Chapter 126: "Help Me," "Take Good Care of Him

Chapter 126: Chapter 126: "Help Me," "Take Good Care of Him

"I’m not betting."

Noel Sutton wasn’t interested in the slightest upon hearing this. He leaned back against the sofa and drank his wine in peace.

Jason Rivers was dumbfounded. He grabbed Noel and asked, "What do you mean you’re not betting? Are you scared? Afraid to lose?"

Noel rolled his eyes hard. "Goading me won’t work."

Jason gave up on that tactic and tugged at him instead. "Why? Why not?"

Noel looked at Jason with a hint of suspicion. "Don’t tell me you only just realized how palpable the chemistry is between those two? The tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife. If a female mosquito flew between them, it’d probably end up pregnant."

He stared at Jason in disbelief. "Seriously, are you only just realizing this?"

Jason, of course, refused to admit it. "How is that possible? I’ve known for ages. Whatever, if you don’t want to bet, then forget it."

Noel simply smiled without saying a word. He could easily guess that the guy had been completely oblivious until now.

"Ulysses, you aren’t just as clueless as Jason, are you?"

Ulysses Shepherd let out a light cough at the question but didn’t answer. Noel’s face was filled with disbelief as he looked back and forth between Jason and Ulysses.

"Are you two seriously this dense?"

Ulysses and Jason both opted for silence.

Once everyone took their seats, nothing much happened. Some people who recognized Wyatt Winslow and Noel Sutton came over to offer toasts. For the moment, the atmosphere at the table was relatively peaceful.

The girl named Joy Woods, however, sidled up to Rachel Young and said with a beaming smile, "Say, you’re Caleb Collins’s little girlfriend, right? I was just joking around with your friends earlier, so please don’t take offense. Shall we have a drink?"

Rachel naturally had zero favorable impressions of Joy, and hearing these words only fueled her irritation. "What nonsense are you spouting? I already said earlier that I am not his girlfriend."

Joy covered her mouth with a light giggle. "Oh my, you two are practically together anyway. What does it matter if we say it now rather than later?"

Then, leaning in closer, she lowered her voice and added, "I’ve known Caleb for many years. I understand him. You definitely won’t regret being with him."

Hearing this, Rachel rolled her eyes so hard internally that they nearly got stuck. She was just about to retort when the little two-faced manipulator opened her mouth again.

"I only said those things earlier because I was worried you wouldn’t be able to help me take good care of him in the future, and I was afraid you might bully him. Please don’t take it to heart; I really didn’t mean anything by it."

Joy kept her volume perfectly modulated so that almost everyone at the table could hear her. Rian Sinclair swirled the wine in her glass with an amused smile, watching the little damsel in distress put on her act.

She mentally ticked off the buzzwords: ’Help me.’ ’Take good care of him.’ ’Don’t take it to heart.’ ’Didn’t mean anything by it.’

She hadn’t expected to witness such textbook manipulative behavior with her own eyes. While innocent-acting girls were common, it wasn’t every day you got to see a live performance of one this brazen.

Rian and Noel exchanged a knowing glance and clinked their glasses.

Joy then offered Rachel a soft smile. "Your name is Rachel, right? Since you’re not willing to talk about your relationship right now, we’ll keep it a secret for you. After all, we’ll all be family in the end."

Caleb did nothing to object; in fact, he even smiled. This meant he endorsed her words. He firmly believed that Rachel had only agreed to come out today because she liked him, which was why he never bothered to correct his friends when they made such claims.

Meanwhile, Rachel’s brows were furrowed so tightly they were practically tied in a knot.

Sitting close by, Rian and her group also smiled in amusement upon hearing this. First she offered to keep it a secret, and then she claimed they would all be family in the end?

"Good heavens, a living, breathing manipulator," Noel clicked his tongue, unable to resist leaning in to whisper in Rian’s ear.

"Her manipulation tactics are incredibly low-level. I wonder where she learned them," Wyatt remarked with a massive eye roll. Even a bunch of dense straight men like them could see right through it.

In other words, most men could easily tell what was going on. They simply chose not to expose the act, preferring to revel in the flattering attention.

Unable to tolerate it any longer, Rachel shot to her feet and glared furiously at Joy and Caleb. "Caleb Collins! You begged and pleaded for me to come out and hang out, and you had the nerve to bring along this two-faced bitch? What are you trying to pull? Did you bring her just to disgust me? And who the hell is your girlfriend?"

"How could you say such a thing!" Joy hadn’t expected the other woman to be so blunt. Her face instantly flushed bright red. Her tone turned pitiable and delicate. "I just wanted to ask you to take care of Caleb! Besides, he talks about you to me all the time, so I assumed you two were a couple. Why do you have to resort to name-calling?"

Perhaps she had used this exact method to drive away many girls who had flirted with Caleb in the past. But she never could have anticipated running into someone as ruthless as Rachel today.

Rachel said exactly what was on her mind, openly cursing her out in front of everyone. It made Joy feel like a scholar encountering a rogue soldier—completely unable to reason with brute force.

By now, everyone’s attention was drawn to their table. Feeling like he was losing face, Caleb furrowed his brow and looked at Rachel. "Rachel, you’re crossing a line with your words."

With that, he took two steps forward and placed a hand on Rachel’s shoulder, trying to force her to sit down. "Just sit down first, let’s—"

"Don’t touch me!" Rachel slapped his hand away. Caleb had always been meticulously attentive to her before, making her think he was a pretty decent guy. She hadn’t realized he had a completely different side to him.

Acting one way to someone’s face and another behind their back—how truly despicable.

The young man called Stone stood up with a cold sneer. "Caleb, this girlfriend of yours has quite the temper."

"I’ll say it one more time: I am not his girlfriend!" Rachel was incredibly frustrated now. Were they all deaf? Did they not understand the Veridian language? She had repeatedly denied it, yet they just selectively ignored her?

Joy opened her mouth to speak again but was cut off by a woman’s voice.

"What, it’s the 21st century and we’re still playing the court of public opinion?"

Rian was familiar with this tactic, though she had mostly seen it used in rural gossip or internet drama. Witnessing it in person for the first time was rather novel.

Ruby Forrest also frowned, setting her milk down on the table. "Saying things like that is quite damaging to a girl’s reputation."

The crowd collectively turned toward the source of the voices. Seeing that Wyatt and his group were sitting next to Rian, Caleb ultimately kept his mouth shut. Stone couldn’t afford to offend them either, so he remained silent. However, Joy, acting like a complete idiot, failed to notice their shift in demeanor. She immediately stepped forward and declared, "Ladies, interrupting others is incredibly rude. I don’t know what kind of upbringing you had, but seeing how young you both are, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were just being kept by the rich boys sitting next to you."

Joy’s eyes were filled with contempt, practically looking down her nose at the two of them, completely oblivious to the gravity of the situation.

The moment Wyatt heard Ruby being dragged into this, he completely lost his temper. He hurled his wine glass directly onto the table in front of Joy.

SMASH!

The glass shattered violently. Flying shards scratched Joy’s legs and face, while other pieces landed on Caleb’s suit pants, splashing alcohol over the entire group standing there.

The shattering of the glass was deafening. Centered around their booth and spreading outward to the three surrounding booths, a sudden, dead silence descended. The only sound left was the loud, rhythmic thumping of the club’s music.