Location: Silver Oaks Resort, Maple Ridge. Caleb and Alistair arrive at the Silver Oaks Resort, the luxurious entrance and manicured lawns exuding an air of serenity."Wow, this place is stunning!" Alistair exclaims, eyes wide with wonder. "Told you it'd be worth it." Caleb smiles, his expression masked and Alistair shoots him a strange look. He didn’t know if it was going to be worth it, he just gambled it, hoping that it was going to be worth it, and he is more than grateful that it is. "Dude, what's got you so hyped? You're not exactly the relaxation type." As points out as they check in, on noticing Caleb's unusual intensity. "Just eager to unwind, Al. Let's enjoy the weekend." Caleb chuckles. Alistair raises an eyebrow because he suspects that something else is going on, but says nothing, deciding to just observe Caleb in the meantime. He knows that something must have prompted them to come over to the resort and he knows his best friend too well to know that it should be
After receiving Caleb’s message and panicking for the first 20 seconds, Melanie decides what do to and how to handle the situation, so she texts him back. “Are you stalking me?” she texts him back. “That is such a strong word my love” Caleb replies her almost immediately. “Your first mistake is that you posted a video with your current location on social media and anybody could have used that privileged information to try to harm you, so I came here to keep you safe” he continues. “Keep me safe?” Melanie scoffs. “Who the hell do you think you are? And where exactly are you?” she questions him, looking around frantically. “The man of your dreams, and I am Somewhere, watching over you” He answers her. “It is either you tell me where you are so that I can come and meet you or I leave this resort” she threatens him. “I don’t feel comfortable knowing that you are watching me from the sidelines…it is creepy as hell,” she expatiates. “If you don’t feel comfortable, then tell me
Melanie and Caleb's peaceful slumber is shattered by the incessant pounding on the door. "Mel! Are you okay? I know you are in there” Ryan's voice echoes through the room.Melanie's eyes snap open, locking onto Caleb's. They exchange a panicked glance. Melanie doesn't vocalize her words, but she knows that there is no way that she will let Ryan discover Caleb in her room.Without a word, they freeze, but Caleb doesn't freeze because he is scared of Ryan, he froze because Melanie's anxiety was leaking into him."Don't move." Melanie's heart is racing, as she mouths silently to Caleb, and they both hold their breath. Caleb nods, his eyes fixed on hers but Ryan's pounding grows louder and more insistent. "Mel! Answer me! I'm not leaving until I know you're okay!" Ryan insists but Melanie and Caleb remain statue-still, barely breathing. The tension is palpable."Mel, please... I have a feeling that I saw Caleb lurking around last night. I know he's trouble so If he is in there with you
Ryan felt a mix of emotions, from shock to embarrassment, to hurt, as Melanie storms out of his room. The mixture of his complicated feelings stems from the fact that he did not expect Melanie to react so strongly over him just asking her a simple question. Ryan had no idea, that, asking Mlanie if she slept with Caleb, would be interpreted as him overstepping since she was the one who told him the first time that she slept with him and he was genuinely curious, which was why he asked her. His concern for her clouded his judgment after he went to check up on her in her room, and she didn’t open the door to let him in like she usually did.As he watches Melanie, walk away, his heart sinks and he can’t help but feel that he has lost his footing with her because he has seen her pissed and irritated about stuff before, but he has never seen her this angry. He loved Melanie, since the first day he set his eyes on her, but he has never mustered the courage to tell her, firstly because of w
Melanie storms into her room, the door swinging open with a soft thud. Her emotions still simmer from the heated exchange with Ryan and her mind races with the thoughts of betrayal and overstepped boundaries.As she enters, her gaze sweeps the room, coming to an abrupt halt on the figure lying on her bed. Caleb is sprawled across her bed, half-naked just as she had left him earlier. The sheet rides low on his hips, revealing the defined contours of his chest and abs.Melanie’s breath is caught in her throat, her anger momentarily forgotten as Caleb’s eyes meet hers, a lazy smile spreading across his face. “Hey,” he drawls, his voice husky and for a moment, Melanie stands frozen, her eyes locked on Caleb’s. The tension between them crackles, a mix of unresolved emotions and unspoken desires.The memory of their passionate night floods back, and Melanie’s cheeks flush, most especially because she did not expect to find Caleb still in her bed, looking so relaxed and inviting. “Hey,” sh
Location: last floor of the guest house in Silver Oaks Resort, 77B Maple Ridge, Orion.Caleb walks into the room he shares with Alistair, still smiling after his conversation with Melanie."Hey, man!" Alistair calls out, not looking up from his laptop screen."Hey, Al. What's up?" Caleb drops onto their bed, kicking off his shoes. "Just trying to complete this one mission in GTA Vice City after you left me without a word at the bar yesterday, to go be with a woman that is not yet your woman," Alistair says, though his eyes remain fixed on the screen, his fingers flying across the keyboard, but he rolls his eyes. "Saying that I left you without a word is too big of an allegation, my friend" Caleb chuckles.“I remember mentioning that I would step out to speak to Melanie…” Caleb tries to recall.“Speak not sleep with her right?” Alex corrects.“Oh…shut up” Caleb laughs, heading to the bathroom to freshen up.As Caleb showers, his mind wanders back to Melanie. Their conversation left
