His Naughty Lessons-Chapter 248: Troublesome Family Members

** Eli **

Eli glanced back at the crowd that the brunette had disappeared into, searching his memories for any recollections of a similar face. He didn’t find any. And why would Harper expect him to know an intern candidate interviewing at her company in the first place?

"Well ... Her name is Emory Sterling," Harper explained.

Even then, it still took him an awkwardly long moment to figure out what that name suggested. "... You mean that’s my father’s daughter?"

Then he realized, belatedly, that "my father’s daughter" must be quite a strange way to refer to one’s half sister. Too bad it was the first and the most accurate phrasing that came to his mind.

"Yeah, I found out earlier this week when she came on site. Apparently she even used a fake name on her resume to try to hide her connection with our primary investor." Harper shook her head, then looked up at him with a cautious inquisitiveness. "You’ve really never met her before?"

"No, and I consider that a relief." Eli shifted his gaze back from the crowd. He didn’t have a particular reason to hate this half-sister, per se — or even her mother in that regard, because to be fair, neither of them had done anything intentionally to cause the farce that made his life crumble to dust — but that didn’t mean he was excited in any way to meet this extended part of his "family".

From the look on that girl’s face, she didn’t seem to know him either. Probably for the best for both of them.

"Are you considering hiring her?" he asked casually, more out of curiosity for Harper’s new job responsibility than this random sister’s internship prospect. freeweɓnovel.cøm

"Well ... I’ve actually been meaning to ask you about your opinion. I just haven’t found a good chance to do it all week, given how busy you’ve kept us occupied every night." Harper gave him a meaningful look at that. "Not saying today is a better time in that sense, but since we’re on the topic, do you have any objections to us hiring her? She did do quite well on the interview, and I like her a lot."

Interesting. Eli raised an eyebrow — "like" was actually quite a rare praise coming from someone with high standards like Harper.

"I’m not saying it from a biased point of view though," Harper explained hastily, apparently feeling the need to defend her stance on this person with a sensitive identity. "Five of my coworkers from different teams talked to her too, and their feedback was a unanimous A+. She’s pretty well-rounded in her skills, and her personality also fits in the company really well." She paused for a second, stealing a look at his expression before carefully adding, "It’s also kind of surprising how much she seems to have in common with me. I mean, just think about how likely we’d run into anyone else we know at an arcade! And she’s the first person to understand my first game from last summer so well, too."

... Now, Eli suddenly felt a stab of negative impression on this mysterious half-sister. "You mean Siberian Express?" he asked. "What did I miss?"

Harper gave him an elusive wink. "You know you can’t always be the only person to get every single hidden thought in my head, right?" She squeezed his arm teasingly. "Someone else would end up sharing that privilege at some point ... And to be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if Emory gets your interests just as well. You might actually like her too if the two of you meet someday."

"..." No thank you. That would just be awkward on way too many levels. Especially if this Emory was already leveling up from simply a half-sister to a potential rival at stealing Harper’s affection — and a threatening one at that, considering how successful she had already gotten after a mere interview!

"No need for me to meet her." Eli slipped his arm out of Harper’s hand and looped it around her back instead. So ironic that he was feeling such a surge of jealousy over his supposed sister. "I’m fine with any hiring decisions you make. I know you’ll handle it wisely either way." Not that he was tempted to say "no", and not that he was eager to end this conversation so that he could wipe that jealous thought out of his head. "Now, didn’t we promise not to talk about work this weekend? Let’s get back and keep up with the ’busy’ night activities that kept you from thinking about it ... I liked that schedule quite a lot."

His jealousy was alleviated slightly when the girl in his arm grinned, batting her lashes with twinkles in her eyes.

~ ~

It was a busy night to check off all their leftover todo items from the photo booth, from unfiltered muscles to unfiltered "muscles", and to Eli’s satisfaction, they indeed had no more time to think about work the slightest bit.

Nevertheless, he still found it hard to leave behind that grudging thought about Siberian Express. Just what references had he missed anyway, and how did someone who just met Harper for the first time get it before he did?

Bothered by the challenge, he couldn’t help but start turning the whole game over in his head even as he drifted to sleep. Even in the morning, after a couple more rounds of busy engagements that led to Harper taking an extended shower, he couldn’t resist pulling out his phone in an attempt to search for hidden clues in the game while she was still in the bathroom.

Much to his disappointment though, what he found the first thing when he picked up his phone was a notification for two text messages:

[ Tyler: I got my job offer. ]

[ Tyler: I think I might be accepting it. Depending on how long of a notice my current boss wants, I should be moving to Davenshire in a week or two. ]

... Shit. Did people have to be that efficient at making such an important decision?

And why did troublesome family members suddenly like to sneak into his life so much at every chance they could?