My Blind Date Called Me a Fish Peddler,He Didn't Know I Own the Ocean

1: 1

I'd barely gotten off a voyage across the Pacific when my mother strong-armed me into a blind date.

The guy was tall, rich, and handsome, and more to the point his family did business with mine, so I figured I'd give it a shot and said yes.

But I'd only just sat down when the buddy he'd brought along pinched his nose and started fanning the air like his life depended on it.

"Where's that reek of dead fish and rotten shrimp coming from? Absolutely revolting."

"There's no end to these gold-diggers these days. Now even fishmongers think they can show up to a blind date?"

I glanced at the water stains on my cuffs and explained, keeping my patience.

"I'm sorry. My family's in the seafood business, so the smell tends to cling to me."

My date rolled his eyes, his whole face full of disgust.

"Seafood business? Nice way to dress it up. You're still just a stinking fish peddler."

"And do you even know whose restaurant this is? You've got the nerve to come on a date with me?"

I looked at that arrogant, chin-up sneer of his and let out a cold laugh.

"Mr. Swanson, have you ever heard of bluefin tuna?"

...

The words were barely out when, before Drew Swanson could say anything, his buddy Earl Perry rolled his eyes hard.

"Bluefin tuna? Let me guess, your next line is that this fancy stuff is what you sell?"

"You catch a few buzzwords on some short video and suddenly you're the queen of the deep sea? Don't make me laugh."

Drew couldn't even be bothered to look at me straight. He pulled his phone out of his pocket

and, taking his sweet time, checked his reflection in the screen and smoothed his hair.

"I might as well tell you. Tonight my restaurant is hosting the first high-society tuna feast in Harborview."

He locked the screen and tipped his chin up high.

"The centerpiece is a three-hundred-pound top-grade bluefin. The cost alone runs over four million."

"In all of Harborview, only my family is qualified to throw a banquet like this. Everyone showing up is a somebody."

"A dirt-poor little nobody at the bottom like you, even getting one whiff of that fish would be aiming way above your station."

Watching him gloat, I shook my head and picked up my teacup, taking a sip.

He probably couldn't have dreamed it in a thousand years. That prize centerpiece he was so proud of was hauled up by my family's fleet.

As long as I didn't give the nod, that fish wouldn't make it into his kitchen even if it went off.

I leaned back a little, my tone turning amused.

"Mr. Swanson, actually, that fish tonight... might not be quite what you're imagining."

"Ugh, I can't take it anymore."

Earl shot to his feet, walked to the wall, and slammed his hand down on the exhaust fan switch.

"God, this room is nothing but dead-fish stink. I'm about to gag."

"Drew, was your matchmaker blind? Dragging every stray cat and dog in front of you."

Drew swept a cold glance over me.

"Stinking fish peddler, is bragging all you can do? Go take a piss and look at your own reflection first."

I didn't make a sound. I just slowly ran my thumb along the rim of the cup.

I was already here. Half an hour of biting my tongue, and I'd have paid off my debt to my mother.

Then, out of nowhere, Earl grabbed the glass of ice water with lemon off the table.

He dumped the whole thing over the legs of my pants and the tops of my shoes.

The cold soaked straight through my socks, and my whole pant leg was drenched, plastered to my skin.

"Just helping you kill that fishy smell. On the house, no need to thank me."

Earl flicked the leftover drops off his fingertips and stepped back with a snicker.

"So you don't walk out of here polluting the air and grossing everybody out."

I didn't blow up on the spot. I just pulled out a tissue, dabbed at it, and lifted my eyes to stare at them.

Drew was infuriated by that look.

The way he saw it, a fish vendor like me daring to look at him like that was an outrage of the highest order.

He smacked the table and stood, then hollered out the door.

"What are you looking at? Given you an inch and now you're glaring at me? Audrey Finch, get in here!"

The door opened at once, and a middle-aged woman in a black work suit hurried in, bent low at the waist.

"Mr. Swanson, what can I do for you?"

Drew pointed at the chair I was sitting in, his face full of loathing.

"The chair she's sitting in stinks now. Get housekeeping and have this chair thrown out."

Audrey glanced at me, the smug superiority of someone borrowing her masters' power written all over her face.

She pulled a big bottle of air freshener out of a storage cabinet, turned, and came toward me.

"Ma'am, I'm terribly sorry, but this chair needs to be dealt with."

"Also, so as not to spoil Mr. Swanson's dining experience, I'll need to give you a quick disinfecting."

2: 2

Audrey held up the can of air freshener and sprayed it hard, all around me.

