The Billionaire's Dating Coach

Chapter 3

Expensive suits, elegant dresses, expensive jewellery, and designer accessories could be seen everywhere I looked.

Young heirs, successful businessmen, wealthy socialites, and influential families regularly treated Palm Grove as one of their favourite gathering places.

Despite all the wealth surrounding me, I didn’t feel particularly out of place among them. I’d been around wealthy people often enough that I no longer felt any need to act much differently around them.

I simply walked through the restaurant with confidence before heading toward the staircase leading to the second floor.

After reaching the second floor, I continued toward the open-air balcony area where Ruth preferred to sit, which offered a beautiful view of the city and made it one of the most desirable seating areas in the restaurant.

At the lone table positioned near the balcony railing, an elderly woman was already waiting for me.

Her grey hair was gathered into a single long braid that hung over her left shoulder, framing her gentle-featured, softly smiling face. She wore a modest dark coloured dress with long sleeves and a simple, elegant design, and although she had no extravagant accessories covering her body, the few pieces she wore were clearly of exceptional quality.

The moment I saw her, a smile naturally appeared across my face.

“Hello there, Ruth.”

She immediately turned around at the sound of my voice, a faint smile on her face as she said, “My dear, you’re finally here.

I was beginning to wonder if you were going to show up, considering how you didn't respond to my message."

Her words made me freeze in my tracks, a moment after which I remembered what had happened when I'd seen the time earlier. I'd immediately rushed out of my office and completely forgotten about responding to her message.

"Ah, I'm sorry about that, Ruth," I said sheepishly as I pulled out the chair opposite her. "I saw the time and completely panicked, so I forgot to respond before leaving."

Ruth just shook her head lightly with a knowing smile, while I took my seat across from her.

When I said Ruth was an old friend of mine, I meant that quite literally.

After all, the woman sitting across from me was old enough to be my grandmother.

Despite the enormous difference in our ages, we'd been very good friends since my final years of grade school.

My relationship with Ruth had influenced my life tremendously, with a good portion of my success being thanks to the support that woman had given me.

Ruth had sponsored me throughout my university years, allowing me to attend the prestigious university I’d always dreamed of attending.

Without her assistance, affording such an expensive education would’ve been far more difficult for my family.

Knowing that she'd invested so much in me also became one of my greatest motivations. I couldn't stand the thought of disappointing her or allowing everything she'd done for me to become meaningless.

That motivation had been one of the reasons I'd worked so hard throughout university.

Maintaining my position as the best student in my class wasn't simply about personal pride. Part of me desperately wanted to prove that Ruth's investment in me had been worthwhile.

Looking back now, I thought I'd managed to accomplish that quite nicely.

Ruth pushed aside the wine glass sitting atop the menu on the table and picked it up, flipping through the pages as she spoke.

"I saw something new they added to the menu, and I thought you'd probably like it."

Her words immediately caught my curiosity, so I picked up my own menu, only to catch sight of a reflection in the glass tabletop. I could also somewhat feel a gaze on me, something I’d become quite sensitive to, especially whenever I visited this restaurant.

Dining with Ruth had a tendency to attract attention from people who recognised her.

I turned my eyes toward the people behind me and noticed a relatively young couple staring at me, their eyes occasionally flicking toward Ruth. I didn’t recognise either of them, although they looked exactly like the sort of wealthy young people who frequented places like this.

They were probably the children of prominent businessmen or members of families with strong connections throughout the city’s elite social circles, and they looked at me with the same shocked curiosity I’d received from many other people over the years.

Then again, I couldn’t exactly blame them for wondering about the relationship between Ruth and me.

The soft-spoken elderly woman sitting across from me wasn’t simply some wealthy grandmother enjoying dinner.

This woman was Ruth Kelly Norton, one of the richest and most powerful people in the entire country, a multibillionaire whose influence and connections extended far beyond the country’s borders.

Getting a private meeting with Ruth was notoriously difficult, even for people who possessed considerable wealth and influence themselves, so those who managed to do so usually drew a fair bit of attention.

So, yes, I understood perfectly well why those two were staring at us, although that didn’t make it any less annoying.

I silently returned my full attention to Ruth, just as she turned over the menu and pointed toward something that had apparently caught her interest.

“Why don’t we try that one out?” she asked, pointing toward the dish she’d mentioned earlier.

