Chapter 39: Chapter 39: It’s Not That Nobody Wants Me, It’s That I’m Not Interested
### Chapter 39: It’s Not That No One Wants Me, It’s That You’re Not Good Enough
Noon. The company cafeteria.
Benjamin Sterling skipped the lunch Rose Joyce had lovingly prepared for him and headed to the employee cafeteria. He immediately spotted Maxine Rhodes at a table, eating with Bubbles and Coco.
Everywhere Benjamin Sterling went, he was followed by the hushed whispers and probing gazes of the employees.
"President Sterling is actually in the cafeteria!"
"Ooh~ He must be here for Director Rhodes!"
"Look, look, he’s going over!"
Under the watch of countless burning stares, Benjamin Sterling walked straight to Maxine Rhodes’s table and, with practiced ease, sat down in the empty seat beside her.
The entire cafeteria instantly fell silent. Everyone pricked up their ears, and even the cafeteria ladies slowed their serving, afraid to miss a single detail.
As it happened, one of the lunch specials today was boiled shrimp.
Benjamin Sterling glanced at the shrimp, then at Maxine Rhodes. He casually pushed his own plate toward her and said in a tone laced with old familiarity, "The shrimp looks good today. The usual."
The moment he spoke, silence fell over the table.
Bubbles and Coco exchanged a look that said, ’Is he out of his mind?’
The so-called "usual" was a routine from the past five years: whenever there was shrimp, Maxine Rhodes would silently peel them and place them in his bowl.
Benjamin Sterling had brought this up in public intentionally. He wanted to hint at his intimate relationship with Maxine Rhodes to all the employees. He also expected Maxine to be as submissive as she had been for the past five years, thereby proving to everyone that no matter how successful she was at work, she still had to obey him in private.
After speaking, he stared intently at her, waiting for her reaction.
Maxine Rhodes paused for a moment. Without a word, she picked up a shrimp from her plate and began to skillfully peel it.
The corners of Benjamin Sterling’s mouth turned up in an irrepressible smirk. ’She’s still obedient, just as I thought.’ He could almost see the peeled shrimp landing on his plate in the next second.
The shrimp was peeled in no time. A smug Benjamin Sterling even pushed his plate a little further forward. But in the next second, the peeled shrimp traced a graceful arc through the air and landed squarely in Coco’s bowl.
"Eat up. You’ve been working hard lately," Maxine Rhodes said to Coco with a gentle smile.
Then, she deftly peeled another one and dropped it into Bubbles’s bowl. "You have one too."
From beginning to end, she never once glanced at Benjamin Sterling, let alone touched the plate he had pushed toward her.
Bubbles stared at the shrimp in his bowl, overwhelmed by the gesture. He clutched his chest dramatically. "Oh my, shrimp peeled by our Max Darling herself!"
He took a bite, closing his eyes in bliss, then turned to the ashen-faced Benjamin Sterling with a look of pure innocence. "Hey, President Sterling, why aren’t you eating? The shrimp is so fresh today!"
Beside them, Coco’s face was bright red from holding back laughter.
Beneath the table, Benjamin Sterling’s fists clenched. Humiliation made the veins on his forehead throb. He shot to his feet, the legs of his chair screeching against the floor.
He glared at Maxine Rhodes, hissing through his teeth, "Maxine Rhodes, you’ve got some nerve! Trying to piss me off with such childish games?"
She’d peeled shrimp for others on purpose, just to provoke him, hadn’t she?
"You think this is enough to make me angry?" he sneered, trying to regain control. "You’re too naive."
Despite his words, he could clearly feel the probing gazes on his back like needles. He needed a graceful exit. Immediately. Now!
Just then, as if on cue, Rose Joyce appeared at the cafeteria entrance, dressed in a white dress, looking fragile and gentle.
Benjamin Sterling’s eyes lit up. He practically rushed to greet her, deliberately softening his voice. "Rose, what are you doing here?"
Rose Joyce was holding a thermal container, her voice sweet and delicate. "I saw you didn’t eat the lunch I made for you, so I brought you some soup. Your stomach isn’t very good..."
Benjamin Sterling took the insulated bag, feeling its pleasant warmth. Comparing it to Maxine Rhodes’s cold indifference just moments before, a powerful sense of superiority and vengeance welled up inside him.
He raised a hand and, very naturally, stroked Rose Joyce’s hair. His tone was doting. "Rose is the best, after all. Gentle and considerate. She knows it’s not easy for a man working hard out there and understands how to take care of someone."
