He stood up and poured two fingers of whiskey into crystal tumblers. One for each of them.
He handed it to her then settled behind his desk, waiting for her to talk.
She took the glass but immediately set it aside to excitedly sign, “I had an idea I wanted to share with you. That baijiu company you bought…my American pop star friend was really curious about it as she has been looking for partnership opportunities that will help her increase her fan base in China. I don’t know if you have any interest at all in becoming a legitimate business. But if you did, I believe that brand, if marketed right, could be worth billions—real billions, not washed billions.”
Victor tilted his head. This was not the discussion he thought they would be having when she sat down. But he couldn’t say he disliked the topic. The Rustanovs were rumored to be trillionaires now. And that was because, under the leadership of Alexei Rustanov, they’d become a legitimate operation at just the right moment in history. Could this be their moment?
“Tell me more,” he invited Nora after a few moments of consideration.
“Sure. All you would have to do is…” Nora launched into a concise explanation of how to grow their baijiu business from Asian-only markets to trending ones in America. Then she concluded with, “I honestly think this could be the next big thing.”
Having never attended university, Victor tended to do business as his father had. With his gut. He liked that Kuang was the same.
But Nora had studied these things formally, and her ideas held merit.
“I will talk this over with my Silent Triad partners and perhaps your father as well. It seems like it could be a great way forward into the future. And perhaps he would like to come on as an investor.”
A pleased smile spread across her elegant face. “Truly? You would talk to my father about this?”
“You seem surprised.”
She dipped her head, her expression a bit sheepish. “My father never listens when I share my ideas. He thinks I’m still a little girl. The same spoiled brat who used to only care about shopping and high school.”
So she resented her father. Victor tucked that new piece of information away before signing, “Thank you for showing me that his assessment of you is obviously not true.”
Still, she shook her head. “It would be better for you to claim this idea as your own. He might dismiss it outright if he hears it comes from me.”
“We’ll see,” Victor answered. “I’m good at reading the room. I will decide for myself which way to go the next time I meet with your father. Thank you for your good advice either way.”
A silence settled between them. At first comfortable and warm. But then slightly awkward.
She picked up the whiskey and finally took a sip before asking Victor out loud, “Is it okay if I don’t use sign language this time? The truth is, I’m only so-so at it. And I want to make sure I’m fully understood.”
Victor disagreed with her assessment of her signing skills. Like him, she took great care to ensure that her signs were crisp and precise.
But he held back his thoughts on the matter. He was more curious about what she’d truly come here to talk about than eager to compliment her.
She took another sip of whiskey. Then a deep breath before saying, “I have been informally engaged to you since I was in secondary school. I never even bothered with boyfriends. I told Baba, ‘What’s the point? You’ve already picked my husband.’ I wonder, though, if perhaps it hasn’t been the same for you.”
Victor stilled, his chest chilling over with the feeling of having been caught doing something he shouldn’t. “What do you mean?”
“Is there someone that you must explain our engagement to?” she asked. “Someone that you love?”
“No,” he signed immediately. Then he refused to consider if that answer was a lie or not.
If it wasn’t true, it should be. And that was all that mattered, especially for this particular conversation.
“Oh, that’s too bad,” Nora answered to his surprise. Her inquisitive expression deflated. “I was hoping we might come to an understanding. You see, there is someone I must explain this arrangement to…someone else that I love.
Victor continued to keep his expression impassive, but it became a little harder as he raised his hands to point out, “You said that you never bothered with boyfriends.”
She lowered her eyes in that demure way that he’d so appreciated at their first meeting. “Yes, that’s what I said. And that’s what I told my father. It is true I’ve never had a real boyfriend. But it is also true that you are not the only reason I didn’t bother with them. You see, I didn’t want a boyfriend. I preferred girlfriends.”