I leaned closer to examine the description before I recognised the name.

"Oh, I've heard of that before," I said while looking over the menu. "Viola told me about it when we were discussing restaurants abroad recently."

The moment I mentioned Viola's name, Ruth raised one eyebrow while looking at me with noticeable interest.

“Viola, huh?”

There was something about her tone that immediately caught my attention, but before I could ask about it, she continued speaking.

"I do want to speak to you about something concerning her, but I'll leave that for another day."

I blinked curiously at Ruth, wondering what exactly she had in mind. However, I also knew Ruth well enough to understand that whenever she said she wanted to leave something for another day, nothing I said would make her change her mind.

"Alright, I'll let you bring it up whenever you feel like talking about it," I replied.

Ruth smiled before returning her attention toward the menu, and our conversation gradually moved on to other subjects.

We spent the next while simply enjoying our meals together while talking about whatever happened to come to mind.

Ruth shared a few stories about things that had been happening with her friends, while I found myself telling her about some of the more amusing situations I’d encountered at work.

Before long, our conversation naturally wandered toward people we both knew, and we ended up laughing about some of the ridiculous things they’d been doing lately.

It was the kind of comfortable, familiar conversation I’d grown accustomed to having with Ruth whenever we met, with neither of us needing any particular reason to keep talking.

After the waiter came over and cleared away our empty plates, Ruth turned her attention toward the night skyline and softly exhaled.

"Sorry for calling you out on a Thursday instead of Saturday like usual, but I really couldn't help it," she said.

"Today is the anniversary, you know?"

I blinked at her words, trying to figure out exactly which anniversary she was talking about.

"Anniversary?" I repeated, staring at her with genuine confusion.

Ruth nodded once before quickly turning toward me with narrowed eyes.

"You really didn't look at the text I sent you, did you?" she asked.

I scratched my head sheepishly while my hand slowly moved toward my phone.

“No comment,” I replied, unlocking my phone and tapping the messaging app as quickly as I could.

The message she’d sent me earlier was right at the top of the list, so finding it didn't take even a second.

“Oh? It’s today?!”

I couldn’t stop my voice from getting louder when I finally saw the content of her text, even if it drew a few gazes toward us.

Ruth simply smiled softly as I opened the link she’d included in her message, which led me to one of those social media memories that resurfaced old pictures from previous years.

The picture dated all the way back to 2011, during my sixth-grade year, shortly after I’d turned 11 years old.

It showed a much younger Ruth standing beside the 11-year-old me, along with a grumpy-looking boy on her other side. I quietly focused my attention on Ruth and myself, completely ignoring the cute-looking boy who appeared beside us in the picture.

"Can't believe it's been 15 years already," I murmured quietly.

Today, July 7th, marked the anniversary of the day Ruth and I had first met all those years ago, during my sixth-grade end-of-session ceremony.

I remembered how overjoyed and bursting with pride I’d been when I was announced as the top student in my class during the awards portion of the ceremony.

Ruth had attended the event because of her grandson, the same grumpy-looking boy appearing beside us in the picture, and after the ceremony, she’d ended up noticing me after witnessing a rather embarrassing scene involving the young girl who’d just been recognised for her academic achievements and her grandson.

Somehow, that encounter was what eventually developed into one of the most important friendships in my life.

There were many occasions when I had to explain that story to other people, especially friends of Ruth’s who knew that I worked as a couple’s therapist.

A couple of them had even jokingly asked me whether Ruth was actually one of my clients.

The question was always ridiculous, although I could understand how someone unfamiliar with our relationship might come to that conclusion.

Ruth wasn't one of my clients, and she’d never been one at any point.

Before the man sadly passed away a year ago, I’d known Ruth’s husband, and I most definitely wouldn't have wanted that utilitarian of a man as one of my clients, ever.

He was far too strict with everyone around him, and his personality would've made working with him extremely difficult.

Honestly, I admired Ruth for managing to put up with that man throughout their 44-year marriage. Whatever else could be said about him, enduring his personality for all those years certainly required considerable patience.

Shaking my head lightly, I pushed away my thoughts about Ruth’s late husband and returned my attention to the picture, and for a moment, I found myself wondering just how different my life might've been if she hadn't entered it that afternoon.

‘Well, some questions are better answered by appreciating the present instead,’ I thought, finally putting my phone down.