Chapter 188 Tarquin approached, bending down to pick up the lunchbox from the ground without a word, his gaze lingering on Elysia. Elysia sat on the pavement, tilling her face up at him in surprise when he made no move to help her up. “Aren’t you going to give me a hand here?” she exclaimed After all, she had taken a tumble while trying to deliver lunch to his son! ༈ ú གཽ ཇ ཎ ཟ ྃ Tarquin frowned, hesitating for a moment before extending his hand His palm faced downwards, clearly not inviting her to grasp it, but rather offering his arm as a support. What’s with all the caution? She wondered indignantly. Did he think she was some sort of femme fatale? Elysia’s pride was stung. She ignored the offered anm, instead reaching up to grab his trousers to pull herself up. Tarquin’s eyes widened in alam, but before he could scold her, Elysia’s footing slipped, sending her crashing towards him. Her eyes wide with panic, and she instinctively reached for his tie. Just as she grasped it, her heels slid back, and she toppled over Camed by momentum, Tarquin also fell backwards. As they both seemed destined to hit the ground, Tarquin’s quick reflexes kicked in. He caught her by the waist and pulled her into his embrace. Elysia gasped, “That was closel Tarquin’s breathing was slightly erratic too. Suddenly, laughter echoed nearby. “Tar” It was the elderly couple from across the hall. Both Tarquin and Elysia were mortified and quickly separated. Tarquin swallowed hard before managing to greet them, “Leander, Odette, good to see you.” The old couple beamed and asked Elysia. “What’s your name?” Elysia’s cheeks were flushed as she replied, “You can call me Elysia” “Oh, Elysia, what are you two doing out here in this bitter cold? Go inside before you freeze!” “Why would they go inside when they’re having such a romantic moment out here in the snow? Young love always seeks a little adventure.” རྩྭ རྫུ ཀྟེ སྠཽ ཀླུ ཟཎྜ ཤུཎྞཌྷ Ł ཁྱཱ ཎྜཱམྦཱཎཱུ ཀྑཱུ རྩ རྫ གྷ ཟྭ ༞ རྒྱ ཀྑུ ཎྜ Elysia’s eyes widened in a mix of shock and indignation as she tried to explain, “No, you’ve got it all wrong, I was just- “Ha! Have your fun, we’re off,” they chuckled, not waiting for her to finish As the couple walked toward the building’s entrance, they continued their banter. “I told you Elysia wasn’t Tarquin’s housekeeper, right? No housekeeper gets that cozy with the man of the house. Look at them, they’re so sweet together.” “Why are they so shy about it, though?” “It’s obvious! They’re smitten. Probably in the early stages of dating. Hot married yet, just sweethearts! Ah, isn’t it lovely? They’re a match made in heaven.” Elysia and Tarquin exchanged a glance, both at a loss for words. “People grow old and their eyesight fades. Don’t overthink it Tarquin finally said- Elysia shot back, “I’m not overthinking anything. You’re the one who should stop jumping to conclusions!” Tarquin’s brow furrowed. Let’s not have a repeat of this.” “What do you mean?” Tve told you before, I’m not interested in you. Stop playing these little games around me.” Elysia blinked, absorbing his words and her frustration peaked “Playing games? Ive seen narcissists, but never one as self–absorbed as you!” “You.. “You are shameless! Unreasonable!” Elysia cut him off before he could continue, leaving him speechless. As usual, Tarquin was at a loss for words, only managing to grumble after a long pause, “You’re a woman; you should have some self–respect.” 00:50 “What’s that supposed to mean? Just because you’re a man, you don’t need self–respect? Jerk!” Tarquin fell silent. Not for the first time, Elysia was misunderstood by him. She decided not to argue and got straight to the point. “How’s Elijah? Did he react at all when he woke up this moming?” Switching the subject to Elijah, Tarquin calmed down a bit and replied coldly. He didn’t have much of a reaction when he woke up. Seemed in good spirits, said he had a dream about his mom. And he ate all the food you brought this morning.” “That’s good news, I guess. At least he’s not showing any signs of distress. Give him this, it’s got his favorite dish. With that, Elysia hopped on her scooter and sped off. She still had to hurry to the Azure Café to meet his husband Tarquin’s appointment