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Chapter 24
“Get away from me.”
She elbowed the man’s stomach to stop him from sticking close to her. Ugh, she thought it might have worked because he bent down with a sound, though Winston pulled Sally with the other arm and locked her in his arms.
“Shall we go straight to the room, honey? How about room service?”
A suppressed laughter erupted from the employees standing behind them as he played with his filthy tricks. Sally couldn’t see anything in her eyes. She poked the nose of Winston’s expensive shoe with her heel.
“Are you saying yes too exaggeratingly?”
When he let go of her with a laugh, Sally immediately got out of Winston and stood at the door.
The servant standing next to them glanced at the two of them and opened the elevator door. As she followed the servant down the hallway, Winston came close to her and whispered softly.
“You won’t break my toes if you step on it lightly like that.”
Although she stomped on him with all her might, it was regarded as light. Sally, whose pride as a soldier had been hurt, shot sharply.
“You know that you are lucky that my heel is dull.”
“My honey doesn’t have high heels? Shall I buy it for you on the way home tomorrow morning…?”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Is it embarrassing, darling?”
Saying so, Winston then grabbed the hand holding the strap of her handbag and dragged her. Sally grabbed her hand and pulled it out, sarcastically.
“You are the best torture expert in the kingdom, Captain.”
“Torture, huh…”
The smile finally disappeared from the man’s lips, who used to tease her with a low-key smile even if he was hit in the stomach or stepped on his foot.
“Sally… Since you don’t know, I’ll give you some advice. It’s polite to put your arms around a man in a place like this.”
He spat out the word ‘advice’ in a command line. The next moment, Winston grabbed her hand, still disobedient, and placed it on his own arm at will.
“For the lady, quiche with truffle and spinach as main…”
Sally, who had been silently watching him place an order for the waiter, interrupted, “No, I have changed my mind. Instead of that, I’ll have the Porterhouse Steak.”
The waiter looked at Sally in surprise. At the same time, Winston was equally astonished.
It was because the Porterhouse Steak with a T-shaped bone in the middle was a menu item that was not often ordered by people who were not big eaters because of its large amount. A woman who was conscious of others’ eyes almost never ordered a menu that was a symbol of gluttony.
Sally tilted her head and smiled. She was going to make his libido cool, even by putting herself to shame in front of others.
Even though he was a rutting dog in front of her, at least in front of others, he was Winston, the embodiment of manners and dignity. Does he have to spend four hours with a mannerless and dignityless woman in front of other people…?
She calculated that he would get tired of her at once and get away.
Winston narrowed his eyes to Sally and corrected the order spell with a small smile.
“Then, for the lady, Porterhouse Steak.”
As the waiter left, she began to brush the cardigan’s fluff. Winston scoffed again as he watched the scene silently.
“Miss Bristol.”
“Yes?”
“If I called you a lady, you should act like a lady.”
“What does it mean to act like a lady…?”
She sometimes had to infiltrate the upper classes, so during her training, she had to learn the manners and etiquettes of the upper class. However, Sally pretended not to know and took off her flair.
“Ladies don’t eat Porterhouse Steaks.”
“Is that so? That’s too much.”
“And, usually before you interrupt, shouldn’t you be sorry?”
“Did I? I’m sorry.”
Winston, unwilling to point out more, let out a short sigh of shock.
“One more. If you are a lady, you should avoid dessert.”
“Then, you should have brought a lady to this place.”
He gazed at Sally with an ambiguous look, not sure if he was smiling or upset, before opening his mouth again.
“Did you stop pretending to be a good maid in front of me now?”
“The Captain has stopped pretending to be a good master, too.”
Winston bit his lower lip hard. He was holding back laughter.
When the waiter brought wine, he took a large sip as soon as the glass was full. Meanwhile, Sally flipped over the fancy silverware and plates and pretended to check the label in a rustic way. Opposite her, people occasionally raised her eyes.
