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My mouth drops open in mock annoyance. “I am not a finance bro!”
“Oh, really?” Shang gives me a skeptical look. “What was the last thing you did on vacation?”
“Ski trip in Aspen.”
One of those dark, thick eyebrows rises.
“Okay,” I say. “Maybe that is a tad finance bro-y. But that’s only because it was a company trip.”
“The fact that you even go on company trips just screams finance bro,” Shang says.
“I do tai chi! That’s, like, the antithesis of finance bro.”
Shang side-eyes me as he merges onto the main road.
“Okay, my mom does tai chi and she makes me do it when I go to their house for our weekly meal.”
Shang snorts.
“You’re not any better,” I grumble. “You’re a—whiskey bro? Is that a thing?”
“Oh yeah, that is definitely a thing. And I’d like to say I am not a whiskey bro, but I’ll leave it up to you to decide.”
I ponder this for a bit, a smile working its way over my mouth. “Okay, let’s see. What audiobook are you listening to? Let me guess:How to Be the Manliest Man Who Ever Manned?”
“You know, I think James is actually listening to that one.”
“James probably only listens to podcasts about how to be a good alpha male.”
“Okay, you’re probably right there. Anyway, I’m listening to a novel, not a nonfiction book.”
“A novel?” I narrow my eyes.
“A novel is a work of fiction, usually between seventy to ninety thousand words in length. It has a plot, which consists of a conflict that the protagonist is trying to resolve.”
“Okay, smart-ass,” I groan. “Thank you for mansplaining what a novel is to me. What would I do without your wisdom?”
“Listen to podcasts about how to be a good alpha male, probably,” Shang says.
There’s a slight pause; then, as one, we both devolve into peals of laughter. What a surprise it is to be laughing with Shang. He’s come off so buttoned-up this whole time that I wasn’t sure that he even knew how to laugh, but now that he is, I’m realizing what a delightful sound it is, boyish and low, with the slightest tinge of surprise that makes me want to make him laugh again and again.
“The book’s calledThe Water Outlaws, by S. L. Huang. It’s a gender-swapped reimagining ofWater Margin, one of the greatest works of Chinese literature. Only instead of the traditional male monks, it follows a group of women who are criminals—or alleged criminals—as they try to live peaceful lives as monks. But they’re not very good at it, especially because men keep trying to kill them for simply existing,” he says wryly.
“Wow, I would never have guessed,” I say, and there are no traces of sarcasm in my voice. I glance over at Shang, and I really cannot make sense of this man who’s obviously a sexist alpha male, based on his family and their whole whiskey persona, but who also reads a book about female monks.
By now, we’re about to get on the freeway. James pulls up next to us, grinning with his tongue out. He waves, then revs Sultry so the engine screams, before speeding off ahead of us. Shang shakes his head, sighing. “I hate that thing,” he says.
“That’s not a nice way to talk about your cousin.”
Shang laughs again. The corners of his eyes crinkle adorably, and I have to make a conscious effort to drag my gaze from him. I scold myself mentally.I’m here to do my job. I’m here as Zhou, not as Mulan.There are about a million reasons why I shouldn’t be attracted to this man, not least of which is the fact that it would be highly unethical given my company is trying to acquire his. With no small effort, I envision myself repositioning my work mask back into place.
Okay, time to do a little digging into the family company. “So tell me, what made you decide to meet with my d—my firm?”
For a few moments, Shang looks deep in thought. He adjusts his grip on the wheel and merges onto the freeway before taking a big breath. “Well, like you pointed out at the meeting, our sales are falling, and I thought maybe if we could sell to a firm it would revitalize our numbers.”
“Have you tried improving the numbers yourselves?”
“It’s…” Shang pauses, pursing his lips as he mulls this over. “Thing is, it’s kind of tough in my family company to make big changes. Maybe because it’s a family company, or maybe because we got used to doing things a certain way, but whatever it is, I feel like we’ve kind of stagnated. That’s why I thought, well, an outside perspective would help.”