Chapter 278: Chapter 278: Going to the Bathroom Together?
Everyone says returning home makes one apprehensive, but clearly, she is the "home" here, what does she have to fear?
After about half an hour, Warren Prescott returned.
The staff member who had been assisting them was nowhere to be seen.
"How did it go?" Ashley Shaw walked up to ask.
Warren gave her a startled look, first answered, "Everything’s been arranged," and then asked, "Why didn’t you oppose it?"
"Oppose what?"
"Oppose me having them rectify everything."
"I’m a consumer; rectifying things is beneficial to me and everyone. What’s there to oppose?"
Warren originally wanted to say, "I thought you didn’t like anything I did," but the words came out as, "I thought you liked things ’clean enough to eat, no harm done.’"
Ashley realized Warren truly loves to bring up old grievances.
She rolled her eyes, too lazy to engage with him, then turned and found a sofa chair to sit down.
However, Warren’s interruption did ease her nerves a little.
She glanced at the time, planning to wait another ten minutes before going over.
Warren also sat down.
There weren’t many people in the VIP room, plenty of seats, yet he chose to sit right next to her.
Ashley happened to have a question for him, so she didn’t move away.
"Do you know why Leo is back this time?"
"No idea."
Concerning Xavier Quincy, Warren knew more than she did. If even he didn’t know, then no one but Xavier himself did.
In theory, as someone who had reincarnated, she should know a bit, but strangely, she had no memory of Xavier returning to the country at this time.
So there was only one possibility: Xavier hadn’t returned in her previous life.
Suddenly faced with a different trajectory than her past life, she felt a bit uneasy.
She feared she might have triggered a butterfly effect causing many things to change.
But even if a butterfly effect occurred, logically that butterfly shouldn’t have been able to cross the ocean to M Country.
This was truly bizarre.
Once she saw him, she’d have to ask Leo why he suddenly returned.
Though it was possible she remembered wrong and Xavier had returned in her previous life too.
"Do you know how long he’s staying this time?"
Warren shook his head again.
"No idea."
Just as Ashley was silently cursing his lack of knowledge, Warren added, "But it seems he’ll be here for quite a while; he sent over a lot of luggage beforehand."
Some of it he had asked Warren to sign for.
They were high-precision instruments, not convenient to leave with the Quincy Family.
The Prescott Group had a research lab where those things were currently stored.
"Quite a while?" Ashley was even more surprised.
If she had been unsure before whether she remembered it wrong, now she was certain she hadn’t.
Leo staying in the country for long wasn’t something she could forget.
"What’s up?" Warren cast a sideways glance at her, saying, "Aren’t you two close? Wouldn’t you be happy about him staying longer?"
Ashley felt this "aren’t you two close" sounded like something Warren had said before.
But there was inaccuracy in what he said.
She did like Leo a lot, while Leo was nice to everyone. It wasn’t just them who were close; there wasn’t anyone Leo couldn’t get along with.
She once made a wish on a shooting star, hoping Leo would become her real brother.
But that was because watching too many idol dramas had fried her brain, making her think wishes on shooting stars came true.
Ashley quickly came back to her senses, saying, "Him staying long does make me quite happy."
Warren let out a derisive laugh and then stood up to walk away.
Ashley thought he was heading out to wait for Xavier, so she quickly followed.
But when Warren stopped, Ashley looked up and saw the sign for the men’s restroom.
Annoyed, she said, "Why didn’t you tell me you were going to the bathroom?"
"How would I know why you were following me? I thought you needed to use the bathroom too."
Ashley bit her teeth.
How annoying!
Her feet were aching from the walking.
Warren saw her standing there like an irritated pufferfish, raising an eyebrow, "Want to join?"
"Scram!"
Ashley turned and left but realized she couldn’t remember the way back.
No choice but to wait outside the bathroom.
After nearly two minutes, Warren still hadn’t come out.
Don’t guys usually finish quickly? If he kept dawdling, they might miss Leo, and Leo wouldn’t know they were waiting inside.
Getting anxious, Ashley sent a message to ask: [What’s taking you so long?]
Warren quickly replied: [This isn’t the place for that.]
Ashley took a moment to process his meaning, and her cheeks flushed red.
Shameless!
Just then, the broadcast announced the landing of a flight.
Upon hearing it was from M Country, Ashley immediately knew it was Xavier’s plane.
A flight attendant happened to come out of the women’s restroom; Ashley quickly inquired where the aircraft bridge for that flight was.
The flight attendant patiently pointed her in the right direction.
Thanking her, Ashley didn’t care about Warren anymore and hurried off in the direction the flight attendant indicated.
Inside the restroom, Warren wasn’t actually using the facilities; he was smoking.
He was feeling upset.
Ashley’s close relationship with Xavier annoyed him.
One Cillian Xavier was enough to frustrate him; now there was another.
Yet Cillian had been oddly quiet lately, not making a peep.
Cillian seemed mild-mannered and easy to talk to, but was like Warren: once he set his mind on something, he wouldn’t turn back until he hit a dead end.
Cillian should be even more proactive right now.
With this thought, Warren, who had intended to go out, dialed a number.
"Hey, Warren! Have you picked up Leo yet?"
The voice on the other end belonged to Damian Ford, who was earning redemption through helping Ashley.
"Not yet. Where are you guys?"
"We’re hiding out at the bar, making sure Leo won’t spot us later."
Their plan was for everyone to pretend they couldn’t come to the welcoming party and then show up together to surprise Leo.
Cheesy as it was, guys loved this kind of trick.
"We’ll be over in about an hour, arriving at the bar around 9:30."
"Got it! We’ll be ready."
Warren paused and asked, "Is Archie coming?"
"Not yet, but we called him. He said he’d be a bit late because he had something to do."
"Alright, noted."
As Warren spoke, he casually asked, "What’s he been busy with lately?"
Damian sounded surprised.
"You didn’t know, Warren? Archie’s been preparing to go abroad lately."
"Abroad?"
"Yeah, though I just heard today he’s not going anymore. Seems like someone in his family fell ill."
"Okay, got it. Wait for us at the ’Queen.’"
Ending the call, Damian was left with a puzzled expression.
As for closeness, Warren and Cillian were the tightest; how could he not know such big news?