Chapter 17: Sense of Distance

When Flores was about to clock in after arriving at the company, she was a bit dumbfounded when she saw the time.

It was exactly 9:10.

She had been walking slowly just now so as not to come across Ernest in the company. Nonetheless, she didn’t pay attention to the time and was late for 10 minutes!

Oh gosh!

She had an important meeting today and all staff of the company were supposed be present in the meeting.

Having no time to report for duty to the design department, she directly rushed towards the meeting hall.

It was held in a meeting hall that could accommodate thousands of audience and meetings held here were all important ones. Right at this moment, hundreds of attendees all fixated their eyes on Florence with scrutiny and dissatisfaction in their gazes.

Florence stood at the door with the documents in her arms awkwardly.

“Sorry for being late.”

After finishing the words, she surprisingly found Ernest who was sitting on the seat of host. He was the presider of today’s meeting?

She became more embarrassed all of a sudden. It was the first meeting presided over by the company’s new president, yet she was late under everyone’s nose.

Ernest was sitting there gracefully and was exuding a noble and aloof aura.

He said blandly without even throwing a glance at Florence, “Come in.”

His tone was indifferent and alienating as if Florence was just an unimportant stranger to him.

Florence was stunned for a while and a weird feeling inexplicitly crept up onto her. She then walked in at a rapid pace with the documents in her arms.

As a rookie of the design department, she always sat on the hindermost seat of the department whenever there was a meeting in the past.

Nevertheless, all the seats for the design department were occupied and only the seat beside Madison was vacant.

Generally speaking, only the most senior designer was qualified to seat beside the director as that position was a symbol of one’s status and meant that he/she would have a voice in some matters.

Florence stood there, not knowing what to do at the moment.

Where should she sit?

“Florence, come here.”

Right at this moment, Madison called her name in a low voice while pointing at the seat beside hers, “Sit here.”

Florence walked over stooping and said, “Director, I’m just a rookie, can I sit here?”

“This seat is specially retained for you as you’re responsible for the design of the president’s clothes and is the focus of our department today.” Madison gave her an explanation.

Florence understood what she meant, but she still felt a bit embarrassed. If it was not because of Ernest, how could her muddled design draft be selected and how could she be eligible to be the focus of today’s meeting.

She finally sat down after hesitating for a short while.

She then looked up at the man who was sitting in the seat of the host and was listening to the reports of the top managers of other departments while making concise comments of their reports from time to time. He was really decisive, imposing, overbearing and mesmerizing.

All the women present were all staring at him like fan girls at the moment, wishing so much that they could screw up with him and marry him.

Ernest keyed some words with his slender fingers after hearing the reports, and then casually looked up to cast a glance at the direction of the area of the design department.

He glanced around and finally landed his gaze on Madison.

“You are the director of the design department?”

“Yes, president. I’m Madison Stewart, the director of the design department.”

Madison was a capable and experienced elite and was always in a black business suit with decent make-up. She could deal with various kinds of matters, big or small, composedly.

Nevertheless, she felt a bit nervous in the face of Ernest.

“I will do a report on behalf of the design department. Our department…”

When talking about her profession, Madison became more and more fluent, relaxed and natural.

When hearing to the report, Ernest keyed some words on his laptop and raised his head to look at Madison from time to time. Nonetheless, he never landed his gaze on Florence.

Even if Florence was sitting beside Madison, Ernest acted as if he hadn’t seen her like she was not present.

Florence sat on her chair quietly and gently flicked through the documents at her hand as she simply regarded it as an important and serious meeting.

“President, I’ve finished my report. There’s another matter which is about the design of your customized clothes. As your designer is Florence Fraser and she’s a rookie yet outstanding designer. She doesn’t have her own assistant and we should select one for her. As she is going to design attire for you, naturally her assistant should be a prominent one. Do you have any requirements? If so, we will select the assistant according to your requirements.”

When Madison was speaking, she tugged Florence’s hand secretly, gesturing her to stand up.

All attendees in the meeting hall were sitting in their own chairs and Florence became quite conspicuous when she stood up.

The attendees all looked over Florence again; however, their gazes were quite different from before. Knowing that she was the first place winner of the competition, they bred some respects towards her.

In this way, it was safe to say that Florence had been in the limelight and became somehow famous in the company.

Nevertheless, Ernest didn’t even look up now and was simply fixing his eyes on the screen of the laptop.

He said nonchalantly, “Arrange it yourself.”

Florence felt a bit unaccustomed to Ernest’s nonchalant look.

It seemed that he never landed his gaze on her ever since she entered the meeting hall. Even if she was in the limelight at present, he was still not looking at her, as if he was neglecting her deliberately.

He didn’t want to talk to her?

After the meeting, the other attendees also left the hall after Ernest’s departure.

Florence headed towards the door following the crowd. When she walked out of the door, she found Ernest had already gone far and she could only see his leaving back on the long corridor from a distance.

He looked tall, slender and straight and noble and perfect as well. But he appeared to be more aloof and colder at the moment, giving her a feeling that he was someone whom she couldn’t reach.

Florence, who was in the clamorous crowd, felt like she and Ernest were from two different worlds.

She ineffably had a feeling that except the social engagements that she had to attend to as Ernest’s fiancée, she and Ernest would not have any other interactions.

This was good.