The sharp lemon scent filled the whole room in an instant, thick enough to leave my throat itching.

I turned aside to dodge it.

She followed right along, pretending it was nothing, and swept the nozzle straight across my face.

"A smell like this, if we don't deal with it, it'll seriously affect the air quality in our restaurant."

I jerked my head away and still caught a mouthful of the reek. I could only keep my face cold, stand up, and take half a step back.

"You're the manager here? Is this how the Swanson restaurant treats its guests?"

Audrey snorted, hugged the freshener to her chest, and looked me over with contempt.

"Guests? Miss, I think you've misunderstood the rules of a high-end place like ours."

"Someone like you, here, we'd only call a beggar."

"Forget disinfecting you. Dragging you out and tossing you in the river to rinse off would be too good for you."

Drew lounged in his chair, one leg crossed over the other.

"You dirty up my turf, and you've still got the nerve to talk back?"

"Tell her what happens when someone soils a chair in my family's restaurant."

Audrey took the cue at once and pointed at the chair I'd been sitting in.

"That's a custom dining chair, Italian imported calfskin, eighty-six thousand apiece."

"Now that the leather's soaked in that heavy fish stink, the chair's basically ruined."

She set the air freshener down on the table and held her palm out toward me.

"Our young master is kind. He doesn't want to make things hard for you. He'll just charge you a nominal fifty thousand cleaning fee."

"But if you won't take the easy way and force the hard way instead, hmph"

Earl whipped out his phone and snapped a burst of shots at me.

"Guys, this is what happens when a toad tries to eat swan meat."

"A fish peddler with the nerve to come on a blind date with Drew, and now she can't pay up so she's getting held at the restaurant. I'm dying."

Faced with the demand and the threat, I still wasn't angry. If anything, I looked at Drew with real interest.

"Mr. Swanson, I don't know whether this chair is worth fifty thousand."

"But I can tell you for certain, your family's losses tonight won't stop at fifty million."

The whole room burst out laughing.

Drew laughed till he was nearly in tears, and waved a hand at Audrey.

"This fish peddler's really gone broke and crazy, still talking big. Audrey, don't waste your breath on this lunatic."

"See what she's got on her that's worth anything, and just take it to cover the debt."

Audrey pulled out her walkie-talkie and pressed the talk button.

"First-floor security, send a few people up to the VIP private room. There's a nobody here trying to make trouble."

Before long the guards pushed through the door and packed the doorway solid.

I glanced around, and the corner of my mouth lifted.

"Mr. Swanson, are you sure you want to push this all the way?"

Drew picked up the red wine in front of him, took a sip, and watched the whole setup with a smile.

"What? Still want to talk tough?"

"Transfer the money like a good girl, and I'll leave you a little dignity, let you walk out the front door."

As he spoke, he jerked his chin at the guards.

"Otherwise I'll have you thrown into the kitchen garbage truck, in with all the rotten fish and shrimp."

Hands in my pockets, I looked around the room, and the whole thing only kept getting more interesting.

Seeing me stay quiet, Audrey took it for surrender and grew smugger still, tilting her head to size me up.

"Girl, take my advice and wise up. Pay up and go, now. Making a scene won't do you any good."

"Our young master Swanson is generous. He might even toss you some scraps to take home."

And with that, while I wasn't looking, she suddenly shoved her hand into the pocket of my jacket.

3: 3

Finch fished the folded slips out of my pocket, gave them a glance, and doubled over laughing.

"The way you were looking at us just now, I thought you were somebody important."

She held the slips up and offered them to Drew with both hands.

"Take a look, Mr. Swanson. Here's this big boss's entire net worth. Five pounds of hairtail, ten pounds of raw oysters."

"All that talk, and she doesn't even have a proper storefront."

"Probably runs some sad little stall on the sidewalk at the market, out in the wind and sun, fighting people for a patch of pavement."

I looked down at the slips and didn't bother arguing with her.

She thought they were a vendor's purchase receipts.

In fact, they were the dispatch orders for my deep-sea fleet.

The professional codes and tonnage numbers on them were nothing a small-timer like Finch could ever read.

Any single one of those slips moved cargo worth eight figures and up.

Earl was laughing so hard her eyes were watering, clutching her stomach, unable to straighten up.

"That's it, that's it, Drew, you've got the worst luck in the world. They set you up with a fish peddler."

Drew frowned, pinched the sheet up by his fingertips, gave it a glance, then dropped it straight onto the floor.

"Disgusting. Get her out of here, now."

"I was wondering why she wouldn't leave. She's got her eye on what our family's got, trying to marry up."

