The Best Damn Thing Cafe, Downtown
A slim server in an adorable uniform leant over to take their orders. Nervously, Myra chewed on her lower lip.
“I’ll have the seared foie gras with caramelised figs.”
She averted Hart’s gaze, fixing her eyes on the menu. Knowing Hart, he would go for something more affordable, but even a pizza or a sundae in this posh cafe would cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. When she and her friends were having hotel-standard dishes at Bali, the cheap prices delighted them extremely.
Jake ordered pasta with salmon caviar, grinning at Hart who merely mumbled, “baked fish rice”. He was indeed a fish out of water. Myra pretended to indulge herself in her newly downloaded bakery game app. She didn’
“Where are we going exactly, Jake?”Myra’s eyes filled with enthusiasm as she repeatedly told herself in her mind; You can do this, Myra. You need to.She knew now Jake was driving them somewhere linked to her father’s disappearance. She hadn’t the heart to ask, after how she had almost let him have her in the cafe toilet earlier.All this while, she was supposed to be Hatta Baderan’s girl. Now, just sitting in his luxury car made her uneasy, especially with the effect he had on her. She knew she might cave in to her desires soon.What was she even thinking? Her wet undies had dried off by now, but she was still feeling guilty. She didn’t want to think of all the possibilities that would have happened inside a public toilet
The sisters sat talking at the dining table when Hart made his appearance. Myra fell silent the moment Hart stepped into the apartment. She just remembered what Jake told her. There was one way he could offer her help, but it might be uncomfortable. For the sake of her father’s businesses, she knew she had to decide soon.Her mind returned to that lone moment with Jake at her father’s empty office three hours ago.“I don’t know, Jake. I don’t know if I can do this,” she said.“It’ll just be an act. Maybe one or two years, then after that, we can be on our own ways.”“I’m not sure, Jake,” she tried to evade him, but Jake inched closer and grabbed her wrist.
Hart relived the moment where he was inside that very forest, where he found Milla. It was dark and eerie, but he continued running forward. He ran and ran, but when he reached the spot where he had found Milla, she was not there.There was no corpse. No Milla. No, nothing.He was all alone. Just silence accompanied him.Then he turned around.Milla’s eyes were bloodshot as she stared at him. He contained himself, but before he could say anything, he heard her voice. She sounded tragic.“Hatta, have you moved on well now that I’m gone?”No, this was not true, his inner voice screamed. He tried to open his mouth, but he could not find his voice.
“What’s up, Myra?”Jake was looking at her with a concerned look. She had been looking listless ever since she peeked out of the door but could not find who she saw earlier.Two months of becoming a CEO transformed him from the douchebag he was in the past, but sadly, another had taken Myra. Although he sensed that she still carried feelings for him, he had to work hard and fast to prevent Myra from progressing in her relationship with that foreign Chinese man. What was his name again? Hatta Baderan.Myra finally gave up. Was she dreaming, or was it really him?“Nothing. I must have mistaken someone for-” she stopped before she said his name. Jake understood immediately.She must have powerful fe
“Jake, I don’t know… if I am ready for this,” Myra said, twirling a loose strand of hair that remained out of her ponytail. Jake halted the sports car just before a red light before attending to her.“There’s another thing, Myra. Your father’s failing businesses. If we undergo this union, for once, you can save them. YX will be willing to lend you financial assistance. At no price.”At the green light, the sports car moved again. Jake focused his attention to the road, driving swiftly in the absence of traffic. It was not a busy day today.Myra hid her trembling fingers under the folds of her dress.“Jake, I don’t want to bother you so...much. What if I… think about it? And you think about it as we
“Dad?”The aged man looked at Myra weakly. Slumped in a wheelchair, her father looked the oldest he had ever been in the last decade. No words came from his mouth, no matter how hard he tried.Myra didn’t remember the last time she had seen him face to face. Because of living in different areas, she would often send him text messages to remind him to take his vitamins and prescriptions, but most of the time, Alfred sent instructions through his right-hand man, Will. She now wondered if he had been sick. At her father’s orders, Will had a close eye on her movements.Then it all stopped.Myra had suspected nothing when she went to Bali. She thought it was the effect Sierra’s mother had on her father and Sierra, the younger daughter herself. Sh
Two Hours Ago, Lightfall ParkHart closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he listened to the leaves rustling beneath his feet.“Are you thinking of someone else?”Hearing her voice, Hart opened his eyes and took in the sight before him. She sounded exactly like Milla, only sweeter. Her name was Waley, and she was an executive like him. When he had to leave abruptly that day for an urgent meeting, it was to discuss the cooperation between his uncle’s company and the company where Waley worked.Since the face-to-face meeting with Jake, his relationship with Myra had taken a toll. But meeting Waley officially not long after seeing her on the road made him think twice about their relationship. No matter what, he didn’t think he could defeat Jake Yu.Jake was young and capable, but it was his young age and the part that he was her childhood love that made him feel so negative about himself. Looking back at the da
When she woke up again from her afternoon nap, a beautiful pink dress lay on the bed waiting for her. She didn’t know when Jake had left the room, but as the space next to her was still warm, she assumed he hadn’t left for long. She refrained from smiling as she thought of how Jake had held her while she was just in her undergarments, while they were in bed. Just a hug; she reassured herself. But no, she knew it was wrong. By lying with a man in bed, it was already cheating. How could she resolve it with Hart? One day, such things were due to come to light. Even then, two months of feelings were difficult for her to put down in an instant. She’ll get to it when it happens. There was a Chinese idiom, “when the boat gets to the bridge-head, it will naturally go straight.” Everything would be fine. Somehow, a deep feeling nestled inside her, telling her she was wrong. Jake and his father sat at the dinner table, as if waiting for her presen