Chapter 146

Sebastian sat next to her, thinking for a moment. “You’re right. If automatic parking became really advanced—where the car parks itself without any human input—there wouldn’t be any blind spot issues. Plus, if the car could sense people nearby and automatically stop, accidents from blind spots would be practically impossible.”

Abigail nodded. “Exactly what I was thinking.” After she finished speaking, she turned to look at Sebastian beside her. She suddenly realized how close they were sitting and quickly scooted away a bit.

Sebastian noticed her movement and asked, “Do I smell or something?”

Abigail was speechless. She just thought they were sitting too close.

Sebastian even leaned over to smell himself, muttering, “I don’t smell, do I?”

“It’s just… I think we’re sitting too close together,” Abigail said with a hint of helplessness in her voice.

Sebastian leaned back against the couch and looked at her with a casual expression. “I’ll keep my distance next time then.”

His words made Abigail feel uncomfortable. “I’m not blaming you or anything. I’m just not used to it.”

Sebastian studied her for a moment. “Is it because you got bullied a lot in prison? Are you afraid of people getting too close now?”

Abigail hadn’t expected him to ask that. She froze for a second, staring down at the pasta on her plate. After a while, she finally answered. “Yeah, for a while there, whenever anyone came near me, I’d automatically get defensive.

“If Clark hadn’t pulled strings to get me moved to a different cell block where I could learn coding with other people, I would’ve kept getting picked on. So now you understand why I had to find him, right?”

Abigail looked up and met Sebastian’s eyes. Clark had saved her life, and whether things worked out well for her or not, she owed him an explanation.

From the day she got out of prison, she’d been determined to track him down and see what her savior looked like in person.

She also had a feeling that Clark hadn’t just helped her on a whim. There had to be another reason. It seemed like they’d known each other before.

But Abigail couldn’t figure out when she and Clark had actually met.

Her life as an orphan had been pretty monotonous, and even after she’d joined the Gibson family, she’d never met anyone named Robinson. She was completely puzzled about how Clark had known her well enough to pull strings and get her transferred to a better cell block in prison.

“I don’t get it,” Sebastian said deliberately.

Abigail set down her plate, her expression turning cold. “If you don’t get it, then forget about it.”

She stood up to leave, but Sebastian caught her wrist. His voice had a lazy quality as he said, “Come on, tell me. I won’t get jealous.”

‘Even if he did get jealous, it wouldn’t matter,’ Abigail thought. ‘I’m not dating him anyway.’

“Even if I explained it, you wouldn’t understand. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be sitting there with that smug look on your face,” Abigail said, pulling her hand free.

Sebastian realized she could be pretty feisty when she wanted to be. He also noticed how thin she was—his hand could wrap around her wrist with room to spare.

Abigail went back to her room and took a nice long nap. When she woke up, it was already dark outside. ‘Great, another sleepless night ahead,’ she thought.

Abigail got out of bed and left her room to find that James and Warren had already returned. They were sitting with Sebastian, having dinner.

“Why didn’t you wake me up? Now I’m going to be wide awake all night,” Abigail said as she walked over to them, directing her complaint at Sebastian.

When they heard the complaint in her voice, all three men started laughing.

Sebastian cleared his throat with a slight cough. “You never told me to call you, so I didn’t want to be presumptuous and just ring you up out of nowhere.” His tone was clearly teasing.

Abigail walked over and sat down next to him, propping her chin on her hand as she watched them eat dinner. She had no appetite at all. “I’m not going to be able to sleep again tonight.”

“That’s easy to fix,” James said with a smile. “We picked up some groceries and beer this afternoon. We can cook something later, and once you have a drink, you’ll sleep like a baby.”

Abigail was about to respond when Stephen’s warning suddenly popped into her head. Some bosses liked to slip something into drinks and then take advantage of female employees.

Abigail figured Sebastian and his friends probably weren’t that type, but when you’re traveling, you can’t just judge people by their faces. “I don’t drink,” she said immediately.

“Come on, how can you not drink?” James pressed. “Beer’s no big deal. Just have a little bit—enough to help you fall asleep.”

“Don’t pressure her if she doesn’t want to drink. How is that any different from forcing someone?” Sebastian said, clearly annoyed.

Warren chimed in too, “Pushing drinks on people isn’t cool.”

James looked a bit sheepish. “Sorry, I got too comfortable and forgot you’re a woman. Being pressured to drink would make you uncomfortable.”