Chapter 3: The Unexpected Invitation

The riverside lights outlined her delicate face, long hair dancing with the wind like something out of a shampoo commercial.

She smiled with pursed lips: "You've been drinking?" Her voice carried a hint of amusement.

I coughed lightly, bent down to pick up the crushed can on the ground, trying to salvage some dignity.

"No, I'm playing with collecting bottles. You know, recycling. Save the planet and all that."

She quietly watched my operation, gently raising an eyebrow like she was grading a particularly bad essay:

"Right, how could the always aloof Michael Chen possibly yell here over a woman? The Michael Chen who gave that valedictorian speech about emotional intelligence in business?"

I didn't speak. The silent air was suffocating. Every second felt like a long year, like waiting for college acceptance letters all over again.

"Oh, your face is even red. Angry from a breakup? Seems you're not that capable." She stepped closer, close enough that I could smell her perfume—something that whispered money in three languages.

Natalie Xu's slender white fingers pinched my face, a faint smile in her eyes, treating me like her nephew who'd gotten into a playground fight.

Probably the alcohol going to my head, or maybe just twenty-six years of playing it safe finally catching up to me.

I grabbed her wrist as she was about to pull back, staring straight at her with an intensity I didn't know I possessed:

"Natalie, want to come to my place... for drinks?"

Eyes meeting, I saw a flash of surprise in Natalie's eyes, her pupils dilating slightly in the harbor lights.

This kind of invitation between adults was already very obvious—we both knew what "drinks" meant at this hour.

She was the white moonlight goddess of all men in the circle, the untouchable ice queen who'd rejected investment bankers and tech CEOs. How could she possibly agree to me? I was the backup quarterback asking out the homecoming queen. In what universe...

I must be crazy to do such an improper thing, to shoot my shot with someone so far out of my league.

I was about to apologize, to blame it on the beer and emotional trauma, when unexpectedly she bit her lower lip and softly said one word:

"Okay."