For several seconds, no one moved.

Samuel’s hand was still extended between them.

Adrián stood in front of him like a man who had just thrown a grenade into his own company lobby and suddenly realized he had nowhere to hide from the explosion.

I stared at him.

—You… what?

Adrián’s throat moved.

—I love you.

Natalia covered her face.

The receptionist whispered:

—Thank God.

I turned toward the twenty-seven employees watching us.

—Could everyone stop reacting as if this were the season finale of a television show?

Nobody moved.

Natalia pointed toward the exit.

—Everybody out.

For once, they obeyed her.

Samuel slowly lowered his hand.

His expression surprised me.

He wasn’t angry.

He looked almost amused.

—Well —he said—, that explains a lot.

I turned toward him.

—Explains what?

Samuel looked at Adrián.

—Why the CEO of Huo Group had someone investigate me forty-eight hours after Elena told him she was getting married.

My head snapped toward Adrián.

—You investigated him?

Adrián did not deny it.

—Basic risk assessment.

I almost laughed from disbelief.

—You investigated my fiancé and called it a risk assessment?

Samuel cleared his throat.

—For what it’s worth, his people were very professional.

—Samuel!

—Sorry.

I looked back at Adrián.

Eight years.

Eight years of knowing exactly how he took his coffee.

Eight years of hotel reservations, business dinners, emergency calls, forgotten birthdays, canceled holidays and nights when we were the last two lights still on in a forty-story building.

And somehow, standing there, I could suddenly remember everything differently.

The time I had pneumonia and woke up to find an entire private medical team outside my apartment.

Adrián had told me it was a company benefit.

The year my father needed surgery and the best specialist in Shanghai suddenly had an opening.

Adrián said he happened to know someone.

The time a director shouted at me during a meeting and was transferred to another subsidiary the following week.

I assumed it was because his performance was poor.

My mouth slowly opened.

—Oh my God.

Natalia pointed at me.

—There. It’s happening.

I ignored her.

I stared at Adrián.

—The apartment near headquarters.

He looked away.

My stomach dropped.

The company had rented me an apartment six years earlier after I complained that my commute took almost two hours.

—You said Human Resources approved it because assistants needed to be close to executives.

Natalia laughed so hard she had to hold the reception desk.

—Elena, no other assistant got an apartment.

I felt my face becoming hot.

—My annual bonuses?

Adrián remained silent.

Natalia raised a finger.

—Also him.

—The business-class upgrades?

Another finger.

—Him.

—The tickets to my father’s favorite concert that supposedly came from a client?

Natalia raised a third finger.

I closed my eyes.

—Stop.

Adrián finally spoke.

—I never wanted you to feel that you owed me anything.

I opened my eyes again.

—So instead you secretly did things for me for eight years?

—Yes.

—And never said anything?

His expression hardened slightly.

—I thought you knew.

The words were so absurd that Samuel actually laughed.

Adrián looked at him.

Samuel raised both hands.

—Sorry. But apparently the entire building knew except Elena.

—And me —Adrián replied coldly.

That silenced us.

I stared at him.

—What does that mean?

For the first time since I had known him, Adrián looked embarrassed.

—I thought you knew how I felt.

—How?

—I remembered everything about you.

—You remember acquisition numbers from six years ago.

—I canceled meetings when you were sick.

—You cancel meetings when data is incomplete.

—I rejected every woman my family introduced to me.

—I thought you were married to your job!

Natalia groaned.

—This is painful to watch.

Adrián ignored her.

—I took you with me on every important trip.

—I was your assistant!

—I bought the apartment next to yours.

Silence.

I blinked.

—What?

Natalia’s mouth fell open too.

That was apparently new information even to her.

Adrián realized his mistake immediately.

I stared at him.

—You bought the apartment next to mine?

—It became available.

—Six years ago.

—Yes.

—And you never moved in.

His jaw tightened.

—I occasionally stayed there.

My eyes widened.

—How occasionally?

He looked toward the elevator.

That was answer enough.

I rubbed my forehead.

Samuel stepped beside me.

—Elena, I think you need to talk to him.

I turned toward the man I was supposed to marry in twenty-three days.

Suddenly, guilt replaced my confusion.

—Samuel…

He smiled gently.

—Relax. We’ve known each other one month.

—But our families—

—Our families wanted this marriage more than either of us did.

I went silent.

Samuel continued:

—I like you. I respect you. I thought maybe affection could grow into something more.

Those were almost exactly the words I had used with Adrián.

Samuel looked at him.

