"I had business," Gu Cheng responded shortly, staring at the young woman in front of him again. His scowl lines grew deeper when he saw his friend approach her from the corner of his eye.

"Let me take these bags," Chiu Leong murmured to her, sliding them off of her arm and adding them to the bag of his own that he was already carrying. "You shouldn't be lifting so much right now. I'll carry them."

"You two know each other?" Gu Cheng asked, ice filling the air around them.

Zaria shivered and glared at him, but Chiu Leong smiled and rearranged the bags in his hands so that they would be more balanced. "I ran into Miss Joseph outside earlier and offered to help her around the city a little. But she should really be sitting down right now, and I am sure it is time for more pain medication, so we will head out now. I hope your business goes well!"

With a nod, he turned away, gesturing for Zaria to go first. She did not look back, but from the stiffening of her shoulders the doctor knew that she could feel the icy daggers hitting her back until they entered the elevator to leave.

She let out a sigh of relief, and Chiu Leong chuckled. "He was certainly intense today. Did something happen before I arrived?"

"Oh, I bumped into him leaving the store. His secretary mentioned that he has a thing about germs. He is probably upset that I touched him. And -" she cut herself off, thinking intensely about something. "I think there are just a lot of cultural differences that I don't understand. I am not used to strangers offering each other so much assistance. I think I offended him."

They exited the elevator and walked toward the light blue car. It looked like a swan amongst ducks, and she wondered in a whisper how much a vehicle like that would even cost. Her old pickup truck was held together with wire and a prayer. She could not imagine anyone in town ever seeing a car as nice as this, let alone owning one. There was a loud chirrup type of beep, and the lights flashed when Chiu Leong pressed the buttons on the remote. "He was upset that you wanted to give the phone back?"

"That too. But I was distracted, and I mentioned that I was camping because I lost the place I was staying at night, and he asked why I didn't ask him for help. Is that normal in City C?" She moved toward the trunk when he gestured to it, lifting the lid so that he could place the bags inside. Once his hands were unencumbered, he opened her door for her, even leaning across her to buckle the seat belt for her.

When he was behind the wheel, he turned toward her, keys sitting in the ignition. "You don't have anywhere to stay?" he asked incredulously. "Were you seriously going to camp with a broken wrist?"

Zaria opened and closed her lips a few times before pressing them together firmly and looking out the window. "Apparently, it IS a cultural difference thing. It is not like it was my choice, Auntie Wang's granddaughter needed her room back for a couple of weeks, so I can't stay there anymore. And where I am from, you don't just call up people you have only met a few times and ask them to find you somewhere to live. Not unless you are completely shameless. I was going to be camping soon anyway, so why not just go early and work for a little bit while I do it."

The following silence was broken by a deep sigh and the turning of the key in the ignition. "No, it is not normal in my culture, either, but if someone cares about you, it doesn't matter how long you have known them. I won't let you camp somewhere in your condition, either. I know that we have not known each other even as long as you have known Old Gu, but we do seem to get along better. Would you please accept my offer?"

She thought about it for a moment, scraping her fingernails of her right hand under the opening of the cast around her left hand as she tried to reach an itch underneath. A hand covered hers and moved the scratching fingers away. "I'm sorry, that was rude of me. You shouldn't scratch under your cast, no matter how itchy it feels. Your fingernails could have germs under them, and if you scratch the skin, it could get infected, but you wouldn't know because you can't see under the cast."

Zaria nodded, looking out the window again. "I understand. And...can I think about it for a few minutes? The offer?"

"Of course. Let's get you some food. You shouldn't take your medicine on an empty stomach. What sounds good?"

They talked about food for a few minutes. Zaria said that she couldn't think of anything since the only food she had eaten in the city so far had been noodles, and she was getting a bit tired of them. She looked as though she felt guilty saying it. Chiu Leong smiled and said that he would pick somewhere. He put the car in gear and left the parking garage.

The restaurant he took them to was a small place on the other side of the city. Outside, decorated lanterns made up a sign that announced the name, and a beaded curtain covered the entrance way. Zaria followed him through and was immediately hit by the smell of roasting meat. Saliva filled her mouth, and she swallowed it back with a moan. Chiu Leong covered his mouth with his hand so she would not see him laugh. He raised a hand to greet the old couple behind the counter and led her to a booth in the corner.

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"Is there anything that you do not like to eat," he inquired, picking up the menu and order form and holding them out to her.

Zaria raised her hands in the 'not me' gesture. "Whatever you want to order is fine, I don't know any of the dishes. The whole place smells really good, though."

He smiled and used a provided pencil to tick off several items and put it on the edge of the table. Only seconds later, the old man shuffled up to the table to pick it up and leave a pitcher with two glasses. "Ah, Doctor, we have not seen you in a while. Is this your girlfriend?"

