Even his secretary was bewildered.
"Boss, do you have a dinner meeting tonight?"
He clearly remembered that the itinerary was empty.
Had he messed up the schedule?
Dane shot him a glance. "Can't I get off work if I don't have plans?"
Lincoln was stunned. "No, I just mean... you're leaving already?"
"Am I supposed to be working overtime?" Dane countered.
Naturally, a secretary couldn't exactly order the CEO to stay late.
He shook his head frantically. "Of course not, sir!"
*Fine, I'll work the overtime instead,* Lincoln grumbled internally, letting his boss off the hook.
Fortunately, Dane took his private elevator straight down to the parking garage. Otherwise, half the company would have lost their minds seeing the boss leave this early.
When the department manager came upstairs to report on a new project, Lincoln stopped him. "Patton, you're too late. Mr. Green is already off the clock."
"Huh?" Patton was too shocked for words.
Dane wasn't exactly a workaholic monster, but it was only six o'clock. Who leaves at six?
"It's the end of the workday. Isn't it perfectly normal for the boss to go home?" Lincoln suddenly retorted, his tone laced with sarcasm.
"Lincoln, did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed?" Patton was baffled. Why was the secretary suddenly biting his head off?
Lincoln flashed a tight smile. "You misunderstand, Patton. I'm just saying that the boss can leave whenever he pleases."
"But the rest of us still have deadlines we can't afford to miss."
Assuming Lincoln was subtly warning him to stay on his grind, Patton immediately nodded. "Right, right. I'll get back to work then!"
Watching the manager hurry off, Lincoln realized something in hindsight: there was no need to be this dedicated.
With the big boss gone, who was he trying to impress by staying late?
He might as well clock out early and go pick up his own girlfriend!
By the time Dane went to pick up Claire, she had just about wrapped things up in the lab.
Her upgraded medicinal ointment formula was complete, and the next step was clinical trials.
She wouldn't have to babysit the lab every single day and could finally start her winter break early.
However, the neighboring R&D team was completely distraught to see Claire leaving for the holidays.
With Claire around, their development progress had skyrocketed.
Now that she was heading out, their momentum was guaranteed to hit a brick wall.
*How can we convince Claire to stay?* the R&D team members whispered among themselves.
"Julian, come up with something."
Julian threw his hands in the air. "What do you expect me to do?"
"Claire was supposed to head back to her hometown for winter break ages ago. She's already been delayed this long, she's dying to get out of here."
"Besides, our research project isn't even the one she's personally running Instead of relying on yourselves, are yougust going to piggyback off Claire forever?"
The group choked on their words, glaring at Julian as if he had just betrayed them. "Julian, did you forget that you were the one who ed the charge to ask her for helpin the first place?"
Julian cleared his throat awkwardly. "That was only because we were completely stuck on our progress!"
"It's fine to ask her the really brutal questions, but we can't use Claire as a crutch."
"If we do, we'll never improve on our own."
Julian made a fair point, and the team members grumbled into silence.
"I just wonder when she's going to be back from her hometown."
Standing by the window, Julian suddenly did a double-take as he watched a man open the car door for Claire down below.
"Hey, come look at this. That looks exactly like the CEO of Vertex International, Mr. Green."
Having seen him at the recent celebration banquet, Julian recognized him instantly.
The rest of the team immediately swarmed the window, eager to catch a glimpse of the gossip.