As Caleb approaches room 16B, he notices nurses Patel and Thompson huddled near the intercom, exchanging worried glances that make Caleb quicken his steps to get to them ASAP.“Hey, what's up?” Caleb asks, his curiosity piqued.“We are trying to reach Miss Carson…” Nurse Patel hesitates as she speaks.“Mrs. Wellinton,” Caleb corrects.“My bad…we were used to referring to her as Mrs. Wellinton before Ryan asked us to refer to her as Miss Carson” Patel clarifies.“Continue,” Caleb gives the go-ahead.“Ryan gave me a letter, but Nurse Thompson and I don’t want to disturb her if she is resting, even though she barely does that,” Nurse Patel informs him.“Do you have any idea what is in the letter?” Caleb’s eyes narrow, as he stretches forward his hands to collect the note.“It is a letter for the miss, and reading it will mean a total invasion of her privacy, so we don’t know, but Ryan insisted that it was urgent and we promised to hand it over to her as soon as we can, but I am guessing
Melanie storms into Ryan's room, to have a conversation with him, and probably fill him in about the new status of her relationship with Caleb, even though they had quite the misunderstanding less than an hour ago, she still wants to carry him along in what is going on, so that she doesn’t completely shut him out of her life because of a silly misunderstanding, even though she made a mental note to discuss what exactly happened between them calmly on her way to his room, without trying to make it seem like she was intentionally rebuking him. She wants to have a proper conversation with him so that what happened between both of them won’t keep hanging in the air like a bad cloud. Melanie was expecting to find Ryan lounging or lying on his bed, watching TikTok’s, since watching tiktok is slowly starting to become his favorite thing as of late, but instead, she finds room service tidying up his room, without any sign of his things around. “Excuse me,” Melanie says, confusion etched on
“I don’t understand why are being so stubborn and inconsiderate of my feelings, babe,” Caleb says, his eyes flashing with frustration. “I am not being stubborn Caleb, but what part of I don’t want to talk to right now so you do not understand?” Sophia’s eyes narrow. Just as it seems like the argument between Melanie and Caleb is about to escalate, Sophia clears her throat and drops her clutch on the antique glass table. Sophia is dressed to the nines in a sleek black pencil grown and red stilettos heels, her silky black hair cascading down her back. “Caleb, darling… since she doesn’t want to talk to you, I am here ready to talk to you, so let’s catch up because we have so much to talk about!” Sophia exclaims, her eyes lighting up as she sees Caleb’s attention on her, she rushes over to him, throwing her arms around him in a tight hug to mark her territory in front of Melanie. Caleb’s eyes meet Melanie’s over Sophia’s shoulder, and for a moment, they just stare at each other. Mela
As Alistair navigates the streets of Blackwood, he can’t help but feel a sense of unease. He does t know a lot of things about Melanie, but from what Caleb told him, she seems to be really close to her twin sister, for her to leave her comfort zone to come to stay with her, but her sudden refusal to go to her sister's house, sort of threw him off guard, and now Caleb is not saying anything concerning where they are supposed to go from here, and now he is left wondering where to take them.He glances at the rearview mirror, catching a glimpse of his best friend's concerned expression and his babe's stony silence. It is clear that something that she isn’t willing to talk about is seriously bothering her. Alistair’s eyes flick back to the road ahead, his mind racing with possibilities. He contemplates between taking them to Caleb’s house and the hotel since Melanie doesn’t have a place to stay, but just dumping her at his father’s hotel may not be the best idea. Given the tension betwee
As Melanie steps out of the guest house, she can't help but feel a mix of excitement and nervousness because the day started well for her with that really thoughtful gesture from Caleb. However, Shirley's call sort of negatively altered her day. She has been trying not to let it get to her and just figure out a way to deal with her issue with her mom so that things will not get messy at all.She has also been looking forward to seeing Caleb all morning. For some reason, she wanted to speak to him about the latest development, because she didn’t want him to think that he was the problem, or he did something to her when she decided to go MIA like she always does because she can’t come up with a better option, and especially after the lovely breakfast that he had sent her way, she had even taken extra care to dress nicely after Alistair left her room, hoping to make a nice good impression.She has a yellow and black long off-shoulder sundress, with a slit that reaches all the way to the
