17 No One Can Force Him

"He doesn't look like someone who'll have trouble finding a woman," ANoi voiced her honest thoughts. She might not like his character, but she had to admit that he was incredibly good-looking.

"The dude is desperate!" Jackie exclaimed. "No one in their right mind would want to marry a total stranger!"

"You said he's rich." Anoi wasn't convinced. Just the money alone would convince a bunch of folk to fling themselves on this treasure bag. Add the looks and hundreds would readily go looking for the wedding dress.

"Yes, but I overheard him talking on the phone, and there's some trouble going on his side. You'd think he'd just pick up some random girl from the streets, but apparently he too got "standards". Honestly I don't understand either."

"Maybe someone's forcing him to marry?" Anoi suggested.

"Yeah," Jackie nodded, "A rich CEO who can't succeed the company unless he marries!"

Shadd puffed and said sarcastically,

"Sure. Though he's not a CEO. Also, you forgot another tiny detail: Lint isn't someone to put up with someone else's schemes. It more realistic for him to start a company from a scratch, then to be forced into doing something he doesn't want to."

"I agree, but it didn't look like he was very willing to come to this blind date. I wonder why he even asked you it."

"Weirdly enough, he wanted to come. In fact, even after Jackie said that you'll be late, he insisted on waiting on you, until he sees you. It looked to me like he was going to stay in the café no matter what. If you didn't show up, I think, he'd still be waiting on you."

Anoi recalled that in her past lifetime, the man she was supposed to have a blind date, waited till late at night, until the café closed. If before, Shad too, refused to go on a date, and brought Lint instead, then… Did she really stood up Lint?? Although it would explain the hostility with which she was met when she met Lint several years later, but it was still hard to believe.

"Hahah, I doubt he would." Anoi lied, "Anyways, he probably has his own circumstances."

"The man's heart will always melt like candle wax when it comes to his family." Jackie started fantasizing, "His grandfather has a terminal illness and , his last wish is to see several little dumplings running around his house before he dies."

Jackie's eyes were sparkling. She grasped Jackie's hands and squeezed them, while exclaiming emotionally,

"Anoi, you can't let go of such chance. Cold men are all warm-hearted. You must unveil his façade and reach out to his soul. I'm sure, Lint is a very passionate man and soon I'll be playing with plump cuties, calling me "Auntie Jackie!" Go, my dear, you can still catch him! It's not too late!"

"Jackie, stop reading those webnovels!" Anoi cried out powerlessly.

"Never! It's my life!"

Shad sighed out. That was true. Jackie gorged herself on the books, but her absolute favorite ones were internet stories. She spent her Friday nights potatoed in blankets with a laptop, reading novels one by one.

Jackie started waving her hands around, the way an excited person does when telling about how they caught a cookie right when it was about to touch the ground. And, as usually it happened, she knocked down her glass and spilled orange juice on Shadd's lap. Not caring one bit about the mess she made, the girl frantically pulled Anoi from her chair, and wanted to push her outside, before Anoi finally confessed,

"Jackie, I have no interest in dating that man!"

At first, she wanted to day that she's already started dating, but, thinking twice about it, decided not to. That relationship will be over once they meet. She'll put an end to it, so why bother mentioning it? Let's treat it like it never happened.

"What?? Do you need me to lend you my glasses? You're blind, right?"

Anoi shook her head, taking a mental note about Jackie's strong reaction.

"Why? Do you like Shad more??" Jackie couldn't understand, "Just a couple months ago, you were telling me about how worthless you felt, about how you wanted someone who would understand you and accept you for who you are…I went through all this trouble to find you a perfect man, cause you're a house mouse. And now, now you're telling me you ain't interested?!"

Jackie had forgotten that she in fact wasn't the one to find Lint, and that it was Shad's "merit". Though it's true that she spent quite an effort to matchmake her bestie. After a month of detailed research, Jackie found out that most of her male friends were jerks, and the only one to whom Jackie could entrust Anoi was Shadd.

"Jack, calm down." Shadd tried lending Anoi a hand.

"Shush, useless blockhead. Can't even attract a single female. Here I was, trying to make sure you don't end up an old bachelor. So ungrateful, tsk, tsk, tsk."

"It's not that he can't. It's that he won't. And you're the one to blame," Anoi thought, but didn't say anything in response to her friend's whinging. At last, she remembered why she came here in the first, and, not paying any further attention to Jackie, declared:

"Guys, want to start a company with me?"