It'll Come Naturally

Annie was a perfectionist. She was very picky about details. Anyone who knew her was well aware of her dedication when it came to her work.

"Nice to meet you, Miss Xiao. I'm Annie An, the jewelry designer." She extended her hand friendly for a handshake. She examined Eleanor, noting that she was more beautiful in person than in the photograph she saw.

"Nice to meet you too. Hope we'll get along well, Miss An." Eleanor reached out and touched Annie's hand slightly, almost as if she was disgusted at the thought of touching Annie.

Annie dismissed Eleanor's arrogant attitude. She knew that Eleanor had received invitations from many other brands. Although it was wrong, it made sense that she would think so highly of herself. The fact that they would only be working together for a short amount of time gave Annie a peace of mind. Annie just smiled, keeping her cool until she could finish her job.

"I'd like to introduce you the jewelry -- the emotions and meaning behind every piece." Annie took out a sketch book and flipped through the pages. She moved in closer to Eleanor so she could have a better look.

"Umm... Is it really that necessary?" Eleanor was still fairly young, and yet she acted like a mean old lady. She had only been recently involved in the fashion world, which might have contributed to her sass and bad temper.

"No, no. I didn't mean that. I just wanted to explain them to you, you know, so that they would come alive as they were intended, and that you'd see how impressive they really are." Annie's forehead furrowed a bit. She had never anticipated that Eleanor would be so uncooperative. She imagined that if Eleanor would be like this all throughout, finishing this job would be next to impossible!

"Wait a minute. If I remember correctly, didn't you choose me because the theme fits me? You don't have to worry about me. Just do your job, and I'll do mine," Eleanor said, pursing her lips and raising an eyebrow at Annie.

"I'm sorry, Miss Xiao. But I do hope communicating with you won't be a problem. If I may say, YS Group chose you to model for my jewelry because you are beautiful. And that you are. However, in this display section, the focus here is the jewelry -- not you," Annie said through her teeth, all the while maintaining a professional smile. She was getting a bit angry now at Eleanor.

"Let me tell you this, Miss An," Eleanor crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't like this job. If it were only up to me, I would have never shown up here. Don't mess with me." Eleanor laughed sarcastically. She didn't see YS Group as a critical company. She worked for FX International Group. That was all that mattered for her.

"You are not going to be cooperative, are you?" Annie said, bringing back her more professional tone. Deep inside her, she began to dislike this lady. In Annie's opinion, now that Eleanor decided to accept this job and came here, she should be professional as a model and was supposed to communicate nicely with others, instead of being so uncooperative.

"I didn't say that," Eleanor said with a scoff. "Yes, I know you designed and created the pieces. But I'm the one who's going to wear and show them off to the public. Don't you think that it's my job to decide on the style during the display?" Eleanor raised her brows at Annie. Probably because she went too smoothly on the way to go viral and almost never ran into a stone wall, she tended to behave more arrogantly in front of people whom she thought to be unimportant.

"Oh, really? Please tell me about your ideas. I'm all on ears." Annie held in her anger. Because the photos she saw of Eleanor were so beautiful, she had never thought she should have such a rotten attitude.

"From how I see it, all you need to do is provide the jewelry. As for how I'm going to display it, that's my business. I know myself best, after all." Eleanor disliked it when she had to follow instructions. One of the things she hated the most was feeling restrained and controlled.

Annie stared at Eleanor, speechless. She had worked with many actors and stars. Most of them had an air to them. It was expected that they would have some sort of star complex. But Eleanor exceeded her expectations; never in her life had she met someone like Eleanor.

Annie gave a curt smile, and left the meeting room. As soon as her back was turned to Eleanor, she glowered. Her patience had totally receded.

As she was walking down the hall, she heard a voice calling out to her. "Hey, Annie! It's really you!" It was Belinda. Belinda heard from Duke that Annie was working with YS Group. She didn't believe him until now.

"Hi, Belinda! It's been a long time." There was no surprise in her voice when she said this. Annie had been well aware the YS Group was Belinda's company.

"Yeah, a really long time. How are you holding up? We've been missing you so much, especially Rain," Belinda chatted happily. She was like an open book, especially in front of her friends. That was why she barely thought twice when she mentioned Rain.

"Rain?" Annie said, obviously surprised. 'Didn't he get married already?' she thought. She felt slightly embarrassed. A married man missing someone who wasn't his wife wasn't something taken lightly. She looked around, trying to see if anyone was nearby who might have heard what Belinda had said. That last thing she needed was unnecessary misunderstandings and gossip.

"Yeah, Rain. Don't you know? He's had a rough time ever since you left. Here, come with me. Let's go to my office and catch up some more," Belinda urged. She had already turned and walked towards her office. Annie walked quickly to keep up with Belinda's pace. A lot of questions were running through her mind.

"Isn't he married?" Annie asked, mustering up all her courage.

"Oh? Who told you that?" Belinda turned around to look at her, puzzled.

"So... he's not?" Annie was uncertain at Belinda's response.

"Of course not! That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. He even hasn't had a girlfriend for god knows how long!" Belinda chortled. Although Rain liked to make fun of her, Belinda knew he had changed a lot over the years, so did the others.

"Then who was that woman I saw he was with? That must have been at least his lover or something." They were already only a few feet away from Belinda's office. Annie had stopped in her tracks, completely in shock. She tried to process what she knew, what she saw, and what she had just recently learned about Rain.

Belinda sighed, "No, you must have been wrong. Apart from Leena, there is no other girl in that man's life." Belinda pushed the door open and walked in. She held the door and waved her arm, urging Annie to come in.

"No. It's impossible. That's impossible." Annie walked into the room robotically, her thoughts whizzing through the air. If what Belinda had just said turned out to be true, then that would mean she had been misunderstanding him this entire time.☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