Flawless and Flirtatious (Genevieve and Armand)

“Is that true? If Mr. Faulkner is married, why doesn’t he wear a ring?” one of them asked. Upon hearing that, Genevieve froze for a moment and glanced toward the ring on her hand instinctively. She then continued her action of making coffee while listening to the gossip. “I think it’s fake,” the third colleague chimed in. “I heard from a friend before that Mr. Faulkner has a first love who has known him for years. However, they suddenly broke up before their engagement. After that, his first love married another man. So, Mr. Faulkner has decided not to get married for the rest of his life for her.” “If that’s the case, Mr. Faulkner is pitiful. He has got both power and wealth, but he can’t marry the woman he loves.” “I think so too.” One of them nodded in agreement. Those female colleagues gossiped about a lot of things, however, only the words “first love” kept lingering in Genevieve’s ears. Armand never told me that he had a first love. For no reason, she thought of the woman who picked up her phone call on that Saturday night. That woman has a gentle voice. Is that woman Armand’s first love? Then why… Right then, Genevieve heard one of the female colleagues exclaim in shock. “What? Genevieve, you’re married?” When Genevieve snapped back to her senses, she saw that those female colleagues were looking at her, and the inquisitive look in their eyes was obvious. Genevieve guessed that they knew what had happened to her before. Lifting her hand, she looked at the ring and said with a smile, “Yes, I just got married.” For the past two days, Genevieve had been racking her brain to think of ways to remove her ring. However, she couldn’t. Thinking of that, Genevieve couldn’t help but heave a sigh inwardly. “Congratulations! Your ring looks pretty. It must be expensive,” said one of them. “It was bought on Amazon, and it’s just around two hundred.” As Genevieve knew what her colleague wanted to hear from her, she stretched out her hand to show them the ring and said, “My husband is just an ordinary person.” Although the pearl on her ring was valuable, Genevieve believed that her colleagues couldn’t tell that as they seldom saw such a valuable pearl. Seeing that they had lost interest in her ring and continued to gossip, Genevieve flashed them a smile before leaving and said, “Please carry on. I’ll leave first.” Just as Genevieve walked out of the pantry, she vaguely heard the conversation in the pantry. “What’s the point of being born into a rich family? In the end, she still married an ordinary man,” one of the voices sneered. “Her husband’s so poor. I can’t believe he can’t even afford to buy a diamond ring,” another person added. “With her scandal, no man will be willing to marry her.” Their words were getting more and more vicious. Before this, if Genevieve heard anyone defaming her, she would surely slap that person on her face. However, now, she had figured it out. People who liked to gossip could be found everywhere. If their words couldn’t hurt her, then she shouldn’t be infuriated by them. Hence, she could not care less about their words. Genevieve then shrugged and walked toward her cubicle. However, she didn’t notice that there was a young woman at the corner outside of the pantry. That woman had heard their conservation earlier in the pantry. Her eyes stared at Genevieve, who was walking away, as hatred gradually surged within her. Soon, it was half-past seven in the evening. Genevieve and Patrick arrived at Lovely Heart Hotel. Patrick parked the car in the underground parking lot and got off the car with Genevieve. As they were walking to the elevator, he noticed that Genevieve looked troubled, so he asked worriedly, “You looked perturbed when you came back in the evening as well. What’s wrong?” “I’m tired after working.” Genevieve quickly came up with a random excuse and walked into the elevator with him. Actually, Genevieve was in a bad mood as the gossip she heard in the pantry kept flashing across her mind for the whole evening until then. As the elevator slowly ascended, Genevieve pursed her lips and finally asked after struggling hard, “Patrick, do you know-” Before she could finish her words, the elevator suddenly stopped on the ground floor. As Genevieve lifted her head, she was surprised to see a few men in formal suits standing outside the elevator while chatting. The man who stood nearer to the door of the elevator was wearing a gray suit. His white shirt was buttoned up to his neck, giving off an air of aloofness. His demeanor was cold and indifferent. It was Armand. Although Armand was just standing there, and his voice was gentle, he emitted a strong and imposing aura. As the elevator door opened, another person who was standing beside Armand gestured for him to enter the elevator. “Mr. Faulkner, you first.” As Armand entered the elevator, he shot an indifferent glance at Genevieve and stood on one side of the elevator. Since they bumped into each other, Genevieve couldn’t pretend that she didn’t know him. “Good evening, Mr. Faulkner,” she greeted. The few men who stood beside him seemed to all be the senior executives of the company. Hearing her voice, Armand only grunted a reply of acknowledgment indifferently. When everyone else had entered the elevator, Genevieve, who was standing behind the others, secretly lifted her head and glanced at Armand. She then quickly lowered her gaze. When Armand answered her, she could feel that his tone was aloof. It seemed like he was ignoring her.