Chapter 3

8:00 PM.

Sora arrived at Alex's newly opened bar right on time. Alex was an old college classmate—a classic rich kid she used to play music with back in the day.

By the time Sora walked in, Ally's crew had already arrived. They were laughing boisterously over drinks. Spotting her from across the room, Ally immediately waved her over. "Hey, Sora! Over here!"

Lugging her oversized bag, Sora walked over and quickly scanned the booth. Out of the entire group, she only recognized Ally and Alex. It wasn't surprising; she didn't exactly run in their circles. As an exhausted, overworked corporate drone, just getting through the daily grind of her nine-to-five drained every ounce of her energy. She barely had the time to party with socialites... let alone the money.

Like that time Ally casually mentioned blowing hundreds of thousands playing cards in a single night—Sora had genuinely wanted to strangle her.

Talk about being born under different stars. Well, the old saying was right: for a woman, busting your ass at work was never as good as marrying well.

"Move over, let Sora sit here." Seeing her approach, Ally unceremoniously shoved the pretty-boy sitting next to her out of the way, patting the newly vacated spot on the plush leather sofa.

Sora didn't stand on ceremony. She plopped herself down and offered a generic, "Hi, everyone," to the rest of the table.

She might not belong to their elite circle, but after surviving the marketing department for years, Sora had seen it all. A bunch of trust-fund babies wasn't enough to intimidate her. Besides, she was here with a crystal-clear mission: she was here to get her cash.

"Here, exactly what you asked for." Ally was straightforward, immediately handing over a small leather clutch.

Sure enough, it was packed with solid cash.

Sora smirked. Accepting it, she didn't even bother to count before stuffing it directly into her own oversized bag. "Why do I get the feeling the little clutch you used to hold this cash is worth more than the fifty grand inside it?"

"Good eye. Limited edition Gucci." Ally arched a flawlessly drawn brow and chuckled. "Consider the clutch a freebie. If you're really that strapped for cash, take it to a consignment shop. You could easily get a few grand for it."

"Thanks." This time, Sora didn't try to be humble. Ally’s closet was overflowing with designer bags anyway. Better to let Sora pawn it for groceries than let it rot in a wardrobe. She was just doing her part to stimulate the economy and boost the GDP.

"Hey, why all the secrecy? What kind of shady deal are you two making?" the oblivious girl sitting on Ally's other side piped up.

Ally just rolled her eyes and ignored her, not wanting to put Sora in an awkward position.

Sora, however, couldn't care less. When you're drifting through the harsh realities of life... ahem, everyone hits rock bottom sometimes.

"I told my boss to shove it today, so I'm just hitting Ally up for some living expenses. Anyway, I've got the money now, so I'm heading out. You guys take your time and enjoy yourselves. Don't let me kill the vibe." After giving a brutally honest answer, she had no desire to linger. She patted her jeans, ready to bounce.

Ally grabbed her arm. "Oh, sit down and stay a while! Alex has been talking about you forever. He's invited you out so many times, but you always claimed you were too busy. Well, you're officially unemployed now, so let's see what excuse you pull out of your ass."

Alex, who had been completely silent since Sora walked in, finally spoke up. "Yeah, Sora, stay a bit longer. It's been forever since we last saw each other. We should catch up."

Come to think of it, ever since Alex returned from abroad, she had only heard about him through Ally. She hadn't made the time to see him even once.

Now that he was personally asking, Sora felt too guilty to just walk away. Reluctantly, she sank back into the sofa.

The group resumed their chatter, mostly gossiping about high-society drama. Sora barely listened. Instead, she leaned back lazily against the sofa, nursing a glass of champagne as she observed the crowd.

Ally was, as always, the center of attention. Despite being a married woman, she was trendy, slender, and stunning enough to rival a beauty queen. Her husband didn't seem to care what she did, letting her party hard night after night. Sora and Ally were tight, meeting up at least once or twice a month, yet Sora had rarely ever seen the elusive husband. It was genuinely bizarre.

But if you assumed their marriage was on the rocks, that didn't seem accurate either. That brand-new Ferrari sports car Ally had just started driving? An anniversary gift from the very same husband.

While Sora was keeping herself entertained by internally analyzing Ally's marriage, Alex swapped seats with the person to her right, leaning in closer with a glass of champagne in hand.

"Sora."

She immediately plastered on her practiced, professional smile and gave him a friendly nod.

"Since you don't have a job right now, would you consider coming to work for me? My bar just opened, and I happen to be short a floor manager," he offered.

Sora quickly put up her hands in a mock-horrified gesture of refusal. "I appreciate the thought, but I'm an incredibly ungrateful person. Borrowing money is one thing; charity is where I draw the line. Besides, right now we're old classmates on equal footing. If I come work here, you become my boss! That's an instant downgrade in status for no reason. I'd be taking way too big of a loss."

Alex blinked in surprise before his lips curved into a soft smile.

When he smiled, he still looked just as boyish and shy as he had back in the day.

It was strange; Sora didn't actually have a particularly deep impression of Alex, but she had always been incredibly fond of his smile. Back when they had their little college band, Ally was the lead singer, Sora played the drums, and Alex was the bassist. He had been brought in halfway through by Ally. Unfortunately, they had barely gotten to know each other when the band broke up a month later. They hadn't kept in touch since.

With the rejection hanging in the air, their conversation naturally fizzled out.

Ally seemed to notice Alex's slight awkwardness and quickly swooped in to change the subject. "Oh, by the way! Guess who I ran into a few days ago?"

"Who?"

"Julian!" Ally announced, her eyes practically sparkling with excitement. "You guys remember him, right? That insanely hot guy who was basically campus royalty back in college. Oh, right, Sora! Didn't the two of you grab dinner a few times back then...?"

Sora choked violently on her sip of red wine, coughing so hard she felt like her lungs were about to hack themselves to pieces.