Sam insisted on staying, which made their table extremely awkward.
Pedro sighed deeply; he said to Sally as he completely ignored Sam’s presence, “Sally, are you close with the owner of the restaurant? Oli, was it?”
“Yes, the owner is Oli. I’m… her work, so I don’t know what you expect me to say.” Sally awkwardly lied, “But do mind me asking why?”
“It’s just… there’s something off about Oli. It seems to me like she’s hiding something.” Pedro explained, “Whenever I kept asking about the girl who was looking for her parents, the one you announced back then, Oli would seem frantic about it, and she kept changing the subject too. I’m guessing she… must have met Maya or something and just disguised her identity as someone else. I mean, that would explain why you… said it wasn’t Maya. What if Oli intentionally didn’t want anyone to kn
Sally was looking around to ask for help, and she tried to step in. She said to the two of them, “Okay, I think you both had a little too much to drink, let’s just all calm down-““You’re a sly man, Pedro.” Sam continued, “How dare you bring my mother up?”“Oh, so if you do it, it’s fine, but I do it, it’s wrong? You’re such a hypocrite.” Pedro said, “I’ve always hated Alexander, but I realized just how much I hate you more. You have always been this way, Sam. You point out everyone else’s flaws and secrets just to make sure they don’t see yours.”Pedro shoved Sam as he added, “You’re pathetic, whiny, and immature, Sam. You play with girls to hide the fact that you’re scared of being like your father, who was constantly cheated on by your mother. You’re your mother’s bank while you’re your father’s assurance that y
Ryan was still panting, and it was obvious that he had run his way there. He sighed out of relief and said, “Thank god I arrived on time. Are you okay? Were you hurt? Oli?”Oli was dumbfounded to see Ryan in front of her with his arms wrapped around Oli. Oli never noticed it before, but Ryan’s arms were manly. Ryan hugged caught Oli in his arms in such an endearing manner. She was speechless, but soon, she snapped out of it and said, “Ryan… you’re here.”“You called me.” Ryan patted Oli’s head gently and said, “Of course I’d be here. I was worried about you too. Here, stay back. I’ll handle this.”From behind, Oli saw how wide Ryan’s shoulder was. She always knew Ryan had a manly build, but at the moment, Oli’s heart was racing uncontrollably faster than usual. The two had an ongoing cold war, but with just one call, Ryan came running.Oli and Ryan had always
“Oh, come on, you’re ridiculous, you’re overreacting.”“I would be anything just to make sure I won’t lose you. Get that in your mind and accept it as it is.” Ryan sincerely said, and then he left.Oli heavily sighed as Ryan left. She leaned on the bar and averted her gaze at Sally, and she asked, “How are you feeling?”“Probably better than you are right now,” Sally replied.“You’re not going to scold me or anything like it?”Sally shook her head and simply replied, “I’ll let you sort this one out. As frustrating as it is to watch you be so naïve and all, I know I have to let you figure it all out.”Oli softly chuckled as she glanced outside at the starry night, “I just don’t get it. I don’t understand why Ryan… acted that way. I don’t get it at all.”“Are you sure you don’t get i
She was not mentally prepared for that.What was that about? Does he know? Does he remember me? Sally’s thoughts were a mess. She wasn’t entirely sure whether Sam remembered her or he was just playing to get her to confess?Maybe, it was just some coincidence, and I’m reading too much into it? Sally hoped that was the case. No- it was just that. Sally convinced herself that Sam was just playing around.After all, Sally was just another one of his stupid challenges.Her mind was infested with thoughts of Sam again, just like it was back then at the beach. That moment, she loathed that moment most of all because that was almost the moment.The almost where she almost fell in love with SamSally hated Sam because he was a player, a manipulative and dishonest man, but most of all, she hated him because she liked him, and she could not accept that. Sally did not want to.Sally and Oli soon arriv
The next morning, Maya was the first to wake up. Maya looked around and to her surprise, Oli and Sally were sleeping on the floor next to the couch where she slept in. She smiled as she muttered, “Geez, these two….”Just then, Maya heard a knock on the door, so she immediately went to get it, but Ryan was already inside. Maya asked, “Oh, how did you get in?”Ryan showed Maya his keys and said, “Didn’t you know? I have a duplicate. I always drop by early in the morning to make sure Oli’s awake and ate breakfast. Besides, she’s almost always wasted, so I had to bring her back here.”Maya chuckled, “You are truly one of a kind.”“So is she.” Ryan then continued after he dropped off some seaweed soup and bandages, “Oh, these are for Sally. I treated her wounds, but just to make sure it won’t worsen, make sure she takes these medicines.”“Why? Wh
“We were thinking that Pedro was using this information as leverage against you, I mean, knowing you, you’d come running back, but what if there are no leads and he’s just manipulating you,” Sally continued.Maya calmed down after realizing their point. She said, “I guess that makes sense. I’m just… infuriated. Everything that has been happening to me was because of one guy. I left him, no more accurately; Alexander left me to marry Stephanie. Can’t she see that she’s already won? Why do they have to go and do this to me?”“It’s just annoying.” Maya added as she sighed, “I’ve been trying so hard, and yet I still get caught in everyone else’s mess.”Oli patted Maya’s back gently and said, “Hey, don’t look so glum, we got your back, and you got ours. No matter what, we’re here to stay, okay?”Maya smiled.Sally then sai
On the other hand, Maya was still at Oli’s place, bored and tired of being inside. Maya tried all the recipes she knew, she kept creating new ones, too, but it did not suffice. Maya still longs to be in the kitchen with everyone else.Maya stared blankly at the ceiling and muttered to herself, “Now what should I do today?”She browsed the refrigerator to check some ingredients, but as she checked, she noticed that they were running low on their supplies.She looked around, and she could have asked a helper to do it for her, but she did not want to be too much of a burden. Besides, Maya has been inside for weeks now. A breath of fresh air would be nice.Also, the helpers were all busy cleaning and preparing the house. Maya found it odd since she had been at Oli’s place for quite a while. The helpers were obviously rushing, so Maya asked, “What’s with today? Why does everyone seem so tense?”“Oh, right,
They knew some unexpected visitor that Oli herself did not know about was probably up to no good. It was Oli’s house, she knew everyone that would come to visit, but Stephanie was not one of those guests.The helpers guessed that Stephanie was probably just looking for Maya too, which is why the head helper allowed Maya to leave the house in the meantime too.Stephanie squinted her eyes, but there was still no response. After a while, Stephanie cleared her throat and said, “Oh, I’m sorry, I misspoke. You see, my fiancé, Alexander, had this helper back then that liked to cook. I really liked Maya’s cooking. I spoke it out of habit.”Everyone was fighting the urge to just yank Stephanie’s hair. It was like one of those scenes on TV where the evil rival arrived. It was the same atmosphere.Suddenly, the home phone rang, and the head helper answered it, but Stephanie had a strong feeling that it was Oli, so she immed