The New East Group's offices were a good distance from school, so for the sake of convenience, Chloe rented a two-bedroom apartment with a roommate nearby.
Jacob now lived alone in their mother's house.
Saturday, ten in the morning.
Donovan picked up Chloe from her apartment complex.
Heeding Donovan's expectations, Chloe had dressed appropriately. A white T-shirt, red miniskirt, and white sneakers made her look youthful and vibrant. Young people looked good in almost anything.
This time, Donovan had opted not to drive himself, sitting beside Chloe in the backseat.
Chloe got into the car, and Donovan glanced at her briefly, saying nothing.
Once on the freeway, a thought suddenly struck Chloe: 'Does her marriage of convenience with Donovan include sleeping together?'
'She signed the agreement without clarifying this.' Chloe realized she had been too hasty.
Chloe's mind suddenly jolted with a wave of anxiety. They were about to reach Samuel's place, and she knew they'd be spending the night together. A pressing question burned at the forefront of her thoughts. Would he expect them to... be intimate?
Wary of the driver overhearing, Chloe discreetly sent a WhatsApp message to Donovan.
Chole: [Mr. Blake, does our agreement include... that?]
Donovan took his sweet time to reach for his phone when he heard the notification and casually flipped to WhatsApp.
Seated upright but with a sense of impending doom, Chloe could see from the corner of her eye that Donovan appeared rather nonchalant as he responded to her message.
Clutching her phone tightly, Chloe anxiously awaited his reply. Soon, it buzzed with the notification, "1 new message from 1 contact."
She swiftly unlocked her phone and scrolled to her chat with "Mike."
Mike: [Which "that?"]
Chloe nearly exploded with frustration at his lackadaisical response to such a tense question.
Chole: [Sex.]
Moments later, her phone chimed. Chloe quickly unlocked it with facial recognition.
Mike: [What do you think?]
Chloe stared at the screen, speechless and overwhelmed.
As she fumbled mindlessly on the keyboard, unsure of how to respond, she heard his voice, "Am I 'Mike'?"
Startled by the sudden question, Chloe's body tensed. She hadn't expected Donovan to be so direct. Turning to look at him, she noticed his gaze lowered toward her phone screen, which displayed her ongoing chat with "Mike."
"Just a code name," Chloe explained quickly. "I was worried that writing 'Mr. Blake' might reveal our arrangement to others."
In doing so, Chloe also implicitly assured Donovan that she had been keeping their relationship confidential.
Donovan seemed uninterested in continuing the conversation and turned his attention back to the window.
Chloe couldn't understand his tepid reaction. Why couldn't he just answer her question directly? Since he wasn't giving her a straight answer on WhatsApp, she decided to ask him in person.
"Mr. Blake, do you have protection?" Chloe asked him earnestly, looking him dead in the eye.
Pregnancy wasn't an option for her. She had to pass her CPA exam, climb the corporate ladder, and earn money. She couldn't afford a child to hold her back.
Donovan looked at Chloe with a slightly furrowed brow when she asked her forward question, as if pondering, 'Isn't she being a bit too forward?'
"I didn't bring any." After his terse response, he turned his gaze back to the window, leaving an air of discomfort hanging between them.
Chloe nervously swallowed, the tension palpable.
But Chloe thought to herself, ‘He probably didn't bring protection because he doesn't intend to do anything. After the last time, he must have thought that Chloe, the intern, is holding him back, and he probably regrets it now. He's so lucid this time. How could he possibly make the same mistake again? And besides, as the president of New East International, how could he possibly let a mere intern have his child?’ With this in mind, Chloe breathed a sigh of relief.