The date 7

"Yeah, you too grandma."

Liu Xinyi shook her head as she dropped her phone, needing a minute to collect herself. Talking to her grandmother always consumed more energy than what she spent on signing documents.

As she relaxed into her seat, she heaved a soft sigh and tried to wrack her memory, trying to picture a face but no matter how much she tried, she still couldn't remember the childhood friend from the Luo family which her grandmother was talking about.

But how come she couldn't remember him? She had a very good and photographic memory.

She rolled her eyes, wondering if it would be one of those stuckup grandsons of her grandma's friends that would speak nonstop about his achievements and whatnot at their date. That would bore her to death.

At least she would have a tangible reason to stab him in the thigh or pull at his tie or better still, it would be preferable if he could crudely flirt with her so she would have a concrete reason for dumping water on his head.

A knock on her door had her looking back to her door as she began to mentally decide what to do next.

"Come in."

Lina, Xinyi's personal assistant stepped into the office, carrying a few files which were balanced on her left arm.

Like Lu Xinyi, her personal assistant was also a left handed person and she was very efficient in her duties.

She was diligent and rarely interfered in things that weren't related to her, which was one of the reasons Liu Xinyi liked her.

"I received a mail from Matron Liu, instructing me to order a new set of bright clothes for you."

"When did Grandma ask you to do that?" Xinyi asked in surprise.

"About ten minutes ago, just when I was preparing to transfer the files over."

"Alright. Grandma wants to drag me on another date. Just do whatever she says this time around. I'm not interested in arguing with her." Xinyi dismissed Lina and dug her nose into her laptop as Lina dropped the files she'd brought over and excused herself. 

Gradually, Xinyi got rid of all distractions and quickly delved into the business mode once again.

By four thirty PM, she called Lina into the office to discuss and review some of the works she needed to send to her dad and uncle.

The two ladies discussed extensively on the pros and cons that involved the new Mall project they wanted to invest in. She loved discussing with Lina before bringing it to the board because Lina had a good foresight and usually her predictions about certain things were always right.

For instance, Lina usually considered several factors before encouraging Xinyi to proceed. She usually considered the internal state of the company bringing the proposal, the relevance of the product to the company, the business plans that was already being set in motion for the project and so on.

Due to these, Xinyi was usually confident in trusting Lina's judgements.

"I think that will be all for tonight. You've done a good job today so go home and rest well."

"You to, ma'am. Have a lovely rest of the evening."

Lina stepped out and tidied up her space for the night while Xinyi walked over to her floor to ceiling window, staring at the busy road afar off. She heaved a sigh and thought about her grandmother's words.

Grandma Liu was right.

She needed to try and enjoy some times, try and live instead of just coping herself up in the office all day. Xinyi couldn't even remember the last time she went to an event to socialize.

It was usually to sign a new contract. And she always declined their celebratory invites after every successful deal.

Instead, she would begin to look into the next proposals for more collaborations.

Even with all these thoughts and resolutions, Xinyi still walked back to her desk to review the annual expenditure of a project she had been stuck on since the tear before. She believed in settling her scores and crossing all Tees so someone else wouldn't have to clean up what she was supposed to deal with.

The review alone kept her busy for a while till she knew it was time to call it a night because the security were already doing their nightly round check. Checking the time as she yawned in tiredness, Xinyi was surprised to see she'd been working for that long.

It was already past eleven. With this, she quickly packed up her things and picked her blazer and bag, taking the elevator to the garage where her driver was waiting.

Xinyi didn't even have the energy to check her phone for notifications as she was so exhausted from working so late into the night that she even dozed off on the way home.

On getting home, she dismissed the young maid after getting told that her dinner had been kept in the cooler and then decided to have a quiet evening all to herself.

Xinyi took a quick shower and went to bed but she just couldn't sleep.

She was bothered by something though she didn't know what exactly it was.

There was a nagging feeling at the back of her mind but she couldn't put a finger to what it was.

After tossing and turning though, she finally fell asleep and it was a dreamless slumber.

Xinyi woke up the next morning with a splitting headache. Her temple was burning terribly and her eyes ached.

She groaned at the dryness of her mouth and grudgingly climbed out of bed, trudging to the kitchen where she brought out an icepack to use in massaging her eye bags.

Then she prepared for work.

Xinyi followed this usual pattern till the weekend. On Saturday morning, she did her exercises and searched online for some good shelter homes, smiling when she saw pictures of some very cute cats she would like to adopt. She wrote down the addresses, sighing in anticipation.

At least her heart could still beat with love for animals even though she had no desire to feel it beating for the opposite gender anymore. Especially in the romantic sense.

After eating some fruits and watching the entertainment news, she took another nap because she felt slightly tired with all the late nights she'd been pulling.

Her attire for the dinner date was delivered by Lina, her PA and she tried them on. It was a white backless knee length dress with diamonds strung at the neck in a v-pattern. Xinyi shook her head, already frowning as she checked out the piece which she knew would be short on her compared to the other office attires she'd gotten used to but she relaxed a little when she remembered she would only be wearing it for a date.

And the date would probably not last long anyway, considering the fact that this so called Luo grandson usually disturbed her when they were kids.

He would probably still be as annoying as he was in the past.

She chuckled, not in the mood to devise any devious plan on her date. After this, she wouldn't even agree to go on any other date even if her grandmother threatened with her life.

Because somehow, Xinyi was very sure that she wouldn't be have to worry even a bit about this man in anyway and she would probably tell her grandmother one lie to get her off her back for a few months or even years.