"Anyway, how are you guys supposed to retrieve me here without raising suspicion from anyone?"
Alex suddenly raised another concern.
"Don't worry, we already come up with a plan before contacting you."
Samantha butted in and then Rico added,
"We will get you out of there and swapped you with 1096 without anyone knowing."
"Don't worry, Alex. Trust us, we got you covered. Nothing wrong will happen."
This time, it was Mike who gave him his words of reassurance. They thought that Alex was concern that they would get caught that was why he seemed to sound reluctant.
But little did they know that the other party's reluctance did not have anything to do with that. Rather, part of Alex was simply unprepared to leave Shantal's side yet."
"I thought your team would personally get me out of this house with the pretext of a recall notice? Is it not the plan anymore?"
Alex asked in confusion.
They had already discussed their i
"Hey, Alex! Who are you talking with?"Alex went stiff when he heard Shantal's voice from behind him.It turned out that just as when Harold cut their connection with Alex, Shantal, on the other hand, coincidentally walked to where Alex was.She saw him standing in front of her parents' portrait and for all she thought, her robot was only admiring the pictures.Little did she know that the party was actually planning about his escape."Hi, master. How long have you been there?"Alex asked as heAlex tried his best to keep a straight face and asked Shantal in order to gauge how much she heard if there was any."I just got here."Shantal answered without giving it much of a thought. Then she gave Alex a once over. She did not seem to notice anything out of ordinary from Alex so she added,"Anyway, I see that you are ready to go, so what are we waiting for? Come on!"She beckoned to the other party and headed
"Where are we?"Alex found himself asking Shantal that question.It was true that he already got the address beforehand. He even sent it to Harold's team. However, despite knowing its physical address, Alex still had no idea of what kind of place it was until they finally arrived at their destination.It was only when he used his eyes to linger around the area, did he realize that the other party actually brought him to the countryside."You are currently at one of the favorite vacation houses. We will be staying here for a while."Shantal answered him simply as she walked towards the gate.The place was mostly surrounded by fields and it has a huge orchard along with a townhouse. At the same time, it was relatively far from the highway making it hardly accessible to common folks, unless if they would go there using a private vehicle.With those things alone, Alex could more or else deduct that they traveled quite a distan
"I see that Arvin was not with you. Where is he?"Shantal asked Jodi as soon as she sat next to her."Oh, him. I asked him to go and fetched me some milk on the fridge but he has not come back yet. Perhaps he was having a hard time picking which was the right one.""Hmmm???"Shantal raised an eyebrow when she heard that from Jodi.Just how hard could it be for a robot to identify milk???"Don't give me that look, Arvin is no fool. It is just that, I forgot to tell him the difference between the color-coded caps and I happened to place the milk bottle next to the rice wine. That farm that used to supply us those goods does not put labels on its container, remember?. So there is no way he could easily identify it.""Oh yeah, I was aware of that. I remember drinking a rice wine by mistake back when we were a child. That is why since then I never forget the red cap means milk and the yellow one goes to the wine."Sha
"That pretty brain of yours is sure interesting, sweetie."Jodi said with a smile as soon as she accepted the two bottles of beverage that Arvin had handed to her. She clearly did not expect the robot to resolve it that way."For that, I suppose I'll be taking the rice wine instead."She added and opened the one that has the yellow cap. However, before her lips could even touch the lid of the container, Arvin already raised his hand to stop her arm."But Jodi, your alcohol tolerance is so-so, are you sure it would be okay for you to drink?"Seeing this, Jodi put the bottle down and flashed her robot a kind smile."Don't worry about me, sweetie. I can handle myself just fine. Besides, if ever something was blown out of proportion, you would be there at my side anyway. So I'll be fine."She said and when Arvin saw her smile, he relented."Alright, if you say so."He said with a bashful tone, and if only his skin would allo
"There you are, I have been looking for you."Alex exclaimed as soon as she spotted Shantal who happened to be staying under the shade of a tree. He then picked his pace and ran towards her side."What are you doing?"He asked her the moment he got near to where she was and he realized what the other party was actually doing.For some reason, Shantal deliberately made her whole body sweat as she do some aerobics in the middle of the day. It was as if she was trying to tire herself on purpose.Meanwhile, when the other party noticed Alex, she stopped what she was doing and while she was still in the middle of catching her breath, she rubbed her belly."I don't really feel good. My tummy is acting up."Shantal dropped all pretense in front of her robot and told him about the truth. However, she did not tell Alex the reason why she started feeling that way.The truth was, the fact that Jodi suddenly brought up their past and even
Alex first went back inside the townhouse and took something in there and bring it with him outside.He saw a mini park with wooden benches on his way back when he was still looking for Shantal and that was where he planned to bring the other party.As soon as they were seated, Alex lifted Shantal's right arm and without saying a word, he started massaging it; standing from below her armpit down to the tip of her fingers.After that, he made Shantal balled her hands into a fist and deliberately tied a thread around her thumb."Where did you get that?"Shantal blurted out and when all of a sudden, Alex took a thread and needle out from his pocket."Duh? Obviously, I got it inside the house."Alex replied as he fought back his desire to roll his eyes.Shantal, on the other hand, braced herself because she already has an inkling of what Alex was about to do next. Yet as when the needle at Alex's hand was a few centimeters aw
"Are you saying something? Sorry I did not catch it. Can you say it again please?"Oblivious how her untimely distraction had been a blessing in disguise for Alex, Shantal asked her robot to repeat his wordsShe happened to get distracted by a flying butterfly before her eyes just as when Alex had a slip of his tongue and that made her missed what Alex just said."It's nothing."Alex replied shortly as he heaved a sigh of relief and thinking that it was really not important, Shantal no longer pursued the matter and put it at the back of her mind.What she did instead was she changed the topic and expressed her gratitude towards Alex."Anyway, thank you. If it has not been for you, I would have been miserable by myself. To be honest, what you just did to me reminds me of my mom. Nobody has done acupuncture for me since my mom died."Meanwhile, when Alex learned how his action managed to reach a sentimental
"Prior to coming to this place, you told me that we are going to enjoy the rest of the day....""Well, yeah. I kind of recall telling you that thing."Shantal seconded Alex right away the moment she heard him say something."So are you telling me this is your idea of having a blast?Alex asked back with a twitch on his face. Because apparently the two of them were doing nothing but dally inside their air-conditioned room.Shantal was even browsing an online store using her phone while a throw pillow was placed atop Alex's head and she resting her head on it."Thankfully this place has a working WIFI despite it being somewhat a secluded village. I don't know what else I could do without my internet connection."She added afterward with a sigh."Would it not be better for us to go and have some fun outside? After all, I believe we did not travel all the way here so as you could lie around in this room."Alex suggeste