Chapter 21
Alexander walked over to the sofa across from Gaia and sat down, his expression unchanged. "I had Lila go practice driving."
"She went out by herself?"
"Yes."
Gaia got angry when she heard this. "You little brat, whose car would they let your wife practice on for free? What if she scratches or dents someone's car? That's all trouble. I think you're deliberately making things difficult for her."
"You're overthinking it."
"Call her right now and tell Lila to come back."
Alexander silently took out his phone and redialed the number he hadn't gotten through to earlier.
First try. She hung up.
A nameless anger ignited in Alexander's heart.
Second try. Hung up again!
The fire in Alexander's chest blazed even stronger.
Alexander was furious and threw his phone onto the coffee table in front of the office sofa. "She's not answering."
Gaia snorted coldly and took out her own phone to call Lila.
Just one ring, and she answered.
Hearing the call go through, Alexander's eyes flashed with disbelief.
This Lila was actually targeting him?
On Gaia's end, when talking to Lila on the phone, she immediately dropped the serious expression she'd had when talking to him and broke into a cheerful smile. "Lila, where are you?"
Lila answered obediently, "I'm practicing driving. What's up, Grandma?"
"Who did you find to teach you?"
"A classmate of mine."
Gaia glanced at Alexander. "A classmate? Male or female?"
Worried that Gaia might misunderstand, Lila explained after answering, "Male classmate, but really just a classmate. He drives pretty well and is very patient."
"Okay, I got it. Here's the thing. I'm at the Sinclair Group right now, in Alex's office. Come back now and have lunch with me, okay?"
"Okay Grandma, I'll come right away."
"Bring your classmate along too, as a thank you."
"That might not be appropriate. Mr. Sinclair probably doesn't like eating with strangers."
Gaia huffed lightly, "In front of me, does he get a say?"
"Alright then, I'll ask my classmate if he wants to come. See you soon, Grandma."
"Okay."
After hanging up, Gaia looked at Alexander. "Lila found a classmate to teach her driving. The girl has pretty good connections. Let's have lunch with her classmate later as a thank you."
"You go if you want. I'm busy."
"Too busy to even eat lunch?"
Alexander flipped through documents while saying flatly, "Not hungry."
"Fine, then when Lila gets here, you can take me downstairs. We'll go eat and you can come back to work."
"Got it."
Gaia's eyes flickered. When Alexander sees Lila bringing a man to lunch later, won't he get anxious?
Still not hungry?
In the Mercedes, Lila sat in the passenger seat, using her phone to add a contact name for Alexander.
Ethan observed her expression. "Sorry about that, Lila. I thought the call without a contact name was spam, and you'd gone to the restroom, so I just hung up."
Lila said casually, "It's fine, I'm adding his name now."
Ethan asked tentatively, "Who was it?"
"My boss," Lila said.
After saying that, she thought for a moment and looked up at Ethan. "The person treating us to lunch is my boss's grandmother, Gaia. She's really nice - she's the one who got me the driver job."
Ethan smiled warmly. "Okay, got it."
Lila still wasn't at ease and added, "But my boss has a bad temper and says really hurtful things. Try not to engage with him during lunch."