15 minutes ago.
Shi Luo rushed inside the restaurant as she looked around the place, trying to find the man according to her mother's description.
Brown hair, black tuxedo, golden phoenix brooch, green eyes…. She looked around for any possible person.
At this moment, she just wanted to go back to Jun Boyan's place and have the food he prepared before taking a nap on his King-sized bed in the room that he let her stay in.
Dammit. Why must my mind chant his name over and over again?
''She should have just sent me the picture instead…'' Shi Luo muttered under her breath. As if the day could go any worse for her.
''Maybe your mother wanted you to go through this thrill?" came a calm and composed voice from behind.
Shi Luo turned around within an instant and her eyes locked with a pair of forest green eyes.
Green eyes. Check.
Black tuxedo. Check.
A phoenix brooch. Check.
Brown hair. Check.
Shi Luo approached him, ''Are you Aunt Wang's nephew?"
''Distant nephew, precisely,'' the man stood up to help with the chair.
Shi Luo waved her hand, ''It's fine. I will manage,'' Jun Boyan is usually the one who does such things for her and she did not want to think of him at this moment so it was better to avoid such stuff altogether.
The man raised an eyebrow before walking back to his seat.
'Shi Luo, you can do it,' she just had to nail this blind date and her mother would be happy. It was easy, wasn't it?
Shi Luo glanced at the man and she went in a daze the moment her gaze settled on his face.
''How long do you intend to keep staring at me?" he picked up the glass of wine before taking a sip from it.
''You look familiar,'' Shi Luo frowned. His face was such a highlight. If she saw him before then why would she forget about it?
And then it suddenly dawned on her. The memories of last night circled in her mind.
'Gotta… hiccup… Gotta say that you are the most handsome man I saw in the last 24 hours.'
Shi Luo had the urge to bang her head on the table. Wasn't he the man whom she met at the bar?
Who knew he would turn out to be her blind date.
''You look embarrassed,'' the man remarked.
Shi Luo held back the urge to glare at him. Even if she was embarrassed, it was not a gentleman's quality to say it on her face, especially not when they literally met a few minutes ago, excluding yesterday's drunken encounter.
'Boyan would never do it,' As soon as the thought passed her mind, she chased it away.
Why was she even comparing her date with him?
The man laughed, looking at the complicated expressions on her face. He could more or less guess what she was thinking about, ''Well, this is not the first time we met…''
''I was drunk yesterday,'' Shi Luo was flabbergasted inwardly. How did he know what she was thinking? But then upon a closer look, the aura he gave off was anything but ordinary.
''Yesterday was not our first encounter as well,'' he swirled the wine in the glass, pretty much enjoying the look of confusion on her face.
''Why don't I remember it then?" Shi Luo looked at his face keenly, his skin was crystal clear, ''Did you probably go under the knife?"
''Huh?"
''Why can't I recognize you if we met before unless you got some plastic surgery?'' she eyed him suspiciously.
The man was speechless. He coughed, ''Well, it's not like that,'' he sighed, ''I used to be your neighbor. Remember now?''
''I have changed many house countless times, had many neighbors, which one are you talking about?'' Why didn't she remember this pretty faced neighbor?
''The one who had a flu and you ran after him with a long needle to inject him,'' Just the memory of it was terrible to him. Needles have been quite scary to him and the sight of baby Shi Luo holding a needle and running after him with two swaying pigtails was scarier. He had nightmares for a few days.
The realization dawned on Shi Luo, ''You are… Caleb?" Shi Luo remembered that pale-faced skinny 6 year old guy Yu Mei and her used to play with. Han Jian Yu would usually shoo him away from them but he would persistently bounce back.
Caleb leaned back on his chair before taking another sip of his wine, ''Indeed.''
As much as Shi Luo remembered, his English name was Caleb. His father was from the US if she remembered it correctly and his mother was from Amaranthine hence his unique features.
''You have changed a lot," no wonder she could not recognize him. He looked entirely different from how he was back then. Not to mention that kids' facial features change with age.Only the pair of forest green eyes were the same as before.
''Same goes to you,'' Caleb shrugged under her curious gaze, ''I didn't recognize you yesterday. It was not until I got to know the name of my date and saw your picture today? did I realize it.''
''Wait…'' Shi Luo flashed him a 'wtf' look, ''You came here despite knowing it was me? Are you… serious about this blind date?'' She asked this question because she did not know how serious she was about this date when she kept thinking of Jun Boyan all the while.
Even though she took a step forward and decided to forget the sparks that flew briefly in between them, it was going to take some time.
She has spent months under the same roof with Jun Boyan. Because of the kind of person he was, it was impossible for anyone to not have a soft corner for him. She was not a rock to not feel anything for him after all their time together.
It was not that she has never encountered guys. She did. But Jun Boyan was the kind of man who was different from them all. He held her gaze every time he walked past her, he had her entire attention when he talked.
She was attracted to him.
''Yes,'' Caleb nodded, breaking the trail of her thoughts.
She looked at him, waiting for him to continue his words.
Read latest chapters at f(r)eewebnov𝒆l Only