Phoenix had arrived at her new house in The Grandeur in the late afternoon. She had woken up later than usual as she was tired after yesterday's occurrence, and she deserved a relaxing Sunday. But, like what she had told Ashton yesterday, she had to check on the progress of her house renovation, as she could no longer delay it.
Looking at the double storey house in front of her, she inhaled and released her breath, walked towards the entrance, and entered the house.
There were plastics, dust and paint smell inside the house. She crinkled her nose and walked further inside while observing the walls, the built-in cabinets and the ceiling, along with other things.
Phoenix heard the sound of people working, it was puzzling for her. She knew that the contractor did not work on Sunday, and if they were asked to, she had to pay them double for the day.
Phoenix headed towards the kitchen area where the sound was coming from and saw two men were working on the kitchen cabinets while another man was checking the workmanship of the cabinet.
"Mr Qin?"
Should she say she was surprised to see him here, or should she have already guessed that Ashton would be here? Even she herself was not sure.
"Ms Li." Ashton turned around and acknowledged Phoenix.
"What are you doing here?"
"I thought you need help with speeding things up, so I kindly asked them to work on the renovation as fast as they can."
"You don't have to do that," Phoenix said with a troubled expression.
"You don't have to worry about their pay. As the developer, I feel obligated to make sure everything is according to your standard, so I'll be the one who would bear the prices."
"But this has nothing to do with the developer."
"Ms Li, do you really hate to get help from me? Is this what all this is about?" Ashton was frustrated with Phoenix's constant rejection.
"It's not that," she guiltily said when she heard Ashton's outburst.
"Then what? every time I offer you my help, you reject me."
"Mr Qin, then what about you? Why are you so eager to extend your help to me?"
"Why can't I? You are Mia's friend." Phoenix was stumped at hearing that. 'Friend.' Yes. She had friends now. Wasn't it okay to get help from a friend, in this case, from her friend's brother?
She looked at Ashton with a complicated gaze, "I'm sorry, Mr Qin. I don't mean to reject your help, it's just….. I used to depend on myself."
Ashton was feeling guilty for questioning Phoenix harshly, "I'm sorry too." He put his hand carefully on Phoenix's shoulders and made her look into his eyes."Ms Li, It's okay to get help sometimes, It's okay to ask for help. There's nothing wrong with that."
Phoenix stared at Ashton's eyes, taking in Ashton's words, and they both just stood in that position in a standstill.
Their staring contest was broken when one of the workers dropped a tool on the floor, making a sound that jolted them out of their position.
Phoenix turned to look at the tool that had fallen on the floor, while Ashton retracted his hand from Phoenix's shoulder.
"They have done most of the work, and it won't take long before you can move in. Maybe sometime next week."
Phoenix nodded her head in understanding.
"I have checked their work, and there's no problem with them. They have done a great job. You have chosen a good contractor, and I've worked with them before, so I can vouch for them. You don't have to worry about it."
"It was Ms Mia's who had suggested them to me," Phoenix promptly said.
'I should have known that,' thought Ashton.
"It is dusty and dirty here. How about we go outside?" Ashton gestured to Phoenix to walk ahead of him to go outside.
"Why don't you leave them to me to oversee the work, and I'll inform you once it's done? Can you trust me?"
In most cases, Phoenix would reject, but since Ashton insisted, "Okay. I'll trust you," she agreed.
"It's quite hot outside. How about we go to my house and discuss this some more? My house is not that far from here," Ashton said while fanning himself and looking at the glaring sun.
It was indeed a bit hot outside, even though it was almost evening.
"Okay. Sure. Lead the way."
Ashton was grinning inside. He succeeded in luring Phoenix to his house.
They walked around fifteen minutes until they arrived at a tall black gate that managed to hide the house inside from prying eyes.
"We are here. Come, follow me in."
Phoenix followed Ashton to the small side gate, Ashton opened the gate and let Phoenix enter first.
The houses in The Grandeur didn't have the same design. The developer sold the land lots and offered different designs of houses to choose from. There were some cases where they only sold the land plot and the buyer could build the house according to their own design, but there were a few conditions that the owner had to abide by.
Ashton's house was a villa. It has a flat roof, modern design, glass walls that let people see the inside of the house and a big swimming pool at the side. It was surrounded by green carpeted grass and tall trees and different kinds of plants surrounding its vicinity. Ashton's villa area was definitely bigger than Phoenix's house area.
Ashton led Phoenix to walk across the lawn and down the driveway to his front door. He opened the door of his house and walked in. He changed his shoes into the indoor slipper and took out a pink indoor slipper for Phoenix to change into.
"You can use Mia's slipper." Ashton carefully placed the slipper in front of Phoenix.
"Thank you, Mr Qin."
"Come in. Have a seat first." Ashton guided Phoenix to his living room and let Phoenix took her seat on a four seater grey leather sofa.
"Do you want juice? Water? Soda?" he asked. This was the reason he used to lure Phoenix to his house, right? So he should serve her a drink.
"Anything will do." Phoenix's eyes, that were looking around the living area, turned to Ashton to answer him.
"Okay. Wait here. I'll bring you a drink."
Once he saw that Phoenix was comfortable, he sauntered towards the kitchen and took out a watermelon juice from his refrigerator.
He poured them into two glasses and brought them out to the living room.
"Here you go." Ashton handed one of the glasses to Phoenix. "Thank you." Phoenix accepted the glass from Ashton and sipped on the juice. She instantly felt her throat refreshed.
Ashton sat down on the single sofa that was at the side of the long sofa that Phoenix was sitting on and sipped on his juice.
"Have you had your lunch?" Ashton asked.
"I had brunch before I came here."
"Owh. Do you have another appointment after this?"
"No. I don't"
Ashton secretly rejoiced at hearing that.
"How about you stay here for dinner? There's a recipe that I saw a while ago, and I have been meaning to try to make. Why don't you have a taste and be the judge for my cooking?" He flashed a dashing smile towards Phoenix with hopeful eyes.
Ashton could only think of luring Phoenix with food. He had remembered that Mia had told her before that Phoenix was a glutton, so he had been using food as his excuse to keep pulling Phoenix towards him.
Wasn't there a saying 'The way to a man's heart is through his stomach?'
Well.. in this case, he could say that the way to this girl's heart was through her stomach. He could definitely use that to win Phoenix's heart.
He may not be a professional chef, but he could definitely cook edible dishes.
It won't be too hard, right?