The voice rang with determination, but it ended up like a rock falling in the water, with only a few ripples showing that something happened. But those ripples did not include a reaction from Alex.
The man unperturbedly continued his work. Sharon was calm now. She exhaled, and asserted:
"I can help you with your work."
Alex finally paused, and turned away from his laptop. He looked at Sharon, and queried:
"Do you know why I let you in?"
Sharon was indeed confused. She had simply her apprehension. But now that he was asking, she replied curtly:
"No."
Alex nodded, unsurprised.
"First of all, you are beautiful."
Sharon was taken aback. After getting to see other facets of the playboy, she never thought he would revert to his old ways with her. Alex didn't let her process her surprise. He continued:
"Since you are easy on the eyes, and apparently determined to intrude into my life, I simply let you, but only so that you do not bother me. And now, you are bothering me."
"You!"
There it was, the disregard. It was frustrating, so much so. It was so vexatious, so irritating that Sharon was tempted to crack open Alex's skull to find out why he was not taking the problem seriously. She clenched her fists and glared at him, but that did not change anything.
Alex simply turned away from her to return his focus to his work.
Sharon breathed, then said after thinking for a moment:
"I looked for information on your family. Your grandfather, he pulled the family back from the edge of the abyss after the war, and built it into what it has become today. Few can do what he did, and despite his vision, he gave you the box you said can determine the heir of his empire. That means he knew you could take over after him. I don't know why you don't seem to care, but now that you are about to take over despite everything, you will need all the help you can find, and that includes me."
Alex raised an eyebrow and turned away from his computer again. He looked at Sharon, then he suddenly smiled:
"A good way to sell yourself, I have to admit, but let me guess, you don't want to help me, you want to help yourself."
Sharon's blue eyes flickered. He continued with his deduction:
"You were pushed into breaking into my apartment hundreds of meters high in the sky for the box that you have come to understand the importance of, and there is only one kind of person who could have been the cause of that, a person who must be a relative of mine, a Lenner, a greedy and ambitious Lenner."
This time, Sharon couldn't keep her reaction as subtle as before, not when everything that was happening to her had an anonymous but painful source Alex was now laying bare, a source whose greed and ambition, as Alex said, had turned her into a pawn.
Alex looked deeply into her blue eyes as if he was looking right past the defenses she had erected:
"And the best way, no, the second best way to approach a Lenner is through Arland Group. Added to that is the good pay that will help you deal with the fees for the one you care about who is at the hospital, and maybe, just maybe, a third stone you will be able to hit, like pretending by being close to me to be in search of the mysterious box you didn't manage to snatch a month ago, thus getting yourself some respite. You didn't tell the truth about the box to the one who sent you, did you?"
Unconsciously, Sharon clenched her fists, and despite herself, blood slowly drained from her face. Alex's smile widened, as he went for the kill:
"Now here comes the question. Why should I buy into what you are selling me? Why… should I help you?"
Alex gave Sharon a deep look, then stood up to go find himself a snack in the kitchen.
Without his attention on her, Sharon felt as if she had shed a great weight. Her heart that seemed to have stopped resumed working normally, and blood returned to her face, chasing away the weakness from having her naked self laid bare.
Looking at Alex searching into the fridge in the kitchen, she was certain that anyone who would ever tell her again that he was just a simple playboy, she would eat that person alive.
She reviewed what she had learned about him ever since she met him, his intensity sometimes, his intelligence that seemed to read her, as well as many things, as easily as a book, and his cold ruthlessness, that new discovery.
He was like a living and breathing lesson of how playboy did not necessarily mean trash, a harsh reminder.
Suddenly, he frowned, like he was not finding what he was looking for. He closed the fridge and looked at her with a different light in his eyes compared to before, a thoughtful light:
"I changed my mind, I will give you one chance. Prove yourself, and you will get a job. Of course, that is assuming you are not just all boobs."
The insult at the end made Sharon snap out of her lethargy, but she didn't retort despite her anger. That was because had she been in his place and had she gotten her life shaken into a chaotic mess by a complete stranger, she did not think she would have reacted as nonchalantly as him.
She took a deep breath, ignored what could have caused him to change his mind, and nodded with subtly gritted teeth:
"Tell me what to do."
Alex pointed at the documents in the boxes and those scattered around:
"Produce an analysis of those things for me. The result will decide on what you will get."
Sharon looked at the many boxes, documents and pen drives, then nodded:
"I will do it."
"Good!"
Alex clapped his hands together with a satisfied smile. He took his phone and left the kitchen to return to his bedroom. Not long after, he came back out, changed into a different attire, his phone at his ear:
"Aunt Lee, remember to keep your promise not to spoil the surprise. Don't tell mom I'm coming for lunch."
As he spoke to the Aunt Lee on the other side, Alex hurried out of the apartment.
*Bam*
Sharon looked at the closed door, and exhaled the tension that had been unknowingly gnawing at her. She went into the kitchen to find something to stave her hunger, but her lips twitched at the sight of the sparse inside of the fridge, as she understood why Alex had hurried out.
She could only turn to the documents she had been tasked to analyze. She went to take the seat Alex had vacated, and she focused on the files he had left behind.
The sooner she started, the sooner she would be done.