“Damn it, Chloe!” Three tedious weeks had gone by and Max hadn’t been able to get through to Chloe. She wasn’t willing to hear anything he had to say, he felt totally excommunicated— a sentence which he believed that he had completely deserved. He had expected her to at least pick up the phone this time to give him some glimmer of hope.Nothing else made sense in his days and nights anymore since she’d thrown that ring at him. It felt like he had his entire world thrown at him with it. He had nothing else to look forward to after dreadfully long hours at work. All his plans of marital bliss were about going down the drain, but he wasn’t going to give up without a fight. He would prove it somehow to Chloe, but for the time being he had to take care of business.“Mr. West,” Mr. Singh’s smile was wide and brilliant. “Thank you for coming over on such short notice.”Max had to put on his best smile as he reached out for a handshake. He remembered that he also still kept the secret of his

“I’ll have to call you back, Chloe.” Ollie had hung up before she knew it.“Oh…” Chloe said. She hadn’t expected to hear such a thrilling story of what had gone down the day before.Chloe put her phone on the kitchen table and glanced up at the ceiling and down. What the heck am I doing? She was clueless about what to do with the long weekend— an awfully long weekend without Max.She had been too pained for the past couple of weeks to realize that she missed him. The feelings of hurt had subsided and now she felt the all-too-familiar feeling of loneliness and boredom haunting her in her house— which Max had helped her get. Everything around her just seemed to remind her lonely broken heart of him.Repeatedly, all through the past two weeks, she had told herself that she would consider moving out but had been too caught up in work to even make a phone call. Besides that, the thought of moving for the third time in a year deterred her. The excuses kept going on and on till she’d wake up

Kylian tapped on the door, hoping that he’d somehow made it to the right door, following Maya’s directions to her place.The block of flats had way more homes than it appeared to have while viewing it from the outside. One could easily get lost in there. It had him wondering how the inhabitants kept from mistaking another door for theirs.He tapped yet again. He heard some faint footsteps approaching the door and expected to see Maya’s dazzling face. He could hear hands working desperately at the lock and that made him brim with anticipation.Finally, he thought, till the door opened for him to see a tall macho man with overgrown beards and tattoos scattered all over his body. The shock from seeing the stranger made him almost unable to speak. He had heavy rock music pounding in his apartment.“Can I help you mate?” his deep voice could make anybody’s knees buckle with frightful intimidation.“Sorry…I came to the wrong door,” Kylian broke out in an uncoordinated stutter, “I was lookin

“It’s on the news, Chloe,” Max stared at the TV screen in wild wonder, calling out to Chloe who came running, “They finally got him.”“Businessman known as Alejandro Navarro has been finally apprehended by the forces on charges of illegal drug trades, manslaughter, sex trafficking…” the TV presenter went on and on with his many dirty deeds.“Damn, he’s got quite a lot going for him at the moment.” Max remarked as he reclined on the couch, “Good thing they got him. There could’ve been trouble if they didn’t.”“Yeah,” Chloe said looking on in anticipation, “Nothing on Diego yet?”“Wait for it.”“Alongside the underground drug lord, the notorious gangster, Diego Gutierrez was also found in the building. After much resistance and shots fired, the swat team was able to break in and apprehend the two men and a few other survivors from the heated exchange. Two hostages were found in the basement of the building, a male and a female, suspected to be victims of his trafficking crimes…” The pre

Max had his shades on as he walked through the construction site on the hot sunny afternoon.“The long-awaited upward progress has finally begun.” Mr. Singh mused as he was almost following all of Max’s footsteps throughout the site.“Isn’t it lovely?” Max replied with a smile. “Feels like we started just yesterday.” He was glad that it had been all running smoothly despite him being occupied with all the many personal challenges that he somehow managed to see himself come out on top.“It sure does.” Mr. Singh seemed like he had a default positive response for everything he had to say. It had Max wondering if he’d ever get to see Mr. Singh mad, even just once. He itched to see that moment, except that it didn’t have to be on the job that he was doing for him.Max believed that it was all because of the remarkable presentation that he had put forth. He strongly believed that it was still speaking for him up until then. He hadn’t questioned his moves and followed him with blind trust. H