1: 1
After finishing my enrollment paperwork, I sat down to eat alone at a Riverside diner.
I'd just placed my order when the manager came over, all smiles. "Sweetie, are you dining by yourself?"
I figured it was the dinner rush and I'd have to share a table, so I nodded.
The next second, her smile turned into something ugly and knowing.
"Perfect. Mr. Jennings, in the VIP room, wants to get to know you. He'd like you to have dinner with him."
I had no idea what she was talking about. Since when did Riverside have some Jennings important enough to know me?
"No thanks. I'm just a student. I have no interest in getting to know any Mr. Jennings."
But she wouldn't let it go. Not only did she and the kitchen keep dragging their feet on my food, she also called over a few of the male waiters to ring my table, all of them staring me down.
"Sweetie, I'd think hard before you say another word. Nobody in Riverside dares turn down Mr. Jennings."
I looked at the little show they were putting on and laughed out of pure anger.
"The way you're carrying on, anyone would think you weren't passing along a dinner invitation but a royal decree."
I set my chopsticks down slowly and let out a cold laugh.
"Go back and tell your Mr. Jennings I'm not going anywhere today."
...
"So you're too good to know a good thing when you see it?"
The manager, Anna Lambert, dropped the smile in an instant. She slapped the menu down on the table, her voice going shrill.
"Mr. Jennings offers to buy you dinner and you put on airs? You're just some student. Who are you acting all high and mighty for?"
"You think I can't make sure you don't walk out that door today?"
At the tables nearby, people set down their chopsticks.
But the moment they heard Mr. Jennings's name, not one of them dared step in.
I ignored her, reached for the teacup on the table, and took a slow sip.
Threats from small-timers like this weren't worth my worry.
When I still gave her nothing, she actually turned toward the kitchen and yelled at the top of her lungs.
"Boss, come out here. Someone's making trouble."
The greasy plastic curtain over the kitchen doorway swept aside, and a short, heavyset man strolled out with a cigarette hanging from his mouth.
He looked me over, then glanced at Anna, his eyes full of calculation and impatience.
"What's going on?"
Anna instantly put on a wronged, pitiful face and leaned in close.
"Boss, this little girl doesn't know when she's got it good. Mr. Jennings asked to see her by name, and she actually dares to refuse."
The owner took a deep drag, walked up to my table, and stubbed the cigarette out right in the dish in front of me.
"Little girl, Mr. Jennings taking a liking to you is your ticket to the top. Don't be stupid about it."
I leaned back against my chair to get away from his rank breath, keeping my voice level.
"I told you. I don't know him, and I don't want to. Now move."
The owner scoffed and cut a look at the men beside him.
The waiters ringing me closed in, contempt and malice in their eyes.
"Don't want to know him? Girl, you don't get the situation. There's a line of girls who'd kill for this chance."
"That's right. In Riverside, whatever Mr. Jennings says goes. Cooperate and everybody saves themselves the trouble."
"You don't cooperate, and we can't promise your clothes stay on you."
My stomach dropped. I reached into my pocket for my phone.
One call, and my family's bodyguards would be here in three minutes.
But the second I got the phone out, before I could even hit dial,
the owner was faster. He snatched it from my hand and smashed it hard against the floor.
The screen shattered instantly, shards of glass spraying everywhere.
One piece caught my shin, and a thin line of blood welled up.
"You—"
I shot to my feet, glaring at him.
"This is unlawful imprisonment. When my family finds out, this whole diner gets leveled to the ground."
Anna doubled over laughing and jabbed a finger at my face.
"Oh, please. Your family? If you had connections, why'd you come here without a single bodyguard?"
"You're just some kid. Leveled to the ground? Who do you think you're scaring?"
Some of the other diners quietly ducked their heads back over their food. Others hurried to pay and slip away.
One man started to get up, and the person beside him pulled him back down.
"Just leave it. Don't make trouble. You really want to get in the middle of Mr. Jennings's business?"
The owner waved a hand, impatient.
"Quit wasting words on her. Just haul her up and take her to Mr. Jennings's room."
Four filthy hands reached for me at once.
I stepped back and hit the wall behind me. There was nowhere left to go.
Just as those fingers were about to touch my shoulder,
a figure suddenly charged in from the side and slammed the frontmost waiter clean off his feet.
