I glared at her, my eyes practically shooting fire, then took a deep breath. Once I had imagined killing her in my mind a few thousand times, I grabbed my luggage and turned to leave.
“Miss, you have my luggage,” a male voice said in Mandarin behind me.
I froze. The voice sounded familiar.
I turned around, confused. A long black trench coat came into view first, its sharp lines matching the wearer’s tall and well-proportioned frame. Slowly, I raised my gaze, taking in the face of the man before me.
Chu Ke Huan was standing right there.
Why was he here? I froze, too shocked to say a word. Was this a dream? Impossible. Or maybe he was just a Taiwanese man who looked a lot like him? But no matter how I looked at him, that face was unmistakable…
“Long time no see,” he said, immediately dispelling my doubts. “Heading back to Taiwan?”
“The… the snow… I couldn’t get back… uh, I mean…” I stammered, unable to string together a coherent sentence. Strange—just moments ago, I had no trouble arguing with the airline staff in English.
“Flight canceled, I know,” he said with a calm smile.
“I know you know… no, I mean, what are you doing here?”
“I’ve been working here for six months.” He pulled out a business card and handed it to me. “It’s a startup. No stocks, no ticker symbols to deal with anymore.”
I took the card and stared at the address printed on it, finally understanding.
“And you? Still with…” He started to say my company’s stock code but stopped mid-sentence, tilting his head as if his memory had short-circuited. He laughed sheepishly. “I can’t believe I’ve forgotten your company’s stock code. Every time I saw it during trading, I’d think of you.”
“In that case, the side effects of your last job were pretty severe,” I teased him. “Of all the startups, why New York? Saving for a down payment on a house?”
“I saved enough for that back in Taiwan, but I realized it didn’t mean anything,” he said, looking at me meaningfully. “So I used it to start this business instead.”
“Was it your own choice?”
“Yes.”
“That’s great.” I nodded, genuinely happy for him.
“This isn’t the best place to catch up. When’s your rescheduled flight?”
“Tomorrow at noon.”
“BR29?” He held up his boarding pass.
I glanced at my ticket. It was the same flight. “That’s right.”
“I have an idea,” he said, offering a solution that seemed tailor-made for me. “Let’s head back into the city. You can stay at my apartment tonight, and we’ll return to the airport together tomorrow. What do you think?”
“Thank you. You’ve saved my life.” At that moment, all I wanted was to escape this awful place. His offer felt like a divine decree. I grabbed my luggage and headed for the airport exit without hesitation.
“Wait,” Chu Ke Huan stepped in front of me, suddenly serious. “Does anyone in your life care if you spend the night at another man’s place? You know… it is Valentine’s Day.”
“No one. What about you?”
The tension in his expression eased slightly. “No one for me either.”
As we stepped outside, the snow continued to fall heavily at JFK Airport. The sharp contrast between the indoor warmth and the freezing outdoor chill made me shiver uncontrollably.
What a terrible day.
“Hey, New Yorker,” I said, exhaling sharply into my palms and rubbing them together for warmth. The wind outside immediately picked up, biting even harder. “With snow this heavy, do you think tomorrow’s flight will be canceled too?”
“Who knows?” Chu Ke Huan replied as he tapped on his phone to call a ride. With his free hand, he opened his coat and wrapped it around me, pulling me close.
“It’s hard to get an Uber at this time. Don’t freeze.”
The familiar scent of him, combined with the harsh winter cold, slowly warmed my body. Valentine’s Day, the snow, the person I loved—at thirty, I had to admit, there was still a hint of romance in it all.
[The End]
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