Chapter 115: Closed off

Tom accepted the mission.

The panel closed, but then the problem became glaring... How would he achieve the mission?

He remained standing there with his eyes fixed on Josie’s door and turned over every workable approach he could think of; A clean conversation was unlikely. She already disliked him enough from the roadside encounter. A soft apology alone would not get him into the truth of why she was here. The longer he thought, the narrower the options became.

In the end, the only method that rose without any force was the one the System had been training into him since the beginning: move shamelessly when ordinary routes closed.

"That’s it..." He muttered under his breath to the part of him which was still hesitating.

He already had a line half-formed in his head as he stepped back toward the door;

’I can do better than that man. Trust me.’

It stayed there very ready on his tongue...

However, it remained unsaid because before his hand could reach the handle, the door opened from the inside.

The taut, near-naked attendant walked out first, his blindfold still in place. He passed Tom without a word, very confidently as if he wasn’t blindfolded, guided by memory or instruction, and continued down the corridor as if the booking had ended early.

Tom did not waste the opening.

He leaned in just enough to glance through the gap the man had left behind.

Josie was inside, having her phone to her ear, while her back was half-turned toward the door. Her voice was controllably calm, but the irritation under it was loud.

"No sister, This is not what I needed to unwind." she said.

There was a pause then...

"I thought you prepared something logical for me. Something that actually would help the situation. Not this."

Another pause, longer this time. Whoever was on the other end spoke long enough that Josie tapped her feet on the floor with impatience.

"I am not being rigid," she said. "This would be considered cheating. I already sent the man out by the way. I’m not doing this."

Then she started to turn.

Tom moved at once. He pulled back from the door and left the corridor before her eyes could catch him there. Lingering would have been stupid. Being seen at the gap would have been worse. He took the hallway at a controlled pace, exited the parlor, and went straight to his car.

Only when he was inside with the door shut did he let out a proper breath then he analyzed what he had heard;

So the reason Josie was at the massage parlor wasn’t due to an affair, or a secret appetite she freely fed. It was herbsister’s idea of stress relief that Josie had rejected on principle.

The System opened immediately as if on cue;

```

[SIDE MISSION COMPLETE]

Find out why Josie Hale is really at the massage parlor.

Status: Completed

[REWARD RECEIVED]

• Contact of the most popular elite interior decorator

• +500 System Points

```

Tom read through the update and satisfaction cut thoroughly through the tension in his shoulders.

The reward was useful but he knew if he left just like that, his relationship with Josie would still remain strained.

So, Tom stayed waiting in the car and watched the entrance like a hawk waiting for its prey.

~~~~~~~~~~

Thirty minutes later, Josie finally came out.

She walked with the same composed posture she had carried inside, her expensive handbag sat neat against her side, her face pulled into a calm expression. No outward sign of the conversation Tom had overheard. She went straight to her car.

Tom got down and walked toward her before she could shut herself away from the chance.

"Josie."

She looked up, already halfway into the driver’s seat. "You’re still here." she said, surprised.

"I was waiting," Tom revealed.

"I meant what I said earlier. I want to apologize properly and make things right." he added.

Josie shut the edge of the door under her hand without getting fully in yet. "It’s fine. That can stay in the past."

The words were polite enough, but they landed too quickly. Tom watched her face and saw the rest of it under the politeness. Something was occupying her. The roadside grudge was no longer the main thing in her expression. It had been pushed aside by whatever still clung from that call and from the failed session inside.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure." Josie gave a short nod, already turning away. "Bye." she added as an afterthought then she got into the car, closed the door, and turned the key.

However...

Her brows furrowed in confusion because the car wouldn’t start. She tried starting the engine again but nothing happened.

After the ’bye’, Tom had already started walking back toward his own car. As he approached his car, a small, satisfied smile started to crawl into his face.

That part where her car wouldn’t start, at least, had gone the way he wanted.

The idea had come to him while he was waiting.

He had sat in the driver’s seat earlier turning the problem over with growing impatience. Josie was too closed for another empty apology. If he wanted even one practical opening, he needed a reason to remain useful in her immediate space. A ride was the simplest version of that. But her car was right there. As long as it functioned, she had no reason to need him.

That was when the more daring thought arrived in his mind.

He had asked the System unsurely whether it could interfere with her engine for a short window. Not damage it or destroy anything. Just silence it long enough for him to become the available option. The System had been almost amused by the request.

[The man Host is growing into is admirable.] The system had praised the boldness of the request and agreed instantly.

Tom’s smile held until movement in the side mirror shifted.

Behind him, Josie stepped back out of her car with the phone already at her ear.

"I need a car brought to my location," Tom heard her say. Her voice remained so calm, gentle, indicating that she wasn’t fazed by the refusal of the car starting and was uninterested in fuss.

"I’ll send the address now." she said.

Tom’s smile dropped immediately.

Whatever small advantage he had tried to manufacture was already being closed off by a woman used to solving problems without relying on the nearest man.