CHAPTER 0194

GIDEON'S POV

I looked down at my hand, still hanging awkwardly in the air. My eyebrows furrowed in shock and mild embarrassment as I watched her standing there, talking calmly to the manager as if I wasn’t even worth noticing.

That brief moment, the second she scoffed and turned her back on me, replayed in my mind. It wasn’t a gesture of polite refusal—it felt deliberate, almost personal. The soun