The Fallen Heiress: Contract Marriage with the CEO Who Hates Me
Chapter 23: The Picnic

Chapter 23: The Picnic

"Do you really think she will appreciate it? She’s probably on one of her crazy diets now anyway."

Charles threw a quick glance at the large picnic basket in his girlfriend’s hands and let out a somewhat irritated sigh.

Since Felicity was now extremely busy with her new role in the upcoming drama series, Jane did not have a chance to meet her even once. Their interactions were limited to brief conversations on the phone and occasional text messages whenever the upcoming star had a moment to herself.

Thus, with the meticulous help of incredible Mrs. Kim and the reluctant support of her stubborn boyfriend, Jane decided to surprise Felicity with an impromptu visit and have a picnic in the private park area behind the building of her Entertainment company.

Felicity’s private office was much more spacious and well-decorated than both of them had expected.

Although Jane used to spend a lot of time with Fel and her mother in the past, her visits to the celebrities’ private rooms stopped once both girls became busy with high school classes.

However, she still remembered the bright yellow lights and uncomfortable leather couches in Mrs. Walker’s room, therefore, seeing how Felicity’s office was decorated to the girl’s liking, she felt an unusually weird sense of relief. As if the room design alone was supposed to make up for the endless stream of other inconveniences standing in the way of an overworked celebrity.

"She said she’d b-be free in the afternoon, p-perhaps I should have warned her that we’d c-come anyway..."

Jane looked at the large white round clock on the opposite wall and let out a long sigh. It was already past 2:00 PM which meant that despite what her manager had told them, Felicity most like skipped her lunch break and was now busy with the next item on her schedule.

She was sad that she had to waste both Mrs. Kim’s efforts and Charle’s time on the surprise lunch that would probably not happen now.

Much to the girl’s comfort, however, the thick glass door to the office opened with one broad swing and Felicity almost marched inside, halting upon noticing her unexpected visitors, with her puffy, red eyes wide open, displaying a clear hint of surprise in them.

"Oh... I mean, hi, guys! I did not know you were coming... Did we have something planned?"

Felicity’s clearly distressed and somewhat disheveled appearance made both Jane and Charles worried, thus, Jane nearly jumped to her feet and rushed to her friend, her bright doe eyes topped with worried wrinkles.

"Fel! Are you alright?! Were you c-crying?! Your eyes are s-so red!"

Startled for a second, Felicity took a step back, dodging her friend’s attempt to hug her. Then, clearly admitting her mistake, wrapped her slender arms around Jane’s shoulders and playfully patted her on the head like a tiny, adorable puppy.

"Of course I’m alright, Princess! I was just surprised you came here, that’s all. I’ve been... so busy lately that I was just worried I had forgotten about our plans."

"B-But your eyes!"

"Oh... My allergies are acting up again. You know, May is the worst month for me, haha!"

Felicity polished that reply with a rather awkward scoff and walked up to Charles in order to engage him in their usual polite small talk.

Jane, however, could not shake off an unpleasant feeling left by her friend’s obvious lie. She knew for a fact that Felicity was not allergic to anything and had never complained about May being her worst month even once during the years of their friendship, however... Even though the girl’s eyes were concrete evidence, there was also not a single occasion on which Jane witnessed Felicity cry.

Nevertheless, Felicity was clearly hiding something from her friends and it hurt Jane immensely that she did not feel comfortable enough to share her worries with them.

I guess I shouldn’t pry this time. Looks like she wouldn’t talk anyway...

***

Still insisting that her allergies were in the way, Felicity convinced Jane and Charles to have their picnic on the closed terrace of her private office, which Charles appreciated too, since he was not really a fan of eating food outdoors, let alone when the only thing that was separating him and the dirty ground was a piece of fabric of a questionable sturdiness.

Perhaps it was the quality and undeniably remarkable taste of the home-made food, or maybe it was a glass of the dry wine that Mrs. Kim packed for them, reassuring Jane that Felicity would appreciate it, but Miss Walker indeed returned to her previous chipper self, showering her friends with rather extensive details of her new project and the people she was working with.

"I’m telling you guys, every time I lean closer to him, I can barely hold myself back from punching him right in his surgically altered face! There was not even a single day that he did not come drunk, I guess all those rumors about him were true."

She downed the second glass of wine at once and started laughing, while Charles snatched it out of her hands, offering her a quite patronizing look.

"Pace yourself or else you will have to join him in those rumors."

Felicity threw a cherry tomato at the guy and rolled her eyes, leaning on Jane’s shoulder and hugging her arm.

"If you did not want me to drink, you should not have brought the bottle in the first place! Gosh, I’ll probably have the meanest headache once the buzz wears off."

Jane laughed as Charles threw another irritated look at Felicity and covered her friend’s forehead with her cool hand to which Felicity reacted with a skillful imitation of the purring of a happy cat.

Their idyll was interrupted by the loud ringing noise of Jane’s phone, and when she was retrieving her device, the blue ribbon with the half-finished red peony flowers fell out of her purse right into Felicity’s lap.

"Huh? What do we have here?"