The Day I Kissed An Older Man

“Boss? Aren’t we going in?” Aaron asked.

Corinne was rooted to the ground as she watched Jeremy get out of the car and walk into Peakrise Auction House. With a frown, she said, “I saw someone I’d rather not see. Let’s wait a while before going in.”

Aaron looked in the direction of Corinne’s gaze. “That seems to be Jeremy from the Holdens. Do you know him?”

Corinne looked disgusted. “Not really.”

…

The auction hall was divided into upper and lower floors. The first floor was for ordinary buyers, while the second floor was for VIP buyers who did not wish to show their identity. They were granted excellent privacy and were identifiable by their room numbers.

Jeremy was in room one, while Corinne was in room seven.

After several unremarkable artifacts were auctioned off, a set of bronze pieces from this auction were carried to the display stand. Once the auctioneer gave a brief lecture on the background and value of the artifacts, bidding commenced at 1.5 million dollars.

“Two million!”

“Three million!”

“Four million!”

…

Eventually, the mysterious bidder from Room One managed to bid for the set of bronze artifacts at a high price of four million, which elicited gasps of awe from the audience.

Inside room seven, Corinne leaned lazily on the sofa and breathed a sigh of relief. Jeremy seemed to have been eyeing the set of bronze artifacts, and judging from the fact that he had already secured it, he would probably leave soon since there was no reason for him to remain there.

“The next piece is a posthumously published painting titled ‘Geese in Late Autumn’ by the famous impressionist painter Nellie Nymphaea. The starting price is seven hundred and fifty thousand!”

“We have a bid of eight hundred thousand from bidder number three!

“Bidder number eleven, nine hundred thousand!

“And now bidder number five, nine hundred and fifty thousand!”

Corinne raised her chin to give Aaron the signal that he could start raising his placard.

million from

and they began wondering who the powerhouse behind

began to count, “One and a half million going

second before he struck the gavel and uttered the word ‘sold’, Tommy raised his

and he spoke in a more

bidder number one raised the bid by that big an amount. Everyone wondered if the painting would spark a bidding war between bidder number one and bidder

wondered why Jeremy was

upset as her. “What in the world is Mister Jeremy’s problem? He’s just

calmly,

“Right!”

four million by buyer number seven. Do

comes the five-million bid from bidder

is going even higher! We now have six million

that! Bidder number one goes for seven and a half million! Any

annoyed at the development. Her main issue

painting is very important to you, perhaps we can

and shook her head. “No, I can’t just divert the company’s capital to my personal affairs. I’ll find another way to get it. We can let Jeremy keep it for

but to heed her

deal with a knock of the gavel, and it was soon announced that bidder number

more than

lost in thought. Her mother had only painted under the pseudonym Nellie Nymphaea in her spare time. Despite being relatively well-known, she was not a particularly mainstream painter, and her works were not very popular either. Jeremy’s reasons for bidding such a high

from the auction house came into their room to serve coffee and

here? How did you even get to sit in this room?”

taken up a job as a receptionist at the auction house after being fired by Alpha

she spotted the handsome, well-dressed Aaron in a designer suit sitting to one side. She gritted her teeth in envy and yelled, “Bravo, Corinne! You made

was so frantic and loud that the entire auction hall could hear it. Over at room one, Jeremy had just walked out

applied for the job a day ago and had just started her probationary period, but she was already speaking rudely to the VIP buyers! Her actions startled everyone at

several security personnel. He had Zoey dragged

all hell loose when she was taken away by the security guards and yelled out loud, “You’re a b*tch, Corinne! F*ck you! You made me lose my job twice

‘That girl… She’s here? And

house manager away after receiving an apology from the latter, and he was about to

here?” Jeremy shot Aaron a hostile

was taken aback for a moment, then nodded with a

in a cold voice, “Tell her to come out,