Sebastian could keenly sense that Natalie was onto something. Although he wasn’t sure exactly what she was thinking, he knew that it definitely wasn’t something good. He broke into a smile and put his arm around her shoulder, intending to take her to the dance floor.
“No, I didn’t. Did I make you wait long? Are you tired? Do you want to get something to eat?”
“I’m not hungry yet. You really didn’t see Brandon?” Natalie asked persistently even as Sebastian nearly dragged her away from the men’s room.
She kept looking back, paying close attention to the bathroom door. Seeing this, Sebastian stopped and asked, “What are you looking at?”
Natalie took his hand and started walking back toward the bathroom.
“Why are you in such a hurry? I just found out that the clothes Brandon gave me were super expensive. Let’s wait for him to come out. I have to thank him properly.”
Sebastian pressed his fingers against the area between his eyebrows, feeling helpless. He could do nothing but fallow as Natalie pulled him back to the men’s room, not knowing how to deal with the current situation.
After checking the time on her phone, Natalie looked at the bathroom door and pursed her lips.
“Brandon has been in there for so long. Why hasn’t he come out yet?”
For a second, Sebastian was at a loss, But then a thought occurred to him. In a low voice, he whispered to her, “Everyone’s staring.
Just text him a ‘thank you’ message. You don’t have to keep staring at the men’s room. People might think you’re a pervert.”
Only then did Natalie realize that everyone who passed by the bathroom had looked at her strangely. Perhaps it was because she looked as though she was guarding the door.
“Fine, I’ll text him.”
Then she took out her phone and tapped away, typing out a message to Brandon. Sure enough, when she hit send, the phone in Sebastian’s pocket vibrated. He didn’t dare to take out his phone to check the message she texted him just now. The text remained unread.
She had sent him two messages, but they were both unread.Wouldn’t Brandon check his phone in the men’s room? Why were her texts still unread?
“I’m a little worried. Do you think something bad happened to him? Should we ask the staff to go in and check if he’s alright in there?” Natalie turned to Sebastian worriedly.
“What if he fainted?” Sebastian closed his eyes. His temples throbbed.
Judging from the look on Natalie’s face, it looked like she wouldn’t leave until she saw Brandon come out safe and sound.
Fortunately, just then, Garrett showed up.
“What are you two doing outside the men’s room?” Garrett unbuttoned his two suit buttons and smiled politely. Just as he was about to walk inside, Natalie stopped him.
“Mr. Harding, Mr. Larson has been in there for a long time. I’m starting to worry about him. Can you ask someone to go in and check if he’s alright?” Panic was written all over Natalie’s pretty face, her eyes wide with worry. Garret glanced at Sebastian, who was winking at him furiously, and he immediately understood what was going on. Speechless, he racked his brains for a solution.
“Okay, I’ll call someone over in a bit”
Finally, an idea occurred to him.
“Do you want to meet the new spokesperson of the Larson Group? I heard from Tiffany that the design department is preparing for the winter collections already.”
Garrett forced a smile, although internally, his stomach was doing flip-flops. If he couldn’t get Sebastian out of this sticky situation as soon as possible, he might lose his job.
When it came to matters about work, Natalie was serious. After giving it some though, she turned to Sebastian and held up her phone.
“Pll go with Mr. Harding. Call you later.” Sebastian smiled at her gently and nodded. Glancing at Garrett gratefully, he turned around, walked out of the hall, and slumped into a chair.
Then, Garrett quickly led Natalie to the center of the ball. There was a bar counter there, where men and women in all kinds of fancy clothes were talking and laughing merrily.
Garrett looked around the people in one of the booths then his eyes lit up. He held up his hand in greeting to the woman sitting in the innermost corner. Under the dim lights, the woman then approached him with a bright smile on her face.
Emani strode over to them. When she saw that it was Natalie who was standing next to Garrett, her expression changed dramatically. Natalie smiled back at her politely, but there was no mistaking the fierce look in her eyes. Garrett didn’t know what had happened between the two girls just now, so he introduced the two to each other.
“This is Emani Gomez. You’ve probably heard of her before. She starred in a lot of famous TV dramas as well as a lot of commercials.”
With a calm look on her face, Natalie stretched out her hand to Emani and said, “Nice to meet you.”
“Natalie Quinn is a promising and talented designer. We’re about to start our winter collection. Emani, if you have any ideas or suggestions, just tell Natalie.” Garrett was grinning as he introduced the two ladies, but then he saw that Emani looked a little disgruntled, while Natalie’s attitude seemed a bit strange, too.
“Have you two met before?” Garrett glanced at Natalie questioningly.
He had only done this to separate Natalie from Sebastian in order to buy Sebastian some time.
“I just met Miss Gomez in the bathroom earlier,” Natalie answered dryly. She didn’t want things to get nasty.
Natalie had nothing to fear. Emani was the one who started the fight, and Natalie didn’t do anything wrong. Still, she didn’t want to make things awkward for Emani since she was a celebrity
Emani rolled her eyes and sneered. Earlier, she had worried that Natalie was from some rich and powerful family. After all, the Larson Group had invited many important figures tonight.
So when they had the small scuffle earlier, Emani was scared that she might’ve offended someone she shouldn’t have. Now that she knew that Natalie was indeed just an ordinary employee of the design department of the Larson Group, she guessed that Natalie must’ve just borrowed the designer dress from the company. So she grew complacent and threw caution to the wind.
“Yes. We met earlier. She left a deep impression on me,” Emani said in a voice that oozed with sarcasm.
Garrett raised his eyebrows. He could keenly feel the highly charged atmosphere here. Initially, he had planned to leave the two ladies to talk after introducing them. After all, they were both women so he figured they would find out something in common.
But now it seemed that he couldn’t just leave. Emani was an arrogant, self-centered, and domineering woman, which left Natalie at a disadvantage.
“Did something happen between you two?” Garrett asked with a straight face. As he spoke, he plucked a glass of champagne from the tray of a waiter passing by.Now that Garrett had asked, Emani grew emboldened. “Mr. Harding, I do have some ideas, but your designer doesn’t seem to have any manners.”
