Chapter 25 Old Friend
“Mr. Jefferson, let’s have lunch together,” Jessica extended an invitation during lunch hours.
After cleaning for an entire morning, Jessica knew that Alex was trying to make life difficult for her.
Hence, she wanted to invite him for lunch to mend their relationship.
“No,” Alex refused her directly.
“I’ll be heading for lunch myself, then,” Jessica replied awkwardly.
“Alright,” Alex acknowledged without even looking up.
After Jessica left, he ordered takeout.
He just took over the company, and there were a lot of matters he had to take care of. Hence, Alex did not want to waste time leaving the office for lunch.
He had a habit of finishing the task at hand before moving on to anything else.
Half an hour later, the takeout had arrived. Alex allowed the deliveryman to enter when he heard the knocking.
“A-Alex?” the deliveryman stared at Alex in shock.
Alex looked up and exclaimed with surprise, “Dylan?”
He had not expected his deliveryman to be his university classmate, Dylan.
“Oh my gosh, Alex, I thought you were a live-in son-in-law? You’re the chairman here!” Dylan exclaimed in shock.
“Well, that’s life. You’ll never know when the smallest things might change your life, Haha.” Alex was happy to see his old friend as well.
Back when he was in university, he once invited Heather and her friend to have a meal at a restaurant only to realize that he had forgotten to bring money. If Dylan had not lent him the money back then, he would have been embarrassed.
Now that I think about it, I haven’t returned him the money yet.
“That’s right. Life really is full of ups and downs.”
Dylan placed Alex’s meal on the table and passed Alex a cigarette. He reminisced, “Back when we graduated, I dreamed of a future where I’ll be able to do something big with my career. However, shortly after I got employed by a small company, it was shut down because of an economic downturn. Now, I’m reduced to being a deliveryman.”
Dylan mocked his own fate.
Alex took a cigarette from him and lit it. He nodded, “Whatever you do, as long as you stay true to your beliefs, you’ll surely achieve your dreams.”
“That’s true. Enjoy your meal. I’ve got work to do. With that one line alone, I can tell that you’re still the old you. Let’s go out for drinks sometime!”
Even if Alex is of a different class of society than me, he’s still the Alex from back then.
“Alright then, you can pick a timing. I’ll be sure to oblige,” Alex nodded.
“I’ll call you then,” Dylan chucked. He added as an afterthought, “Remember to give me a good review!”
Alex laughed. Dylan is still the old Dylan. Anyone else would try to butter me up. At the very least, their eyes would be filled with fear and would be hesitant to act so casually around me. Dylan doesn’t care. As long as you respect him, he would treat you just like his buddy.
In the afternoon, Jessica entered the office in trepidation, worried that Alex would tell her to do cleaning again.
“M-Mr. Jefferson,” Jessica greeted him timidly.
“Good afternoon,” Alex returned the greeting. He felt like laughing when he saw Jessica’s cautious expression.
After that, he passed her a stack of documents, “Will an hour be enough for you to sort these documents out?”
Jessica was overjoyed that she had actual work to do.
She hurriedly took the documents and nodded, “I’ll finish it in half an hour!”
Alex ignored her, and she brought the documents to her own office.
As one of the world’s top five hundred firms, the boss’ secretary was entitled to her own office.
Twenty minutes later, Jessica brought the sorted documents back into the office.
Alex gestured at the shelf.
After she placed the documents down, she left as Alex had not assigned her any other work.
At this point, Alex’s phone rang.
It was Dylan.
He assumed that Dylan was going to arrange a timing to go drinking with him.
“Hi, Dylan,” Alex replied.
“Alex, can you…” Dylan sounded hesitant, and his voice was shaking.
Alex frowned. Just as he was about to ask what was going on, he heard a cold voice holler, “Just tell him outright that you need a loan! You must have a death wish, stuttering like this!”
Next, there was the sound of a man snatching the phone. The same voice yelled, “You’re Dylan’s friend, right? He owes me two hundred grand. If you don’t pay up, I’ll chop both his hands off!”
Alex frowned, and a murderous glint flashed across his eyes.
Dylan was his best friend in university and was as close as brothers. Anyone who wanted to chop his brother’s hands off was looking for trouble.
“Send me your address. I’ll bring the money over,” Alex replied calmly.
After getting the address, Alex got up to leave.
Right when he left the office, he realized that he had gotten Jonathan to get him a license plate. Thus, he did not have his car with him today.
Not only that, but he had ditched his electric scooter at the showroom the previous day as well.
He could only take a cab to where Dylan was.
Just as he was about to flag down a cab, an Audi Q7 drove past him and slowed to a halt.
“Mr. Jefferson, is that you?”
Alex was stunned. Not a lot of people called him Mr. Jefferson.
He peered into the Q7 and saw that the person in the front seat was a beautiful woman in her twenties.
When Alex looked into the car, he noticed that the driver was a middle-aged bald man in his forties. The man unbuckled his seatbelt and turned to look at him.
“Mr. Jefferson, it’s me, Derek,” the bald man spoke.
Alex was stunned. Oh, that’s Derek Fleming, the young man I met back in Lumenopolis eight years back.
Back then, Derek had offended Alex’s enemy, Francis Lund, and Francis had threatened to chop Derek’s limbs off. But Alex, who disliked the way Francis handled things, saved Derek and passed him a sum of money to leave Lumenopolis.
He had not expected Derek to end up in Nebula City. On the bright side, he seemed rather well-off as well.
“I’m sorry, but this isn’t the time for a reunion. I have urgent matters to attend to,” Alex waved him off.
“Mr. Jefferson, hop on. I’ll send you wherever you want,” Derek offered.
“Get on, handsome. There isn’t anything in Nebula City that Derek can’t handle,” the lady in the front seat said coquettishly as she cast him a foxy glance.
Alex shifted his gaze to Derek and nodded.
When the lady saw that Alex was not interested in her, she scrutinized him once again.
“Darling, please have a seat at the back,” Derek instructed as he opened the door and pushed the lady off.
When the beauty got off, she revealed her seductive body and headed to the back. However, she had not taken her eyes off Alex.
“Thanks,” Alex nodded at the woman and got into the front seat.
“Where to, Mr. Jefferson?” Derek inquired.
“Block five, Grange Road, Woodgrove Lane, Unit number three. And hurry up,” Alex replied.
