“Thanks.” Jessica took it without much thought.

    Brian had been bringing her little gifts almost every daytely. He’d moved beyond just food to all sorts of random things- household items, jewelry, hats, you name it.

    Nothing too expensive, and Jessica had tried refusing a few times at first. But after going through the whole song and dance of Brian insisting she take them anyway, she just gave up fighting it.

    ‘They’re just little trinkets anyway,’ Jessica thought with a shrug. ‘I’ll take them and maybe return the favor with something simr

    When Brian saw she wasn’t refusing, his smile grew even brighter.

    Back at home, Jake showed up at the door again with his homework, and Brian automatically headed into the kitchen. Jessical barely nced up before settling down to help Jake with his assignments.

    She told herself she was just avoiding the hassle, definitely not going soft-on Brian.

    By the time dinner was ready, Jessica had finished checking Jake’s homework.

    Brian smoothly called them both to the table like he’d been doing it for years.

    Jessica helped Jake wash his hands before joining them at the dinner table. One quick look told her everything on the table was food she loved.

    Under Brian’s care, Jessica’s morning sickness had been getting better and better over the past five months of pregnancy. That was one of the main reasons she’d been letting Briane over.

    Jessica thought that if she could avoid the daily torture of throwing up, why wouldn’t she?

    Brian served her some food, thenunched into his usual recap of everything that had happened during his day.

    This was another one of Brian’s recent changes. The man who used to insist onplete silence during meals had thrown out his own rules and now actively tried to make conversation with Jessica at dinner.

    Jessica’s expression didn’t change much, and she barely responded when Brian talked, making people wonder if she was even listening

    But Brian didn’t care about any of that. As long as Jessica didn’t tell him to shut up, he could keep talking forever.

    As they talked, the conversation naturally drifted to work matters.

    “Thepany justunched a new product, and the design team has created several versions of promotional graphics, but none of them meet our partner’s requirements,” Brian said, seemingly casual as he described the different design versions and what the partner was looking for.

    He added, “That’s basically the situation. Now I honestly don’t know how to tell them to revise it. Jessica, if you were dealing with something like this, what would you do?”

    Jessica instinctively responded, “The second version is pretty good, but the color scheme and how the elements are used need some work.” She went on to exin in detail what direction the improvements should take

    14:36 Mon, 25 Aug.

    Brian nodded enthusiastically as he listened. But Jessica suddenly froze. ‘What am I doing?’ she thought.

    56%

    It was one thing to exchange gifts and help with homework, but now, Jessica was getting involved in Atkinson Group’s business. If things kept going like this, she might never be able topletely separate herself from Brian.

    Jessica felt increasingly uncertain. She stared down at the delicious meal Brian had carefully prepared, but suddenly found it hard to swallow.

    When Brian noticed her spacing out again, he quickly jumped in to redirect her attention. “Why’d you stop talking? Your suggestions really helped me out a lot. Don’t worry, I won’t take advantage of you for free. Once the project’s done, I’ll send you a big bonus.”

    “I don’t need your money. Besides, you shouldn’t be discussing Atkinson Group business with an outsider like me,” Jessica said

    with a frown.

    “It’s fine. I trust you,” Brian replied, deliberately misinterpreting her concern. Then, he kept pestering her about the rest of her improvement suggestions.

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    14:37 Mon, 25 Aug