—But I’m not stupid enough to marry someone while another man looks at her like he wants to buy every company in the city just to prevent her from leaving.

Adrián frowned.

—I wouldn’t do that.

Samuel looked at me.

—He absolutely would.

Natalia nodded.

—Absolutely.

I wanted the floor to swallow me.

Samuel handed me the flowers.

—Call me tomorrow. We’ll figure out how to explain this to our parents.

Then he looked at Adrián.

—And if you hurt her after making all of us endure this ridiculous confession, I’m coming back.

Adrián finally accepted his handshake.

—Fair.

Samuel left.

For a long moment, Adrián and I stood alone in the center of the lobby.

Then I asked the question that had been growing heavier inside me.

—Why didn’t you tell me?

His face changed.

The CEO disappeared.

What remained was simply a man who had spent eight years making one mistake.

—Because when you started working for me, you were twenty.

I said nothing.

—I was your employer. You depended on that job. Later, when you became indispensable to me, it became worse.

—Worse?

—I couldn’t tell whether you stayed because you cared about me or because I paid your salary.

That answer hurt more than I expected.

—So you waited.

—Yes.

—For eight years.

—Yes.

—Until I resigned.

His lips tightened.

—I planned to tell you after your final day.

I stared.

—And then I told you I was getting married.

—Yes.

—To a man I had known for one month.

His expression darkened again.

—That part was extremely irritating.

I almost smiled.

Almost.

Then I remembered something.

—Seventeen women.

Adrián froze.

—What?

—Your family introduced seventeen women to you.

He looked toward Natalia.

She immediately started walking backward.

—I have administrative work.

—Natalia.

She disappeared into the elevator.

I turned back toward him.

—Why did you reject all seventeen?

His answer came without hesitation.

—None of them were you.

That should have been the moment everything became simple.

It wasn’t.

I stepped backward.

—I can’t give you an answer tonight.

Something flickered across his face.

But he nodded.

—I know.

—And I’m not coming back to work for you.

His eyes narrowed.

—I wasn’t going to ask.

—Good.

—I was going to offer you the position of Chief Operating Officer.

I stared at him.

—What?

He calmly removed a folder from his briefcase.

My name was printed across the front.

ELENA SHEN — COO APPOINTMENT PROPOSAL.

I slowly looked up.

—When did you prepare this?

—Three months ago.

Three months.

Before my blind date.

Before my resignation.

Before Samuel.

I opened the folder.

The salary was nearly triple what I had earned as his assistant.

There were equity options.

Executive authority.

A seat in strategy meetings.

I looked at him.

—Why didn’t you give me this earlier?

—Because the board meeting approving your promotion was scheduled for next Monday.

I suddenly remembered the forty-two-page handover document I had proudly prepared.

Then I remembered Adrián staring at my resignation letter as if the numbers made no sense.

I covered my face.

—You have got to be kidding me.

For the first time in eight years…

Adrián Huo laughed.

Not politely.

Not briefly.

Actually laughed.

And somehow that annoyed me enough to remove my hands.

—This is not funny.

—A little.

I pointed at him.

—You’re still an idiot.

—Probably.

—And I’m not marrying you just because you finally confessed.

His laughter disappeared.

—I didn’t ask you to.

—Good.

—I’m asking you to have dinner with me.

I stared.

—A date?

—A real one.

—After eight years?

—Apparently I’m slow.

I thought about everyone calling me blind.

Then I looked at the coldest man I had ever known, standing in the middle of his corporate lobby waiting for an answer with more nervousness than I had ever seen him display before a billion-dollar negotiation.

—One dinner.

Adrián nodded.

—One dinner.

Six months later, I became COO of Huo Group.

The company stopped calling me Assistant Shen.

Natalia started calling me “the woman who finally bought glasses.”

Samuel eventually married someone he met through one of his architecture projects.

And Adrián?

He still drank coffee without sugar.

Still hated cilantro.

Still reviewed contracts after eleven.

But now, whenever he wanted something from me, he had learned to use actual words instead of expecting me to interpret eight years of quietly delivered coffee.

One year after that ridiculous scene in the lobby, he took me back to the restaurant where we had our first real date.

He placed a small box on the table.

I looked at it.

Then at him.

—You know I don’t understand hints.

Adrián sighed.

He opened the box.

And this time, he made absolutely certain there was no room for misunderstanding.

—Elena Shen, will you marry me?

I smiled.

—See?

I held out my hand.

—Eight years, and you’re finally learning how to communicate.