrapped his arm around her slender waist, lifted her slightly, and kissed her lips.
"What do you want for breakfast tomorrow?"
Caroline wasn't here to interrupt his meeting. She gently pushed him and whispered, "Go back to your meeting. I'll make breakfast tomorrow."
With one arm, he easily held her up. Caroline's toes left the ground—his masculine strength was impossible to ignore. He persisted, "Tell me, what do you want to eat?"
If she didn't say something now, he probably wouldn't let her go.
Caroline covered her lips and whispered in his ear, "Sandwich and milk."
"Okay." Leopold nodded with satisfaction, kissed her lips again, and then let her go.
Caroline said, "Whose husband is this clingy, kissing over and over again, who knows how many times a day?"
Leopold pretended to frown in anger and was about to reach out to grab her, but she had already dodged away with a laugh.
He pointed at Caroline standing at the bedroom door, smiled mischievously, and mouthed: [I'll teach you a lesson next time.]
Early morning, everything was still and quiet. A line of fiery orange gradually rose on the horizon, soaking the deep blue sky in extraordinary brightness.
Caroline opened her eyes and didn't see Leopold. Walking out of the bedroom, she noticed the study light was still on. He was curled up on the study sofa, asleep, still holding a few sheets of paper. From the looks of it, he'd probably stayed up all night.
Her heart ached, but she didn't want to wake him. She went back to the bedroom to get a light blanket, saved the document on his laptop and closed it, slowly removed his glasses, pulled the materials from his hand, covered him with the blanket, turned off the light, and tiptoed out.
Caroline went to the kitchen to make breakfast, but saw a note stuck on the refrigerator.
To Party A:
[According to your instructions last night, the sandwich has been prepared and is now in the warming container. Milk is in the refrigerator and needs to be heated before drinking.]
[Party B, who loves you.]
Leopold had been busy all night and still made her breakfast. Caroline felt like she was the one taking advantage of him.
Before she left, Leopold still hadn't woken up. Caroline used the rice cooker to make him some porridge, boiled some eggs, and made some cold pickled vegetables.
As her car pulled into the office gate, the security guard came out of the booth holding a package.
Just as Caroline got out of the car, the guard said, "Ms. Tudor, your package just arrived."
"Thanks." Caroline took it and tore open the seal as she walked. It was a promotional catalog from an electrical equipment manufacturer.
Every year, the power company needed to purchase equipment and supplies—quite a lot of them. Getting an order from the power company was definitely good business.
Caroline had just taken office, and many manufacturers had started contacting her privately, but Caroline had politely declined them all.
Purchases required project approval. Anything over a hundred thousand dollars had to go to committee review, and prices needed to be audited by the city's audit office before the final purchase price could be determined.
These people contacting her privately were obviously hoping to get orders through Caroline and have her manipulate things from the inside.
Back in her office, she set the manufacturer's catalog aside and didn't pay it much attention.
Deputy Manager Jasper Russell came to see Caroline. He knocked on the door. Caroline was on the phone and gestured for Jasper to sit down first.
Jasper pulled out a chair and noticed several promotional catalogs already on her desk.
"Okay, that's it. Once the approval comes through, I'll have someone contact you. Okay, goodbye."
Putting down her phone, Caroline looked at Jasper. "What's up, Mr. Russell?"
Jasper was five years older than her. They'd always addressed each other this way since they met. Although she'd been promoted, she still called him the same thing.
Jasper said, "You've been pretty busy lately. I've looked for you several times these past few days, and you weren't around."
Caroline said, "Yeah, it's been a bit busy. I don't know what's going on with the city lately—so many meetings. The day before yesterday, a cable got dug up somewhere and a utility pole fell down. I spent half the day at the site."
"No wonder I couldn't find you." Jasper pulled out a cigarette and was about to light it when he noticed there was no ashtray on Caroline's desk. He was about to put it away when Caroline noticed and quickly said, "I have an ashtray."
She took an ashtray from the side table and placed it in front of him. "I don't smoke, so I don't keep the ashtray on my desk. When someone smokes, I bring it out."
"No, I shouldn't smoke in a female colleague's office." Jasper put the cigarette down. "I'm used to being around male colleagues—I smoke wherever I go."
Caroline said, "It's fine, go ahead and smoke."
Jasper smiled and said, "I just came from a colleague's office and put out my cigarette." Then he changed the subject. "This habit of smoking whenever I talk business is really hard to break."
Caroline looked at him calmly. "Mr. Russell, what did you need to see me about?"
Jasper's gaze fell on a cable catalog on the desk. "Here's the thing—yesterday, my people were doing inventory in the warehouse and reported to me that we don't have much cable left. This isn't something we can just buy on the spot. We need to keep some in stock. In case of an emergency, we need to have a cable for emergency repairs. I came to discuss this with you—do you have any thoughts on which manufacturer to choose?"
Caroline said calmly, "If we're low on cable, we should definitely purchase some. Based on our historical purchase volume, we'll submit a request to higher-ups and then go through government procurement."
Jasper smiled awkwardly and hesitated. "Haven't any companies contacted you?"
Caroline glanced at the several catalogs on her desk and immediately understood what he meant.
"These?" Caroline organized the catalogs. "These were all mailed to the office by cable manufacturers. I haven't been in contact with them. Do you know any, Mr. Russell?"
Actually, Caroline knew about these operations before. If the quality was the same and they won the bid through normal procurement channels, cooperation was completely acceptable.
Jasper was silent for a moment. "If you don't have any manufacturers you're in contact with, I do know one that's familiar. How about this—let's find a time to have dinner and sit down so their people can give you a detailed introduction."
Caroline smiled slightly. "There's no need to go to such trouble to introduce a product. Which company is it? Let me first look at their qualifications, and then have them send over their product information."
Jasper smiled and said, "Ms. Tudor, don't overthink it. It's just a simple dinner to sit down and chat."
"Mr. Russell, you should know me by now—I can't drink at the dinner table, and I'm not good at saying nice things. It's fine, tell the manufacturer not to feel pressured. I don't have that many rules. Just have them send someone to deliver their product information to my office. I'll give them a response as soon as possible. If it meets our requirements, we can have them participate in the bidding."
Jasper paused slightly. His goal was to have Caroline purchase from the cable factory he recommended this year, but clearly, she had no such intention.
Jasper said, "Ms. Tudor, other power companies also use this cable manufacturer. There's definitely no problem."
Caroline smiled. "That's even better. No problem—once our bidding is done, we'll have the company submit a bid."