Richest Man: It All Started With My Rebate System-Chapter 41: The Plan Is To Live Good

"Steven?" The woman said, her voice carrying genuine surprise.

"Lena," Steven said, equally surprised.

She looked different from the last time he had seen her. That day she had been stepping out of a car in a hurry, visibly stressed, apologising to a stranger she had just hit on a busy road. Tonight she was composed and unhurried, in a dark evening dress that suited her well, her hair down. The elegance of the restaurant’s setting suited her in a way that suggested she was entirely comfortable in rooms like this.

Not that it was surprising.

"It’s really nice to see you," she said, and the warmth in it was genuine. "You look good. Really good." She paused, and her expression became more personal. "I’m sorry about last time. I’ve thought about it more than once since then. I’m glad you’re okay."

"It’s nice to see you too," Steven said. He looked at her for a moment. "And you look stunning in that dress."

Lena smiled at the compliment, a real smile rather than a polite one.

"You don’t understand," she said, shaking her head slightly. "I was on my way to close a very important deal that day. If we hadn’t resolved it as quickly and as peacefully as we did, I would probably have lost my job. That’s why I’m genuinely grateful to you. Most people in that situation wouldn’t have been as reasonable as you were."

Steven listened and understood exactly where she was coming from.

What she didn’t know was that he was equally grateful to her, possibly more so. The system had appeared after the accident. Whatever mechanism had brought it into his life, she had been part of the chain of events that made it happen. Without that afternoon, without the car and the collision and the strange cold feeling of losing consciousness on the pavement, none of the past week would have existed. He would still be looking for a job, watching his $247 disappear day by day, with no clear end to it.

So when he told her not to worry about it, he meant every word of it.

"I’m glad you were able to close the deal," he said. "Congratulations."

"Thank you." She smiled again, and it became warmer and more relaxed. Her eyes moved briefly to the valet stand and back to him. "It looks like you’ve just finished dining. How about I treat you next time? Please don’t refuse."

"Of course not," Steven said. "Why would I refuse to eat out with someone as beautiful as you?"

The words came out with a confidence that surprised him slightly. He registered it without showing it. He had never been particularly smooth with women. That hadn’t been the version of himself he had been for most of his adult life. But the past week had changed something in how he carried himself, and apparently it extended to this.

It’s true when they say that money boosts a man’s confidence.

Lena looked at him with an expression that suggested she hadn’t expected that either, but that she wasn’t unhappy about it. She actually found it to be sweet.

"Then please give me your number," she said. "So I can contact you and we can set a date."

"Sure," Steven said, and gave it to her.

Lena saved the number immediately.

"Thank you. I’ll be in touch."

"I’ll be expecting it," Steven said.

He gave her a small wave and turned toward the Aston Martin. He got in, started the engine, and pulled out into the evening street.

In the rearview mirror, he caught a brief glimpse of her still standing at the entrance, watching the car pull away. Then the road curved and she was gone.

He drove back toward River Oaks with the city moving past the windows in its evening register.

He thought about Lena briefly as he drove. She was clearly someone who operated at a level that matched the restaurant they had both just left. The deal she had mentioned, the way she carried herself, the ease with which she moved through that kind of environment. She wasn’t new to it the way he was.

It was an interesting thought and he set it aside without pressing it further.

***

Steven stepped into his apartment a few minutes later, dropped his key card and car key fob on the table by the door, and walked to the bedroom.

He showered, dried off, and collapsed onto the bed.

For a long moment he just lay there, looking at the ceiling.

For his first proper fine dining experience, he had not known what to expect. What he had gotten was something that exceeded the version of it he had constructed in his head from years of social media and secondhand impressions.

The food had been genuinely good. And also good in a way that made the experience worth repeating.

The atmosphere, the service, the way everything moved without visible effort. The staff anticipating without hovering. The room staying exactly what it was regardless of how full it became. He had spent two years on the other side of that equation, carrying plates and reading tables and trying to make a difficult environment look seamless, and he had a particular appreciation for how much work went into making it look like no work at all.

He also thought about the bill.

He had genuinely braced himself for something that would have made even his current account balance feel the weight of it. What arrived had been nowhere near that. The entire evening — three courses, a glass of Burgundy, the cheese board, twenty percent tip — had come to just over $1,000.

He smiled at the ceiling.

The version of fine dining that existed on social media and the version that existed in actual restaurants were, apparently, two entirely different conversations. One was performance. The other was just dinner, done properly.

A 3.5x rebate had been applied to the bill, returning just over $3,500 to his account. He had spent an evening in one of the best restaurants in the city and come home with more money than he had left with.

He checked his account balance and saw that it had climbed past $4.4 million.

He lay with that number for a moment. It had grown from barely $250 in under two weeks, through nothing more than spending money on things he actually wanted or needed.

He thought about the upgrade condition. One hundred million in total expenditure. The number was large but not abstract anymore. He had already cleared roughly $600,000 in less than two weeks without particularly trying. The restaurant acquisition alone would add three million to that figure in a single transaction. As his life expanded and his spending scaled accordingly, the pace would accelerate naturally.

He wasn’t in any rush. The system at its current level was already more than he needed. He had no idea what the upgrade would bring, and that uncertainty was reason enough not to chase it blindly. He would get there by living well, which was the only way to get there anyway.

The exclusive points were a separate consideration. The system awarded one point per $100,000 spent, and he had already confirmed that large single transactions were the most efficient way to accumulate them. The restaurant acquisition and any future high-value purchases — all of it would add points steadily. His stats were already above average. He had time to think about where to allocate them.

He was still turning it over when something surfaced in his memory.

He had received an email that morning. He had registered it at the time and immediately forgotten it, absorbed by the deliveries and the training session and everything else the day had packed in. He reached over, picked up his phone from the bedside table, and opened the email app.

The email sat at the top of his inbox, timestamped from earlier that morning. The sender was Meridian Commercial Advisory. The subject line read: Engagement Fee Invoice — Craig Acquisition File.

He opened it and read through it.

The message was brief and professional. Meridian confirmed that the engagement had been initiated following the referral from Chase Private Banking and that work on the commercial due diligence review of Caldwell’s on Westheimer Road would begin upon receipt of the engagement fee. The fee was structured in two stages. The first stage, covering forty percent of the total, was $12,000, due within five business days of the invoice date. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

The remaining sixty percent would be invoiced upon delivery of the completed report.

Steven read it once more, confirmed the account details in the footer, opened his banking app without hesitating and made the transfer.

The system notification appeared immediately at the edge of his vision.

[You spent $12,000. A 5x rebate was triggered.]

[You received $60,000. The money has been transferred to your account.]

He glanced at it with satisfaction. Sixty thousand returned on twelve thousand spent.

He set the phone back on the bedside table and lay back against the pillow.

The due diligence was now officially in motion. Meridian would investigate the restaurant, document their findings properly, and the report would arrive within seven to ten business days. After that, the offer would go to Gerald Holt, and the acquisition would move toward completion.

Steven smiled in satisfaction at the level of progress being made. He turned off the bedside lamp and closed his eyes, slowly drifting off to sleep minutes later.