President’s Twins: Buy One, Get One Free

Chapter 32: It Seemed That Ms. Downey Had Put in Some Hard Work

Joseph was training his gaze on the scenery outside the window, but he no longer had any interest in those sceneries.

Viola’s words had reminded him of his actions lately. He suddenly realized that he was indeed treating Hayden a little specially.

Was it because she had saved Noah?

That must not be entirely true. If that was the case, his assistant Magnus would have already taken care of everything that was needed. Arranging for Hayden’s daughter to the Blue Castle Bilingual Kindergarten and promising Noah that he could be Stella’s classmate were originally not his plans. As his mind wandered to such thoughts, he felt a little lost.

There was a heavy traffic all the way, and by the time they arrived at the hotel, it was already noon.

All the managers and service personnel of the hotel lined up in two roles extending from the entrance of the hotel as Joseph walked in the middle of the rows. He swept his gaze across his employees and saw that Hayden was standing at the end of a line. He couldn’t help stealing a glance at her as he passed by her.

Although she was just wearing her designated uniform, it looked outstanding on her compared to others. It seemed that she had pinned a light green color scarf around her neck, which made her look even more outstanding.

Hayden saw that he was staring at her for some time, so she asked timidly, “Mr. Beckham, anything wrong?”

Joseph came back to his senses and replied with a frown, “Your name tag is tilted.”

After saying that, he marched into the hotel, leaving Hayden behind who was trying to figure out the meaning behind his words since her name tag was fine. She muttered with confusion, “It’s fine, isn’t it?”

Joseph had gathered all the management personnel to the second floor to have a meeting about next month’s anniversary celebration.

The anniversary celebration was decided to be held in this hotel, and they just needed to go over the details of the plan.

ST Hotel was one of the projects in planning when Joseph took over the helm at the tender age of twenty. Despite the fact that just a mere ten years had gone by, ST Hotel was able to develop rapidly, and now it had branches all over the nation. This exact hotel Hayden was working in was the first ST Hotel the corporation had built all those years ago led by Joseph personally.

This branch had a special place in his heart, so it was only natural to organize their hundred-year anniversary celebration in this hotel.

“This anniversary celebration is a good opportunity for the company to promote itself even further…”

While the other top brass were discussing, Hayden was on the verge of collapsing into sleep. She was just a management trainee and she was seated at the end of the table. She looked like she was jotting down important points of the meeting but in actuality images of turtles had been scribbled all over the pages of her notebook.

“Your proposals are too old-fashioned. Anybody else has other input?”

Joseph’s voice reverberated all across the meeting room.

Hayden covered her mouth to prevent others from seeing her yawning.

How long was this going to drag on? She was starving right now.

“What do you think, Ms. Downey?”

“Hm?” She raised her head up with a perplexed look and saw that everyone was staring at her. She hastily stood up and asked, “Hm? Are you calling me, Mr. Beckham?”

Joseph looked at her expressionlessly and repeated his question, “Everyone here has provided opinions on the matter of our anniversary celebration. Didn’t you have anything to say, Ms. Downey?”

As she heard that, Hayden sucked in a deep breath and replied apologetically, “I have been thinking a little about that, but I can’t come up with anything at the moment. My idea right now can’t hold a candle to the managers’ ideas here. Please give me some more time and I will come up with something good.”

“What is that?” Joseph narrowed his eyes as his gaze fell upon the notebook in front of her, “I saw that you have been writing a lot in your book just now, so that should mean you must have a lot of ideas in your mind.”

“Th...That’s nothing.” She hurriedly covered the pages of her notebook with her hands.

“Bring that here. I want to see it.”

Joseph said in a commanding tone.

Hayden’s face immediately became pale. Her hands were frozen now.

She was in a place with so many others around, so she couldn’t just refuse her boss’ request blatantly. She could only force herself to move her feet and before she handed her notebook to Joseph, she secretly flipped the pages and prayed hard that he wouldn’t see the nonsense she had been scribbling on one of the pages.

