Goodbye, Summer: Love Has Come and Gone

I didn't let the smile on my face falter. "Of course, money is important. I need to survive, after all.

"Actually…"

Gaston suddenly barged in with a wide grin on his face and interrupted Brooke's sentence with, "Brooke, come with me to…"

"To do what?"

Brooke was unexceptionally sweet and gentle with her future fiancè. She didn't speak to him condescendingly or with sarcasm like she did with me.

"Do you want to come ring shopping with me? And then, we'll look at the outfits later."

"Sure!" Brooke answered in her gentle voice. Then, she glanced at me and said, "Mr. Sommar, you should come along too."

"I… sure."

I was frustrated. I still had a lot of work to do. Still, there was nothing I could do. I was just a lowly corporate employee under her, after all.

Gaston raised his eyebrow and glared at me with a challenging look on his face. Then, he put his arm around Brooke and happily walked out of the office.

She'd just reached the entrance when she suddenly turned around and commanded, "Also, throw away the coffee on the table. It's gotten cold."

The coffee was still quite hot, though.

…

It wasn't fun accompanying Brooke and Gaston as they went outfit hunting, especially more so with Gaston deliberately making things hard for me and with Brooke watching coldly from the sidelines. I felt like I was being roasted over an open fire.

Throughout the day, I was busy smoothing out her dress trains, polishing her shoes, tidying up her hair and makeup, and even pouring out drinks and holding her bag for her as she tried on dress after dress. I was probably even busier than a bee during spring.

"Theros, you really look like a butler," Brooke whispered into my ear as she mocked me in a cold voice.

"I'm just a regular salaried employee."

"A salaried employee?" Brooke burst out laughing and said, "More like so money-hungry you'd do anything you were told to do."

I frowned lightly. Since when had she started thinking of me as a greedy and money-hungry person who would do anything I was told for money?

Maybe it was since that time we collaborated with Woodland Group and met up with the seductive CEO, Cheryl Woods. Throughout our meeting over dinner, she wouldn't stop giving me all sorts of signals.

Despite Cheryl being very blatant with her flirty eyes, Brooke had still allowed her to get me super drunk before insisting that I send her back to her hotel room that night.

Brooke had simply smiled widely at me and said, "Theros, you're a smart guy. You'll figure out a way to escape."

Sure. I was smart—I'd seen through her plans from the very start, but I still let myself fall into her trap.

In her eyes, giving up on someone like me to secure her place in Riveria had to have been quite a deal.

I knew that the collaboration was very important to Brooke. I knew that she had been working overtime to perfect her proposal at that time. I also knew that she felt out of place in her own family, which was why she was so desperate to strengthen her footing in the household.

I knew about everything.

However, did I not mean a thing to her?

I'd drunk so much alcohol that night that my stomach had been in great pain, but I just grinned and bore with it.

I never texted her saying I'd gotten home safely that night because I'd fainted by the roadside and was later sent to the hospital by a kind stranger.

I'd requested a few days off, but she'd poked fun at me and even became sarcastic with her words.

I knew that she thought I was filthy, which was why she didn't want me anymore.

However, it was also that very incident that made me lose all hope in her. I gradually decided to marry Daisy instead.