She gave him a small glare as she sat down. He almost laughed when she grimaced into her tea.
“You can have a glass of water after you’ve had some of your tea,” he said.
She blew at the tea to cool it down. “You’re obnoxious.”
“We established earlier that I was an asshole,” he acknowledged before leaning in and lowering his voice. “You came for me anyway.”
She flushed. “Well, that’s because you’re not a complete asshole. Just partly. Maybe a majority. I haven’t decided yet.”
He leaned back in his chair with his tea. She was cute when she was flustered. He knew her type: smart, well-educated, a little arrogant. But she had enough humility inside of her that if she were knocked down from her high horse, she would get up stronger and wiser.
“So what is it you exactly do? Do you work for the Chinese Basketball Association?” she asked.
“You haven’t had any of your tea yet,” he told her.
As he watched her take a sip, he smiled to himself. She was trainable.
“Is that why you’re doing business with Jake?”
He nodded at her tea. “Drink more.”
She took another sip. “So do you?”
“Why are you so interested?”
“Curious. I used to play,” she reminded him. “A part of me wishes I was good enough to play professionally.”
“How do you know you aren’t?”
“I guess if I had tried—but when I was applying to college, the WNBA was struggling, so it wasn’t clear what options I would have playing ball. But I like what I’m doing now.”
He raised a brow. “Working as an office assistant?”
She looked down. “I know that’s not what most Stanford grads aspire to, but it pays the bills.”
“Does it? You wouldn’t have done the Scarlet Auction if you had enough money.”
“Right. I meant my job pays most of the bills. The Scarlet Auction is a great opportunity to make extra cash to pay off student loans and maybe have some fun.”
“What does ‘fun’ entail?”
“Getting tickets to a Warriors game.”
“Is that your favorite team?”
“The Stanford women’s team is my favorite team, but the Warriors are a close second.” She was smiling and looking more relaxed. She even took another sip of tea without prompting. “You didn’t answer my question about working for the CBA.”
“I don’t work for the CBA. My father sponsors the Golden Phoenix, and it’s his pet project to make the team into a championship contender.”
“So when you’re not working on that, what do you do?”
“Mostly real estate developments for the family business.”
“Any here in California?”
“Some.”
“Like in the Bay Area?”