Crossing his legs, he scoffed again at the dirty nose of his shoe. Winston wiped the dirt off with a napkin and dropped it casually to the floor.
“What do you think? Do you like it?”
He asked, leaning back on his chair and placing his interlaced hands on his knees. Sally rolled her eyes and glanced around the restaurant, then nodded sarcastically.
“I understand why you brought me here.”
Winston tilted his head and raised his eyebrows, then immediately lowered them. He wanted to ask what she meant.
“It’s tacky.”
Leon couldn’t stop the sudden burst of laughter.
She dared to say that it was tacky when the most tacky thing in here was her. An intermittent laugh erupted from his mouth as he leaned his elbow on the armrest and rubbed his forehead with the knuckle of his index finger.
“I am having fun with you.”
If she had lied that she liked it like the Grand Lady, she would have become a boring woman in no time.
“You must make me sick. So far, it’s a failure.”
The woman ate up every piece of steak the size of her face.
Wasn’t it polite to have a conversation while savoring your meal slowly…?
However, the woman did not say a word and only ate the meat at a frightening pace. Halfway through, he pointed his chin out the window and said the sun was going down, and all she did was briefly reply, “Yes, it’s time for it.”
Watching the marvelous scene, Leon’s veal dish had already cooled down. When there was only a large T-bone on Sally’s plate, he put the knife and fork together next to the half-eaten dish.
“…You really ate it all.”
Then, they moved to the cafe. The woman who had been perusing the menu with a serious eye replied sarcastically.
“Did you think I couldn’t eat it?”
While drinks were in the back, the woman was looking at the front of the menu filled with cakes.
“You’ll eat… the cake too?”
Instead of answering, the woman asked Leon to order two cakes that she wanted to eat. Bewildered, he ordered the cake and coffee and stared at the woman who only glanced out of the dark window.
This date was going completely differently than he expected.
He naturally took the lead in any group from an early age. All situations were under his control. He expected it to be the case today, yet he had a strange feeling as if he was being swayed by that clumsy fox.
When the cake was served, the woman continued to eat without saying a word. Leon wanted to see how far she could fit into that tiny body, so he ordered another cake and asked.
“Don’t you go to Madame Benoa’s cafe every now and then?”
The woman then stopped the fork and raised her eyes to him.
“Yes.”
In the brief silence before answering, Leon sensed that she was confused to know that he had been watching her for quite some time.
“You eat everything well.”
The woman didn’t even do the courtesy to ask why he didn’t eat and took turns putting three cakes into her mouth, one at a time.
When the tip of her pink lips got the white cream, she poked out the tip of her tongue and even licked it. A mass of flesh a little darker than her lips glided over the dense folds. As her tongue vanished into her mouth, her lips wet with clear saliva opened again, and she snapped the bright red cherries.
…What a vulgar thing to do.
Leon crossed his legs towards the window and took a deep breath. Still, he couldn’t contain his urge.
“But, you won’t eat mine?”
The woman no longer showed any signs of displeasure. She even did the rude thing of shaking her head without even looking at the person speaking.
“Aren’t you afraid of getting fired now?”
Even that wasn’t enough, she ignored him.
“Miss Bristol, why don’t you try acting when you are cut off?”
“Hmm, me…?”
“You cried well in the office last time? Now that I see, I must have been fooled.”
The woman frowned as she poked her fork into the cake.
“It wasn’t acting. I was afraid of getting fired back then.”
The woman’s face soon returned expressionless. She didn’t show enough signals from her body to tell whether she was lying or not.
“But, now?”
“Right now, I feel like I have to make money with these insults.”
Leon’s face hardened coldly.
Insult. Him.
A promising military officer as a landowner… It was an insult to say that he, who lacked nothing from his lineage to his abilities, had no choice but to beg for something from a lowly maid. Leon wrinkled his brow as he thought so and put his hand inside his jacket.
He took out a cigar case and opened it roughly, chewing his words.
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