Chiu Leong smiled at Zaria. "Grandpa, you know I couldn't be that lucky! She is far too beautiful to settle on someone like me."

The old man chuckled. "But you have good taste, you keep coming here to eat!" He took the order and went back to the kitchen, leaving the two younger people alone.

The bright smile on Chiu Leong's face dimmed, his gaze unfocused as he looked at the table in front of them. After a moment, he shook himself and poured a glass of water,placing it in front of Zaria. "You should take your medication now. I can see on your face that you probably should have taken it a little while ago. I am sorry, that was very inattentive of me. Maybe we should have come to eat before going to the stores..."

Zaria pulled her medicine envelope out of her pocket and gave him a genuine smile. "I am fine, really. I will take it right now."

Something about Chiu Leong seemed to make her feel comfortable, her normally polite expressions warming ever so slightly. On the other side of the table, Chiu Leong found himself struck by the honest smile on her face. He thought to himself that it might be the first real smile he had seen so far. As he was lost in thought, he felt a vibration in his pocket. Pulling his phone out, he looked at the caller id and felt his smile slip a little more. "I'll be right back, I need to take this," he told her and moved to the back of the empty dining room before answering.

Before he could say anything, a cold voice demanded, "Why are you with Joseph Zaria?"

He sighed. "As I said, we ran into each other on the street. Why did you buy a phone for her? I knew her for only a few hours before today, and I could have told you that that was a bad idea. You can tell after five minutes of talking to her that she is proud and used to taking care of herself."

"It was compensation -"

"If you believed that you would not have saved your number into it." There was silence from the other end of the phone. Chiu Leong rubbed his forehead and looked back toward the little corner booth. Zaria was sitting with one foot tucked under her, staring out the window. Her dangling foot was swinging back and forth under the table. "Old Gu, I know you are new to dating, but not every woman is going to be impressed with your money and name. "

A string of expletives poured through the phone, and Gu Cheng yelled, "Who would chase after her?" before the line went dead.

Liu Cheong sighed and pulled the phone away from his face. The call was ended on Gu Cheng's end, no surprise. Deciding to tease the older man, he opened the camera app to take a picture. At that moment, Zaria turned around and smiled at him. His heart skipped a beat, and he felt himself smiling back before realizing she was smiling at the food coming out from the kitchen next to him. His grin grew larger, and he looked down at the picture he had taken. The sun through the tinted windows had created a halo of light around her, and her smile was soft and sweet. He typed a short message and sent the picture, then turned the phone off. The phone was slid into his pocket, and he went back to his seat to eat.

Some distance away, on the other side of the abruptly disconnected phone call, Gu Cheng stood still as a statue in an empty conference room. The rest of the mall managers were off getting reports to give to him, and Mo Ye had stepped outside to take a call of his own. His phone was tossed on the large oval table top, and he snorted derisively at it. "I am not trying to impress her," he muttered at nobody. While it was true that he couldn't stop thinking about her, it was because of his guilt over his part in her recent misfortunes. As for inputting his number into the phone's memory, that was just an impulse, in case she wanted to thank him. His phone vibrated on the wooden table top, and he reached for it with his right hand,pausing just before picking it up. His fingers opened and closed and pulled his arm back, looking down at it distractedly. He could still feel the warmth of her body as he wrapped his arm around her slender waist...

Gu Cheng swore at himself and grabbed the phone decisively. There was a new image message from Chiu Leong. He sneered as he opened it, waiting for the image to load while reading the message.

"She is a good girl, and very attractive. There are plenty of men who would chase after her."

He scoffed and shifted his thumb to turn off he screen. The picture appeared on his screen just below the message. His eyes grew dark as he looked at it, unable to pull them away from the sweet smile that pulled him in. Three, four seconds passed before he tore his eyes away from it and turned the phone off. The phone was placed on the table again, and he turned from it, crossing to the large projector screen and then back again. Ten steps forward, and then ten steps back, he paced as he buried himself in his thoughts. Why did it bother him so much that his friend was running around the city with this woman?

And what was up with that smile? Why had she only treated him with politeness or, more often, thinly veiled disgust, and yet she could smile like that at someone else? Such an infuriating woman, and she still had not responded to his messages and even talked of returning the phone to him again as though she really wanted nothing to do with him at all. He scoffed again. "Any man that would chase after her would be stabbed in their sleep." He paced back toward the projector but stopped suddenly,looking back at his phone. His long legs strode back to the table, picking up the phone and swiping it open in one motion. His fingers tapped across the screen quickly, and he stared at the screen, waiting for a response. A minute later, there was none, so he typed again.

"What man is chasing after her?"

"Are you interested in her?"

"Why are you not answering me?"