As soon as Kali drops the call, Melanie’s mind reels. She wonders how she will deal with the situation when she finally gets to that bridge while stuffing all her things in the mini-traveling bag she brought with her.“In the next few hours, I should be out of here, but where do I go from here?” Melanie questions herself as she routinely stops forcing her unfolded clothes into the bag.“The only people I know here are Kali and her little family, but I can't even go back there because what if I get comfortable in my sister's house and my mom decides to pay her a surprise visit?” Melanie ponders, and she shakes her head, to dismiss the idea of going to Kalinin’s house because she knows that for her mom to wake up one morning, and decide to visit her, then she can also do the same to her other daughter and it won't be strange in her dictionary.“I also know Ryan, but that man wants nothing to do with me since he hasn’t left me a message since he left, nor has he tried to even call or rea
As soon as Melanie hangs up the call with Shirley, she puts a call through to Kalinin almost immediately. It tells her that the line is busy, but instead of just letting her sister call her back, she persists with the call until her sister picks up her call. “What the F is wrong with you?” Kalinin asks her angrily as soon as she picks up her call. “Shirley told me that Mom went to Pearl Coast, and I wanted us to agree on what you are going to tell her before you spoil things way beyond what I can salvage for her,” Melanie informs her sister. “What is that supposed to mean?” Kalinin asks pissed. “I figured that you may not be able to come up with something very fast, so I decided to call you immediately,” Melanie let’s get sister know. “You should know that I won’t tell our mother something that you haven’t told her, because I know how she likes to blow things out of proportion and also overreact,” Kalinin hisses as she says. “Whoosh!” Melanie exclaims. “I can’t believe that you
“Hey, I got the surprise delivery that you asked your best friend to deliver to my room, and I am grateful for that.” Melanie’s eyes sparkle with gratitude as she types the text that she wants to send to Caleb before she procrastinates and forgets to do so. As she types, she smiles to herself.She hit send, but the messages only ticked once; they didn’t double-tick, which can only mean one thing: his data is not on or he is not available.“Excuse me, Alistair, do you know where Caleb is? I tried texting him to thank him for the breakfast, but the message didn’t deliver,” Melanie says, frowning as she turns to Alistair.“I’m afraid Caleb is unavailable at the moment, and that is exactly why he sent me here to drop food off for you, so that you can know that you are still on his mind,” Alistair’s expression turns sympathetic.“Is he okay?” Melanie asks with furrowed brows.“He is perfectly fine, there are just a few things that he needs to sort out quickly, which is exactly why he is in
After sorting Caleb out, he goes to the side of the room where Caleb’s stuff is arranged to get an outfit change out of the duffel bag so that he can have a warm bath and change into something fresh. He then goes into the bathroom to take a quick bath because he starts feeling really uncomfortable.While he is busy drying his body, the landline in the room starts to beep, so he quickly gets the call so that it won't disturb Caleb.“Alistair Rolands from room 77B speaking,” He introduces as he picks up the call.“You placed an order for a breakfast platter to room 16B on the fifth floor right?” the caller confirms from him.“yes I did…is there any problem with delivering my order?” Alistair inquires, concerned because the other was placed way over 30 minutes ago.“We brought the delivery to her room door five minutes ago, and we have been knocking since then, but there has been no response from the person inside since then,” The person at the other end of the phone informs Alistair.“
Location: Silver Oaks Resorts, Maple Ridge, Orion.Alistair's eyes slowly flutter open to the soft glow of the morning light peeking through the curtains. He stretches, feeling refreshed and fully sober after a good night's sleep. He glances around the room, expecting to see Caleb asleep in the adjacent bed, but he is nowhere around.Alistair hisses, he throws off the covers and gets out of bed, thinking that Caleb ditched him to go and spend time with Melanie again while he is left lonely and sad in the room at a vacation that was told was going to be compensation for being away from the country for a whole week with a woman that he just met, without giving him a proper explanation, and just shoving all his duties down his throat.On getting into the bathroom, Alistair stands in front of the bathroom mirror, brushing his teeth with a rhythmic motion. As he scrubs, his mind begins to wander to the events of the previous night. Specifically, he isn’t able to shake off the feeling of ma
Location: Silver Oaks Resorts, Maple Ridge, Oakland.Melanie returns to her room, reeling in her good sorts because she didn’t expect to have such a nice time with Caleb. Still, him setting up such a surprise for her during the day, just because she insisted that she didn’t want to talk to him is something that she isn’t able to get over, and then the date wasn’t something out of the extraordinary. However, it was still perfect in its own way, exuding its own uniqueness.She isn’t the type to agree to go on a date easily with someone, but first, it was the dating site that she didn’t have a choice but to check out, then the first date with Caleb at his club where he left a sour taste in her mouth and she made up her mind not to have anything to do with him again, but then the man keeps following her everywhere like he wants more from her.In all honesty, Caleb Wellinton is a good-looking man who screams money even though Melanie doesn’t know his net worth, but after she did him dirty