"Secretary Alice, come to the Gold Coast, now!
Alice Thompson was awoken from sleep by a phone call. She lifted her head to look at the time—it was just two-thirty in the morning.
"Now?"
A lazy and familiar voice came from the other end of the line, chuckling in mockery, "Being my secretary involves being available any time of the day. If you know it's not convenient for you, then resign."
She had a severe cold, and had been groggy after taking some medicine, but after hearing this, she became instantly alert.
She took a deep breath, pinched her thigh to further awaken herself, "Okay, I'll be right there."
Alice hurriedly change her clothes and left her house. The Gold Coast is a well-known bar in Texas city, located in a busy downtown area where cars could not be driven in.
Left with no other choice, Alice had to park her car at the alleyway, and ran the rest of the way in her ten-centimeter high heels. When she finally reached the entrance of the bar, she looked at her watch again.
Two fifty-seven. Well, it only took twenty-seven minutes, still within his expected timeframe.
After adjusting her hair, she walked in. The bar was crowded, but Oliver Sterling was the most eye-catching among them all.
Dressed in a black suit, he sat in a booth, holding a sparkling glass, gently swirling the amber-coloured liquid inside, his silhouette arrogant and distinctive, his posture refined and exceptional—as always, he was able to catch people's attention in a crowd with just one glance. He raised his wrist to check the time, frowning slightly.
Alice dared not delay any further and as she quickened her pace to his side, standing still, she said, "Mr. Sterling, I'm here."
Oliver didn't say a word, and two other voices came from the booth on the opposite side.
"Aha, two fifty-nine! Right before three, just in time!”
"Hahaha, President Oliver is really something. He said it will take her half an hour and it really was a half-hour."
Only then did Alice notice that except for Oliver, there were three more people, two men, and one woman. The two men were sitting side by side directly across from him, and the woman... was sitting on his lap.
With a slight curl to his lips, Oliver turned to the woman in his arms, "I won."
The woman playfully gave him a little punch, "Alright, alright, whatever you want, I'll comply. Happy now?"
The other two men immediately started hollering excitedly.
Alice frowned, "…What did you win?"
One of the men kindly explained to her, "Mr. Sterling here said his secretary is especially competent; no matter when he calls, no matter where she is, she can appear in front of him ready to go within half an hour. We didn't believe it, Suzanne didn't either, so we made a bet to see if you could really get here within thirty minutes."
As he finished speaking, he regretfully placed his car keys in front of Oliver, "Ah, what a pity. My limited-edition sports car, barely driven a few times, and now it's gone."
Oliver picked up the keys, spun them a couple times in his fingers, and said with a smile, "A bet is a bet."
Then he turned to the other man, "And you?"
"Fine, fine, here you go. This is the key to my car too, now yours." After he finished speaking, the man glared at Alice unhappily, "Is the salary of a secretary really that good, Ms. Thompson? Did you really have to be so dedicated? Because of you, I lost a car worth hundreds of millions!"
She bit her lip hard and said nothing. Her gaze fell on another woman sitting next to Oliver. The light in the bar was dim and mottled, she hadn’t noticed this woman's appearance until that moment. The moment she saw her face, Alice's sweat instantly soaked her palms. Sophia Smith, a recent rising star.
The key point is…
She looks too much like that person. Even...more than she does. Oliver, on the other hand, didn't show any particular reaction. He still lazily leaned back on the booth's couch with his long legs crossed, one arm was lying on the back of the couch behind the woman—a posture of ownership. He neither allowed nor rejected the woman who was trying to please him deliberately.
He turned to look at Alice, neither smiling nor angry, his tone was casual, "You can go now."
Alice took a deep breath, slowly exhaled: "So, you called me here in the middle of the night, just for a bet?"
Oliver raised an eyebrow, still smiling like a gentleman, "What else?"
