I'm Afraid I Won't Be Able to Leave

Chapter 223: Chapter 223: Asher and I Often Eat Here

Morgan Sterling walked toward them. Asher Keating signaled for them to stop talking, and Ethan Shaw and Riley Sterling promptly fell silent.

”Asher, you’re here.”

”Yes. My condolences.”

Ethan Shaw and Riley Sterling also greeted Morgan Sterling. Asher Keating went up to offer incense, then sat down with them. Shawn Grant was the last to arrive. After offering his own incense, he sat down beside them, and the ceremony began.

On stage, Morgan Sterling silently mourned his father’s passing. Shawn Grant scoffed and whispered to Asher Keating beside him, ”The day Thomas Sterling died, they say he had a huge fight with Morgan Sterling. He died right after the argument. Asher, you think that was an accident?”

”No.”

Asher Keating knew there had to be something suspicious about Thomas Sterling’s death; he just hadn’t been able to investigate the details. Morgan Sterling had been making a lot of moves lately, even intercepting one of the Keating’s acquisition deals a couple of days ago. Asher watched Morgan speak, his eyes bloodshot and his face etched with grief, and his own gaze grew dark.

When Leah Sinclair arrived at Phoebe Peyton’s office with Miles Kessler, Phoebe was on the phone. She saw them enter and gestured for them to take a seat. Miles Kessler just stared at Phoebe, completely captivated.

Leah Sinclair smiled and poked him gently with her finger. ”Have some self-control. Your eyes are about to pop out of your head.”

Miles Kessler snapped back to reality, his face turning a little red. Leah Sinclair suppressed a smile and looked over at Phoebe Peyton. Dressed in business attire today, Phoebe looked incredibly sharp and capable—a different side of her than Leah had seen before. Judging by her fluent English, she was likely on a call with someone overseas.

After finishing her call, Phoebe Peyton walked over with a smile and sat on the sofa. ”Sorry about that. An important call came in unexpectedly.”

”It’s no problem, Phoebe. Please take a look at this. These are the general layouts for the upper seven floors. The other aspects are fine, but a few areas on the seventeenth and fifteenth floors may need some adjustments. Could you see if this works for you?” Leah Sinclair said, taking out some documents and handing them to Phoebe Peyton.

Phoebe Peyton took the documents and began to look them over, mentioning a few requirements she had. Miles Kessler quickly took out a notebook to jot them down. The quiet office was filled only with the sound of Leah and Phoebe’s discussion. Miles, sitting to the side, watched the two beautiful women. It was a truly pleasant sight.

”I’d like to add a personal lounge right here on the seventeenth floor. Do you think that’s possible?” Phoebe Peyton asked, pointing to a location on the blueprints.

Leah Sinclair looked at the spot Phoebe was pointing to. ”Just a simple lounge?”

”No, it needs to have a full bathroom, just like Asher’s. That way, if I work late, I can just sleep at the office.”

”In that case, this location might not be ideal. The sixteenth floor is already being renovated, and I believe this spot is directly above your sixteenth-floor office. If we were to add it now, the plumbing would be difficult to install.”

”Then where do you think would be more suitable? I really do need a lounge like that.”

Leah Sinclair reviewed the plans for several floors, then pointed to a location on the fifteenth floor. ”What about here? The fifteenth floor. That way, it won’t interfere with the renovation work on the sixteenth.”

Phoebe Peyton took a look and had no objections. Leah Sinclair circled the location, planning to revise the plans when she got back to her office.

Once they had mostly finished their discussion, Phoebe Peyton handed the documents back to Leah Sinclair. ”Leah Grant, thank you so much. Having you here has saved me a lot of trouble.”

”Please don’t say that. It’s my job.”

Leah Sinclair packed her things and stood up to leave, but Phoebe Peyton stopped her. ”It’s almost lunchtime. Why don’t we call Asher and eat together?”

”Asher went to the Sterlings’ today. I doubt it’s over yet.”