Joseph took her notebook as his expression changed imperceptibly. He gazed at her with a slight frown on his face.

There were some meeting minutes on her notebook indeed.

Hayden let out a sigh of relief and said with a smile, “I told you that these are just some meeting minutes. I don’t have any fresh ideas at the moment.”

Joseph had a noncommittal look on his face when he suddenly pinched one of the corner of the pages and successfully turned the pages to the one where she had scribbled a lot of turtles on it. He was doing all this in front of Hayden’s horrified face.

Hayden cursed at herself silently and hoped that she wouldn’t be punished just because she had drawn some turtles on her notebook. At most, she was just being unfocused in the meeting, and it shouldn’t be too big of a crime, considering that she had saved Noah previously.

“It seems that I have neglected Ms. Downey’s talents in the past.”

Joseph commented meaningfully as if he was going to reveal what he was talking about.

For the others, it sounded like Joseph was praising her so they were nodding furiously to display their agreement, but for Hayden, his words sounded like an ultimatum which caused her to panic.

In the morning, she had offended him by forcing him to sit on the swing, and now she was being caught drawing images of turtles on her notebook. She was just stupidly offending him at this point.

“Your idea combines both Chinese and Western elements, and it suits the ideology of ST Hotel since the time we began to operate it. It seems that Ms. Downey has put in some hard work.”

Joseph’s hoarse voice echoed all across the meeting room.

Hayden’s expression changed drastically. She had a look of stupor on her face.

Combination of Chinese and Western elements? What had she written in her notebook?

“Since everyone present here can’t come up with better ideas at the moment,” Joseph announced as he shut her notebook and returned it to Hayden, “I shall let Ms. Downey take over the planning and implementation of our anniversary celebration.”

Suddenly, Hayden felt something exploded in her mind.

What the hell was going on? What kind of idea and planning had she unknowingly come up with?

“I...I don’t think that’s appropriate. I am inexperienced so I wouldn’t be a good fit for this position.”

“You can gain experience through real work later on. There isn’t anything that could trump a good idea and I think everyone here agrees with me, no?”

Joseph rebuked her immediately and the others present all shook their heads.

The others present in this meeting naturally wouldn’t have any objections to Joseph’s suggestion. It was rare to see Joseph complimenting someone for coming up with a great plan, so they were actually feeling impressed by Hayden, and it was even truer for her mentor who had a look of admiration on her face. She looked as if she had played a part in Hayden getting some praises. Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

After the meeting ended, everyone started to disperse, and Hayden chased after Joseph until they were out of the hotel. She called out, “Mr. Beckham, wait a minute.”

“Anything?”

“Yes.” Hayden asked with a frown, “Why are you letting me be in charge of the planning of the company’s anniversary celebration?”

Joseph raised his brows inquisitively, “Hadn’t I made myself clear in the meeting? Or is there something wrong with your hearing? What you have written down in your notebook is pretty useful, and

I think they suit the theme of this hundred-year anniversary celebration.”

“No, about my notebook…”

“If that’s not what it is being recorded in the notebook, then what could it be instead?” Joseph studied her with a look of interest, “If the other managers who participated in the meeting know that you have drawn turtles which represented them, do you think you can still keep your job in the company?”

He was telling her to think of her current position and circumstances.

Hayden lifted the corner of her lips and stammered, “Of...of course I was writing down the meeting minutes.”

“That’s great, then. Before you get off work tomorrow, I want to see the first draft of your plan on my office desk.”

“Tomorrow?”

“You think you can’t do that? Or are you telling me that you are as inefficient as those turtles?”

“I… I think I can…”

Hayden then turned around and left while Magnus followed Joseph to their car which was about to return to their headquarters. Magnus asked with obvious confusion, “Mr. Beckham, why are you suddenly letting Ms. Downey be in charge of the anniversary celebration? She is still in her probation, and she is probably very busy with her performance…”

As his words trailed off, Magnus suddenly realized something.

Performance? Anniversary Celebration?

“Mr. Beckham, are you trying to help Ms. Downey from the dark?”