"You knew about it?" Nicole blurted, taken aback by the fact that he was privy to such information."I can't say I know everything about it, but I had a hunch," Martin admitted.He was well aware of Stanley's feelings for Tia, but the misunderstanding involving him and Tia was a recent discovery to him.Nicole chuckled, finally understanding what he was on about. "So, what about you? Don't tell me you're going to remain single forever.""If I could, I should hope so. Unfortunately..." Martin sighed. 'Unfortunately, that's just not impossible. My family has been urging me into getting married for the past few days. I have a feeling they have been driven into a frenzy because of the amount of weddings they've been attending as of late.'Getting what Martin was trying to convey, Nicole laughed. "If that's the case, you must really consider it. There's a huge possibility that another wedding is coming your way."Martin turned to look in the restaurant's general direction and sighed.
"It's our turn now since you've given her your gift already," Lulu teased."Of course," Stanley said, not in the least surprised by how others had come to know about Tia's birthday.He felt that Nicole knew that today was Tia's birthday, and that she had seen her plan to surprise from a mile away. If his guess was correct, Nicole had informed others of the occasion and its purpose."You've all prepared gifts too?" Tia asked, her eyes widening in surprise.The last thing she had expected him to do was throw her a surprise party by inviting all of their close friends to celebrate her birthday this year. The only other thing she did not see coming was that they had shown up bearing gifts."Of course we did. Preparing gifts is a must for such an important occasion," Lulu replied, before handing her gift to Tia.After everyone had given the items they had prepared to Tia, Preston lowered his head awkwardly and apologized. "Sorry, I didn't prepare any.""Did no one tell you?" Samuel a
"Erm" Tia hesitated, turning to Stanley.Stanley gave Tia's hand a squeeze and said to Cindy, "There's really no need for any gifts. You're more than welcome to join our next gathering if you like.""Woah, really? Does that mean we're friends too?" Cindy exclaimed, becoming even more excited as she had no friends here."Of course. Just come whenever you want," Lulu chimed in."I would love to!" Cindy nodded. "Oh gosh. I'm so happy to be your friend."She had left her native country and traveled all the way to San Joto for Martin, but the prospect of being able to make more friends delighted her, nonetheless."I'll remember to hit you up the next time we gather," Lulu said.She then turned to Martin and asked, "Will you join us next time?"Everyone proceeded to stare at Martin, taking him aback.Feeling awkward and uncomfortable, he answered, "I'll see how things go."Martin would usually be indifferent to casual gatherings, but should the occasion be a special one, he would m
After receiving the bundle of roses, Tia wrapped her hand around Stanley's and helped him up.With his eyes still locked with Tia's, Stanley produced a velvet box from his pocket. After opening it, he took a diamond ring out and gently placed it on Tia's left ring finger."Oh my gosh, congratulations!""Finally, you've taken a load off everyone's mind."Everyone congratulated the couple with joy, though they did not forget to complain about how long they had waited for this day to arrive.Tia's cheeks reddened from the fanfare, while Stanley caressed her hair, smoothening them for her."I'm truly thankful we didn't slip past each other," he said.Stanley would often still cringe thinking about how foolish he was to put Tia at the sidelines. Fortunately, everything had played out the way they wanted now, and from this point onward, they were going to be together forever.With the proposal over with, the restaurant's ambient lights returned to normal, and Stanley led Tia back to
Spencer and Samuel pulled their respective wives over. "Don't worry about them. Let's go back and rest.""Hey, we were just talking," Lulu said, smiling at Spencer.They were concerned about Ellar and Patricia, but deep down, they knew that it was not their place to interfere with other people's business. All they could do was wait and see how it would unfold."Let's go," Cindy said, pulling Martin over as everyone began to go home.Martin, uncomfortable with being touched, broke free from Cindy's grasp. "Alright."Shrugging her shoulders, Cindy went on to bid her farewells to the Riddles. "We'll get going now. Please remember to call me over next time.""You can leave that to me," Lulu promised.She then flashed Cindy the good-luck sign, telling her not to give up on pursuing Martin.Cindy smiled and nodded in understanding, before turning around to catch up to Martin."Are they going to be a thing?" June asked, unfamiliar with Cindy and her situation."I'm not sure, but I d
Nicole could not help but smile at how ridiculous yet valid his concern was. "Come on, dude. That's just an excuse I came up with to comfort Nolan and Lana."In reality, her marriage would concern nobody but herself and Jared. No one else would be able to exert any sort of meaningful influence on the wedding."That's great." Preston issued a sigh of relief.Everything would be fine as long as he did not have a hand to play on whether the wedding ceremony happened or not.Taking on a more serious look now, Nicole looked at Preston and added, "But, you should really start thinking about your own love life.""Yeah, I will." Preston replied.He did not want to suffer the torture of being the only single person in the room every time he hung out with them. Being around these love birds while they harped on the idea that he needed to find someone soon was agonizing to say the least.Nicole then smirked and shook her head. She thought it would be a good idea to just remind him about it
If such was the case, Nicole doubted if she did not think it through from the very beginning.After hearing Nicole's thoughts on the matter, Preston cautiously replied, "You mean that instead of crossing the levels without any sort of help, it seems that someone has been guiding you through the stages from the shadows?""Yes." Nicole nodded. "It definitely feels like that."After giving it some consideration, Preston hazarded a guess. "This means that the application which they have sent Nolan consists of two separate entities. One is on the surface, which is the game Nolan is playing, and the other is a hidden software."Upon further analysis, Nicole deduced that the hidden software should be the one the developer was looking to crack."They're waiting for you to complete it so that they can swoop in and steal your final result." Jared's cold and calm voice blared out.Jared's theory made Preston's eyes widen at an instant. "That's right. It should be just like what you've predi
If Lawrence was truly the one behind all of this, her explanations about the puzzles thus far would make perfect sense.Lawrence had attained the Water Crest, but he had not been able to crack its failsafe and become its bearer, and due to him being unable to seek Nicole's help directly, he had turned to giving Nolan a modified version of the interface masked as a game as his last resort.After all, Lawrence knew Nicole and Nolan well enough to come up with a strategy that capitalized on their strengths. Lawrence had also probably thought that Nolan would forever keep his secrets, making it difficult, if not impossible for them to learn of his true intentions from the boy.If it was in the past, Lawrence would only have to ask a few simple questions to gain a full idea of their progress and the situation they were in, granting him relative ease with achieving his goals. But now that things did not go his way anymore, he had resorted to elaborate trickery.Little did Lawrence know t