”Oh, is that so? Well, let’s go by ourselves then.”

Leah Sinclair didn’t object. ’She’s the client, after all,’ she thought. ’Forget her asking me, I should be the one treating her to a meal.’

Phoebe Peyton booked a table at the same restaurant where they had eaten with Asher Keating last time. After they were seated, she smiled. ”This place is nice. Asher and I come here often.”

Leah Sinclair just hummed in response and said nothing more. Miles Kessler seemed a bit nervous, so Phoebe Peyton started chatting with him. She had a knack for making people feel comfortable, and slowly, Miles began to relax.

”Oh, so you graduated from Riverfall University? Then that makes you Leah Grant’s junior, doesn’t it?”

Miles Kessler glanced at Leah Sinclair. He was perceptive enough to catch the implication—he had only told Doris Harlow yesterday that he and Leah had both graduated from Riverfall University. Leah, however, answered casually, ”Mhm, Miles is a few years my junior.”

Phoebe Peyton sighed softly. ”How nice. With such an excellent junior helping you, your work must be going very smoothly. Not like me... I still haven’t found a single decent assistant. This job is exhausting.”

A faint smile touched Leah Sinclair’s lips. ”Phoebe, you shouldn’t say that. Haven’t Asher and Wynn been helping you a lot?”

”That’s true. If it weren’t for them, I’d be completely lost. Especially Asher. He’s helped me so, so much.”

For some reason, both Louise Holt and Miles Kessler felt the atmosphere turn a little strange. By unspoken agreement, they both shut up and focused on eating. When the bill came, Leah Sinclair insisted on paying. After a polite refusal, Phoebe Peyton relented.

Outside, Phoebe Peyton said her goodbyes. ”You have to let me treat you next time. And about what happened before... thankfully, the car was fixable. I took Asher to dinner yesterday to thank him. I wanted to ask you to come along, but he said you were busy, so it was just the two of us. I didn’t want to disturb you. Leah Grant, you don’t mind, do you?”

”It’s fine. I really was busy yesterday.”

Leah Sinclair watched as Phoebe Peyton gave Miles Kessler and Louise Holt a gentle smile, said her goodbyes, and got into her car. ℯ

Watching the car disappear into the distance, Leah Sinclair sighed internally before leading her team back to the office. She felt a bit down and didn’t speak after getting in the car, just listlessly flipping through the documents.

When her eyes landed on the section about the lounge they had just discussed, her hand paused. She remembered Phoebe saying it should be ’just like Asher’s.’ ’Has Phoebe been in his private lounge?’

Leah had planned to ask Asher about it that evening, but he sent her a text in the afternoon. He said Phoebe Peyton had arranged a dinner with a few old classmates from their time studying abroad, so he would probably be home late and she shouldn’t wait up.

Leah held her phone, wanting to text him back. ’You already had lunch together, are you going to start having dinner together every day now, too?’ In the end, however, she just replied with a single word: ”Okay.”

She put her phone down and tried to compose herself. ’Phoebe and Asher are old classmates, after all. And they work together. It’s normal for them to be in contact often.’

Still, a bitter feeling lingered in her heart. Phoebe Peyton was just too exceptional. She wasn’t like Nathan Grant with his cool confidence, nor was she like Madeline Sterling with her arrogance. Phoebe had a gentle aura that naturally drew people to her.

As the workday was ending, Sheila Hughes asked Leah Sinclair out to dinner. Sheila knew all about Ethan Shaw’s fun-loving personality, so she gave him one ”free day” a week. As long as he didn’t cheat, he was free to do as he pleased.

Today happened to be Ethan’s free day for the week. Leah called Mrs. Lowell to say she wouldn’t be home for dinner, then arranged to meet Sheila at a restaurant.

When Leah arrived, Sheila had already ordered. Seeing the exhaustion on her friend’s face, she asked, ”I thought you had team members now? Why do you still look so worn out?”