One Look, for the Rest of My Life

: First Meeting

After kneeling for a few minutes, my vision blurred, and I recalled my first meeting with Julian Rhodes.

I had just collected my twenty million dollar lottery winnings and was sitting alone in a booth at a bar, downing glass after glass of the strongest liquor.

The doctor's words that I only had three months left to live kept replaying in my mind.

Just as I was half-drunk, I noticed Julian Rhodes in the distance.

He was surrounded by several men who looked like trouble.

"You got a lot of nerve, kid. Either drink to apologize, or pay up!"

The leader, a man I'll call Blondie, was holding a bottle of whiskey and patting Julian's face condescendingly.

Julian Rhodes kept his head down, not saying a word. His eyes were defiant, and there was even a hint of a smirk on his lips.

"Not talking, huh? Fine!" Blondie sneered and dumped the entire bottle over his head.

The liquor trickled down his black hair, soaking his thin T-shirt and outlining the lean but powerful contours of his young body.

In that moment, I don't know what came over me.

I staggered to my feet, walked over, and slammed a stack of cash directly onto the table.

"Is this enough to pay for your drinks?"

After exchanging a look, Blondie and his guys did a complete one-eighty. They grabbed the money with shit-eating grins and left.

In the entire booth, only the drenched Julian Rhodes and I were left.

He looked up at me, the ferocity in his eyes fading, replaced by wariness.

My memory of what happened later that night is hazy.

I only remember that I seemed to have clung to him and wailed all night, letting out all my emotions.

He seemed to be trying impatiently to shake me off the whole time, but I held on tight and wouldn't let go.

When I woke up again, we were already lying in a large hotel bed.

Morning light streamed in through a gap in the curtains, falling on his handsome, clean-cut face as he slept. His long eyelashes were like two little brushes.

I looked at him, and a ridiculous idea suddenly popped into my head.

My life was on a countdown. Rather than die in loneliness and fear, I decided I might as well seize this vibrant splash of color before me and indulge myself one last time.

'I thought that as long as I framed our relationship as a monetary transaction, there would be no emotional entanglement.'

'That way, when the day came for me to leave, neither of us would be heartbroken over the other.'

So, after he woke up, I proposed to become his sugar mama.

After a moment of stunned silence, he chuckled and agreed.

Thinking back now, from the very beginning, I was the clown being played for a fool.

I don't know how long I knelt at the door.

I only knew that my legs had gone completely numb, almost to the point of having no feeling at all.

Just as I was starting to drift off, the door to the private room was pulled open again.

Julian Rhodes walked out. He reeked of alcohol, and his hand was simply bandaged.

He seemed surprised to find that I was actually still there, and his steps faltered for a moment.

"Get up."

I used the wall to support myself and shakily got to my feet. The numbness in my legs almost made me fall again.

He subconsciously reached out to steady me, but the moment before his hand touched my arm, he snatched it back as if he'd touched something filthy.

I steadied myself and looked at him, my face devoid of expression.

"Young Master Rhodes, are there any other orders?"