Chapter 1026 Proud and Complacent
“Yes, I’m certain!” Sonia nodded with a very serious expression, indicating that she had indeed learned enough, and she really didn’t need him anymore.
At the sight of her confidence, Toby shook his head with a laugh. “All right. I’ll leave it to you, then. Show me what you’ve learned.”
He wanted to see if she really didn’t need him anymore.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let you down.” She smiled at him, then turned around and began to carve the rest of the pumpkin.
Seeing that she was no longer paying attention to him, Toby patted her head lightly, then walked away with his arms crossed and leaned against the wall.
Sonia turned and glowered at him. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing. I’m just teaching an ungrateful person a lesson,” he replied with a shrug.
She shot him a glare. “Hey, who are you calling ungrateful?”
“I’m not wrong.” Toby unfolded his arms and spread them outward. “I just finished teaching you, and you pushed me aside now that you don’t have a use for me. If that isn’t being ungrateful, what is it? Not only that, but you don’t have a conscience either.”
“You…” Sonia was rendered speechless by him as his words seemed to make sense.
It was true that she pushed him aside after she felt that she had learned enough, and it was ungrateful of her to do so. All of a sudden, Sonia felt so embarrassed that her face turned red.
At the sight of her expression, Toby no longer had the heart to tease her anymore. He stepped forward and gently caressed her hair, messing up her hair that she had painstakingly tidied earlier once more. “All right, I was just teasing you. Don’t overthink it, okay?”
She pushed his hand away from her head huffily. “Go away. I don’t want to talk to you.”
“Really?” He narrowed his eyes.
She rolled her eyes at him. “If you still want to eat later, don’t disturb me anymore. Aren’t you hungry?”
Toby nodded. “A little.”
“Then move aside and wait for me to finish carving it so that we can eat.” Sonia waved him off, urging him disdainfully.
He laughed under his breath. “All right, I won’t disrupt you anymore. Go ahead.”
Seeing that she was so impatient, Toby retreated again and gave her space. After she watched him leave obediently, Sonia turned her wrist before she continued to carve the pumpkin with her head lowered.
However, she had thought that it would be an easy process as she had learned how to do it, but for some reason, it was not as easy as she had imagined. At first, with Toby guiding her, her movements were extremely smooth and skilled, but why did it become so difficult all of a sudden?
Every time she carved the pumpkin with the knife, she could feel a clear obstruction blocking her, and it was not as simple compared to when she had Toby helping her. With his help, the pumpkin was easily sliced away with the knife, but now that she was doing it alone, she clearly had to put in the effort to be able to cut the pumpkin off. In less than two minutes, she felt that her arm was turning sore, just like how she had felt when she was carving before Toby came back. What’s going on? Sonia’s hands stopped in their tracks as she looked down at the carving knife in her hand, as well as the pumpkin orchid that was almost completed, and began to space out.
When she tilted backward, the man leaning against the wall saw that she had suddenly gone motionless, and a glint flashed past his eyes as he asked with a smirk, “What’s the matter? Have you finished carving?”
Sonia’s red lips gaped. A moment later, she said sheepishly, “No.”
“Then why did you stop?” The smile on Toby’s face grew even wider.
Sonia’s grip tightened around the knife as she fell silent. Why did she stop? Of course it was because she felt too tired.
Seeing that she had fallen silent and turned her head to look at her arm, Toby stepped forward with a smile and took the carving knife and pumpkin orchid from her. “All right, let me do it. Your arms are feeling sore, aren’t they?”
Sonia looked at the man in surprise. “Why are you… You knew I would end up like this a long time ago, right? That’s why you asked me if I was sure.”
Toby didn’t reply and lowered his head, saying as he began carving, “You’re a newbie who has never carved before. Even if you have learned a little bit of the basics, you’re still unclear on the amount of strength or the skills you need to carve something. That’s why I was sure it won’t take long for your arms to be sore, because I was like that at the beginning too.”
“I see.” Sonia pouted unhappily, her gaze falling on his hand.
As she watched the man gently carve off a piece of pumpkin, she asked again, “I could carve through the pumpkin easily when I first started, but how come it didn’t work earlier?”
Toby raised his gaze and looked at her. “Obviously, it’s because I was guiding you in the beginning while holding your hand. Rather than you, it was me who was putting in the strength to carve the pumpkin, which was why you felt very relaxed, and it became difficult for you after I left.”
At this moment, Sonia fell completely silent. It turned out that she was actually the fool. It was no wonder that when she was with Toby, she managed to carve the pumpkin so easily without facing any troubles. It was all because he was exerting his strength behind her back. To put it bluntly, he had been doing all the work from beginning to end, and what she thought she had learned was just Toby deliberately making her happy. However, she had taken it for granted, thinking that she had really learned it by herself, and she became proud and complacent about it.
Sonia covered her face. “You must’ve been laughing at me earlier, right?”
Toby chuckled. “I wasn’t.”
“I don’t believe you,” she mumbled.
Toby blew the scraps of pumpkin on his hand away and said, “All right, I’m done. How does it look?”
As he handed the completed orchid over, Sonia’s eyes immediately lit up at the sight. “It’s gorgeous.”
She took the orchid with a smile and placed it in her hand to have a look.
Toby was washing the carving knife to put it away. When he heard her words, his smile became wider. “It’s good that you like it. If you have time in the future, do you want to learn how to carve? I can teach you.”
“Okay.” Sonia put the orchid on the side of the dish and nodded happily. “In the future, I’ll make a beautiful carving by myself, and I’ll never make a fool of myself in front of you again.”
“Then it’s settled. Let’s go and eat.” Toby took the plate from her.
Sonia didn’t stop him either, and she trailed out of the kitchen behind him.
When they reached the dining table in the living room, Toby put the dishes down, then pulled a chair out and patted the back of it. Seeing that, Sonia walked over and took a seat. She knew that he had pulled the chair out for her. Sure enough, after she sat down, he went to the seat opposite of her and took a seat himself.
Once he was seated, he pulled out a napkin and wiped his hands, then glanced at the sumptuous dishes on the table. Suddenly, he asked the question he had been wondering about since he walked through the door. “Did something good happen today?”
“What do you mean?” Sonia poured a glass of mild-tasting juice for Toby and handed it over.
After he took the glass, he placed it aside and pointed at the feast on the table. “Usually, we’ll only eat half of the amount here. Is there any occasion today?”
Only then did Sonia understand what he meant. He was asking if she was celebrating anything by preparing so many dishes. With a smile, she said, “Nothing good happened.
I just thought that you might be busy because you didn’t answer my call this afternoon, and you’ve always been by my side recently without going to Fuller Group often, which made you so busy that you weren’t able to answer the phone today. I felt a little guilty, so I decided to make a few more dishes to make it up to you. Quick, have a bite and see how it tastes.”
