Love On The Cliff

For the next six months, I was back in the lab, doing what I did best. My old classmate, Francis, said, you wasted your time on something else. You could have gotten here sooner.

I wrote down some data, “You’ll go down a few paths, you just need to come back, right?”

I was going to let myself grow in any way, even if it meant getting hurt. Who knows, I might turn out to be someone different. I still had courage, I was going to keep going, no matter what. I was so busy that I didn’t have time to think about him.

Then one day, I got a package, no name, I knew it was him. I opened it up, it was two contracts for my name. One for a place in the city, the other, for the old house. My current apartment was quiet. For the first few months, I couldn’t fall asleep.

I didn’t want to lie to myself that I hadn’t thought about him, that he would come out of nowhere. That I’d be walking on the street, and he’d suddenly show up. Sometimes I’d be alone at night, hear tires, and I’d look out, but it was never him.

I knew someone like him wouldn’t lose himself over anyone. The five years in my life were just an exception. He had so much to gain and nothing to lose. Take it, let it go, that’s right. I locked them in a closet.

I knew I wouldn’t be here for long, but I didn’t know it would be so soon. Francis kept saying, “Now is a good time. Someone in China wants to meet us, and most important, the permit is done. We might have to wait a while if we don’t go now.”

I agreed, “Let’s go home.”

Francis‘ company was in Shanghai. We landed in Hongqiao. We had good products, new investors, the company was doing well. The faster things were moving, the more people we needed. I was working non–stop. Then Francis said the investor wanted to meet.

“He’s asking for you, it’s weird.”

I knew then, the investor that Francis had been talking about was him. He was too calm, and didn’t ask anything.

I bit the cap of the pen. “Can I not go?”

Francis sighed, “If it was someone else, I’d cover for you, but this guy, I can’t.”

I never thought I’d see Ben again. Like his friend said, if it weren’t on purpose, we would never have crossed paths.

“Jane, this is Mr. Zhou,”

“Mr. Zhou, this is Jane, the head of tech, our success is because of her.”

He was totally different, it was like he’d cut off the old him. He was still lazy and slow, but different. Now, he was distant, you couldn’t get close to him.

But his eyes were still strong. I offered my hand, and smiled. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Zhou.”

He didn’t take it, his eyes scanning me.

He spoke, “Mr. Francis, I need to speak with her alone, if you don’t mind.”

Francis backed away. He looked at a pair of eyes when he opened the door. Mark told him to leave.

The other eye asked, “What’s going on?”

Mark, “He can’t leave, and now he’s trying to bring her back.”

“There’s still hope?”

“No way, not with his mom. She wants them together, but he can’t just marry whoever he wants.”