Chapter 157
Trying On Clothes for Another Man
Julian Sterling's good mood vanished completely. He turned and went back into the fitting room, changed out of the clothes he was wearing, and no longer had any desire to try on anything else.
Claire Bennett glanced toward the fitting room.
Julian seemed a little down, and she had no idea whether Sean Shaw's idea would work or not.
Though she hesitated a little, in the end she still gritted her teeth and continued with her plan.
While Julian was changing, she immediately went to find the sales associate and paid by card, asking the associate to wrap up the outfit Julian had just tried on and deliver it to the Sterling International Maison Verne Jewelry Division tomorrow. She would take it back to Julian after work.
After Julian came out, Claire stepped forward. "Hey, I feel like that outfit just now was still a little lacking. Why don't we check out some other stores?"
If this had been earlier, Julian would have been more than happy to try on clothes, but now that she was asking him to, he was unwilling in a thousand and one ways.
Was Sean Shaw crippled? If he wanted to buy clothes, couldn't he try them on himself?
Making him try on clothes for another man? In his dreams!
He said coldly, "Not trying anymore."
Claire smiled and pretended not to notice. She asked, "Are you hungry? How about we go get something to eat? I got paid, my treat."
Get something to eat? He was so angry he was already full.
Although he was somewhat displeased inside, Julian didn't show it. On the surface he remained calm and composed, displaying perfect gentlemanly poise as he nodded faintly. "Mm."
Very quickly, Claire picked out a grilled fish restaurant.
She had heard Sean Shaw mention this place before. It was a chain and very famous in New York. She had never tried it, and hadn't expected there to be one here in Chicago too.
Claire pulled Julian over. "Let's eat here."
Unexpectedly, just as they reached the entrance, she saw two familiar figures.
What a small world for enemies!
Claire immediately wanted to turn around and leave.
Unexpectedly, she had already been seen. Naomi Pierce and Ethan Sterling had also come out to eat together today, and had not expected to see Claire and Julian together.
"Claire! You're here to eat too?"
Hearing that fake voice, Claire resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She turned around and looked at Naomi, who was already walking over with her arm linked through Ethan's.
At that moment, Ethan's gaze also fell on Claire, then he sized up Julian beside her.
This was the man Claire had brought to his engagement party to piss him off.
Had Claire still not cut ties with him?
He hadn't expected Claire to actually come out on a date with this man, so what did that Shaw family young master and Cameron Quinn and those other men count as?
Ethan's eyes slowly changed, and a complicated look surfaced in them.
He had really underestimated Claire. She was juggling so many men at once.
Naomi looked at Claire. For some reason, a guilty expression suddenly appeared on her face, and she said, "Claire, what happened before was my fault."
Looking pitiful, she continued, "I was just worried that you still had feelings for Ethan, so I let jealousy cloud my head and did something irrational. You won't hold it against me, right?"
"Now that we're both working at the same company, we'll see each other all the time. I think we should make peace instead of constantly being at each other's throats."
Naomi had deliberately come over to talk to Claire and had even said all this.
In truth, she wanted to lower Claire's guard. If Claire wasn't on her guard, it would be easier to deal with her later.
And Ethan had said that Claire had gotten involved with some mysterious big shot, which was how she had managed to enter Maison Verne as design director.
Right now, she still didn't know who that so-called big shot was.
When she asked Ethan, he said he still hadn't found out.
If she ever found out who that person was, she would definitely expose Claire's flirting around and two-timing, juggling several men at once, right in front of him!
Thinking this to herself, Naomi threw herself even more enthusiastically into acting pitiful.
Her eyes seemed to shimmer with tears as she said with heartfelt sincerity, "Will you forgive me? Anyway, it's all in the past now. Let's let bygones be bygones and act as if nothing ever happened..."
After listening patiently, Claire let out a cold laugh.
She crossed her arms and said, "Let bygones be bygones is too fake. If one day I accuse you like that too and send you to jail, I hope you won't fight back, okay?"
It had to be said, Naomi's acting really was pretty good.
After that little speech of hers, if Claire kept refusing to let it go, she would probably end up looking like some unreasonable shrew who wouldn't let things rest even when she was in the right.
But if she neither accepted Naomi's reconciliation nor openly humiliated her, it would definitely leave Naomi stewing with a bellyful of anger!
Sure enough, Naomi's expression stiffened slightly.
At that moment, Ethan said to Claire, "Claire, you're always this hardheaded. Naomi is sincerely apologizing to you. Can't you forgive her?"
Hearing Ethan speak in that tone as if he understood her so well, Claire felt sick.
What did he mean, she was always hardheaded?
That was only because she acted this hardheaded toward disgusting people. If they hadn't come up to start trouble, they wouldn't have had to see this side of her.
Claire deliberately sighed helplessly and said slowly, "Fine. The way you put it, it's like if I don't forgive you, it'd be some unforgivable crime. Actually, it's not that I can't forgive you..."
She paused and looked at the two of them in front of her.
Then she asked sincerely, "How about you write up a guarantee saying that from now on, neither of you will ever do anything bad to me. Can you do that?"
"What did you say...?" Naomi froze.
A guarantee? How could she possibly write something like that?
Just then, the grilled fish restaurant called out a number.
Naomi directly pretended she hadn't heard Claire's words. She glanced at the number in her hand, tugged lightly on Ethan's sleeve, and said, "Ethan, it's our number."
After saying that, she looked at Claire again and invited her, "Claire, this place is pretty hard to get into. Ethan and I waited in line for a long time too. Aren't you here for the grilled fish as well? Why don't we join tables? That way you won't have to queue again."
Even though it was a weekday today, this grilled fish place was too famous, and it also happened to be right at mealtime, so there were a lot of people coming in to eat.