After Mei served Gwen her plate and chatted for a bit, she made an excuse to go find Peter and Ben, giving Toby and Gwen some space to be alone.
As soon as Mei left, Gwen's face immediately soured, and she spat out the large bite of the sandwich she had just taken in front of Mei.
She whispered her complaint to Toby:
"Toby, the food Mei makes really is as... unique as ever..."
Toby swallowed his food and said calmly:
"While it does taste bad, at least it's healthy and non-toxic. It won't be like eating fast food outside, which is basically slow suicide."
Hearing Toby's incredibly blunt'straight man' remarks, even the high-EQ Gwen was left speechless.
With him saying it like that, how was she supposed to enjoy fast food ever again?
However, despite what he said, Toby still got up, went to the kitchen, fried two eggs for Gwen, and placed them in front of her.
Looking down and smelling the fried eggs on her plate, Gwen's eyes lit up as she looked at Toby with admiration:
"Why is it that you just simply added some salt and rosemary, yet these eggs smell so enticing?"
Toby said honestly, "Because you just ate something terrible. By comparison, even ordinary food tastes delicious."
Hearing this, the bright smile on Gwen's face slowly vanished. She felt completely defeated by Toby's logic.
At a time like this, shouldn't he say something like 'Because of the power of love, even simple food becomes this delicious' to make her heart flutter?
Just listen to what he said! It only tastes good because the previous food was bad?
Is this even something a human would say?!
Seeing Toby continue to eat his unpalatable sandwich without a care, Gwen huffed and picked up her knife and fork, viciously cutting the fried eggs on her plate as if she were cutting Toby himself.
Stinky Toby! Stinky Toby!
Out of the corner of his eye, Toby saw Gwen's cute expression. The corner of his mouth quirked up slightly as he suddenly asked, "Do you want to go shopping together later?"
"Shopping? Shop your head! You— Huh? What did you say?"
Halfway through her rant, Gwen suddenly looked up, her eyes wide with disbelief as she stared at Toby.
This solid blockhead, who had been dense for two years, finally had a breakthrough today?
Toby: No, actually, it's because you've become an adult... Toby smiled slightly and repeated himself: "I asked if you wanted to go shopping together later?"
"Go... yeah, I'll go! But... why so sudden? Then I'll go back and change my clothes first. Right, I need to change!"
Gwen clearly hadn't expected Toby to suddenly smarten up and ask her out on a date.
For a moment, her face turned bright red. She stood up awkwardly, her limbs feeling out of place, and walked out with a stiff, robotic gait.
But before she could take more than two steps, her wrist was caught by a large hand.
She turned around to see Toby, the very person who had thrown her heart into such a mess.
Feeling the heat from the large hand on her wrist, Gwen stared dizzily at Toby's face—the face she had been eyeing for two years. Steam was practically coming off her head!
Is Toby in such a hurry that he wants to... right here? Should she just go with it, or pretend to be reserved for a bit before accepting?
While Gwen's inner thoughts were jumping back and forth between 'accepting' and 'accepting,' Toby said, "Finish the eggs. Don't waste food."
Gwen:...This blockhead's breakthrough only went halfway, for his uncle's sake!
In the end, Gwen obediently finished the eggs and didn't go home to change into pretty clothes.
Instead, she went on her first shopping date ever with Toby wearing her usual grey sweater, jeans, and turquoise Converse... actually, calling it a date might not be accurate, because... Gwen looked at the Automobile City in front of her, her eyelid twitching violently.
Who takes a girl to an Automobile City for their first date?!
Gwen looked up at Toby with dead eyes and asked speechlessly, "What did you bring me to an Automobile City for? You're not planning to buy me a car, are you?"
This was the best possible outcome she could imagine in this situation.
Although she definitely wouldn't accept such an expensive gift from Toby, she would be very happy just knowing he had the thought.
Toby looked down at Gwen, who was more than a head shorter than him and had to look up to meet his eyes. Suddenly, a strange thought popped into his head.
With their height difference, it seemed like Gwen could... *cough cough*... Immediately, Toby shook his head, tossing the strange thought aside, and replied:
"No, I'm planning to get Ben a new car. He's been driving that old clunker since I was born; it's long overdue for retirement. I wanted you to help me pick out a new one."
Gwen let out a dry laugh, her expression saying, 'I knew it.'
This guy hadn't smartened up at all; he was clearly just using her as a tool!
However, Gwen could never refuse any of Toby's requests, so she just hummed and agreed anyway.
But as payment, she demanded that Toby treat her to a 'pretty meal' afterward.
Gwen thought that even if this wasn't a date, she had to make Toby pay some price!
Toby naturally wouldn't refuse such a small request.
And it turned out that Toby's decision to ask Gwen for help was incredibly correct.
If he had come by himself, he probably would have just picked a newer model of the same sedan Ben used to have.
But Gwen considered that while sedans might have been popular when Ben was young, middle-aged men nowadays generally preferred practical styles like pickup trucks.
So, under Gwen's recommendation, Toby finally settled on the latest Ford F-150 Raptor R. (The release date of this car is in a parallel Universe; please don't overthink it.)
The price was just over 110,000 USD, which wasn't much different from the 100,000 USD budget he had given Ben yesterday.
It wasn't that Toby insisted on sticking to that budget—he was worth hundreds of millions now, so it wasn't like he couldn't buy his old man a nice luxury car.
But if he really brought home a million-dollar luxury car, not only would the old couple give him a piece of their mind, but Ben probably wouldn't even bear to drive it out!
Around 100,000 was the limit of what Toby estimated the old couple could accept as a one-time splurge.
By the time they finished registering the car and getting the paperwork done, it was nearly noon.
Toby then drove the Ford Raptor to take Gwen to a star-rated restaurant for a 'pretty meal.'
The afternoon was Dr. Connors' Q&A session, and as his assistant, Gwen naturally had to go early to help out.
So, after Gwen gave Toby two temporary ID cards for Oscorp Tower, he drove her to Osborn Enterprises first.
By the time he got home, Mei, Ben, and Peter were already back.
As soon as Toby walked in, all three were looking at him with mysterious smiles.
Toby didn't even have to guess to know what they were thinking.
But they were going to be disappointed because Gwen had to go help at Osborn Enterprises in the afternoon, so he and Gwen hadn't gotten to know each other any 'deeper' after lunch.