Chapter 921 A Serious-Looking Toby
Sonia patted Toby’s back and urged, “Come on, get up. I need to accept the call.”
Upon hearing her, Toby pursed his lips and got up reluctantly.
Then, Sonia propped herself up from the couch and reached out for her phone in her coat’s pocket, ignoring her messy hair.
When she saw the caller ID, she quickly said, “It is Mrs. Lane. She probably wants to know what time we are coming.”
Sonia accepted the call and placed the phone against her ear. “Hey, Mrs. Lane.”
Meanwhile, Toby sat next to her and started combing through her unruly hair gently.
On the other end of the call, Grace was sitting on the couch in her living room with her phone in her hand as well. With a gentle smile on her face, she asked, “Sonny, it is already 7.30PM, what time are you guys coming over?”
At that, Sonia quickly lowered her head to glance at her watch before answering, “I am sorry that we took so long to get ready, Mrs. Lane. We are heading out now and will arrive at around 8.00PM.”
Since Paradigm Co. was not really far from the Lane Residence, reaching there would only take approximately 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, Grace nodded after she heard Sonia’s answer. “Alright. I will get the chefs to start preparing dinner now. We will be waiting for you guys.”
“Alright,” Sonia replied with a smile.
After the call ended, she placed her phone down and pulled Toby up. “Come on, Mrs. Lane is asking about our whereabouts already. We should hurry.”
While talking, she grabbed the giftbags on the couch as well.
Nevertheless, Toby quickly moved forward to take most of the giftbags from her. “Let me take those. You can carry these two instead.”
He left two giftbags in Sonia’s hand, which contained two of the lightest handbags.
Toby had taken all the heavy ones away and let her carry all the light ones.
Although Sonia was touched when she realized what he was trying to do, she still snatched two gift bags from him. “I know that you do not want me to carry heavy things, but your arm has not completely healed yet, and I cannot bear watching you lift all these on your own, so why not we carry them together? I will let you carry everything in the future once your arm is completely healed, alright? Let’s go.”
She chuckled before heading toward the door.
At the same time, Toby stared at her retreating figure before glancing at his left arm. At that moment, he felt like his heart was about to melt.
On the other hand, Sonia had already walked out of her office.
However, she paused and was confused when she noticed that Toby was not trailing behind her. Immediately, she rolled her eyes and shouted, “What are you doing, Toby? Stop daydreaming. Let’s go!”
When Toby heard her voice, his gaze wavered slightly before he came back to his senses. “I am coming.”
He quickly ran out to catch up to Sonia, and the two of them took the elevator down to the first floor, as Sonia’s car was parked at the spot outside of Paradigm Co.’s lobby instead of the basement parking.
Just then, Sonia and Toby headed out from the company one after another. During their journey out, most of the employees that were working overtime greeted them when they saw them.
Among these employees, there were a few that gave them knowing looks, and Sonia was extremely familiar with the looks they gave her and Toby.
Are these not the exact same looks that the two assistant and secretary gave us when we were outside of my office? Although I covered my face and could not see their expressions clearly, I could still sense their gazes on me. It is the classic gaze when one ships two other people together. Since these people are staring at us like this, it is obvious that many people found out that Toby carried me into my office. It must have been those two girls. Hmph, I will be sure to give them more work tomorrow. Wait for it!
She felt her scalp go numb from awkwardness when her employees smiled at her knowingly, making her quicken her pace instinctively. At one point, she walked faster than Toby and managed to get out of the building first.
Meanwhile, Toby raised his eyebrows when he noticed that Sonia seemed in a rush, as if she was being chased by something.
What is happening?
Although he was confused, Toby did not drag on and quickly ran after Sonia.
By the time he caught up to Sonia, Sonia was already placing the gift bags into the car’s trunk.
He went forward to place the bags into the trunk as well.
While doing so, he turned to look at Sonia, who was pouting angrily, before asking, “What is wrong? Why did you get mad all of a sudden?”
When Sonia finished placing all the bags, she glared at Toby. “I cannot believe you have the guts to ask me that. If it were not for you, who did not want to put me down, I would not be so embarrassed by the looks my employees are giving me. Great. Not just those two girls, but everyone in the company knows about it now. The looks that they were giving me just now made me feel so humiliated. On top of that, the image that I have spent a long time building to make myself look stern as a president is completely gone now.”
Then, she harrumphed and ignored him before walking toward the front passenger seat.
Meanwhile, Toby stood there and rubbed the tip of his nose before heading to the driver’s seat after closing the trunk.
When he entered the car, he started adjusting the seat while consoling the angry woman next to him. “Come on, don’t be mad. I’m doing this for your own good, you know?”
“Huh?” A confused look appeared on Sonia’s face. “For my own good?”
“Yeah.” Toby nodded.
At this moment, Sonia gave him a look of disbelief, as if she was encouraging him to continue making up lies.
Nevertheless, Toby’s gaze wavered, and he did not return her gaze. After starting the car engine, he looked forward and started driving with a serious expression on his face. “It’s true. I’m really doing it for your own good.
Although it’s good to be stern as a president, it’ll only make your employees fear you and distance themselves from you in the long run because they’ll feel like you’re unapproachable, and that’s not good. Soon, you won’t even have someone to talk to in the company, and that’s not beneficial to your company’s management. After all, a fearful boss will intimidate their employees, as they’d be scared of getting targeted by their boss.”
Just then, he gave Sonia a look from the rearview mirror with a serious look on his face. “After what happened, your employees’ view toward you surely took a drastic change, as they would feel that you’re not as stern as you look. Although you’re the president, you have feelings and will laugh and cry just like every other woman does.
This will lead them to think that you’re not as unapproachable as you seem, and they will feel less intimidated about working for you. After all, a down-to-earth boss is more likely to forgive you for any possible mistakes. Because of that, your status among your employees will surely rise.”
Sonia felt her mouth twitch upon hearing what Toby said.
Although what he said kind of makes sense, he’s just trying to come up with an excuse if you really listen to it carefully. Since when does being a stern and intimidating president threaten a company’s management? What about him? If he wants to talk about being strict, there’s no one else stricter and more arrogant than him in the entire Seafield.
I mean, who isn’t afraid of him in Fuller Group? Still, he has the company completely under his control, right? That alone is enough to prove that the boss’ attitude toward their employees has no correlation and is not important. He’s just coming up with all these excuses because he doesn’t want to admit that he pissed me off.
