ALL NOVEL Chapter 15: 15. Resumption
Dane smiled as he saw the notification of an increase in Cassie's attraction bar. He was not surprised because he expected it to happen. Maxing out Cassie's attraction was not a problem for him since he could clearly see that she liked him. If he played his cards right, he would achieve that in no time. However, what was more concerning for Dane was the second candidate for his harem. He wasn't sure yet who to choose or who to target to fill up the slot.
Layla was a possible candidate but it was most unlikely at the moment that he would succeed if he ventured into that path. Layla was a difficult person and he needed to prove to her that he actually didn't care about who she was before he could strike. That was the sort of person she was. In addition to that, Dane hoped to take full advantage of her competitive nature and as he rolled his pen around his fingers, he thought about the possible candidate for his second slot.
...That was when it hit him!
Dane's mouth spread into a wide smile as he remembered someone after running through the mental list of the females that he knew worked in Grey Corps. He felt he had found just the right candidate to tick Layla off and have her question herself. If Dane was to succeed with this, he was certain that Layla would want to prove herself to him or another and if that happened subsequently, Dane would have crafted a perfected entry into the Grey family.
He chuckled and shook his head, amazed at how quickly and potentially effective the plan he had cooked up was. It was going to be a slow-progressing plan, but there was a high probability of success, and he loved it like that. He leaned forward and thought deeper about his plan, bringing up ways on how he would move forward with the latest development.
Dane's intention was to make his moves in the coming week when he returned to his duty post in the company but what he didn't account for was the fact that he had unknowingly alerted the CEO after Leon noticed his call to Cassie.
After brooding over it for a couple of minutes, Dane pushed it all to the back of his mind and went to bed. All he had to have was patience for the time to come.
———
(The following week)
Dane landed at the entrance of the company in his power bike. This time around, he didn't care to cover his face with his helmet since he was officially resuming at the company and everyone would eventually see his face. He paused and looked around, waving and answering fellow staff who cared to wave or say hello to him to welcome him back after so long. After all, it has been weeks since the incident and it was surprising to many that he survived, considering how much blood he lost that day before the ambulance arrived.
Dane paused and looked around as he inhaled and exhaled. Although he had been here some days back to drop Cassie off, it still felt quite different at the moment. Perhaps it was because he was returning as a staff to a place where he knew that someone intentionally wanted to kill him for whatever reason. Dane couldn't tell who but he did have his suspects' list and had arrived at one conclusion — trust no one.
It didn't matter to Dane how close he was to anybody before the incident, his plan was to keep his guard and fake expressions for his own safety while doing the background work to uncover what happened and the brain behind it.
Dane went into the company and walked towards the reception. Nothing changed in the company as it concerns infrastructure but he did notice some new faces that he had not seen before.
"Hey... hello," Dane greeted as he bent forward to look over the reception desk and address the person behind it. There were two people but Dane went for the person closest to him.
"Hello, good morning," the young lady behind the desk answered him as she made a few clicks to her mouse before going on to concentrating on Dane.
"Welcome to Grey Corps. How may we help you?"
Reflexively, Dane pulled his back slightly as he narrowed his eyes. As if he processed what was happening within the next second, he chuckled. He realised that she was entirely new and might not have known about him, and that was why she addressed him like he was some customer or something of sorts. But no client arrived this early.
"Good morning," Dane answered with a smile. "Nothing really. I work here. Where's Diana?"
The receptionist was quite surprised, seeing how her eyes beamed, that someone like Dane worked here. She couldn't be blamed since Dane had improved even better in his physical faculty. In the weeks, he was resting, Dane had bulked and taken good care of himself, trying to maximise his handsomeness. He even had a fresh cut the previous day.
"O-oh? M-Miss Diana is on leave, sir," the receptionist answered.
"Oh! Is that right?" Dane blurted. "I had no idea."
The receptionist nodded. "That's right."
"I just wanted my identity card anyway," Dane then extended his hand to shake her. "I am Dane... Dane Morgans."
The receptionist was sceptical about shaking him back as she looked at the camera but if she didn't, it would be rude on her part and so she returned the gesture before turning to her colleague.
"Staff ID. Dane Morgans," she said to the guy before returning to her system.
The guy acknowledged the instruction and rose up to get the mentioned item and in a few minutes, he brought it out.
"Here you go..." he said as he handed it over to the receptionist, who then handed it to Dane.
"Here you go, sir."
Dane took it and smiled. "Thanks. I appreciate."
"You are welcome, sir."
"What is your name?" Dane asked abruptly.
"Me?" the receptionist blurted out, surprised that he wanted to know her.
Dane looked beyond her as if searching for someone. "Well, I understand that he is here," he said, referring to her colleague, "but I was referring to you."
"I'm Julia. Julia Fischer."
"Nice to meet you, Julia," Dane said before walking away.
Julia watched him walk a certain distance before shaking her head.
"You are already crushing on him?" her colleague pointed out, causing Julia to blush a little bit.
Julia said nothing, leaving everything to her thoughts.
'Well, he is a handsome name.'