Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I walked while calling Noah, but he didn't answer—who knows what he was busy with.

A red sports car pulled up beside me. I stared at the little golden figure on the hood and froze. That hood ornament alone cost two hundred thousand yuan—

"Noah Bennett, where are you off to?" Chloe leaned over and opened the passenger door, gesturing for me to get in. "Let me give you a lift!"

"Thanks, but I was planning to walk a bit after the meal," I said. As soon as the words left my mouth, I wanted to bite my tongue off. Chloe was being kind enough to offer me a ride, and I'd just made it sound like I thought she was meddling.

I told her where I was going.

Chloe turned on the navigation and saw that my destination really wasn't far. "I've been abroad all these years, so we haven't kept in touch much, but you don't have to be this distant with me, do you?" she said. "The blind date was just our parents' idea. Our friendship as the younger generation shouldn't be affected by that."

Don't mention "next time," I prayed silently. My heart couldn't take it. "I didn't have a choice," I said.

"I don't believe Uncle Bennett would ever force you to do something you didn't want," Chloe said, a small smile playing on her lips. Then she added, out of the blue, "I'm staying in the country from now on—I won't be going back abroad. We've already shifted the focus of our overseas business to China."

What was that supposed to mean? To stop her from bringing up another date, I quickly pointed to the side of the road. "You can drop me off here, thanks."

I got out of the car, said goodbye to Chloe, and silently prayed we'd never cross paths again. From now on, I'd never agree to do this kind of stupid, messy favor for Noah again.

Back at the internet café, Noah—who'd been covering for me while I was gone—slung his arm around my neck and dragged me into the office. "How'd it go? All wrapped up nicely, right?"

"Nicely my ass!" I snapped. "She said you have to treat her to dinner next time—you go do it yourself. Leave me out of it."

I pushed Noah away and rolled my eyes at him, then told him every detail of what had happened that day.

Noah pointed at me, lost for words. "Dude, there's no such thing as medium-well steak! I swear, I wanna punch that tiny brain of yours right out your nose!"

I glared at him.

"Do you think I wanted to make a fool of myself?" I snapped. "I did this for you—stuck my neck out for you! And you? You stabbed me in the back just to be with your girlfriend?"

"Okay, okay, calm down," Noah said, putting his arm around my shoulders again. "I'll handle her, I promise. You'll never have to see her again. Does that work?"

I shrugged his hand off, poured myself a glass of water, and chugged it down. At Xiti, I'd been too scared to ask for plain water—afraid they'd charge me for it—so I'd forced myself to eat the steak without a drop to drink. I'd held out until I got back to the café to quench my thirst. "We're not from the same world anyway. How could we ever cross paths again?"

"What's the difference between us and them?" Noah said. "It's not like she's the one with money—it's her dad. Same with me. We've known each other for years—have you ever seen me grow three heads and six arms or something?"

Seeing how upset I was, Noah made a promise. "No more favors like this, I swear!"

I couldn't stay mad at him for long. He and his girlfriend had been together since their first year of college, and they were still going strong after all these years.

You don't see many wealthy heirs this loyal. He didn't have that arrogant, spoiled attitude most rich kids had—though he could be a bit reckless with money sometimes.

After Noah promised again, he patted my shoulder hard. "I'm gonna go watch a movie with my girlfriend. After that, I'll come back and play ranked with you!"

"Get out of here!" I shot him a look over my shoulder and pulled out my phone to start playing.