Once I’d gotten dressed and prepped I went to one of my jewelry cabinets. I didn’t rush with this part of my process. Yellow and white gold shone, emeralds and diamonds glittered as they swayed on their hooks. In my mind, every finger was an opportunity for a ring—toes sometimes too. A naked neck and wrist was practically a crime.

If I were stripped of all my clothes, I’d still be dressed. Take off my jewelry though and I’d be naked. I touched nearly every piece, a compulsion, before selecting which ones to wear. Yellow gold and emeralds were tonight’s theme. Peace hummed in my chest each time I dragged my fingers across the golden collar necklace resting on my collarbones.

I shoved a few things in my jacket that I’d need for the night and waved goodbye to the cat, taking the elevator in my penthouse down to the garage. I twirled my keys around my finger as the sound of my heeled boots echoed in the quiet concrete garage. I slung my leg over the bike and brought the beast to life, its engine roaring loudly.

There was a lot of risky behavior that I partook in. Not wearing a helmet was one small thing on a list of many. It just wasn’t something that I concerned myself with. Luck had a way of impacting my life in every capacity.

As I pulled from the garage, all the lights turned green. I headed towards North Hunan—a rundown Chinese restaurant crumbling in the industrial district, on the frayed edge of Chinatown and not too far from my final destination. The tall, square building was painted yellow and surrounded by a tall plastered wall—also painted yellow. Well in theory. Most of the plaster had come off in chunks and both the building and wall were stained brown in dirty splotches.

Driving close, there was no good way to tell North Hunan was still operating. The walls made it impossible to see any lights and the derelict quality it exuded suggested the place had been shut down and abandoned a decade before. One couldn’t even enter from the main street. Instead, I had to turn down the side street and slip into the car-sized entrance in the wall from there.

My bike rolled to a stop in the cracked parking lot. The paint lines separating spots were long gone. The restaurant's windows were all frosted in red, their glow starting to color the parking lot in crimson as dusk crawled closer into night. It was impossible to see inside. All of this made me think the owner was entirely uninterested in attracting new customers off the street.

The bells on the inside of the door twinkled as I pushed it open. A large room with tall ceilings faced me. Round tables with white tablecloths dotted the area. The place was all white walls, wooden furniture, and red and gold accents. Paper dragons, paper lanterns, wooden calendars, fans, and jade knickknacks were everywhere they could manage to fit them, looking both chaotic and well placed. Large bamboo plants leaned in corners. Booths lined the left wall. To the right was an ornate wooden wall, carved with flowers and streams. The wall hid a separate room that wasn’t currently open.