Chapter 11: Exchanging with Conditions​

When Florence returned to the design department, she noticed that the ambience here was slightly different as her colleagues were giving her strange looks.


Her muddled design draft ended up getting the first place – even she herself felt it was abnormal.


She didn’t plan to explain; after all, she didn’t know how to explain the matters about Ernest.


When the popularity of this matter receded in a few days, people would stop caring about it.


Florence ignored them and went back to her seat, and started reading the documents. She had to hand out the work tomorrow, so her time was running out.


A hefty stack of documents was handed down on her table after she had read her papers for a short while.


Elise looked at Florence with bad intends, “Copy these documents. Three copies and arrange them all.”


There were a lot of documents there, and they were out of order too. It would take her a lot of time if she had to do it.


Florence frowned, rejecting, “I’m busy right now; let someone else do it.”


Elise was immediately upset and reprimanded her with a high-pitched voice. “Florence, you know that you’re not going to be any different just because you used some tricks to win the first place, right? Let me tell you, as long as you’re not promoted, you’re still a newbie in the design department. These chores are your responsibility. If you’re not doing it, you should pack up and leave.”


This competition made most of the designers in the design department unhappy, especially Elise Bennett.


If she were to use this reason to fire her, all her hard work would be in vain.




Florence gritted her teeth and held up the documents.


“Fine, I’ll do it.”


Elise looked at Florence, who just got up, with maliciousness.


She said maliciously, “When you’re done with Photostatting, come to my office, there’s still a lot to be done.”


Elise was determined to screw her.


Florence stomped her legs; she wanted to throw all the documents she was holding away.


But alas, she could only accept her fate and walk toward the Photostat machine.


This delayed her for half a day; when Florence was almost done with these chores, it was almost time to get off work.


She looked at the documents Ernest gave her while rubbing her forehead and decided to work overtime.


Lights were off everywhere in the design apartment except Florence’s.


She flipped through the documents with one hand while taking notes with the other.






She looked concentrated and serious, yet seemed to be a little anxious.


When Ernest walked pass the design apartment, he saw Florence immediately.


It was dark everywhere except her under her table light, which made her exceptionally conspicuous.


He walked toward her.


“What are you still doing here?”


It was a quiet place with no one, so it scared Florence when someone spoke and she almost fell down from her chair.


Ernest swiftly took a step forward, holding her back and preventing her from falling.


Florence could finally see the handsome face when the distance between them got closer; it was Ernest.






His arm was behind her back, intense and hot.


Florence’s heartbeat was inconsistent; she got back to her senses and tried to stand up.


She stepped back, pulling distance between them.


“Mr. Hawkins, I’m working overtime.”


Seeing Florence’s alarming reaction made Ernest slightly unhappy.


He said with a slightly low voice, “You don’t have to work overtime.”


“But time is running out…”


Florence thought of something before finishing her sentence and glanced at Ernest.


She said with great anticipation, “Does that mean you’re giving me a two-day grace period, Mr. Hawkins?”


“I can agree to your request, but under one condition.”


Ernest’s gaze was deep as he looked at Florence; it felt somewhat aggressive in the dark.


Florence felt uneasy and asked him tentatively.


“What condition?”