But then, a friend of Sam’s saw him and enthusiastically greeted him, “Hey Sam! I’ve been looking everywhere for you! I heard about the bet you made with Alexander and today’s the last day. How is it going?”Sam glanced at Sally unconsciously, and his friend saw that. He said, “Oh, is this her? The girl from the bet? You must be Sally.”Sally scoffed, clearly annoyed and replied, “Yes, I am that girl. I am Sally. Do you have any business with me?”“Feisty.” The guy remarked, “By the way, Sam, I heard you drove away with her yesterday. Did that mean you win? Did you get into her pants? Did you use the sad, manipulative technique? You know, the one about telling her about your sad family so she’d come naturally lower down her guard?”Sally flinched upon hearing that, she thought to herself, so that was part of his game. I should have known better. Sally rea

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

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

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

“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