“CONTRACT GIRLFRIENDS”

Before noon, they reached Palawan.

They stayed at a beautiful first-class resort where modern cottages immediately grabbed Lana’s attention.

"Nice!" Lana heard Rodora exclaim.

Rodora, a regional manager like Lana, was a close colleague, only slightly older at twenty-eight.

“I might meet my Prince Charming here. Can I just stay and live here?” Rodora said, followed by a loud laugh.

Lana chuckled softly at Rodora's comment.

*****

Lana laid herself down on the soft bed inside the small cottage assigned to her.

Every regional manager had their own cottage for privacy, a great privilege of their company.

Later, Lana got up and pushed open the sliding glass door to the veranda. The view was beautiful.

A few meters away was a more elegant and bigger cottage with a white Land Cruiser parked in front.

"Whoever is there is very rich," she said, smiling.

Lana stood there for a while, quietly observing the beautiful surroundings. The light, fresh air caressed her skin, blowing her waist-length hair deliciously.

Suddenly, she felt like someone was watching her. She wandered her sight.

Her chest throbbed when she saw a face smiling at her from the veranda of the cottage with the Land Cruiser.

Perhaps noticing her reaction, he waved at her.

Lord, if this is just a dream. Please, I don't want to wake up!

The other side of her mind.

*****

Andrew watched with amusement as the woman beautifully smiled and waved at him.

She was so beautiful, with long black, straight hair. The cottage wasn't far, allowing him to take a good look at her face.

Perfect nose, round eyes; he couldn’t tell the color. Beautiful, shiny, fair complexion. Tall and a goddess-like figure.

"I like this girl," he said, standing up to talk to her, but was surprised when she suddenly entered her cottage. “Typical Filipina. Shy but I find her sweet, also,” he whispered.

Andrew shrugged, then went back inside his cottage, facing the open laptop on his bed.

He decided to go to this resort for a private vacation.

He had just finished the last TV series that lasted less than a year. Before starting another series with the young actress Amber Sanches, he wanted a vacation.

The resort had one of the more than twenty branches of the coffee shop he and his sister Samantha owned. Their parents built Scott’s Café when they were newlyweds.

Their father, William Scott, a British soldier, loved coffee, and their mother, Zenaida or Zeny, came from a family with a coffee plantation in Batangas.

His grandmother was a well-known actress in her youth.

His mother, beautiful as well, chose a normal life caring for their coffee farm. Their parents got married in the Philippines.

Their Dad chose it due to no divorce. A bitter smile tore from Andrew's lips at the last thought.

He understood his father. He also planned to marry in the Philippines but was unexpectedly taken away due to the interference of death.

Andrew shook his head quickly, erasing that bitter memory.

The first branch of Scott's Café is in Batangas.

Their parents left when they migrated to the UK. After two years in London, Samantha and Andrew returned to the Philippines to run their business.

It had been more than five years since then. Business is the course Andrew completed in London, making it easy for him to learn from his uncle Caesar. His uncle is now in Canada with his family.

He is busy with his acting career but can handle it.

"Don't you have any plans to get married? No one spends years with the women you're related to?"

Once, speaking to his mother Zeny on a video call, that was what she asked after news of his separation from Beth Cortez, the leading lady in his recent TV series.

“Ma, it's like you don't know about this kind of work; almost everything has a contract. So once a project is over, the relationship is over too. If you know what I mean,” he saw one of his Mama's eyebrows rise when she got the meaning.

"Do you mean that Beth is also one of the women who became your contract girlfriends?" his mother asked.

“Ma, I also became her contract boyfriend. Then, as far as I know, I was able to satisfy her, so everything is fair,” he explained, holding back a mischievous smile.

His mother sighed.

“Anyway, that's part of your job as an artist. You're just lucky, and you don't have to choose because you don't have a real-life sweetheart.”

At the last thing, his mother said Andrew smiled sadly.

"I would still prefer private than limelight, Ma," he replied confidently.

His mother smiled sweetly at him. "I know, that is why I'm so proud of you," what she said in her tone of voice.