Desire Me If You Can Novel - Chapter 28

For the applicants who wanted to become firefighters, they had produced and uploaded various videos. One of them compared good and bad examples for interview preparation, and…

“He said that exactly?”

“Yes.”

Seeing the chief nod, Wilkins let out an incredulous laugh and said.

“What a tactless person. Maybe it’s because he’s a rich young master, but no one would think of copying that exactly.”

“Exactly.”

The chief conceded, but the point he wanted to make came next.

“But what I’m saying is, the problem is that he copied every single one of the finger gestures.”

Wilkins stopped smiling, his face frozen as he blinked his eyes.

“…What?”

To his foolish question, the chief shot back several times faster than his usual speaking pace.

“Not only the answers, but he copied the video exactly—the expression, the fingers, even the direction his eyes moved when he cleared his throat mid-sentence! He did that for every question that was in the video!”

Stunned by the unexpected revelation, Wilkins was simply blank. People sometimes watched the video and memorized things, but that was usually limited to memorizing the answers. But he copied every gesture, too?

“But, well, you must have asked questions that weren’t in the video… didn’t you?”

“Of course, I did. But he probably watched another video somewhere and copied that exactly, too. I haven’t checked, but I can guarantee it.”

Seeing Wilkins speechless, the chief pressed him harshly.

“Do you get it now? That bastard is a psychopath. So just leave him alone before he causes trouble, absolutely do not provoke him! There’s no telling what he might do. Grayson Miller is definitely a Dominant Alpha driven insane by pheromones. He’s not in his right mind!”

Wilkins could only say, “Understood.” Amidst his confusion, regret suddenly swelled in his chest for having caused unnecessary trouble.

“To the winner of today, cheers!”

At Valentina’s shout, the gathered women yelled “Whoa!” and raised their beer glasses. As they all toasted and emptied their glasses, Grayson, the only man at their table, sat smiling.

“I guess we ended up here after all.”

To Rivet’s remark, another employee said.

“The familiar place is the best. And this place is suitable for a large group gathering.”

The number of establishments that could accommodate this many people was limited. That’s why they naturally came to this bar whenever they had a staff dinner or a gathering. It was the same place where they had thrown the welcome party when Grayson first arrived.

“The men could join us, but they just have to be difficult.”

Valentina put a french fry in her mouth and briefly glanced to one side, and everyone’s eyes gathered in the same direction at once. On two large tables arranged side-by-side, the employees who had started from the same place were sitting in separate groups. To be precise, Grayson and the female employees, and Wilkins and the male employees. Just like the gender ratio, the atmosphere flowing at the tables was contrasting.

At the clearly audible voice, DeAndre spat out harshly.

“Mind your own business. We’re not planning on getting free drinks from that bastard like you guys.”

“We decided to drink among ourselves. Thanks, but we decline.”

Wilkins quickly stepped forward and politely refused. The chief’s warning was still vividly etched in his mind. For a brief moment, Wilkins even imagined a scene where a fight broke out between the two tables, and the enraged Grayson flipped the table and, smiling, picked up a liquor bottle and smashed DeAndre’s head open. The chief’s words—that the problem wasn’t Miller but Grayson himself—were true.

Ahem. Clearing his throat and pretending to drink his beer to avoid eye contact, the women quickly turned their heads, as if to say do as you like, and surrounded Grayson. The truth was, they didn’t care one bit about the wounded pride of their male colleagues. Their recent actions had even looked quite pathetic. Hearing the sounds of laughter and chatter, the men silently chugged their beer.

If they had gone to another bar, it wouldn’t have been this miserable. The promise of Grayson buying drinks had ignited their resolve, but the problem was overlooking the fact that there wasn’t another suitable place to go. Sitting there drinking next to the harmonious table, they couldn’t find any joy.

“Hey, did you all come to a funeral? Why are you so gloomy?”

DeAndre, unable to bear it any longer, shouted under his breath, and Ezra answered.

“Well… there’s not much to be cheerful about, is there…?”

At the reaction of the guys nodding in agreement, DeAndre flared up in anger, opening his eyes wide.

“But are we going to mope around so obviously? Look over there, we can’t lose! Everyone smile, I said smile!”

The colleagues, looking at each other, reluctantly let out forced laughter. DeAndre laughed loudly for all to hear, slapping his thigh.

“Wahahaha, hahahaha! Wahahahaha!”

“Ah… haha, hahaha.”

“Haha, ha, hahaha.”

The other guys followed suit, laughing along with DeAndre. Even while doing so, they glanced over at the next table, but the women there had no interest in them at all. Intentionally raising your voice to catch the attention of a girl you like is something done in elementary school, isn’t it?

“Stop it. It makes us look worse.”

At Ezra’s dissuasion, everyone, including DeAndre, fell silent. Why did things turn out this way? As they drank silently again in the gloomy atmosphere, Wilkins, who had emptied his beer, set down his empty glass and suddenly spoke.

“Losing the match, fine, that can happen. But there’s something I absolutely can’t accept.”

At the sudden remark, everyone looked at him, and Wilkins fixed his gaze on Dane and asked.

“What on earth happened? Okay, you were late, but there’s no way you were just late, was there? Something definitely happened. What do you all think? I’m right, aren’t I?”

“He is right. Dane, we’re dying of curiosity. How did that bastard beat you?”

DeAndre asked rapidly. Receiving gazes mixed with curiosity and anxiety, Dane answered nonchalantly.

“Nothing much. We just exchanged a few punches.”

“You fought? Why?”

“Suddenly?”

Everyone asked for the reason in surprise, but Dane didn’t answer. Only DeAndre chugged his beer anxiously. Dane spoke without looking his way.

“I just wanted to hit him.”

What did that mean? Everyone looked at each other, bewildered, but the statement wasn’t entirely random. Ezra also nodded in agreement.

“Well, yeah, I’m holding myself back from throwing a punch every second, too.”

“Just like right now?”

When one person agreed, confessions poured out one after another.

“I’ve thought about dragging him into the storage room and locking him up more than once or twice.”

“I was thinking about flattening the tires on his fancy Jaguar.”

“Honestly, I’d die happy if I could just punch that pretty face of his once.”

“That’s not right. You should save your wishes for something more important. I want to win the Powerball jackpot.”

“You bastard?”

After an intense reprimand was launched at the ‘traitor,’ the conversation continued.

“Fought is fought, but why were you late?”

At Ezra’s question, Dane paused briefly and then said.

“We were fighting, and we rolled badly and almost fell off a cliff…”

“What? A cliff?”

“The one at the end of that slope? Wow, that was really dangerous!”

To the simultaneous cries of surprise, Dane answered indifferently.

“Don’t react like that. Nothing actually happened.”

Half of it was true, and half was a lie. Fortunately, they hadn’t fallen off the precipice, but they were forced into a situation where they had to climb up a sheer cliff face. They had been fighting and beating each other up until just before, but that was no longer the time for it. Now, finding a place to climb up for survival was the priority. Soon, they both spotted the place almost simultaneously. And then…

Dane brought his beer glass to his lips and added lightly.

“We almost fell, but we climbed up anyway. Miller was faster than me, and that’s it.”

When he condensed the reality into such a short summary, one of the guys who had been looking at each other half-believing, half-doubting, asked.

“But honestly, tell me, you could have won, right? Huh?”