Bitcoin Billionaire: I Regressed to Invest in the First Bitcoin!

He turned slowly back to Sandy. She was looking at him, not necessarily with anger but she wasn't happy either. Darren's first response when another woman had confronted him between the two of them was to stand up and attempt to go after her.

Not to stay with her — Sandy. Not to use this chance to prove that she truly was the most important woman in his life. Apart from his mother that was.

So even though the expression on her face wasn't exactly anger, not even sadness, she still felt greatly shattered by Darren's singular action. Her face held something softer. Understanding.

This was her emotions to handle, to bear. Darren? He didn't owe her anything and didn't have to feel the same she felt for him simply because they've known each other for the longest time.

Darren was his own person. And a man like him deserved whatever women he wished. Women like that beautiful Penelope Castle.

She regarded Darren with a gentle nod and a small, knowing and accepting smile. "You don't owe me an explanation," she said. "If you're ever going to leave a woman at dinner… I think that girl is a good enough reason. She looked heartbroken."

He stared at her, unsure how to respond. His eyes softened and with a gentle raise of his upper lip, he made a desperate request. "Would you wait for me?"

Sandy didn't reply for a while. She only gazed at him, the silver strands in her glistening from the light. "I don't know..." she managed to respond.

Darren's eyes lowered, then caught hers once again, emotions so clearly evident for the first time that Sandy couldn't ignore them.

"Sandy," Darren called her name softly. He didn't need to beg, the plea was already in that mention of her name.

Sandy tightened her lips.

"I'll wait ten minutes," she said lightly, then she took a slow sip of her wine. "Then I'm finishing the duck myself."

He smiled, a weak smile that barely even stretched through his cheeks. Then he turned, walked past the tables that stared and pulled back the curtain leading to the working area.

Murmurs and whispers filled the restaurant, glances came Sandy's way and anyone could tell what the other guests were gossiping about. Sandy pretended to be eating.

Almost like a desperate mad man, Darren barrelled through the workers in their black and white medieval themed uniforms.

"What way did Penelope go?!" he demanded from them. They pointed him down a corridor and Darren gazed at it with wide eyes, heart beating for a reason he could not fathom.

"Are you alright, Mr Steele?" one of them asked him. Darren ignored them and walked briskly down the corridor. At that moment, a rare thing had happened; Darren felt completely out of control, unable to handle the complexities of the situations.

He had faced regulators, billionaires, and blackmailers. But nothing made him feel more… unarmed than the look Penelope gave him just moments ago.

This time numbers and finance weren't the problems to solve. It was emotions.

He turned a corner and saw her just outside the kitchen door, apron unfastened and clutched in her fist, like she had stormed off but wasn't sure where to go next.

When she lifted her gaze and looked at him, her eyes were glassy. Clearly she'd been crying.

"Penny," Darren said softly.

Penelope didn't move. Just stood there, hiding by the door's corner, like the shadows of the corridor were going to wrap around and teleport her to somewhere else that wasn't there.

She lowered her gaze to the floor beneath her shoes.

Darren approached slowly, careful not to spook the silence between them. "Penny, look at me."

She didn't. Her hands lifted to her face and dried the few tears left.

"Penny, come on," Darren called softly. "Please look at me."

After a long pause, she did.

Her blue eyes were wide, hurt, guarded. And still, somehow, gentle. The wetness at their edges began to fill up once again, as if seeing his handsome face hurt her the more.

"Why are you here, Mister Darren?" she asked, voice as sweet as always. Even from the way her words were slow and deliberate, he could tell that the tears hadn't been just a few drops. "I thought you came here to eat."

That broke Darren's heart.

"I did," he replied. "But then you walked in."

Sandy looked away.

"I didn't know you were working as a waiter tonight."

"I didn't either. Someone called in sick. I only came in an hour ago." Her fingers tightened around the apron. "Saw the order and knew it was for you because of the reservation. Then I saw that it was a woman who had ordered with you."

Darren's mouth dried up as he swallowed. "Sandy's an employee. I didn't bring her here for what it looked like."

Penelope shrugged, smiling weakly. "What did it look like?" she said rhetorically.

"Penny..."

She hissed, not wanting to be angry or be pushy with Darren. Yet she couldn't control her emotions. How she felt about all of this.

"It's easy for you to say that. To say that she's just your employee," Penelope muttered. "But to her it's not. She's not just your employee, Mister Darren. I've seen the way she looks at you. And the way you let her."

Darren narrowed his eyes, thinking about it for a moment before sighing, hands dropping. "I don't know what you mean," he said.

"She clearly likes you." Penelope tried not to raise her voice.

"She's a friend," he said firmly.

Penelope gave a small, sad smile. "Then why did it feel like more?"

"She's ten years older than I am."

"That doesn't matter to her. She looks and smiles at you the way I do."

Darren fell quiet. At this point, he had to. He wasn't the most intelligible when it came to handling women's emotions but after his long spell with Lily, he knew that sometimes it was better to just be quiet and let them pour out their thoughts.

The breeze rolled in from the ocean-facing window, brushing against Penelope's cheeks, lifting the stray hairs from her bun. She looked so much younger like this; no makeup, no dress, just the compassionate girl who brought food for him everyday and listened to him in the park as they watched the sun set.

"You were the first person I let in," she said, voice trembling. "Not just... in that way. But into my life. My thoughts. You listened to me ramble about school and recipes, and you let me hold your hand when things went bad. I never asked you for promises, because I thought… maybe you'd make one when you were ready."

Her throat moved as she swallowed.

"I'm really young, I know. And you're... you're you." Her lips shook. "You're surrounded with so many beautiful women all the time and I never thought it was fair to demand that you pick me out of all of them. I was fine just being there for you... with you. Because you're the most important person in the world to me, Mister Darren."

"Darren," he said to her. "Penny please just call me Darren."