Too Late to Hold Me Back novel Chapter 653

But if you were a guy, you'd be surrounded by gorgeous women. Why would you ever look twice at me?"

"Well, I'm not exactly surrounded by gorgeous men right now either."

Mira kept up the playful banter.

"You aren't? What about Harvey, Owen, Mr. Grant, and... all the others whose names I can't even remember?"

"Whoa, stop right there. Don't start making things up.

Some of those guys are my friends, some are colleagues, and some work for me. They aren't exactly flocking to me romantically."

"But the way they look at you..."

"I said drop it. No spreading rumors."

Mira hadn't expected Elara, who usually seemed so naive, to be so observant.

"Even if I were surrounded by beautiful women, I'd still marry you. You're the kind of rare, grounding presence anyone would want to come home to."

Mira expertly steered the conversation back to safe territory, cutting off any further gossip.

"If you were a guy, I'd marry you too," Leah added.

Leah said.

"And I'd still choose Elara over you."

"Hey! What's wrong with me?"

"You're too playful, your head is in the clouds, and you're just a little bit of a gold digger. Elara doesn't have a single one of those flaws."

There was another point Mira kept to herself—Leah just wasn't stunning enough to catch her eye anyway.

Elara was undeniably much prettier.

"Don't you think Elara is a little too boring? You have to have some passion in life."

"I've never thought she was boring."

"Mira, you're just trying to piss me off, aren't you?"

...

Laughing and joking, the trio stepped into The Gaming & Anime Collective. This was heaven for Leah, who loved gaming. She stared in awe at the intricate cosplay displays, looking like she never wanted to leave.

"If you like it, sign up. Life can't just be about studying. Who knows, maybe you could even make a career out of this."

But at the same time, she was a young woman who deserved a vibrant, colorful life of her own.

Whatever. At worst, she would just take her time with her academic courses and graduate a little later than planned.

As Mira and her friends walked up to the recruitment booth for The FinTech Society, Harvey Rivers stepped out of the crowd.

"Mira, I was just looking for you! Weren't you trying to find the finance club? This is it."

"Did you sign up?"

"No, I was just scoping it out for you.

If you join, I'll join."

Mira was speechless. Since when had Harvey become so lacking in personal ambition?

"Come on, let's go inside and take a look."

"Hey, it's Mira."

Harvey's entire group of dorm mates were already gathered there.