Chapter 337 - Hurry Home

[Thank you Amber17. This chapter is for you. I'm grateful that after 300+ chapters, you still support our story.] 

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"I'll be at the lab. You don't need to walk me to my door." She unclipped her seatbelt and gave Stefan a bright smile. 

"I can drive you to the lab." Stefan insisted. When Marie took a long time using the bathroom, he knew something was wrong with Jess but he acted as if he didn't find anything strange that the two women came back from the bathroom with their coffee already cold on their table. He sat on the coffee table alone, waited patiently and when they finally came out of the bathroom, he didn't ask. 

"No. I'll be fine." She said in a stern voice. Stefan was testing her patience that happened to be running thin with his over-friendless that she no longer found adorable. What she wanted was to wipe the wide grin on his lips. It looks so fake and it's painful to watch. She's not known for her patience after all. And she would rather be called a snob than a fake, hence, her social skills weren't that great. Everything is better in the lab when it comes to her nonexistent social skills. 

Stefan extended his hand to ruffle Jess's hair but she swatted his hand before it touched her. 

"I once broke a friend's shoulder in two." She said with a deadpan expression that wiped the grin from Stefan's face. "Stop the car," she said when they reached the curb of her apartment building. She didn't wait for Stefan to enter the basement parking lot. She quickly got out of the passenger seat and dashed to the lobby. The doorman was surprised to see her for she rarely used the lobby entrance. She didn't bother to greet the doorman and went ahead to the elevator, going to her apartment floor. The elevator door stopped closing, for Marie, followed her and slipped her hand on the closing door of the elevator. 

Jess's brow lifted in a questioning manner when Marie entered the elevator too. But the other girl just stood next to her and didn't say anything. 

"What was Ellise given order?" She asked Marie quietly as soon as they got out of the elevator and walked to her apartment. 

"Do not engage unless it's necessary." 

She scoffed but relieved that Ellise did honor her request. "Then, why are you here?" 

"Mr. Tiefenbacher requested…err…" She grinned. "Mr. Tiefenbacher demanded that you must not be alone at all cost." 

Jess rolled her eyes at the back of her head. Marie, despite her poker face, was quite likable whenever she dropped her polite-working smile. Like right now and when she found her inside the bathroom stall at the coffee shop, washing and scrubbing her arms like a mad woman. She didn't ask why she was acting crazy, instead, she helped her wash her arms and dried them and didn't force her to come out of the bathroom stall until it was her who said so. 

"Do you want some coffee?" She asked, kicking her shoes off her feet and wearing her house slippers. "You can wear your shoes or you can wear any of the slippers there. They were unused." 

She left Marie in the foyer as she changed her outdoor shoes to house slippers as she headed to the kitchen to make them coffee. She suddenly felt calm when they entered her apartment.

"What happened to Stefan?" She asked Marie who pulled a stool next to the kitchen island and sat down. 

"I made him understand in a few words that no one is buying his facade." 

She knitted her brows, slowly turned to face Marie and saw her working face was back on. "What do you mean?" She shared her opinion but she wanted to hear them directly from the other girl's mouth. 

"The other member of the team was already following him and checking his whereabouts from three months ago." 

Jess poured the coffee on the white mugs and fell into deep thoughts. Marie gave her an answer that she didn't need. She was still processing the information that she gave her, putting the hot coffee in front of her. "Is that necessary?" She asked, failing to keep a neutral ground. Even though she doesn't like him a lot, he was still Noah's relative. 

"Miss E is quite thorough." She said, sipping her share of coffee. 

She stopped asking when Marie used Ellise's gamer name and it means that she's just doing her job. Thus, when Ellise wanted every detail of Stefan's life for the past three months, Marie and her team would report every detail they could find about Stefan. She suddenly felt a curiosity on knowing how thorough Ellise was when it comes to details. But her curiosity wasn't enough to probe Marie for she wasn't really interested in knowing how Ellise does her thing. She had a feeling not all of them were following the law. 

The comfortable silence between them as they drank their coffee was broken when Jess's phone suddenly rang. She excused herself and checked her phone and saw that Noah was calling. 

"Hello," she answered softly. She didn't bother to get up and take Noah's call away from Marie. 

"Baby…" His words were breath softly as though he was just calling her to get something from her until he exhaled a shaky breath—a give away of how worried he was. 

"I'm fine. Marie is with me because according to her, you don't want me to be alone at all cost." She informed him in a teasing manner to let him know that she's truly fine. She doesn't want him to worry and she had no plan to tell him about what happened to her in the coffee shop. 

"That's good." He said in a small voice. "Open your video, baby. I need to see you." 

Jess did what he asked and he finally smiled when he saw the familiar kitchen in the background. "I'll be there soon. Make me a cup of coffee too." 

"Hurry home, please.." She begged, casting her pride in the air.