Chapter 1223 Her Lipstick Stain
It almost looks like Sonia wants nobody to find out what she just did, but she didn’t do anything wrong in the car, did she? At the thought of that, Toby raised his eyebrows, thinking he should put it behind him and drive off after failing to figure out the reason behind Sonia’s strange reaction. However, little did he know that the lipstick print was still clearly noticeable on his cheek, if only he would look in the rear mirror.
Nevertheless, Toby was too engrossed with his eyes fixed upon the road. Furthermore, since there were no other cars behind, there was really no reason for him to look at his rear mirror, which was why the lipstick mark had remained unnoticed even until he arrived at the Fuller Group.
After parking his car, he unbuckled himself just as the valet came to open the car door. “President Fuller.” The valet bowed to Toby politely and greeted him, one hand on the door with the other one on the edge of the door frame.
Toby replied with a grunt and bent over to step out of the vehicle, whereupon he tossed his car keys to the valet for him to park his car. As soon as the valet got the keys, he immediately sat in the driver’s seat, but when he straightened his body, the lipstick kiss mark on Toby’s cheek immediately caught his attention. “President Fuller, your…” The valet was stunned.
“What’s the matter? “Toby’s brows furrowed.
Intimidated by the indifferent man, the valet had no idea what to say as he only shook his head and said, “N-Nothing.”
“Go ahead and park my car then.” Toby fixed his suit and demanded.
The valet responded affirmatively while peeping at the mark on Toby’s face. At the same time, he pursed his lips in an attempt to keep a straight face without laughing. Afraid that Toby would see through him, he quickly kept his head down and closed the car door before driving off. On the other hand, Toby, who was standing in place, stepped forward to the building’s entrance after he fixed his suit.
“Greetings, President Fuller.”
“Good day, President Fuller.” The employees, whom Toby came across, stopped by to greet him.
Despite Toby’s indifference toward his employees, he wouldn’t usually leave them in the cold and ignore their greetings. Instead, he would either respond with a nod or a grunt to signify his respect for them. Hearing his response, his employees would usually walk away and attend to their work without sticking around him for too long. Nonetheless, they somehow stayed behind this time, even after hearing Toby’s response, looking at him with surprised looks on their faces, as if there was something strange about him.
Soon, Toby began to feel puzzled when he noticed the reaction from the employees around him. Thinking about the valet’s similar reaction he had met earlier, he couldn’t help but wonder what was going wrong. I might be overthinking if only one or two of them acted strangely, but why is everybody reacting like I’m some alien that doesn’t belong to this planet?
At the thought of that, he squinted, growing curious to find out what was wrong with him. However, he didn’t give in to his curiosity and ask them, but he decided to find out by himself when he returned to the office instead.
After all, Toby wanted to protect his reputation by playing it cool without showing his curiosity, thinking he would no longer be the calm superior he had always been to his employees should he do the opposite. Therefore, the man quickly scurried toward the elevator without saying anything and disappeared from everyone’s sight.
Little did Toby know that those employees immediately gathered around as soon as he was gone. The female employees were especially agitated as their cheeks flustered, their eyes filled with excitement. “Did you see that? Did you see that?”
“Yeah, I did. I did. There’s a hint of lipstick stain on President Fuller’s cheek. Oh my God! I can’t believe a nonchalant man like President Fuller would come to work with a lipstick mark on his cheek. You guys have no idea how hilarious it is to me to see that on President Fuller’s face. Oh my god! He is so adorable.”
“Exactly! I felt the same way when I saw President Fuller with a lipstick stain on his face. Despite his usual indifference, he seems a lot less intimidating to me. Instead, he seems a lot more approachable. Do you all think he purposely left that mark on his face before he came here? I bet he wanted to show everyone the lipstick stain Miss Reed left on his cheek.”
“Well, I don’t think so. President Fuller isn’t the kind of person who likes showing off. Furthermore, it’s just a lipstick mark. What’s there to show off? A lot of people in our company are pretty much spoken for. President Fuller is just simply not the kind of person you all think he is. Furthermore, it seemed that he didn’t know that there was a stain on his face, judging from his hasty reaction. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have left so nervously.”
“You have a point, I guess. Did Miss Reed intentionally leave the lipstick stain behind to assert her dominance and warn us ladies not to get close to President Fuller?”
The female employee shook her head in denial. “Nah. The whole nation knows that Miss Reed and President Fuller are an item, so it wasn’t really necessary for her to do that. In fact, if she had wanted to do that, she would have done it when she rekindled the old flames with President Fuller. She didn’t have to wait until now. Therefore, I believe the lipstick stain on President Fuller’s face is a result of their lovey-dovey intimacy.”
“Come on. It doesn’t matter how the mark was left on President Fuller’s face. What matters is that we just had the opportunity to see how much Miss Reed loves President Fuller.”
“I guess you have a point there.”
Soon, the news about the lipstick mark on Toby’s face started spreading among the employees throughout the company like wildfire before it slowly reached the other subsidiaries under the Fuller Group. Not long after that, several members of the press in the chat group saw the news and began to spread it further online, whereupon the news began to take over the Internet.
Needless to say, Toby wasn’t aware of the dissemination of the news at all. When he arrived at his office, Tom was already waiting for him there with a file in his hand. As Tom was about to greet him, he spotted the bright red lipstick stain on his cheek and was seen with his mouth left wide agape. However, Toby wasn’t surprised by his assistant’s reaction at all, considering how every other employee reacted similarly in the lobby earlier. Therefore, he became even more convinced that there was something on his face.
“Tell me. Is there something on my face?” Toby asked. Unlike the other employees, Tom was someone in front of whom Toby reckoned he could comfortably be himself. After all, Tom was one of the few people who knew him well.
When he heard Toby’s question, Tom immediately realized his superior had no idea about the mark on his cheek. Thus, he sniggered in amusement, much to Toby’s frustration. With a pair of furrowed brows, the annoyed man asked, “What’s so funny? I’m still waiting for an answer.”
“Sorry, President Fuller. Here is your answer.” Tom waved his hand while taking a deep breath to calm himself down. He then replied, “There is a lipstick stain on your face, President Fuller.” He pointed at his superior’s right cheek.
When Toby heard Tom’s words, he was stunned shortly before he reached for his right cheek and rubbed it. Then, he rested his gaze on his fingertip, seeing red stains on it and instantly realizing it was lipstick. It was then that he was reminded of the moment Sonia pecked his cheek. This must have been left on my cheek when she kissed me.
“That’s it?” Toby rubbed his cheek after he saw the lipstick stains on his fingertips while chuckling in a soft voice. I thought the strange look on everyone’s face was because there was something else on my face. Guess they all overreacted, didn’t they?
