Chapter 1
“Come on, let’s go to the bar tonight!”
Emma flopped onto Maya’s bed, grinning from ear to ear.
Maya barely glanced up from her book.
“You know that’s a terrible idea.”
“Why?”
“You know exactly why.”
Emma rolled her eyes.
Maya sat up and pointed at her.
“You know how I get when I’m drunk. I completely lose control. Literally nobody can handle me.”
Emma laughed and threw a pillow at her.
“That’s because you have zero self-control.”
“Exactly my point.”
“Which is why I’m going with you.”
Maya groaned and buried her face in another pillow.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Emma marched to Maya’s closet and started searching through her clothes.
A moment later, she pulled out a black dress and held it up triumphantly.
“This one.”
Maya immediately shook her head.
“Absolutely not.”
“Oh, absolutely yes.”
“It’s too much.”
“It’s perfect.”
Emma tossed the dress onto Maya’s lap.
“You are wearing this tonight.”
Maya stared at the dress.
“Emma...”
“No excuses.”
“I don’t even want to go.”
“That’s what you said last time.”
“And?”
“You ended up dancing on a table.”
Maya covered her face with both hands.
“We agreed never to talk about that again.”
Emma burst out laughing.
“It was iconic.”
“It was embarrassing.”
“It was legendary.”
Maya threw a pillow at her.
Emma dodged it easily.
“Look, just wear the dress. Who knows? Maybe you’ll meet a handsome guy tonight.”
Maya raised an eyebrow.
“Or maybe I’ll meet another walking red flag.”
Emma shrugged.
“That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
“You’re not the one taking it.”
Emma smiled mischievously.
“Fine. Then think of it this way. Maybe tonight is the night your future husband accidentally spills a drink on you.”
Maya laughed.
“That only happens in romance novels.”
“Exactly. So let’s give fate a chance.”
Maya looked at her stubborn best friend and knew there was no way out of this.
With a dramatic sigh, she picked up the black dress.
“Fine.”
Emma let out a victorious scream.
“I knew you’d say yes!”
The smile on Maya’s face remained long after Emma had rushed out of the room.
Neither of them knew that this simple night out was about to change everything.
The moment they entered the bar, the loud music and flashing lights surrounded them.
Emma immediately dragged Maya toward the drinks counter.
“No way. I’m not drinking tonight,” Maya said.
Emma laughed.
“One drink won’t do anything.”
Before Maya could protest, Emma placed a glass in her hand.
“Emma—”
“Just one.”
One drink turned into two.
Two became three.
And before long, Maya had lost count.
Four.
Maybe five.
As usual, she ended up on the dance floor.
The music pulsed through the room while colored lights swept across the crowd.
Maya moved effortlessly with the rhythm, her dark hair falling around her shoulders as she sang along with the song playing overhead.
“I need someone to hold me close, deeper than I’ve ever known...”
The lyrics flowed from her lips as if she were the one telling the story.
“Whose love feels like a rodeo, knows just how to take control...”
She swayed with the music, completely lost in the moment.
“Are you somebody who can go there?”
“Cause I don’t wanna have to show ya...”
It almost looked as though she and the music had become one motion.
Then suddenly—
A hand wrapped around her waist.
A stranger pulled her toward him.
Maya’s smile vanished instantly.
She shoved him away.
“Don’t touch me.”
The man staggered back but didn’t leave.
Instead, he stepped closer again.
“Come on, sweetheart—”
“I said no.”
He reached for her once more.
Before his hand could touch her—
A fist slammed into his face.
The man stumbled backward and crashed into a nearby table.
The entire area fell silent.
A tall man stood between them.
His expression was cold.
“She said no,” the stranger said.
The man on the floor groaned and tried to get up.
The stranger took a step forward.
“I suggest you stay down.”
Something in his voice made everyone nearby freeze.
Even the drunk man seemed to understand.
At that moment, Maya swayed.
The room spun around her.
Everything became blurry.
And before she could stop herself—
She collapsed.
“Hey!”
Emma rushed through the crowd.
“Maya!”
But before Maya could hit the floor, the stranger caught her.
He steadied her effortlessly.
Emma finally reached them, breathing heavily.
“Oh my God. She’s okay, right?”
“She’s unconscious,” he replied calmly. “Too much alcohol.”
Emma rubbed her forehead.
“Yeah... that sounds like Maya.”
The stranger glanced toward the entrance.
“Where’s your car?”
“It’s outside.”
Without another word, he carefully lifted Maya into his arms.
Emma followed him through the crowd.
Outside, the cool night air hit them immediately.
The stranger carried Maya to the car as though she weighed nothing.
He opened the passenger door and gently settled her into the seat.
Then he fastened her seatbelt securely.
For a brief moment, his gaze lingered on her sleeping face.
Something unreadable flashed through his eyes.
Then he turned toward Emma.
“Have you been drinking too?”
