Billionaire Lawyer's Secretary - Chapter 123: Chapter 123

Elara walked into Adrian's lounge with a bag in hand. She found him leaning against the headboard, looking down at his phone. "Feeling better?" she asked.
Adrian put down his phone, his gaze fixed on Elara's face.
Elara frowned. "Seriously? It's only been ten minutes and you don't recognize me?" She reached out and touched his forehead. "Did the fever fry your brain?"
Adrian removed her hand, his eyes locking seriously with hers. "Did you see Alex just now?"
Elara avoided his scrutinizing gaze and got up to take the lunchbox out of the bag. "Yeah, I did."
"What did you talk about?" he asked.
"What could we possibly talk about? We didn't talk about anything," she replied. Elara opened the lunchbox with the porridge and glanced at Adrian's right hand, which was hooked up to an IV.
She picked up the porridge and sat down on the edge of the bed. Her pale fingers wrapped around the porcelain spoon, gently stirring the steaming porridge.
Once she thought it had cooled enough, she scooped up a spoonful and brought it to Adrian's lips. Adrian hadn't expected her to feed him, and his eyelashes fluttered in surprise.
When Adrian didn't open his mouth, Elara suddenly remembered he usually preferred to eat by himself. "Do you want to try eating with your left hand instead?" she asked.
Adrian hesitated for a second, then leaned forward and took the spoon from her.
Elara blinked in surprise, then scooped up another spoonful and brought it to his lips. As she kept feeding him, Elara noticed that Adrian's ears were starting to turn a bit red.
"Adrian, are you running a fever again or something? Your ears are so red," she teased.
Adrian looked down, his lashes lowering. "Yeah."
Elara glanced at the bowl, still more than half full of porridge. "Do you still want some more?"
"Yeah, keep going," he said.
Elara could only keep feeding him.
Just then, the door to the lounge swung open and Justin strolled in, his long legs practically taking up the whole doorway.
Noticing Adrian's unusually red face, Justin grinned. "Hey, Adrian, what's with the blush? Getting shy because your girl is feeding you?"
Adrian said, "Get lost." His voice was still hoarse, and most of his usual intimidating presence was gone.
Justin smirked mischievously. "Seriously, what's there to be shy about? If you can't handle being fed, how are you gonna survive when your girl starts kissing and hugging you?"
Elara thought that it was impossible for Adrian to be shy about this. After all, he didn't even blush when they were intimate that night. "He's still got a fever, so it's normal for his face to be red," Elara said.
Justin grabbed the thermometer from the windowsill and pressed it to Adrian's temple. It beeped. "Oh, Adrian. Looks like your fever's gone down."
Elara frowned and took the thermometer from Justin. "That can't be right." She reached out and touched Adrian's red ear. "His ear is burning up. There's no way he's getting better."
Justin grinned. "Oh, maybe the thermometer's broken. I just thought he was embarrassed. Back when we were kids, whenever a little girl kissed him, he'd get all red in the face and his ears would turn bright red too."
Adrian gave Justin a frosty glare. "You got business or not? If not, get lost."
"Actually, I do. Alex wants to see you," Justin said.
"Not interested," Adrian shot back.
"Oh? Not even gonna ask your girl's opinion first?" Justin teased.
Elara quickly waved it off. "No need to ask me. Just do whatever you guys think is best." She figured Adrian had probably set someone up to deal with Alex about that USB drive.
Adrian could just have someone handle it; there was no need for him to show up himself. As for how Adrian planned to handle things, he'd already told her, the less she knew, the better. Elara agreed, so she'd rather stay out of it.
"Alright, I'll go turn him down," Justin said.
After Justin left, Elara kept feeding Adrian, but now her tone turned playfully sarcastic as she started teasing him. "So, you were pretty popular as a kid, huh? Even had little girls kissing you?"
Adrian, for a moment, seriously wanted to toss Justin straight into the ocean. "That was when I was like four or five," he muttered, a bit exasperated.
"Wow, Mr. Hartley, getting all shy at such a young age?" Elara teased. "So, who was this little girl? Are you two still in touch or what? Don't tell me she was one of your old classmates again?"
Adrian turned his head to look at her. "You don't know her."
He didn't answer her question directly, just said she wouldn't know the girl. "Oh, so you are still in touch," Elara shot back, her sarcasm obvious.
Elara fed him the last spoonful of porridge just as the IV finished. She pulled out the needle and walked out, clearly a little miffed.
Adrian didn't bother to chase after her. He figured a little sulking was good for the relationship. He lay back down and soon drifted off to sleep again.
By the time Elara finished sorting through her emails outside, it was already 7 PM, and Adrian was still sleeping. At 7:30, Paige showed up, along with Justin. "Elara, how come you're still here? Haven't you clocked out yet?"
Elara stood up from her chair. "Mr. Hartley's still sleeping."
"It's getting late. You should head home and get some rest. Justin and I will keep an eye on him," Paige said.
Elara didn't say much. "Alright."
As she packed up her things and grabbed her bag to leave, Paige added, "Oh, by the way, Elara, tomorrow is Adrian's mom's memorial day. He won't be at the office. You can take the day off tomorrow. Thanks for working so hard today."
Elara nodded. "It's nothing, just doing my job. I'll get going then." It was rare for Elara to get off work early. She drove straight home.
She took a shower, did a face mask, put her phone on silent, and was out by ten. She slept straight through the night, not a single dream, and didn't wake up until ten in the next morning.
When she opened her eyes, she realized it was raining outside. The weather was gloomy and gray, which was perfect for just lazing around at home, so she curled up in her warm blankets, ready to do some mindless scrolling on her phone.
She opened WhatsApp, and the first thing she saw was messages from Adrian. It was sent last night. At 23:09, Adrian texted, [I'm craving your homemade beef Wellington for dinner tomorrow night.]
At 23:35, [Hello?]
At 23:55, [Are you asleep?]
At 6:05, [Morning.]
She decided to reply later. No way she was gonna get roped into overtime. She exited the chat with Adrian and noticed Ruby had just posted an update on Instagram. It was a photo of her and Victor together.
Right below it was another post from Victor, sharing the same photo. They'd made it official. She casually liked both posts on Instagram, then exited the app.
She was about to drift back to sleep when her phone suddenly rang. Elara saw Adrian's name pop up on the screen, and her brow twitched. She was worried Adrian would call her to work.
Elara picked up the call. "Hello?" she answered.
"You up?" Adrian asked.
"Just woke up," she replied.
There was a brief pause on the other end. "Wanna have dinner together tonight?" he asked.
"I've got plans with Yvette's assistant tonight. We're meeting at the shop to take some photos," she said.
"Alright," Josie replied.
After hanging up, Elara buried herself back in the soft blankets and drifted off to sleep again.
She and Yvette's assistant had set their meeting for 7 PM, but Elara didn't actually drag herself out of bed until late in the afternoon. Because of the photoshoot today, the coffee shop closed early at 4 PM.
The assistant brought along some professionals, and since they were all pros and it was just a few casual shots, the whole thing only took a little over an hour.
The assistant needed to bring some coffee and light snacks to the hotel for a shoot with Yvette, so Elara prepared a set for each of them.
After they left, Elara and the staff tidied up together. By the time they finished, it was already past nine, so she went ahead and rang up another order.
She made herself a cappuccino and had just settled into her usual spot when a customer walked in.
Lily greeted the customer with a bright smile. "Welcome! You can just scan the QR code on your phone to order, miss."
"Thanks. Is the owner in?" the customer asked.
Hearing that, Elara looked up toward the entrance, and her gaze met Josie's. She stood there with that faint, aloof smile on her lips.