Chapter 48 - 48: A Narrow Escape from Death (4)
The car window rolled down, revealing Howard Coleman’s trademark sunny smile: “Hey Ruby!”
Ruby Gregory thought to herself, the world really is small. She was squatting by the roadside waiting for Olivia Foster and unexpectedly ran into an old acquaintance.
For Ruby, Howard and Madeleine were both long-time friends of many years, unlike her relationship with Steve Burton, where she always felt somehow beneath him, cautious and careful to please him.
Thus, running into Howard was a genuinely happy event for Ruby. Even though her ankle was throbbing with pain and tears welled up in her eyes, she still wore a beaming smile as she greeted Howard casually and naturally:
“Howard, it’s been a while.”
“Hey Ruby, it’s been a long time. What are you doing squatting here by yourself?” Howard asked, his gaze dropping to Ruby’s clutched ankle.
Howard pushed open the car door, got out immediately, walked over to Ruby, reached out his hand, and helped her up: “Can you walk?”
Ruby Gregory forced herself to lift her foot and took a step, but the pain made her gasp.
Without thinking twice, Howard bent down and carried Ruby to the car, opened the door, and pushed her in.
As Howard started the car and prepared to take Ruby to the hospital, she remembered that she hadn’t yet delivered the collaboration project to Mr. Burton, so she quickly said, “Howard, could you drop me off at the club up ahead first? I need to give the collaboration project to Mr. Burton.”
Howard smoothly turned the steering wheel, merging onto the main road, and said, “No need to go there.”
As he spoke, Howard glanced at the rearview mirror and then met Ruby’s somewhat puzzled gaze, explaining, “The meeting’s been canceled.”
“Canceled?” The confusion in Ruby’s eyes turned to astonishment. Wasn’t this meeting supposed to be a big deal for Pristine’s Enterprises? How could it be canceled?
“What happened? Why? Was there an issue?”
“What else could it be? It’s all because of…” At this point in Howard’s sentence, he suddenly remembered what Steve had told him and quickly swallowed the last word “you”.
He was just about to arrive at Pristine’s Enterprises when Steve called and told him Ruby had twisted her ankle en route to delivering the documents. He asked Howard to take her to the hospital.
At the time, Howard casually asked if he should first deliver the collaboration project so as not to delay the meeting.
Without any hesitation, Steve said it wasn’t necessary, and the meeting was simply canceled. The multi-million dollar deal was called off just because of Ruby’s ankle.
Howard tried to reason, “Bro, a twisted ankle isn’t a big deal. Let me just deliver the project after all. You’ve been working on this case for so long and put in a lot of effort.’
Steve’s mood seemed to be bad, and he snapped, “I said I don’t want it, I don’t want it. Ruby’s twisted her ankle before. You take her to the hospital right now so she doesn’t develop any habitual ankle problems!”
Having been friends with Steve for so many years, Howard could tell that his brother was using anxiety to cover up his uneasiness, caused by worrying about Ruby.
Howard immediately agreed and was about to hang up when Steve suddenly added, “Don’t let her know it was me who asked you to take her.”
PS: There are still four chapters. Update at 10 PM. Going to have a family dinner on Saturday.. Have a good time- Steve, you sneaky guy, at least own up to it.