"A rotten tree grows crooked branches. One look and you know her parents have no shame, raising a shameless kid like this."

"Drew's exactly right. What would some broke nobody know about shame?"

That set Earl off again. He picked up a slice of sashimi from the table with his chopsticks.

Waved it in front of my face, then dropped it straight into the trash.

"You know how much this one slice of fish costs? More than your whole family scrapes together scaling fish in a month."

"Those shameless parents of yours, I bet they gave you a hundred warnings before you left the house."

"Told you no matter how much you got cussed out today, you'd better shamelessly pack up as many leftovers as you can and bring them home."

"Give the whole family a taste of meat for once, right?"

My eyes went cold.

Until now I'd taken them for spoiled fools, not worth my time squabbling with two ignorant kids.

Market stall, fishmonger, whatever they wanted to call me. How they saw me, I didn't care.

But there was one thing they never should have done. They insulted my parents.

My parents fought half their lives against the wind and the waves to build the fishing empire Harborview has today.

There isn't a business heavyweight alive who wouldn't greet them with respect and call them their elders.

And these two arrogant brats thought they could tear them down behind their backs?

I bent down, picked the slips up off the floor, folded them, and slid them back into my pocket.

Then I took out my phone.

"I'm going to make a call now, and give you a proper answer."

Drew crossed his arms, contempt all over his face.

"Go ahead. Make your call. I'd love to see who a sidewalk fish peddler can summon."

"Your mom, to come throw a tantrum? Or your dad, to come down on his knees and beg?"

"If you can't get someone here today who can actually fix this, you're leaving with your hide peeled off."

I dialed Bruno, keeping my voice as even as I could.

"Bruno, tell the refrigerated truck to turn around. That bluefin tuna headed for the Swansons, haul it back the way it came."

On the other end, Bruno clearly paused.

"Boss, that fish just got to their kitchen. They're about to unload it"

"Bring it back."

"Understood."

I added one more thing.

"And notify every supplier in the port. Cut off all business with the Swanson restaurants."

"From today on, not one strand of kelp the Henson fleet pulls out of the water gets sold to them."

I hung up.

Drew and Earl exchanged a look and burst out laughing together.

"Drew, did you hear that? She says she's cutting off your family's supply chain."

Drew wiped the tears from his eyes.

"Not bad acting, I'll give you that. But no matter how good the show is, it doesn't change the fact that you're broke."

"So you've made your call. Now what? Is the sky going to fall or something?"

"Finch, what are you standing around for? Get her out of"

At that moment, the door to the private room was flung open from outside.

It hit hard enough to rattle the frame, and the laughter in the room cut off all at once.

4: 4

A man in his fifties stood in the doorway.

The front of his shirt was soaked through with sweat, plastered to his chest, and he was panting like he'd run the whole way there.

The moment Drew saw who it was, his eyes lit up, and he rushed over.

"Dad, you're just in time."

He grabbed Luke Swanson's arm and jabbed a finger at me, his whole face twisted with anger.

"What kind of blind date is this you set me up with? Poor, tacky, and she reeks of fish."

"She's stunk up our chairs, and she's still sitting here bragging and running her mouth. Get someone to throw her out."

Audrey stepped forward too, chest thrust out, eager to prove herself.

"Don't you worry, Chairman Swanson. I was just teaching this girl who doesn't know her place a lesson."

"For putting the young master through this humiliation, we won't let her off easy."

Luke's chest was heaving, and he hadn't taken in a single word his son said.

His gaze went past everyone in the room and locked onto me, and his legs shook without his control.

Earl didn't catch the detail, still bouncing over to pile on.

"You have no idea, sir. She was even putting on an act on the phone just now, saying she'd cut off the supply to your restaurants."

"Faking it like it was the real thing. Hilarious. A street peddler, and she dares talk that big."

I paid them no attention.

I only stood where I was, hands behind my back, my gaze calm on the sweat-drenched Luke.

I brushed the last traces of air freshener from my cuff and spoke lightly.

"Chairman Swanson, it seems this fish seller really can't set foot over your family's threshold."

Drew was still in the dark, clinging to his father's arm, whining.

"Dad? Why are you sweating like this? You look awful. Stop spacing out."

"I've still got to go do my styling for the fish banquet. Don't let someone like her hold up what actually matters."

Before he could finish, Luke flung his hand off.

The force of it sent Drew stumbling back several steps, nearly slamming into the wall.

"Dad?"

Luke didn't even glance at him. He stumbled straight up to me and, with reverence, called out:

"President Henson!"