Chapter 32



Joseph trained his gaze on the scenery on the other side of the window, but he no longer had any interest in those landscapes.

Violet’s words had reminded him of his actions of late. He suddenly realized that he was indeed treating Hayden a bit special. Was it because she had saved Noah?

That had to be not entirely true. If so, her assistant Magnus would have already taken care of everything necessary. Arranging for Hayden’s daughter’s admission to the Blue Castle Bilingual Kindergarten and promising Noah that he could be Stella’s partner were not originally his plans. As his mind wandered in such thoughts, he felt a bit lost.

There was a lot of traffic all the way and by the time they reached the hotel, it was already noon.

All the hotel managers and service staff lined up in two rows extending from the hotel entrance as Joseph walked in the middle of the rows. He scanned his employees with his eyes and saw that Hayden was standing at the end of one row. He couldn’t help but glance at her as he passed her.

Although she was only wearing the uniform she had been assigned, it fit her very well in comparison to the others. It looked like she had put a light green scarf around her neck, which made her look even more exceptional.

Hayden saw that he had been looking at her for some time, so he timidly asked, “Mr. Beckham, is something wrong?”

Joseph came to and replied with a frown, “Your name tag is cocked to one side.”

After saying that, he walked into the hotel, leaving Hayden behind, who was trying to understand the meaning of his words, as his name tag was fine. She mumbled in confusion, “It’s fine, isn’t it?”.

Joseph had gathered all the senior staff on the second floor to have a meeting about next month’s anniversary celebration.

The anniversary celebration had been decided to be held at this hotel, and they just had to go over the details of the plan.

The ST Hotel was one of the projects in planning when Joseph took the helm of the ST Group at the tender age of twenty. Although only ten years had passed, the hotel had developed rapidly and now had branches all over the country. Precisely the hotel where Hayden worked was the first ST Hotel that the corporation had built so many years ago, personally managed by Joseph.

This branch had a special place in his heart, so it was only natural to organize his centennial celebration at this hotel.

“This anniversary celebration is a good opportunity for the company to promote itself further…”.

While the other senior managers were discussing, Hayden was about to fall asleep. She was just a management trainee and was sitting at the end of the table. It looked like she was jotting down the important points of the meeting, but in reality she had scribbled pictures of turtles all over the pages of her notebook.

“Their proposals are too old-fashioned-does anyone have any other input?” Joseph’s voice echoed throughout the meeting room.

Hayden covered her mouth to keep the others from seeing her yawn. How long was this going to go on? She was starving.

“What do you think, Miss Downey?”.

“Hm?” She raised her head in puzzlement and saw that everyone was looking at her. She stood up hurriedly and asked, “Hm? Are you calling me, Mr. Beckham?”

Joseph looked at her blankly and repeated his question, “Everyone here has had their say in the matter of our anniversary celebration. Didn’t you have anything to say, Miss Downey?”

Hearing that, Hayden took a deep breath and replied apologetically, “I’ve been giving that some thought, but at the moment I can’t think of anything. My idea right now can’t compare to the ideas of the management here. Please give me some more time and I’ll come up with something good.”

“What’s that?” Joseph narrowed his eyes as his gaze fell on the notebook in front of him. “I noticed you’ve been writing a lot in your notebook just now, so that must mean you must have a lot of ideas in your head.”

“That… that’s nothing.” She hastily covered the pages of her notebook with her hands.

“Bring that over here. I want to see it.”

Joseph said in an authoritative tone.

Hayden’s face paled immediately. Her hands were frozen now.

She was in a place with a lot of people around, so she couldn’t simply refuse her boss’s request blatantly. She could only force herself to move her feet and, before handing the notebook to Joseph, she secretly turned the pages and prayed with all her might that he wouldn’t see the nonsense she had been scribbling on one of the pages.

Joseph took the notebook and his expression changed imperceptibly. He looked at her with a slight frown.

There were indeed some meeting minutes in his notebook.

Hayden let out a sigh of relief and said with a smile, “I had already told you they were just meeting minutes, I don’t have any new ideas at this point.”

Joseph had a non-committal look on his face as he suddenly pinched one of the corners of the pages and successfully turned the pages to the one she had scrawled a bunch of turtles on it. She was doing all this in front of Hayden’s horrified face.

Hayden silently cursed herself and hoped she wasn’t being punished just because she had drawn some turtles in her notebook. At most, she was just unfocused at the meeting, and it shouldn’t be too much of a crime, considering she had saved Noah earlier.

“I seem to have neglected Miss Downey’s talents in the past.” Joseph commented meaningfully, as if to reveal what he was talking about.

To the others, it sounded like Joseph was praising her so they nodded furiously to show their agreement; but to Hayden, his words sounded like an ultimatum that sent her into a panic.

In the morning she had offended him by forcing him to sit on the swing and now he discovered her drawing turtles in her notebook. She was doing nothing but stupidly offending him.

“Your idea combines Eastern and Western elements, it fits the ideology of the ST Hotel since we started operating it. Miss Downey seems to have given it a lot of thought.” Joseph’s husky voice echoed throughout the meeting room.

Hayden’s expression changed drastically. He had a dumbfounded expression on his face. Combination of Eastern and Western elements? What had he written in his notebook?

“Since everyone here can’t think of any better ideas at the moment.” Joseph announced as he closed his notebook and handed it back to Hayden, “I will leave the planning and execution of our anniversary celebration to Miss Downey.”

Suddenly, Hayden felt something pop in his mind. What the hell was going on? What kind of idea and planning had unknowingly occurred to him?

“I…I don’t think that’s appropriate. I have no experience, so I wouldn’t be a good fit for this position.”

“You can gain experience through a real job later on. There’s nothing that can stop a good idea and I think everyone here agrees with me, don’t you?” Joseph immediately rebuked her and the others present shook their heads.

The others present at this meeting would naturally have no objection to Joseph’s suggestion. It was rare to see Joseph congratulating someone for coming up with a great plan, so they were actually impressed by Hayden, especially his mentor, who had an expression of admiration on her face. It looked as if she had contributed to Hayden getting some praise.

When the meeting was over, everyone began to disperse and Hayden chased after Joseph until they left the hotel. She yelled, “Mr. Beckham, wait a minute.”

“Is something wrong?”

“Yes.” Hayden asked with a frown, “Why are you letting me take over the planning of the company’s anniversary celebration?”

Joseph raised his eyebrows inquisitively, “Didn’t I make that clear to you at the meeting? Or did you not hear correctly? What you have written down in your notebook is quite useful, and I think they fit the theme of this celebration.”

“No, about my notebook…”.

“If that’s not what’s being written down in the notebook, what could it be that you were doing?” Joseph studied her with a look of interest, “If the other managers at the meeting know that you drew turtles that represented them, do you think you will still be able to keep your position at the company?” I was telling him to think about his current position and circumstances.

Hayden lifted the corner of his lips and stammered, “For…of course I was writing the minutes of the meeting.”

“Great, then. Before you leave work tomorrow, I want to see the first draft of your plan on my office desk.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Do you think you can’t do it, or are you telling me you’re as inefficient as those turtles?”

“I… I think I can…”.

Hayden then turned and walked away, while Magnus followed Joseph to his car which was about to return to its headquarters. Magnus asked with obvious confusion, “Mr. Beckham, why are you suddenly letting Miss Downey handle the anniversary celebration? She is still on probation and is probably very busy with her duties…”.

When her words were interrupted, Magnus realized something – duties? Anniversary celebration?

“Mr. Beckham, are you trying to help Miss Downey from the darkness?”.

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