"I heard you like me?" I confronted Leo Sterling directly, right to his face. He froze for a second, his eyes darting away in panic. Seeing his silence, I coldly dropped the hammer. "I will never like you, fatty." Four years later, he returned from abroad to inherit his family empire. I, on the other hand, went bankrupt. Drunk out of my mind, I confessed like a maniac. "I like you, Leo. From a long, long time ago..." 1 Transaction Complete. Balance: $328.61. I stared blankly at the notification on my phone. The cause: My dad skipped town to dodge gambling debts. I wasn't the only child from his three failed marriages, but I was the only adult daughter he could throw under the bus. Debt collectors blocked the entrance to my office building, holding banners and screaming. It killed my business. Three months later, the cash flow dried up. My company officially folded. I was bankrupt. I still owed about twenty grand. I didn't have time to be depressed. I spammed my resume everywhere and found a job. I lived on instant noodles and hope. But when it rains, it pours— My cat was diagnosed with FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis). The treatment cost was astronomical for the current me. "Meow!" "Don't be scared. I'll save you." Lucky was a calico stray I rescued from an overpass five years ago. She had been with me through countless lonely, agonizing nights. She was my family. The next day, I clutched the cash from selling my car and rushed to the vet clinic. The balance on my membership card shocked me. $10,000.00. Ten thousand dollars? "A gentleman came to visit Lucky yesterday and topped up the account with ten grand." "Did you not know?" The receptionist looked at me like I was an alien. I was completely lost. The only person around me with that kind of cash was my best friend, Chloe. But... how could she be a "gentleman"? 2 "Maya, over here!" Chloe waved at me from a booth in a high-end steakhouse. Her outfit screamed "rich girl energy." "You're ten minutes later than me. That's not like you." Chloe’s pupils dilated slightly when she saw me. I guessed she was shocked by my weight gain. Stress does that. Irregular eating, binging, zero exercise—the pounds just piled on. "I went to the vet to see Lucky, so I'm late." "Lucky's sick?" "...Yeah." I confirmed my suspicion. "Luckily we caught it early." Since Chloe didn't know Lucky was hospitalized, the mysterious donor couldn't be her. So... who was the sugar daddy? "Maya, why didn't you tell me you were in trouble?" I turned my head slightly, too guilty to look my best friend in the eye. We were roommates for four years at NYU. Chloe married into old money right after graduation. She witnessed my rise from nothing, and now my fall back to nothing. And I was still single. For the past two years, seeing that I was stable, she kept trying to set me up. I rejected everyone. She looked at me meaningfully. "You're not still thinking about your 'Ponyo', are you?" "Don't hang yourself on one tree!" "..." I told her everything. She was speechless about the mess my biological family created. "Maya, when I heard your company folded, I was really worried you'd do something stupid." "How could I..." I smiled broadly. "I still have a cat to feed." Lucky was the spiritual pillar of my miserable life. "I have a million dollars here. Consider it my investment in you. Take it and make a comeback." Chloe pushed a black card across the table. "Chloe, thank you! But I don't plan to run a company again." If Lucky hadn't gotten sick, I probably wouldn't even be in New York right now. Chloe stared at me for a long time, then realization dawned. "You did it on purpose?" "So when the company had cash flow issues, you didn't come to me..." I remained silent. Yes. I went bankrupt on purpose. I just didn't expect to crash this hard. 3 "You finally snapped!" Chloe thought I was crazy. It all stemmed from my toxic family. In ninth grade, my parents divorced and started new families. Every holiday, they both hoped I would go to the other parent's house. Eventually, home was just me. Then, even that home was gone. For three years of high school, I lived on minimal child support. I worked every winter and summer break. In college, I worked every spare moment outside of class. Every time my life got a little better, my father—who had divorced his second wife by then—would show up. Asking for money. Nothing else. Half the money I earned over the years was taken by him under various excuses. Three strikes and you're out. A year ago, I warned him it was the last time I would help. I meant it. 4 Today was NYU's 80th Anniversary Gala. Seeing my old classmates after a year was a brutal reality check. "Maya, are you... expecting?" "When did you get married?" Sarah and Emily fired questions at me. "Next year. I'll invite you to the wedding and the baby shower." I made a joke to deflect. I wore an oversized T-shirt today to hide the weight, but I was still mistaken for a pregnant woman. Back in the day, at 5'8", I had a model's figure! The four of us were dormmates. A year after graduation, Chloe and Sarah got married and had kids. Emily and her boyfriend planned to tie the knot this year. And me? Single since birth (basically). But back then, I was the one who received the most flowers and love letters on Valentine's Day. The sun was scorching. The dean was giving a speech on stage. The crowd was buzzing. When a certain name was announced, the crowd gasped. A man in a sharp suit walked onto the stage. Tall, lean, commanding. The applause was deafening. "That guy is so hot. Who is he?" "You don't know? That's Leo Sterling, CEO of Sterling Group, and the biggest sponsor of this gala." "Omg—my new crush!" "Does he care about gender?" "Keep dreaming. He just came back from abroad to inherit the family empire. He already has a wealthy, beautiful fiancée..." Everyone's eyes were glued to the handsome man. Emily excitedly joined the gossip. "I heard Leo was in our year." "But he was super low-key. Four years of college, and nobody saw him!" "Hey! He seems to be looking over here..." I kept my head down, burrowing into the crowd, desperate to disappear. Trying to block out that burning gaze. I tried to calm down, but my heart hammered like a drum. It was him. He really came back! 5 I met Leo before college. I was sixteen. Walking home from school, I saw a boy being bullied in an alley. Filled with a sense of justice, I charged in, bluffing. "What are you doing?!" "I already called the cops! They'll be here any second..." The three thugs were scared off by my shouting. I grabbed the boy and ran. We ran to a small park. I gave him a lecture: A man shouldn't be so weak. How can you let people bully you without fighting back? If you can't fight, at least run! The boy looked at me with ink-black eyes. "What's your name?" Me: "Heroes don't leave names." Boy: "..." I waved coolly: "See you around!" ... Later, I saw the boy on the street. He got out of a limousine, surrounded by bodyguards and drivers. I saw him; he didn't see me. I was hiding inside a thick mascot costume, handing out flyers. ... Freshman year of college, I bumped into him on campus. The boy had grown up. Taller. And... bigger. "I have a part-time job lead. Interested?" "Time? Location?" He paused, clearly not expecting that response. "You... aren't going to ask what it is or how much it pays?" "I'm not picky." "Then..." Leo wanted to say more. "Come on, I'll treat you to lunch. We can talk while we eat." I turned my baseball cap backward and headed toward the cafeteria. I barely scraped into NYU. No scholarship. Tuition was all on me. I was about to starve; I didn't have the luxury of being picky. "I'm Leo Sterling. What's your name?" "Maya. Maya Brooks." This was our second meeting. He didn't mention three years ago, and neither did I. I assumed he thought I didn't remember him. Thanks to Leo, I got a side gig as a print model. I made ten grand in one semester. Emily said she never saw Leo on campus for four years. That wasn't true. They had seen him. Once, they dragged me to a basketball game. Surprisingly, Leo was playing. I cheered for him. Halfway through, I realized Emily's boyfriend was on the opposing team. "Maya, who is that tall, fat guy?" Me: "...My agent." He got me jobs. That was the extent of our relationship. "Agent?" Chloe teased. "So you're his talent?" Sarah: "I heard the first girl a guy looks at after scoring is the one he likes." The three of them looked at me with smirk. Me: "..." He wasn't inactive, so how was he still so heavy? Leo wasn't as handsome back then. Student Leo... Was 6'2" and weighed over 250 pounds.
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