A blush immediately crept up Rose Joyce’s face, and she lowered her head shyly.
As he spoke, Benjamin Sterling cast a pointed glance in Maxine Rhodes’s direction, his voice dripping with undisguised scorn. "Not like some women, who walk around with a stone-cold face all day, acting like the whole world owes them something. Just because they used a little cunning to land a few projects, they think they’re hot stuff?"
He chuckled, turning up the heat. "At the end of the day, the most important thing for a woman is to know her place and understand propriety. Always trying to one-up everyone, without a trace of basic gentleness... A woman like that..."
He paused deliberately, savoring the sight of Maxine Rhodes’s still-calm profile, and said, word by word, "No matter how capable she is, she’s still a pathetic wretch that nobody wants!"
Hearing this, Rose Joyce shot a triumphant glance at Maxine Rhodes. The harsher Benjamin Sterling’s words, the more delighted she felt.
She even tugged on Benjamin Sterling’s sleeve at the perfect moment. "Benjamin, don’t talk about her like that... Maybe she just has a very strong personality."
Her words seemed to be defending Maxine Rhodes, but in reality, they were just adding fuel to the fire.
As expected, Benjamin Sterling grew even more agitated. "Strong personality? I call it being arrogant and clueless! Rose, you’re just too kind, even sticking up for her. The air in here is foul. Let’s go!"
Just as Benjamin Sterling put his arm around Rose Joyce’s shoulder, preparing to leave like a conquering hero, a cool, amused voice sounded from behind him.
"President Sterling is right."
Benjamin Sterling froze and instinctively turned around.
Maxine Rhodes slowly put down her chopsticks, picked up a napkin to elegantly dab her lips, and stood up under everyone’s gaze. Not only was she not angry, but the corner of her mouth was turned up in a faint smile.
"Some women are indeed pathetic. They’re perfectly capable of standing on their own two feet, yet they insist on pretending to be helpless damsels, relying on pleasing men to feel a sense of validation."
Her gaze drifted lightly over Rose Joyce’s frozen smile before finally landing on Benjamin Sterling. "But you’ve got one thing wrong. It’s not that no one wants me... it’s that..."
She tilted her head slightly, a mocking glint in her eyes. "You’re not good enough for me."
Those five words, spoken so lightly, landed like a sledgehammer on Benjamin Sterling’s heart.
With that, she calmly picked up her tray, gave Bubbles and Coco a wry smile and a raised eyebrow, and said, "Let’s go. Time for our lunch break."
Coco and Bubbles were completely starstruck, their eyes filled with admiration as they scurried after her.
Maxine Rhodes’s back was straight and elegant. As she passed Benjamin Sterling, she didn’t even grant him a sideways glance.
The cafeteria was dead silent for a moment, then erupted into even more fervent whispers.
Benjamin Sterling stood frozen in place, his arm stiffly wrapped around Rose Joyce. He felt like a complete and utter clown.
He had intended to use Rose Joyce to infuriate Maxine Rhodes, but she had casually turned the tables on him, turning the tender scene he had so carefully orchestrated into a cheap joke!
Benjamin Sterling stormed out of the cafeteria, with Rose Joyce having to jog to keep up. Back in his office, he slammed the door shut, the massive BANG echoing his fury.
"How dare she... How dare she talk to me like that! What does she mean, ’not good enough’? What happened to the Maxine Rhodes who used to cling to me?"
He swept the files off his desk in a single motion, his chest heaving violently.
Rose Joyce thoughtfully handed him a glass of water, comforting him in a soft voice. "Benjamin, don’t get angry over someone like her. It’s not worth harming your health."
She watched Benjamin Sterling’s expression and continued cautiously, "It’s just... she really doesn’t seem to respect you at all anymore. If she can embarrass you like that in the cafeteria today, who knows, tomorrow she might dare to openly challenge you in a board meeting. Isn’t she just acting this way because she knows the company’s biggest projects can’t do without her right now..."
Her words hit Benjamin Sterling right where it hurt. He remembered Director Warren’s warning and the admiring looks the employees gave Maxine Rhodes. A sense of panic from his eroding authority intertwined with the fury from today’s humiliation.
"Does she think the company can’t function without her?" Benjamin Sterling’s eyes turned sinister.
"Of course not!" Rose Joyce immediately chimed in. "Benjamin, everyone can see how capable you are. It’s just..."
She paused at the perfect moment, a worried look on her face. "We might just need someone now... someone who can outshine her in both ability and qualifications, to make her see reality."
