Chapter 81 This Is Your Client?
When Aria finished tidying up and was getting ready to rest, she routinely checked her phone and noticed a friend request on Facebook with the note "Lance."
After thinking it over, she clicked accept.
"Is this your client from today?"
Suddenly, a magnetic voice sounded behind her.
Aria, who had been focused on her own business, was startled by the unexpected voice. She instinctively turned around to see Arthur standing behind her at some point, his eyes fixed on her...
More precisely, fixed on her phone.
Aria instinctively pressed the screen off and looked at him calmly. "What's wrong?"
"Is it a man?"
Seeing Aria acting so guarded, as if protecting against a thief, Arthur felt uncomfortable and asked in a low voice.
Aria looked at Arthur with some disbelief. "Yes, so what? Are you going to control whether my clients are male or female too?"
Arthur seemed like his thoughts had been exposed. He looked away and coughed lightly to cover up. "You should remember your position. If it's a man, you need to keep an appropriate distance. I don't want to hear from outsiders about how my wife is interacting with other men."
Aria glanced at Arthur and said sarcastically, "Then why don't you stay away from other women?"
When he and Sophie were making a spectacle of themselves in public, did he think about her? How come he can do whatever he wants while she can't?
Arthur seemed not to expect Aria would bring this up. He choked for a moment and said in a low voice, "Her situation is special. I'll explain the reasons to you later."
Aria hadn't expected any explanation from Arthur anyway. She shook her head indifferently. "Forget about explanations. I'm tired and need to rest."
She knew that continuing to argue with Arthur would be pointless—they would just stick to their own views.
Since there was no solution, why waste more words?
Aria stopped paying attention to him, put her phone on the nightstand, closed her eyes, and said nothing more.
A dark gleam flashed in Arthur's eyes. He took a deep breath and left.
...
Over the next two days, Aria went to Lance's estate every day.
After their previous argument, Lance stopped finding major faults. Instead, he found small problems each time.
Most were issues he found when she wasn't there. When she was present, he had fewer complaints.
As a result, this project, which Aria had originally assigned someone else to handle, now became something she was managing herself.
"Lance, you're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"
This day, Aria couldn't take it anymore. She glared at Lance through gritted teeth.
Coming back and forth every day with her pregnant belly was exhausting. This Lance seemed to have something wrong with his brain, deliberately finding fault every time.
They were all minor issues, but he insisted on making them into big deals. How could she be okay with this?
Lance looked at Aria's exasperated expression, the corner of his mouth curling up. "How could that be? Look at it from a professional perspective yourself—isn't there a bit of a problem? This thing is crooked."
It wasn't that Lance was deliberately nitpicking. Aria's work was indeed very good. To laypeople, what she did would be absolutely fine. It was just that he had studied art abroad too, so naturally he was more particular.
"If you were a layperson, this would be fine. But I'm not a layperson."
"So it seems you really do have some professional issues you want to discuss with me?"
Aria forced herself to calm down and studied the problem Lance had just mentioned. Her eyes darkened as she looked at Lance.
Lance's mouth curved up slightly. "I wouldn't call it a discussion, just exploring the issue with you."
"Fine, then let me clear up your confusion. Do you know why this bonsai is at this angle? Do you know about spatial energy?..."
For the next while, Aria used her professional knowledge to answer Lance's questions.
What Lance said earlier wasn't wrong—some foreign art studies do address such placement issues. But because Aria had studied feng shui before, she would unconsciously combine these two things to study bonsai placement.
She had thought Lance was deliberately finding fault, but now it seemed he actually had some real knowledge.
So Aria set aside her objections to him and seriously shared her thoughts with Lance.
As Lance listened to Aria's explanation and watched her speak eloquently, something in his heart felt strange.
Aria seemed to have changed. She was no longer the person who would get upset over a few words from him. When he raised professional questions, she would set aside her prejudice against him and seriously address his concerns.
This Aria was someone he had never seen before, yet she somehow attracted him...
"What? Is there something on my face?"
After finishing her thoughts, Aria looked up at Lance and saw him staring at her in a daze. Her brow furrowed slightly as she spoke.
Lance was caught off guard, realizing his lapse. He coughed lightly and looked away, shaking his head. "No, what you said is quite fresh. I got a bit absorbed listening."
Lance casually explained his behavior.
Aria was taken aback, then showed Lance the first genuine smile in days.
"That's normal. Clients all like listening to me talk."
"Now you're getting proud?"
Looking at Aria's proud and bright smile, Lance felt a moment of disorientation. This version of her reminded him of several years ago, when Aria was just as bright and confident...
Aria's smile remained as she nodded. "Yes, is that a problem?"
Lance extended an invitation. "Of course not. You've worked hard these past few days. Want to have dinner together tonight?"
"No thanks. I'm afraid I won't be able to eat while looking at you."
Aria's refusal was straightforward, though her reason made Lance grit his teeth a bit.
What did she mean she couldn't eat while looking at him? He wasn't some side dish!
Aria looked at Lance's face changing colors and smiled. "Thanks for the invitation, but dinner really isn't necessary. As long as you have no issues with my landscape arrangement."
"No problems for now, but in a couple days, who knows."
Lance said those annoying words with a composed expression.
Aria glared at Lance and said through slightly gritted teeth, "What? What problems will there be in a couple days?"
Lance didn't respond, just signaled his assistant to get a document from his study.
"You'll know in a moment."
Aria saw Lance being mysterious and frowned, somewhat confused.
"Lance, if you have something to say, just say it. Why the mystery?"
"Have a little patience, Ms. Hall."