Max stood there quietly as the three others exchanged smug glances. The attendant, growing increasingly impatient, tapped her foot. She had seen his type before—broke guys who wandered in just to take a few pictures for their social media. The store sold luxury clothes that even she couldn’t afford, and yet, Max dared to show up without a penny. Worse, on her shift. She could get penalized if anything went wrong, but thankfully, they seemed to be the only customers in the store for now.“Are you done wasting my time?” she snapped, eyeing Max. “If you’re not buying anything, leave.”Max raised an eyebrow. “You don't even know if I truly came here to steal or intend to pay for the tux. Is this how you treat all your customers? By judging them based on what some people say?”"Who are some people?" Vivi retorted and came forward, pointing at Greg and July. "You recognize them, don't you? They are regular customers. Are you sure you want to offend them by not throwing this penniless thie

July folded her arms, a smug smile playing on her lips. "We caught him red-handed, and when we asked him to pay up, he couldn’t. The attendant was ready to call the cops on him, but then you walked in."She seemed pleased with herself and kept looking at Alexa’s face to gauge her reaction. After all, no woman would be happy to hear that the man she brought to such an upscale store tried to steal. She expected Alexa to lash out, yell at Max, maybe even storm out in embarrassment. Although she actually knew Max was not the type to steal; he was the holier than thou type and would not do something like that. She just wanted to mess with him.But to her surprise, Alexa looked like she heard something ridiculous and looked toward the attendant. “Max would never do something like that. Could it be a misunderstanding?” Luxe also shot a sharp look at her. "Tell me exactly what happened. How did the tux I specifically put on the rack end up in this mess?" The attendant, now visibly nervous,

The person who spoke was a young lady in pink at the forefront of the group. When Alexa looked over, she quickly slipped her hand into the arm of the man beside her. The man in question looked at Alexa and seemed a bit flustered even though he managed to look calm. Alexa gave a light scoff at this, which Max noticed, and he glanced at her face before looking at the faces of the people in the group with a scrutinizing look in his gaze. There was only one man in the group, and when the girls saw him look over, they all began to stare at him intently with giggly eyes and whispering amongst themselves about how handsome he was. He didn’t recognize any of the faces but recalled that the girl at the front called Alexa, ‘sister’. Albeit, it was devoid of any sincerity. The girl in question faced her group of friends and said in an excited tone, “This is my sister, Alexa.” Her friends looked at Alexa’s face and gave her strange looks before looking at the face of the man Alexa scoffed at e

The meeting room was already filled with people by the time Max walked in, and even Noah and Lauren were already seated. Soon, the rest of the people involved came, and the meeting began. Since it was Max who called the meeting, he directly took charge. "Good afternoon, everyone." Max started, picking up the tablet where he had neatly drafted his points. “This meeting is to discuss—”A loud scoff suddenly cut through the air, and Lauren leaned back in her chair, arms crossed. "How about you get straight to the point? We don't need this unnecessary show of words. Who knows what CEO Lawson was thinking when he got a newbie like you on the job?"Everyone went silent once she spoke, and some sniggered under their breath at her words. Several eyes fell on Max, and he could sense the mockery in them from several miles away. Majorly, it was because most of them were intimidated by Lauren, and no one liked Max, who suddenly came out of nowhere and got to be Noah's manager, albeit he was an

Silence enveloped the entire team, and they seemed at a loss as they looked at one another for suggestions. In the end, the youngest piped up, "Team leader, what do we do?"The team leader sighed. "Let's just go back for now and discuss an increase in the compensation.""Okay."And so, they all turned to return to the car whilst Max followed behind them languidly. But just then, out of the corner of his eyes, he sighted someone peeking out a window of the house directly beside it. He stopped walking instantly and looked that way. When the person realized that they were noticed, they quickly pulled the window blinds and retreated into the house.Max suddenly realized something - the neighbors seemed to be the gossipy type. Maybe they saw something?He directly turned to the group he came with and said languidly, "You can go ahead. I'm meeting up with a friend close by."They didn't seem to care whatever he did with himself anyway and merely gave noncommittal responses before leaving in