Too Late to Love Her: When She Divorced, He Fell Apart-Chapter 103: You Don’t Like It?

Chapter 103: Chapter 103: You Don’t Like It?
While washing and putting on makeup, Claire stared at the necklace on her neck for a long time, hesitated, and ultimately did not take it off.
After dressing up and going downstairs, she was again taken aback.
The living room was filled with delicately packaged gift boxes, big and small. Claire walked over and casually looked at a few; they were all cosmetics, clothes, and handbags.
She sent Tristan a message: [Are you having a wholesale at home?]
Tristan: [You don’t like it?]
Claire looked again at the pile of gifts.
To tell the truth, when Tristan is being nice, he’s exceptionally generous, willing to spend money, and can understand a woman’s thoughts. Plus, he’s so handsome, it’s no wonder he used to have so many admirers around him.
In her heart, Claire was quite touched. Tristan had given her gifts before, but they were mostly done perfunctorily and he wouldn’t ask if she liked them like today.
However, she’s someone who not only lacks romantic feelings but is even somewhat allergic to romance, so seeing so many things she doesn’t usually use feels quite wasteful to her.
She replied blandly: [Thank you.]
Tristan: [If you don’t like them, just throw them away.]
Claire: ...
She replied to him: [You can return them.]
Tristan: [Return them? I won’t do such a thing. You can keep a few pieces you like, and the rest you can give away.]
Claire didn’t say anything more.
She unpackaged all those gift boxes; cosmetics, handbags, clothes, and various things that looked expensive but were not very useful.
It was clear that Tristan had put a lot of thought into choosing these gifts.
Claire thought about it for a moment, and finally only picked out a few items to bring to the office, while she kept the majority.
After arriving at the office, she gave the gifts to Tina and asked her to distribute them to everyone. Tina immediately shouted out loud, and everyone eagerly gathered around.
Only Joy remained seated at her workstation, with her head down, looking like she was working seriously.
Claire glanced at Joy nonchalantly and noticed her eyes were slightly red at the corners, and her lips were tightly pressed, as if she was trying hard not to cry.
She withdrew her gaze and stepped back into her office.
At noon, Claire went downstairs early and sent Joy a message from the car: [Join me for lunch.]
Joy: [President Hale, I’m not hungry at noon, maybe let Tina accompany you.]
Probably afraid of her anger, Joy sent a hugging emoji.
Claire: [I’ll be waiting for you in the car.]
Ten minutes later, Joy finally emerged from the office building, sat in the passenger seat, and smiled brightly, saying: "I’m here!"
Claire could tell she was pretending to be cheerful but didn’t expose her, merely smiled subtly, hummed, and asked what she wanted to eat.
Joy: "Whatever is fine, up to you!"
Claire thought about it; Joy usually had a light palate and rarely touched spicy food, so she drove to a nearby mall, found a tea restaurant, and let Joy order what she liked.
Joy still said anything was fine.
Claire raised an eyebrow and said: "If anything’s fine, I’ll order everything on the menu."
Joy was surprised: "That would be too wasteful! President Hale, you’re usually not so extravagant!"
Claire didn’t know if she was influenced by Tristan’s lavish gifts this morning, but she just felt, when someone was in a bad mood, meeting their material needs would never go wrong.
She said: "Then you order."
Joy was embarrassed to refuse again, so she obediently did as told.
While eating, Joy noticed the necklace on Claire’s neck, her eyes lit up, and she said: "Yesterday was Valentine’s Day, President Hale has something going on?"
Claire didn’t answer about herself but followed her words to ask: "How about you? Was anything going on yesterday?"
Joy’s eyes flashed a peculiarity, then she shut her mouth and ate silently.
Claire pursed her lips and said: "Joy, I’m not particularly good at comforting people, but I really hope I can do something useful to make you happy when you’re upset."
For many years, Claire’s life actually only had Tristan.
So, if it were before, she wouldn’t ask Joy so persistently about things she didn’t want to talk about.
Her personality is cold, not good at joking, and sometimes she takes things too seriously, speaking without leaving room for others. Besides, having been bullied in her childhood made her highly vigilant towards everyone.
Her younger self couldn’t handle this unfriendly vigilance well, so even when meeting people who wanted to get close to her, they kept their distance because of her coldness.
After all, no one likes to chase after cold indifference with warmth.
Now that she finally has friends who care about each other, Claire doesn’t want to repeat past mistakes and lose Joy as a friend.
Joy pressed her lips tightly together without speaking, but once again her eyes were somewhat reddened.
Claire: "Is it because of Jude?"
Joy’s eyes grew even redder.
After some time, she finally spoke in a choked voice: "Yesterday, I went to Jude’s company to find him, hoping to spend Valentine’s Day together, but I saw him walking out of the company with another very beautiful girl. The most excessive thing was that although Jude saw me, he pretended not to know me and directly left with that girl right in front of me."
Claire was taken aback too: "How could Jude be with another girl?"
Although she didn’t know Jude very well, she had met him several times before and could feel that Jude should like Joy.
Tears were falling from Joy’s eyes: "Perhaps I was being delusional, I always thought that by having me around, he must have some feelings for me, and if I tried hard enough, maybe he would be with me."
"You were not delusional," Claire said, "Actually, Tina and I also believe that Jude has feelings for you."
Joy said: "I told him before that if he ever found a girl he liked, I would definitely stay far away from him. But now that it really happened, I don’t know what to do."
Claire asked: "Afterward, did he ever explain to you?"
Joy shook her head dispiritedly.
"I originally thought I wouldn’t want to deal with him for the rest of my life. After all, he has a girlfriend now, and I should just stay far away. But only one night has passed, and I miss him so much. President Hale, do you think my romance-oriented brain really can’t be saved, always looking for trouble."
Claire is actually clueless about these emotional affairs, after all, she herself is about to divorce yet still likes the other person.
She thought for a while and said: "If you’re not content in your heart, do you want to ask Jude directly?"