I raise the glass of wine and toast to the man in front of me.

“To us and all the other other lonely, single people in the world,” I joke with a smile on my face, hoping my coworker would crack a smile.

He doesn’t.

Instead, he frowns and crosses his arms. “I didn’t invite you to dinner to play around,” he begins, but I ignore him, choosing to resist the very tempting urge to roll my eyes at him.

“This is some good wine,” I say lightly after I take a sip. “You should try it, Yi Fan, or Kris, or whatever your name is, and maybe you’ll lighten up.”

Kris/Yi Fan/whatever- I’ll address him as simply Kris for convenience, I decide- only frowns deeper. “Will you focus on the task at hand? We need to discuss our new project and-”

“Kris,” I interrupt, “look around the restaurant and tell me what you see.” When he doesn’t, I tilt my head to the side a little. “Go on.”

He sighs, leans back on his chair, and does a quick sweep of the room with his eyes. “I see couples. So what?”

“Do you know what today is?”

“Why is that important?”

“Today is October 14th-”

“I know the date very well, thank you.”

“-also known as Wine Day,” I finish with a glare at his rudeness. He’s unimpressed with my knowledge.

“So?”

“So,” I begin slowly as if speaking to a little child, “couples drink wine and dine in romantic restaurants which is what this place happens to be. And you probably don’t know this, but my boyfriend broke up with me on this very day exactly a year ago, so forgive me for wanting to drink my sadness and the fact that I am single at the age of 26 away.”

Kris stares at me very judgmentally. He thankfully doesn’t say anything though. Instead, he takes a swig of his own wine. We spend the next few minutes in silence, sipping our wine and waiting for our food.

“I’m sorry to hear about you and your boyfriend,” he suddenly breaks the awkwardness.

I sigh. “It’s alright. And I’m sorry for straying away from our real