7 Chance meeting

The next morning, Shao Yan woke up with a massive headache. She regretted drinking that many bottles. It had been a while for her to get loose like that.

She got up slowly, her silky hair messily spread out, still sat on the bed while rubbing her temple. She searched around her blanket for her phone.

When she found it, she powered it on and waited for a while. She stretched out her aching body before all the message notifications started pouring in.

After a while, the notification sound stopped. She took her phone, unlocked it, and started checking it one by one.

She kept rubbing her forehead while scrolling. The first few were from vendors for the Anniversary party confirming on her meeting requests for next week.

Alright. She's excited now, next week was going to be busy! She grinned happily.

Next was from Qi Ling, she sent 8 messages?!! Must be about a new guy she just met. She sighed and promised herself she would come back to them later.

She kept scrolling. She deleted few marketing messages. The next one was from an unknown number, she was about to delete it, before looking at the brief snippet: "$128 for the suit jacket..."

Light bulb blinked on top of her head.

And then she opened the text: "$128 for the suit jacket, $268 for the pants, $78 for the dress shirt and $58 for the tie. I am still waiting for the shoe cleaning bill. I will let you know where to transfer the money."

!!!

She was now fully awake and almost jumped off the bed. Was he crazy!! Which laundry did he go to?? This was super expensive! Did they wash them with diamond or something?!

.....

She took a super deep breath. Calm down, Shao Yan. Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale.

She calmed herself down, before typing a reply. She kept typing and kept deleting, typing and deleting, before she finally able to form peaceful words: "Thanks for letting me know. Give me your account number, I will definitely pay them back. Don't worry!"

She looked at her message, and then she retyped the last part again: "I will definitely pay them back. Don't worry :)"

There! I put a smile. I'm not grumpy and I'm not upset and I'm definitely not a cheapskate.

Sigh. Goodbye my heard earned money. Sob.

She took a deep breath before hitting the send button.

She threw her phone away and leaned back to bed sorrowfully. She regretted having praised him as good looking, handsome, cool guy. What cool guy! Clearly an extortionist! She rubbed her face and groaned grumpily.

She was still wallowing in her sorrow when suddenly her phone rang. She lazily grabbed the phone back and saw that familiar unknown number was now calling her.

She was contemplating if she should picked it up. After it rang for a while, she grudgingly swiped it up to accept the call.

"I lied." and then he chuckled softly.

A deep voice sounded in her ear. A very melodious voice, deep like the ocean, and unknowingly to her, it already calmed her agitated soul.

She was stunned before she could registered what he was saying. "Uh? What did you say? Are you sure you're calling the right number?" she was confused. What did he mean by lie?

He was still chuckling softly, while helplessly shaking his head at her remarks. He could hear her confusion through the line, "I was just joking. I didn't send them to the laundry. I forgot." He waved goodbyes to the people he met this morning for business meeting over coffee, and started walking to the exit.

His light hearted reply tickled her ear, she could hear he was in a really good mood, She could hear he was saying all these words while laughing. Did he just played her!!

She was dumfounded. She was about to retort back but he already said another words, "I'm sorry, it's a silly joke" He sounded really sincere and serious. She was already thinking maybe she overreacted and should just let it go. He suddenly spoke gently, "Did I disturb your sleep?"

His question brought another wave of confusion in her. How was this stranger started speaking to me this way? She was not an innocent young girl who couldn't recognize when men were trying to be charming. But she didn't want any mess in her life right now.

"No, it's fine. I have been awake for a while." she glanced at the clock on the wall, it's already eleven in the morning. She sighed in her heart. Wow she's late! "In fact I just came back from my morning run."

The least she could do was salvaging her own dignity. She's turning 30 soon, she couldn't give him the impression that she's lazy. "About the laundry, I'm serious so please don't stand any ceremony with me." She started to get up and grabbed a glass of water. Her throat parched and she felt horrible.

He paused and decided not to expose her lie. He could hear her still barely awake voice sounded so sexy over the phone. He just gave a small smile and put on his sunglasses before stepping outside.

"I called because I needed your help." she could hear that he was currently outside, she could hear noises of people and cars.

"I can't explain through the phone, I am at shopping mall X right now, can we meet so I can explain more?"

She had rules about meeting with strangers. It had to be on a daytime. And it had to be in public places. So in case she met with crazy dangerous person, she could escape right away and could see her direction clearly.

She tried to remember her plans for today. She realized she didn't have anything, so she agreed to meet him in one hour.

"Take your time, it's not urgent. But I really need your help." he found a bookstore and went inside. He was flipping around a best selling book about investment while saying this so she could hear the flipping papers.

She assumed he needed her help about publications. They agreed on the meeting place and then she started to get ready.

This headache is killing me! Let me take some medicine first.

She groggily walked to the living room to get her medicine box and quickly popped in two tablets of aspirin before walking to the bathroom to shower.