New York

The restaurant has a beautiful terrace overlooking the sea.

"I know I've already told you, but you look gorgeous," Ayden compliments her again.

"Thank you, you don't have to keep saying it," she comments. "You're not obligated to anything. You know that."

"It's not out of obligation, I genuinely have always believed you're beautiful," he confesses, pausing to take a sip from his wine glass. "Since the first time I saw you at the restaurant for the interview. A bit irreverent, but beautiful," he laughs with a hint of embarrassment.

Arya looks at him, not fully believing it.

"I don't believe you, you barely saw me," she recalls.

"True, maybe I didn't keep my eyes fixed on you, but I did see you, especially when you left," he confesses, and she looks scandalized, causing him to laugh. "That's why I invited you to my apartment, to talk."

"Oh... it's hard to believe. Back then, I was a bundle of nerves and bones," she reminisces sadly. "There wasn't much to see in my rear."

Ayden laughs. I