Chapter 474: Not Giving Me Face?

He actually had her work at the front desk, a job that required no technical skills…

For a moment, Donna Thorne didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Sure enough, someone was already waiting when she entered the company.

The HR rep was thrilled to see a tall, slender, beautiful woman arrive. After explaining a slew of rules and giving her a tour of the whole company, she led Donna to the front desk.

“You two will be working together here from now on, so get acquainted. If there’s anything you don’t know, just ask her. You can also ask me on the internal messaging system. I’ll be going now.”

A pretty girl, a bit shorter than Donna, was sitting at the reception desk.

After they introduced themselves, Donna had just sat down when a young man in a sharp suit swaggered over.

“I just saw Linda wandering around with a beautiful woman and figured we might be getting a new colleague at the front desk. And here you are. Lucy, you’ve got a partner now. Congratulations, congratulations.”

‘She’s got a partner, so what? What’s there to congratulate?’

Lucy gave the man a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“I should be the one congratulating you. Now you have a new target to pursue.”

Called out by Lucy in front of the newcomer, the man didn’t get angry. Instead, he walked over to Donna.

“Let’s get acquainted. I’m Pete, the Deputy Director of the Tech Department. What’s your name? How old are you? Where did you work before and what did you do? What school did you graduate from? Do you have a boyfriend?”

He rattled off a long list of questions. Donna didn’t remember any of them except the last one.

‘Do you have a boyfriend?’ She didn’t know how to answer.

‘If I say no, it feels like this Pete character will make a move on me at any moment.’

‘But if I say yes, I’m afraid he’ll press me for details about what my boyfriend does.’

Donna chose not to answer.

“My name is Donna Thorne. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Nice name. Sounds good.”

Pete was just trying to make small talk, forcing compliments where there were none.

“You’re gorgeous. You look just like this super famous model from overseas, what’s-her-name. I bet I’m not the first person to tell you that, am I?”

Donna didn’t want to chat with him. She disliked smooth-talking, flirtatious men like Pete who hit on everyone.

Besides, she was here to work, not to find romance.

“Excuse me, but the workday has already started, and I’ve only just arrived… Can we talk after work?”

Beside her, Lucy let out a snort of laughter, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

“Not charming enough, I see. The new beauty isn’t giving you the time of day. Director Pete, it’s true, we’re just lowly receptionists who could lose our jobs at any moment. We’re not important like you are in the company. So, don’t keep us from our work. You should probably get going.”

Donna felt a strange, almost flirtatious vibe between the two of them, as if she were just a pawn in some game they were playing. But she had no proof.

Rejected by Donna and ribbed by Lucy, Pete still wasn’t annoyed.

“Work hours have started, so it’s time to work. Alright, alright, I won’t disturb you for now. But let’s add each other on WeChat first. I might need to trouble you for help with work matters in the future.”

As he spoke, he took out his phone.

This time, it wasn’t Donna being difficult. “I’m sorry, my phone fell in water and broke yesterday. I haven’t had a chance to buy a new one yet, so I don’t have WeChat right now.”

Who comes to work without a phone these days? Who doesn’t use WeChat?

The rejection was a little too blunt.

Pete’s expression finally faltered.

“Are you serious, Donna? Do I look that much like a bad guy that you have to be this defensive? Even if you don’t give it to me today, you’ll have to tomorrow. You’ll have to give it to me sooner or later. Are you sure you want to offend me over something like this?”

“It’s not that I won’t give it to you. I’m telling the truth.”

Donna stood up, patted her empty pockets, and held her empty hands out for him to see.

“Can we add each other after I buy a new phone?”

‘That’s more like it.’ Pete sauntered off again.

She didn’t do any real work all morning. She just listened to Lucy explain the company’s structure and gossip.

Soon, it was time for lunch.

You needed a card to eat in the cafeteria, and you had to load money onto it. Since Donna didn’t have a phone, she couldn’t do any of that. She didn’t want to use someone else’s money and owe them a favor, so she decided to skip this meal.

“You go ahead. I ate too much this morning, so I’m not hungry. Besides, I’m trying to lose weight lately.”

“You’re already in such great shape and you’re still trying to lose weight? Are you trying to make the rest of us feel bad? You’re really not going?”

“Really, I’m not. Thanks, though.”

Lucy pursed her lips at her and left.

Donna sat alone at the front desk, feeling a bit lost as she watched her colleagues come and go. Suddenly, the phone rang.

She picked it up. It was security, calling to say someone was at the entrance for her.

Donna remembered what Brandon Jacobs had said—that he would have someone deliver a phone to her. She hurried over.

A Rolls-Royce was parked at the entrance. A man who looked like a chauffeur walked up to her, holding the latest model of a high-end smartphone.

“I’m President Jacobs’s driver. From now on, I’ll be responsible for driving you to and from work every day. My number is in the phone. If there’s nothing out of the ordinary, I’ll come wait for you shortly before the end of the workday. If something comes up, please just let me know in advance.”

Donna was overwhelmed by the gesture.

‘A broke nobody like me with no special skills suddenly has a driver? And he’s being so formal…’

The two of them bowed to each other politely.

After seeing the driver off, Donna had just returned to the building when a security guard walked over.

“Hey there, miss. Was that your boyfriend or one of his men? Driving such a nice car, he must be loaded. What does your boyfriend do? If he’s that rich, why are you working a job like this? You’re really down-to-earth.”

Donna didn’t want to become the office gossip on her very first day.

In just one morning, she had gotten a deep appreciation for the company’s rumor mill, courtesy of Lucy.

It wasn’t that she was ashamed of Brandon Jacobs, but that their relationship was too complicated to explain. So she told a white lie.

“He’s not my boyfriend, and that wasn’t his driver. That person found my phone and was kind enough to return it. Do I look rich to you? Would a rich person really come work as a receptionist?”

The security guard had a moment of realization.

Donna returned to her workstation and discovered the SIM card was her old one, and all her apps were running normally.

It was her first time using such a high-end phone. She was still exploring its features when Pete showed up again.

“You said your phone was broken this morning, and now it’s fixed? I was wondering why you didn’t go to lunch. You went to get your phone.”

Caught red-handed, Donna figured that as long as she worked here, she couldn’t escape the fate of exchanging WeChat contacts with him. She proactively added him.

Pete was very happy.

“I see your profile says Seacliff. Are you from Seacliff?”

Donna said she was.

Pete said, “You must be pretty lonely in Veridia with no relatives, friends, or a boyfriend, right? Tonight, I’ll organize a welcome party for you with some colleagues. It’ll be a good way to get to know everyone, break the ice, and make some friends so you won’t feel so lonely.”

This was the first time Donna had heard of such a thing as a “welcome party.”

Whatever it was, she wouldn’t be attending, because Brandon Jacobs’s driver was coming to pick her up.

“No, no. After work, I have to go home and…”

“Are you refusing to give me face? Donna, I’m sincerely trying to be your friend, I have no ill intentions. If you keep treating me with such suspicion, like I’m some kind of villain, aren’t you afraid of offending me? My position might not be that high, but I still have the ear of the HR Director…”

‘So what he means is, if I dare to refuse, he’ll go bad-mouth me to the HR Director and make it impossible for me to stay here?’

Donna couldn’t believe her bad luck. It seemed she was fated to be harassed by men no matter where she went.

‘It’s so annoying, but there’s nothing I can do.’

‘I can’t possibly go running to Brandon Jacobs to complain over something so trivial. I can’t expect him to protect me every second of the day, can I?’