Love business and unexpected connections.

Following a solid night's sleep the night before, Caleb wakes up feeling refreshed. Looking at his watch, he discovers the time to be 7:00 AM and Alex Sinclair, Saint Clair's agent from Pearl Coast will be arriving in Orion today to oversee the project with his company and even though it is Sunday morning, he is neither the church type guy nor religious at all.

Caleb gets ready to make a good impression by wearing a tidy white shirt and fitting trousers, then he grabs his keys and leaves to pick Alex up from the airport.

He wants to make the representative very valued by being very careful about everything that influences his hospitality, hence he is controlling everything by himself even though he could have told his assistant to pick the representative up.

At 8:00 AM Caleb parks his car at Orion International Airport and walks to the arrivals lounge. Looking at the flight status on his phone, he sees that Alex's flight has landed and heads for the Arrival gate.

Caleb sees a large and dominating Alex holding a briefcase, so he walks up to him

"Caleb Wellington," he extends his hand.

"Alex Sinclair," says Alex, shaking Caleb firmly.

Alex is guided from the arrival gate to the cafe where Caleb and he review the project's goals and timelines while having coffee.

Caleb thought that Alex hardly knew anything about the project but Alex exceeded his expectations. His sharp insights and knowledge truly delighted Caleb since he was expecting they would have communication problems.

"I must say, your uncle has great respect for you, Alex," Caleb tells Alex,

"Appreciated Caleb…Working with your team is an opportunity that I do not take for granted,” Alex says and Caleb smiles.

They depart the airport café and the airport generally in no time after ending their conversation.

As Caleb drives Alex to his office, he enjoys Orion's breathtaking views, and Caleb points out well-known locations and shares the city’s stories.

Though Sunday is supposed to be their leisure day, Caleb shows Alex around his office and introduces him to key team members that he directed to be around, and Alex finds great attraction in the organizational dynamics and infrastructure.

"I think we would enjoy working together, Caleb," Alex replies and Caleb nods in agreement.

"Let's guarantee this project runs well." Alex moves Caleb and agrees.

Caleb doesn't want the two weeks that Alex is scheduled to spend in Orion to be squandered or drawn out, so Caleb encourages Alex to settle into his office as they spend some time organizing the stuff they will be working on the next day.

After they finished discussing business, Caleb led Alex to a nearby restaurant where they had a wonderful lunch and they continued talking about the project details.

"This is only the beginning of a productive relationship," Caleb points out.

As the afternoon came to a close, Caleb felt more certain about their connection than he had before Alex arrived at Orion.

"I should let you off at your hotel, Alex. You should be somewhat tired from the journey.” Caleb looks at his watch as they finish lunch.

“Caleb, that is quite courteous of you. I am not particularly tired, though.” Alex disagrees.

“ The excitement of this endeavor is vibrating through me.” Alex points out.

"Well, in such case I'll show you Orion." Caleb presents and grins.

"We can talk more over specifics tonight over dinner," Alex suggests and it doesn't sit well with Caleb as he has plans with Melanie for dinner but he will have to figure something out before dinner.

Alex and Caleb spent the rest of the afternoon touring the city. Caleb brought him to the Orion Riverwalk, where they walked around the waterfront chatting about anything from business goals to personal interests.

"Hey, Caleb…we should catch up over dinner…I'm buying things.” As the sun sank, Alex suggests.

"Ah, Alex, Let me refer to my calendar,” Caleb says, knowing he had plans with Melanie that same evening but he doesn't want to refuse Alex straight down.

“Hey, should we head straight to dinner right now?” Alex insists and as they walk towards Caleb's car, his head spins for a defense.

"Sorry, Alex, I have plans already." Caleb looks at his watch and apologizes to Alex, realizing it is barely 10 minutes until seven p.m.

"Dining with your girlfriend or something?." Alex raises his eyebrow.

“Not yet, but I am Still, working on it is,” Caleb's grin spread over his face.

"Well, I'm not stopping over here so let us just go to the restaurant together then I'll leave you to see your soon-to-be girlfriend,” Alex laughed loudly.

“Alex, you are unrelenting.” Caleb laughs, not totally at ease with the idea since he knows Melanie is a lovely woman and he doesn't want Alex to get any ideas but he agrees to stop further searching.

“Good…let's go to Bistro Bliss since She chose the restaurant,” Calen informs Alex.

“Is their food good?” Alex inquires.

“This will be my first visit there, but when I went over the reviews, they claimed their food was nice," Caleb answers even though he intended to sort of discourage Alex but Alex stays on Caleb like a tenacious fly.

“Sounds perfect…I'll also get to see your mystery woman.” Alex begins to smile but Caleb doesn't smile as he just focuses on driving.

Arriving at Bistro Bliss, Caleb and Alex find a soothing glow from candles and a hushed murmur of discussion all around.

"Let us grab a table," Alex offers.

"One drink before I leave you to see your mystery woman." As they settle in, Alex orders a whisky on the rocks and Caleb grimaces cynically, seeing Melanie is running late.

"I'll just check in with her," Caleb says as he excuses himself.

"Hey, running late!" He gives Melanie a text.

"Yeah, almost there," Melanie replies after a few minutes.

"My date is here just arriving,” Caleb says as he flashes his phone in front of Alex.

“No hurry…I will move when she shows up.” Alex settles in and picks at his drink.

Melanie came in and looked around so Caleb waved even if she could not see him.

"Is That...??" Alex's eyes followed Caleb's pointing and discovered the same Melanie, his ex-fiancé, gone nearly a week without anyone knowing where she had disappeared to.

Not sure; maybe someone else. Alex tries to gaslight himself knowing that Melanie has a twin sister that stays in Orion and he doesn't want to create a scene without getting his facts straight.

"Are you able to see me?" Melanie texts Caleb, and he answers positively.

"This section of the restaurant is not matching my aesthetics so let me show you to the VIP lounge," Melanie informs him. That means,

"Excuse me, Alex," Caleb says getting up.

"My date is here," Alex hears him say.

" I'll make another table my target." Alex nods and starts packing his stuff to relocate to another table so that he can get a good look at Caleb’s mystery lady.

"She doesn't want to dine in this part of the restaurant, so I will have to join her then I will pick you up once I finish with her so that I can drop you off at your hotel," Caleb informs Alex and he agrees.

Caleb then walks over to Melanie, who is standing near Ryan, they smile and say nice hello to one another, then Melanie says she's late and apologizes.

"No worries," Caleb remarks.

“You are worth the wait,” Caleb answers her; nevertheless, he can swear he saw Ryan roll his eyes.