Love Began with the First Meeting

Suddenly, she felt a warm body next to her. "Eric, did you hire someone to follow me?" she asked, still weeping.

"I'm running a major business group. How would I have the time for that?" Eric teased, rolling his eyes. The truth was he didn't look and sound like the CEO of a company with over a thousand employees. Molly roughly wiped off her tears. "Then how else would you know that I was here?" she asked.

Eric turned to look at the cars speeding past them, his eyes deep in thought. After a few seconds, he replied in a soft voice, "Maybe, I was meant to find you here."

Molly who was too sad and down for anything failed to notice the change in Eric's tone. She lifted her head, trying to keep more tears from falling.

Eric remained seated, no sound, no movement, no anything. He just sat there quietly and listened to her cries.

He intended to talk to Brian about the matters in QY Island as soon as he knew where Brian was. The matters at hand was that a potential project of the Dragon Empire Group might cross a boundary issue with the Grand Night Casino in QY. He was out trying to solve this problem when he was driving past Becky and Molly talking by the side of the road. He watched until Molly had walked away and positioned herself in the curb where they were now.

So what did "meant to be" really mean?

Eric continued to think about this whole thing, still in awe. Sometimes, though, even when he was purposely out looking for her, he'd still feel surprised every time he was able to find her.

"Eric," Molly said, taking a deep breath, "I miss Mark so much. I want to see him so bad but Brian won't let me. What should I do?"

"But, you have the right to see him after two days, right?" Eric asked, tilting his head.

Molly's lips quivered, furious. She wiped off the tears that had fallen near her mouth and asked, "Do you think Brian will let me see Mark?"

"No," Eric responded immediately. He knew what Brian wanted to happen. He was watching Molly's face when he realized that sooner or later, Molly would have to give in to Brian's demands. "Mr. Song's having a party at his villa tomorrow night. It's his granddaughter's birthday. Do you want to go?" Eric suddenly offered.

Molly stared blankly at Eric, her eyes filled with tears. She didn't understand why Eric was changing the subject. She playfully said, "Do you really think I'm in the mood for that now?"

"No but Brian will be there," Eric met Molly's eyes as he continued, "And besides, Mr. Song wants to meet Mark. He heard a lot about him so he's interested in him."

This wasn't rocket science. It was obvious what he was trying to say: Brian was going to be at the party tomorrow with Mark.

"Really?" Molly said, surprised. She was overcome with joy when she saw Eric nodding. Molly stammered, "So I can, can, I can be there too?"

Eric nodded again. He looked at his watch before saying, "It's getting late. Let me take you home."

Eric brought Molly back to her apartment and told her that he would pick her up the next day for the party. Molly climbed the stairs and opened the door. She was surprised to find the living room empty as she often went home to Daniel watching TV here. What she came home to instead was a sound coming from the kitchen.

Molly fixed herself before cautiously taking steps towards the kitchen when she saw Spark cooking. "Spark?" Molly asked, confused.

"Welcome back, Molly!" Spark greeted with an easy-going smile, "I'm cooking soup for you. It'll be done soon."

"You know how to cook?" Molly asked, astonished. She never knew that.

"I just learned!"

Molly fell into silence.

Spark turned back to look at her only to see that her eyes were red. A hint of sadness flashed across Spark's eyes - but it was gone as soon as it came, quickly replaced by playfulness. He boasted, "You should believe in me! This is my new talent!" "Yes, Spark, I do believe in you but I'm not so sure about the cooking..." Molly trailed off, "I can't know until I have tried it."

"Just go change first. It'll be done any minute now."

"Okay," Molly said as she turned around intending to go to her room. But she stopped in her tracks after a moment's hesitation, "Where's Daniel?"

"He wasn't here when I got back-" Spark suddenly stopped himself, some panic showing in his eyes as he looked at Molly. He didn't want her to find out that he had been secretly following her around these past few days. He saw Molly get pulled into Brian's car and he didn't want her to feel embarrassed if she found out that he saw that happen. But most of all, he didn't want to ruin their life of living together. He felt relieved when Molly wholly accepted his explanation without any hint of suspicion. "He left a note, though. Daniel. That he was visiting a schoolmate, I think," Spark added.

Molly just nodded and left. Daniel had grown in A City so she wasn't suspicious of him. But as soon as she turned her back, her nonchalance was immediately gone because the panic in Spark's eyes certainly wasn't missed by Molly. Molly smiled bitterly to herself as she thought, 'He must have seen me getting into Brian's car...'

***

Brian was in the monitoring room at the top floor of the Grand Night Casino. He was sitting in a chair, staring coldly at the screen in front of him. On the screen was a photo of a crowd of gamblers strolling in, out, and about. They knew very well that they could lose all of their money in this place but that didn't stop them from wholeheartedly going in with just the smallest possibility of winning a lot of money. 00000000☐☐☐☐☐☐