"That's right, Noelle. You have us to back you up, so don't worry about being looked down on by people. The most important thing is that you don't look down on yourself."
Noelle was touched beyond words.
With Jane's and Lilian's reassurances, she felt better.
After all, it was not that she did not love Laurence. She just worried that her status was not a match for Laurence's.
"If Laurence tries to give you that necklace again as a symbol of the love between the two of you, just accept it. You deserve it and are certainly worthy of it as well.
"As long as Laurence doesn't look down on you, there's no need to bother or care about whatever anyone else says. Don't make things hard on yourself."
Noelle nodded.
"Where's Laurence?"
Lilian only thought of her disciple after she managed to persuade Noelle.
"He's preparing dinner. I said I'd do it, but he wouldn't let me. He said he hadn't cooked in such a long time that he was about to forget how to cook, and that he had to practice more."
Lilian laughed. “That's good. That's exactly how it should be. When he's free, he should cook good food for you more often.
"You're the easiest to cook for anyway. You're not picky at all."
Noelle said sheepishly, "My upbringing didn't allow me to be picky."
If Doc had not picked her up because her potential caught his eye, even having a proper meal would be an issue, let alone having such a good education.
"It's good that you're not picky. You'll end up going hungry easily if you're too picky."
Like Isabella, who was much too picky and refused to settle for anything less. Luckily, she had the capital to not have to settle. If the average person were as picky as she was, they would only end up starving to death.
Noelle nodded again.
Lilian chuckled. "We're all pretty easygoing and aren't really picky."
"We all have chefs, and we pay a pretty penny to hire five-star ones, too, so they're quite skilled in the first place."
Lilian coughed before she conceded, "That's true."
After changing the subject, the three ladies started chatting happily again.
Meanwhile, Sonny was driving to the Browns' home. Tonight, he was not attending any networking events. Hank had called and asked him if he was free for dinner, to which he had said yes.
Just as he arrived at the Browns' home, he received a text from Laurence.
Laurence said that he had confessed his feelings to Noelle.
Sonny smiled when he saw the text from his best friend and murmured, "He should have done so long ago. I have no idea what he was thinking, dragging his feet until
now.
"If he'd confessed earlier and gotten married sooner, his kids might even be old enough to be running around by now."
As he was talking to himself, his fingers typed a quick remark to Laurence that he should have done it long ago.
Very soon, Laurence called.
Sonny picked up.
"Congrats on finally confessing your feelings, Laurence. The two of you clearly love each other so deeply, but just wouldn't confess your feelings for each other. It made the rest of us so anxious just watching you two."
Laurence chuckled. Though Noelle was still giving the matter some thought, he had finally confessed his feelings, which made him feel much more at ease.
He could not help but laugh before his best friend.
"You're laughing so happily, Noelle must have accepted your feelings?"
Laurence's laughter infected Sonny, and Sonny chuckled too.
He walked into the elevator.
"Not yet, Noelle said she needs two days to think about it. She loves me, but she's just worried about the difference in status. She keeps feeling like she's not worthy to be with me. I gave her two days to think about it. She'll give me an answer then.
"Sonny, Noelle won't reject me, right? What do you think? She'll get over her preconceptions, right?"
Laurence was still a little worried, so he wanted some encouragement from his best friend.
"She won't. She only has eyes for you. You're her whole world."
Sonny said with certainty. "Even if she can't get over her biases at first, you have Aunt Jane and Dr. Carden to talk her through it. They're so smooth-spoken, and Noelle's not great with words. She'll come around as long as they take turns to coax her and keep at it."
Sonny had heard from Laurence about Jane and Lilian visiting Havenmill as the two men had to communicate daily for work.
Sometimes, Laurence would also update his best friend about his personal life.
"Yeah, it was them who kept pushing me until I had no choice but to just pluck up the courage to do it."
Sonny laughed. "Oh, you two. I don't even know what to say to you guys. The rest of us were so anxious about it, but the two of you, the actual main characters, were so unconcerned that we were about to have a conniption."
Laurence chuckled again, this time sheepishly.
It was not that he had not dared to confess, but he just felt that his revenge was too heavy a burden and he did not want it to drag Noelle down.