The week had been long, uneventful in its routine, yet every moment had been punctuated by the thought of Bella. He had tried to push it aside, to immerse himself in work at his modest consulting firm, but her laughter, her teasing, and the gentle abrasiveness of her condescension lingered like a shadow he couldn’t shake.
That Friday evening, Bella invited him to dinner at a restaurant she described as “exclusive but not pretentious,” a promise that Asher, now wary, took with a grain of salt. He dressed carefully—not in his usual simple attire, but not in anything that screamed wealth either. He had learned to navigate her world delicately, to be presentable without being ostentatious.
When he arrived, she was already there, sparkling in a silk dress that caught the dim light of the rest
