When she subconsciously looked up again, she saw Jaquan standing under the streetlight, leaning against the railing, lighting a cigarette. He stood in the snowy night, looking very cold and lonely.
Her scalp tingled. She whispered to Litzy, “I’ll be right back, I have something to do.”
Pushing open the door of the hotpot restaurant, the cold air hit her face. She walked straight towards Jaquan and only then noticed that the woman hadn’t left. She stood not far away, looking quite annoyed.
Callie looked incredulous. “What are you doing here?”
Jaquan bit his cigarette and smiled. “You knew I was waiting for you, so you came out so quickly.”
Callie couldn’t take it anymore and turned to block most of his face. “Stop messing around. What are you doing here?”
She wasn’t narcissistic enough to think Jaquan had followed her here, so she shifted her gaze to the woman.
Jaquan introduced her openly. “Sabrina, my assistant.”
Callie seemed to understand but not fully. “Your assistant is quite special.”
He wasn’t angry; he smiled charmingly. “Not everyone is as bland as Nelson. Work is already boring enough; why have someone even more boring around?”
Callie clasped her hands together, feeling a bit cold. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll go back. It’s a company dinner.”
“Callie,” Jaquan called out to her, “let’s take a walk.”
Callie was surprised but glanced back at the hotpot restaurant. She didn’t feel like going back in, and the woman who had been standing nearby had left at some point, showing good judgment.
“… Just for twenty minutes.”
The road was slippery and hard to walk on, making the short distance take a long time.
Jaquan seemed to have had a bit to drink. He told her about Sabrina’s background.
Their first meeting was in a bar. The girl had on beautiful smoky eye makeup and was playing dice in a booth. She won free drinks and had a voice as delicate as a nightingale. She looked like a college student who hadn’t graduated yet, screaming with joy when she won and downing strong liquor without blinking.
Jaquan was at the bar for business that night, and Sabrina caught his eye.
He had many women around him, all with different tactics, but she was like a wildflower growing freely. It seemed like this should be the lifestyle of modern young women.
The pretty girl looked up and saw Jaquan staring at her. She smiled brightly and raised her glass, nodding at him.
The next events unfolded the following morning.
Jaquan woke up in Sabrina’s rented apartment. They were both fully clothed; he had just gotten drunk and stayed over at her place with nothing happening.
Sabrina almost rolled off the bed clutching her blanket. She woke up with no makeup on, looking at the ceiling with pale lips and freckles on her nose. When she realized there was a man beside her, she jumped up, grabbed her hair, and rushed into the bathroom. “Wait a minute, I’ll wash my hair and then take you out for breakfast.”
Not knowing his identity, she spoke freely, which made Jaquan feel comfortable.
“You live in this place?”
“Yes, if you look out the window, that school across the street is mine.”
“Oh, a technical school?”
“Do you look down on technical schools?”
“No.”
In the end, Sabrina really took him downstairs with wet hair, wearing slippers. She held soy milk in one hand and a bun in the other, looking back at him under the utility pole with both despair and energy.