Foreword:
Do you know?
From my perspective...
Lucky things rarely happen.
For example, meeting you.
......
At 92 Degree Celcius Cafe.
A long-haired woman was seated at a table near the corner. She kept stirring the coffee in her cup. As she listened to the sound of the spoon clinking against the porcelain, she took a deep breath every now and then, as if she were uneasy.
From time to time, she looked up at the window and the main entrance, like she was looking for someone.
Suddenly, her gaze focused on one person.
How should one describe him?
He had a stunning face. As the warm, yellow light fell on him, he seemed to be coated in a layer of gold. His white shirt was neatly ironed, and the light reflected off of the obsidian buttons on his sleeves. His figure was very trim. Leaning against the wall next to the washroom, he held a phone to his ear with one hand, while the other hand in his pocket.
A few minutes later, he hung up and sat down opposite the woman without a care. He started flipping through the magazine on the table.
"So this is my blind date," Stephanie Lockwood thought.
Half an hour ago, she'd gotten a call from her best friend and had accepted the task of going on a blind date on her behalf. Her best friend had insisted that the man was handsome, so she'd come with the thought of just savouring his face, even if things didn't work out.
After all, who wouldn't enjoy looking at a handsome man?
A few more minutes passed. Seeing that the man just sat there without taking any action, Stephanie decided to break the silence.
She stood up and reached out her hand to him, her gaze focusing on him. "Hello, I'm Stephanie Lockwood."
At that moment, he looked up and gazed right into her eyes. Stephanie's heart skipped a beat.
He kept on gazing at her, almost to the point that she got goosebumps. Finally, he reached out his hand to grasp hers, and then slowly said, "I'm Addison Luther."
His voice was as deep and melodic as a cello.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Luther." Stephanie quietly pulled her hand back and placed it on her other hand, as if she was trying to cool down the heat from his hand.
Addison thought of her name, and he recited the lyrics of a song in his deep voice. "Stephanie, in my arms, I wish that I could hold you tenderly... Miss Lockwood, did you perhaps get your name from this song?"
Stephanie met his smiling eyes and tried to suppress her pounding heart. Her hands twisted in her lap, and she tried to keep calm. "Yes, that's it."
She recalled the song that the man had sung earlier. It was like a gentle breeze that caught her heart. And her heart skipped a beat.
Addison took a sip of the coffee that the waiter just served and asked directly, "Miss Lockwood, may I know what your first impression of me is?"
Stephanie stared at his well-defined hand that was holding the cup and subconsciously licked her lips. "Very good."
"So do I meet your standards for a partner?"
She glanced at him strangely and answered honestly, "Yes."
Most likely, no one would say no to such an elegant gentleman with such an outstanding appearance and manners.
A meaningful light shone in Addison's eyes. He leaned back and crossed his long legs, then looked at her before dropping a bomb. "Well then, Miss Lockwood, would you be willing to be Mrs. Luther?"
Upon hearing that, Stephanie was shellshocked. Her ears were abuzz, and her brain short-circuited.
Had she heard him wrongly? Mrs. Luther?
Was he asking her to marry him when they'd just met for the first time?
A complete stranger that she knew nothing about?
......
Stephanie couldn't tell whether Addison was being serious, but she was a little turned off from him asking her to marry him on their first meeting.
Especially when she caught him hiding the faint smile in his eyes.
"I need a wife, and you're looking for someone to love. We have the same goal, so why don't we get together?"
Stephanie puffed up her cheeks slightly and gave it some thought.
Judging from his words, he was probably being serious. After all, he was more than capable of being so arrogant.
However, Stephanie was already 25, and marriage was a serious issue for her. If she agreed to marry him now, what would happen to her if he suddenly wanted to get a divorce a few years down the road?
After some contemplation, Stephanie looked at him seriously. "Mr. Luther, it's as easy as flipping a palm for you to find someone from a reputable family, with your condition. It's not like it had to be me, right? If that's the case, why are you on this blind date?"
"I want to find a woman who doesn't like me so that she can help me deal with my family's plans for an arranged marriage. Is this reason good enough?"
Stephanie snorted, but her eyes were full of interest. "Mr. Luther, how do you know that I don't like you?"
Addison raised an eyebrow, and answered honestly. "If you did, you would've jumped at my proposal for you to be Mrs. Luther."
Stephanie was taken aback, and fell silent.
After a few minutes, she spoke again with a serious expression. "Then why must it be me?"
Addison's lips curled up as he murmured, "You're easy on the eyes and you look like wifely material."
Stephanie looked him in the eyes. "Mr. Luther, you haven't found out anything about my family background before saying something like that, have you?"
As expected, Addison shook his head calmly.
Stephanie smiled bitterly and let him down gently. "I'm sorry. I don't think I'm suitable for the role of Mrs. Luther. To be honest, my parents got divorced 5 years ago. Both my younger brother and I are staying with my mother. Though I'm the head of a department with a monthly salary of 7000 dollars, I don't have even a bit of savings, because my mother was diagnosed with serious uremia half a year ago, and she's been holding on because of hemodialysis. My brother, on the other hand, is still in high school and needs at least 20000 a year for his fees and daily expenditure. I also have an uncountable amount of debt to pay back. Mr. Luther, are you sure you still want to marry me?"
Addison listened to her without interrupting. His gaze was calm, and he remained expressionless.
He tapped his knuckles on his knee a few times. At his silence, Stephanie thought that he was backing down. She wasn't too bothered by it. After all, putting everything else aside, nobody would want to marry someone who was bogged down with debt and burdens.
They fell into silence again, just like at the beginning of their blind date.
After a short while, Addison's melodic voice rang in her ears. "It doesn't matter. I can afford it."
Stephanie was stunned, and her eyes were filled with astonishment.
"I'm a surgical professor. I neither gamble nor partake in drugs. I smoke a little, but if you don't like it, I can quit. If you're still sceptical of my reasons for wanting you to be Mrs. Luther, I can tell you it's probably because you're really suitable for the job. Miss Lockwood, don't be in such a rush to reject me. Things can change in the blink of an eye. You might not want to marry me now, but maybe you'll change your mind tomorrow?"
Stephanie really couldn't understand how Addison's mind worked. If she was still the well-to-do daughter of the Lockwood family, then at least there was something about her that he could use. Yet now she was broke and in debt. What was in it for him?