“A little.”
His jaw tightened.
“Wait here.”
He pulled out his phone and made a call.
A minute later, a man in a driver’s uniform came running across the parking lot.
“You’ll go with them,” the stranger instructed.
Emma frowned.
“That’s really not necessary.”
The driver nodded respectfully.
“I’ll make sure you both get home safely, ma’am.”
Emma turned back toward the stranger.
But he was already looking at Maya one last time.
For a second, his expression softened.
As though seeing someone he had once known.
Someone he had never truly forgotten.
Then, without another word, he turned and disappeared into the night.
The next morning, Maya woke up feeling as if someone had dropped a pile of bricks directly onto her head.
“My head...”
She groaned and buried her face into the pillow.
The sunlight pouring through her curtains certainly wasn’t helping.
After a few minutes of suffering, she forced herself out of bed and stumbled toward the kitchen.
The first thing she did was grab a glass and squeeze a lemon into it.
She drank the lemon water in seconds.
Then came coffee.
A very large cup of coffee.
Only after finishing half of it did she finally start feeling human again.
Leaning against the kitchen counter, she tried to remember the previous night.
The bar.
Music.
Dancing.
Drinks.
Lots of drinks.
After that...
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Her memories were nothing more than scattered fragments.
She frowned.
“Great.”
Apparently, she had embarrassed herself again.
Though considering Emma hadn’t called to laugh at her yet, maybe it wasn’t that bad.
Hopefully.
A quick glance at the clock made her freeze.
She was running late.
Emma had already left for work.
Maya rushed to get ready.
Forty minutes later, she stepped into the office building with a coffee cup in one hand and her bag in the other.
The moment she entered the marketing department, she noticed something was different.
Everyone seemed unusually excited.
Groups of employees were whispering to each other.
Phones were out.
People were fixing their appearance.
“What happened?” Maya asked one of her coworkers.
The woman looked shocked.
“You haven’t heard?”
“Heard what?”
“Our director retired.”
Maya blinked.
“What?”
“And his grandson is taking over.”
That definitely got her attention.
“His grandson?”
“Yep.”
Another coworker joined the conversation.
“They say he’s brilliant.”
“They also say he’s terrifying.”
“And apparently ridiculously handsome.”
Maya rolled her eyes.
“Of course they do.”
“What?”
“Every rich executive is apparently brilliant, terrifying, and handsome.”
Her coworkers laughed.
One of them leaned closer.
“His name is James Smith.”
Maya paused.
James Smith.
Even his name sounded expensive.
She took a sip of her coffee.
James Smith.
Definitely a rich-person name.
Probably the kind of man who owned three watches worth more than her yearly salary.
The kind who had never worried about bills.
The kind who probably arrived at work in a car she couldn’t even pronounce.
“James Smith,” she repeated quietly.
The name alone sounded wealthy.
For some reason, she found herself laughing.
“Well,” she muttered under her breath, “at least the name fits.”
Completely unaware that in just a few minutes, she was about to come face-to-face with the man Who had carried her home the night before.
And the boy she had never noticed years ago.
Maya wasn’t from a wealthy family.
She came from an ordinary household where every achievement had been earned through hard work, sacrifice, and determination.
She was the only child of her parents, which meant all their hopes and dreams had always rested on her shoulders.
Not that they had ever pressured her.
They simply believed in her.
And Maya had spent her entire life trying to make that belief worth something.
A few years ago, she had left her hometown and moved to New York to build a career for herself.
The city had been everything she imagined—fast, competitive, exciting, and terrifying all at once.
Fortunately, she hadn’t faced it alone.
She shared a small apartment with her best friend, Emma.
The two had met years ago and had become inseparable ever since.
Emma worked as a food instructor and spent most of her time teaching culinary classes, creating recipes, and talking about food with a level of passion Maya would never fully understand.
Maya, meanwhile, worked as a Design Consultant.
It was a respectable position.
A good position.
One that paid the bills and gave her financial stability.
Better yet, she worked for one of the biggest fashion and lifestyle brands in New York.
A company that thousands of young designers dreamed of joining.
Most people would have considered her successful.
But Maya knew the truth.
This wasn’t her dream.
Not really.
Her dream had always been much bigger.
Ever since she was a little girl sketching dresses in the corners of her notebooks, she had imagined seeing her own name on runways.
Her own collections.
Her own designs.
Her own fashion house.
She wanted people to recognize her work from a single glance.
She wanted to become a world-famous fashion designer.
Not someone who simply advised others on their designs.
Someone who created them.
Someone who left a mark on the industry.
For now, however, that dream remained exactly what it had always been.
A dream.
One she kept locked safely inside her heart while she spent her days helping build someone else’s brand.
But every night, before going to sleep, she still opened her sketchbook.
And every night, she drew another design.
Refusing to let herself forget the future she was still chasing.
No matter how impossible it sometimes seemed.
