Chapter 68: Shopping with Him
How am I supposed to concentrate with him in the room staring at me like that? I sighed loudly as I began getting to work. Having him sitting there is a whole lot better than if he did some other troublesome or mischievous thing.
Hayden watched me paint silently. Soon, my grandmother got tired, and she fell asleep quietly in her bed. I was too focused on watching my grandmother sleeping that I didn’t feel Hayden’s presence behind me until he had grabbed my wrist.
"Come with me," Hayden whispered as he held my wrist firmly in his large hand.
His grip wasn’t rough, but it was firm enough that I knew I couldn’t break away from it. Without waiting for me to respond, Hayden began dragging me after him and out of the hospital room.
"Where are you taking me?" I asked as I struggled to keep up with his long strides.
I felt a sense of déjà vu. Hayden really had a habit of just dragging me around.
We were in the hospital and people were already giving us suspicious glares. I tried to calm down to not draw anymore unnecessary attention to us or disturb the other people in the hospital. Hayden dragged me all the way to his car before he opened the passenger seat and shoved me inside his car.
I didn’t like where this was going at all. The last time he dragged me off, I had to pose as a fake girlfriend and almost got raped because of it. This wasn’t funny at all.
"Where are you taking me?!" I demanded loudly when Hayden got into the driver’s seat next to me.
"Why are you so loud? I told you before…I don’t like loud girls…" Hayden said coldly.
Right, I also remembered the ending of that sentence…
However, that’s not the point right now!
"Where are you taking me?" I asked again.
"We’re just gonna go shopping. Ok? Don’t worry too much," Hayden replied.
"There’s nothing that I want. I’m getting out," I said as I reached for the door.
Before my hand could reach the door handle, my arm was already being pulled back by Hayden. I let out a cry of surprise at his speed. Without paying me any mind, Hayden began driving the car out of the parking lot.
Without a choice, I shrugged his hand off my arm and sat in the passenger seat as my anger started boiling over. I didn’t know where we were going and frankly, I didn’t care.
"Why are you here? What do you want?" I asked, suspiciously.
Nothing good comes from Hayden being with me. There must be some hidden agenda or something that I’m not aware of for sure.
"Nothing. I just want to take you shopping," Hayden replied flatly.
"What? Why?" I asked, my suspicion multiplying at a rapid pace.
"I just happened to be free today and I’m bored. So, entertain me…" Hayden replied, his eyes glued to the road. His face an unreadable mask as always.
Fortunately, it wasn’t long before we arrived at our destination, a large upscale mall that I would normally never come to. The mall’s target group clearly wasn’t someone who was struggling to get by financially like me. Everything in that mall looked and probably was overpriced and expensive.
Hayden parked in front of the entrance and a man dressed in a formal valet uniform came to take his car key away from him. While I was hesitating to get out, Hayden came to my side of the car and yanked the door opened.
"Will you get out yourself…or should I carry you?" Hayden asked, emotionlessly.
"I’ll get out myself…" I muttered in annoyance as I quickly got out of his car.
Now what?
"Follow me," Hayden said, needlessly.
His hand reached out and grabbed mine as he pulled me along with him once again. What’s with the ’follow me’ if he’s just going to drag me with him anyways. Although his attitude was cold like always, the large hand that held mine was comfortingly warm.
The mall was filled with branded fashion stores, their window display sparkling with the latest fashion trends. Honestly, I’ve never paid much attention to fashion because there was no way that I could afford such fashionable items anyways.
"Look. I meant it. There’s nothing that I want…" I repeated what I said before again.
Hayden didn’t even bother to reply to me as he continued dragging me after him. It seemed like he had a destination in mind because he did not stop or slow down to check out any of the fashion boutiques that we were walking past at all.
After a short walk, we arrived at the store that Hayden had in mind. I had to say that I hadn’t expected that this would be our destination at all. In front of me stood the most prestigious art supplies store in the entire city, or perhaps, the entire country.
Only famous and well-off artists bought their art supplies from this store because of the high price but also because of the quality and rarity of some of the art supplies. Supposedly, this store has in stock the best art supplies from around the world for all branches of art. I say supposedly because I’ve only read of it and heard about it from other people, I have never been here myself before.
Hayden wanted to bring me here?
"Welcome Master Hayden. It is an honor for our store to welcome you," a middle-aged man who I presumed was the store manager greeted Hayden immediately when we entered.
"Don’t mind me. Instead, pay attention to what she wants," Hayden replied coldly as he gestured to me with his sharp blue eyes.
"Yes, Sir…" the manager said as he turned his attention to me.
"Umm…" I mumbled in confusion.
"I want you to choose whatever you want from this store. I’ll buy it for you," Hayden said to me.
--To be continued…