Early the next morning, Deanna was awakened by her alarm clock.
She turned off the alarm and noticed that last night's video call was still on.
In the video, Lance was still asleep.
Looking at the man's handsome sleeping face, Deanna couldn't help but be mesmerized, even though she had seen it many times before.
However, with the research institute on her mind, she quickly snapped out of it and softly said to the video, "Good morning."
After speaking, she ended the call.
She didn't want her movements to wake him up.
After washing up, just as she was about to head downstairs to the hotel restaurant for breakfast, her phone rang. It was Lionel calling.
"Good morning, Mr. Grant."
"Good morning, Miss Jones. Are you up?"
Lionel's gentle voice came through the phone.
Deanna smiled, "I'm up and about to have breakfast. Is there something you need, Mr. Grant?"
Upon hearing this, Lionel was silent for a moment before chuckling softly, "It seems Miss Jones has forgotten what I mentioned last night. But no worries, have your breakfast first. I'll wait for you downstairs."
Deanna had indeed forgotten about it and laughed awkwardly, "I'll pack some food and eat on the way then."
After a few polite exchanges, she hung up the phone.
A few minutes later, Deanna appeared at the hotel entrance with a packed breakfast and saw Lionel standing by the roadside. She walked over with a bit of helplessness and greeted him politely, "Mr. Grant."
Lionel saw her and gentlemanly opened the car door for her.
Seeing this, Deanna could only thank him and get in the car.
On the way, perhaps worried that Deanna might be bored, Lionel started a conversation, "What are your plans for today, Miss Jones?"
"I came up with a few formulas yesterday and plan to test them today. If my predictions are correct, I will be seventy percent confident in merging the properties of the two herbs."
Talking about work made Deanna serious.
Lionel was surprised that Deanna had already made progress.
He looked at her in astonishment, "Miss Jones, you already have a solution."
"It's not a solution yet. These are just my predictions. I need to wait for the data to confirm them," Deanna replied modestly.
Even so, Lionel admired her greatly, "Even so, Miss Jones, you are impressive. Ever since I learned about the problem, I've been trying to find a solution but had no clue. No wonder your master speaks so highly of you."
"You're too kind, Mr. Grant," Deanna replied humbly.
Seeing such a modest woman, Lionel's admiration for her grew even more.
Soon, they arrived at the research institute.
As soon as they got out of the car, Deanna saw Aniyah standing at the entrance with an unpleasant expression and thought to herself that this was bad.
Although she had explained to Aniyah yesterday that she was only here to help Lionel with his research, walking too closely with Lionel made her words seem hollow.
Thinking of this, Deanna decided to explain proactively, "Good morning, Miss Woodard. I just arrived yesterday. Mr. Grant was worried I wasn't familiar with the area, so he came to pick me up this morning. I thought it was too much trouble for Mr. Grant. Do you have time this evening? Maybe you could show me around so I won't take up Mr. Grant's time."
Upon hearing this and seeing Deanna's sincere eyes, Aniyah's displeasure gradually faded.
Perhaps she had overthought it. If Deanna had any feelings for Lionel, she wouldn't have explained so honestly.
"I'm free this evening. Once you're done with your work, you can contact me," Aniyah replied.
"Great, I'll call you then."
Deanna noticed that Aniyah's expression softened and nodded with a smile.
Then she glanced at Lionel, who hadn't spoken yet, and teased, "Miss Woodard is here early in the morning. You must have something important to discuss with Mr. Grant. I'll leave you to it. See you later."
"See you," Aniyah nodded with a smile, satisfied with Deanna's tactfulness.
Lionel listened to their conversation and felt something was off but couldn't pinpoint what it was.
Finally, he decided not to dwell on it and asked Aniyah, "What do you need?"
"My experimental data has some issues. I wanted you to take a look," Aniyah explained.
Given Lionel's usual dedication to experiments, he wouldn't refuse.
But now his mind was filled with Deanna's formulas and experimental validations. He wanted to see how she would merge the effects of two different herbs.
He frowned and asked, "Is it urgent?"
"Not really urgent, but..."
"If it's not urgent, have someone organize the data and send it to my office. I'll handle it before the afternoon and get it back to you," Lionel interrupted before she could finish.