Unexpected Encounter: A Second Chance at Love

When Samuel opened the door, he sighed in relief.

"What? Did you think it was your brother?" Ben raised his brows as he entered the apartment.

"Kind of—" Samuel answered.

"Your brother is coming here on Wednesday, so you have a lot of time to figure something out," Ben remarked. He sat down on the single empty couch. "You can relax for now."

"How do you know when he is coming here?" Joshua inquired.

"Well—" he shrugged. "Forgive us for being more competent and informative than you both."

Keeping quiet for a while, Joshua frowned when he realised something. "Hey, are you calling us useless?"

"I think I should call you stupid too."

"Hey—"

"Josh, calm down." Samuel interrupted him. He then sat down right opposite to Ben. "What is the next move?"

"Nothing." When he frowned, Ben explained, "We just wait for him to come here."

Keeping quiet for a while, Samuel asked, "Is this what Andrew and Owen said?" When Ben nodded, he curiously inquired, "Will that not complicate things even more?"

If Igor came to the city and started investigating the matter more deeply, things would get even more complicated. In order to prevent that from happening, Samuel had thought it would be ebay to stop him from coming to the city. But Andrew and Owen seemed to have different plans.

"It will but if we stop him from coming here, things will get even more complicated," Ben explained.

"That makes sense."

"Hmm, so it's best if you just let him do what he wants to. You both keep acting cool, especially—" he looked at Joshua. "You."

"You are Igor's main target right now," Ben added. "Last time you managed to escape and avoided him completely. But if you do it this time as well, he will figure out that you are up to something. So it's best if you just meet him when he comes looking for you. Just talk to him normally."

Joshua sighed and pinched the space between his brows. The thing he wanted to do was have a face to face conversation with Igor, his former boss.

Ben then looked at Samuel. "Though you managed to keep everything lowkey, you cannot keep this thing from him for a long time. So it's best if you speed up the process and get over it."

Samuel nodded in agreement. "I know and I am trying my best." He sighed, "But things aren't that simple."

"Owen is flying back to Russia next week, he has plans of talking to the investors of the new project Igor is working on right now," Ben remarked. "He will ask them to pull out their investments."

Joshua widened his eyes in shock. "The Caravan project?" When Ben nodded, he exclaimed, "If the investors pull out from that project, Igor will end up nowhere. He has invested so much money on it already."

"The sole objective of starting this project is to make the transport of drugs from one country to another easier," Samuel remarked. "I had plans of putting an end to it as soon as Igor is out of the picture."

"If the investors pull out, the project will stop temporarily," Ben explained. "Igor will get busy sorting things. This will buy us some time to figure everything out."

The plan that Ben told him did sound quite solid and effective provided everything falls in the right place. And since Owen had plans of personally talking to the investors, Samuel was sure things will work out.

"What about the next move?" He inquired. "Do Owen and Andrew have anything else in mind?"

"You have to talk to them about it," Ben answered. "I told you everything I knew."

He then glanced at his watch. "I will take my leave now—"

"Oh come on, stay for a while," Joshua stopped him. "Let's drink some wine."

"Okay," He agreed. Some alcohol after a stressful weekend didn't sound that bad.

When Samuel poured a glass for him, Ben grabbed it and chucked it down in one go.

"Woah—slow down buddy." He chuckled as he poured another glass for him.

"Is something wrong?" Joshua asked. "You look a little stressed and done with life."

"It's nothing." Ben took a sip of the wine.

He was still stressed over his situation with Tina. Though he somehow convinced her to ride home with him, things were still the same between them. He even tried to make some small talk along the ride but nothing seemed to work. Her replies were short and concise. That was so unlikely to her.

"What is it? A woman?" When Ben did not say anything, Samuel chuckled, "So it is a woman."

"Oh…you started dating again?" Realising he had said something inappropriate, Joshua awkwardly cleared his throat. "I mean, you are dating someone?"

"Not dating anyone," Ben answered.

"Don't tell me you are stuck with that ex of yours—" Samuel sighed and helplessly shook his head. "It's been so many years, get over her already. Find a hot chick and started going out. Learn something from Owen."

Ben looked at him and frowned. "You know?"

"About the woman who dumped you and married someone else? Of course I do," Samuel exclaimed. "And it's not just me, everyone knows."

"Yeah, I know too," Joshua added.

"But how?"

"Gossip…duhh—" he remarked. "You ex is friends with Helminth's wife. And you know that guy is the gossip king. Your ex told his wife about it and she told her husband and he told everyone."

"I heard it from one of my colleagues," Joshua said. "He even told me that you were suicidal for sometime, is that true?"

Ben: " "

"There were rumours that you turned gay for sometime, is that true too?"

Ben: " "

Ben was speechless. This was the first time he was hearing such things about it, which was definitely not true.

After the breakup, he did not talk to anyone about it except for a few people he was close with. Though she had cheated on him, he didn't want to tell everyone about it and ruin a woman's image. But who would have thought, almost everyone in their circle knew about it already.

"I am telling you, that woman was not right for you anyway," Samuel stated. "I didn't tell you this before because we were not friends—"

"We are still not friends," Ben remarked.

"Yet— we're not friends yet but I am sure we will be in the upcoming days," he exclaimed. "Anyway, as I was saying. She dated a friend of mine before she started going out with you and I am sorry to say but she kinda did the same thing with him."

Ben pursed his lips and frowned.

"She dated him for quite some time and then cheated on him with another man, which I think is you," Samuel added.

"Women—" Joshua scoffed. "I can never understand them."

"Not all of them, some are easy going," Samuel remarked. "Like your cousin, Rachael."

When Joshua raised his brows, he shrugged, "What? Isn't she easy going?"

"She is married." When Samuel looked at him, Ben firmly stated, "She is married to my boss."

"Do you think I don't know that?"

"Dude, don't tell me you have a thing for my married sister," Joshua scoffed.

"Who said I have a thing for her?" Samuel shrugged. "Do I think she is pretty? Yes. Do I think she is an amazing woman? Of course. But do I have a thing for her?"

He took a sip of his wine. "Not really."

"Boss is gonna kill you," Ben scoffed.

"I don't understand why you are eyeing on a married woman when you have so many other options," Joshua sighed.

"Other options, huh?" Samuel chuckled. "Who are we talking about here?"

"I don't know," He shrugged his shoulders. "But if I have to name some amazing single woman I know personally, it would be Tina and Emma."

"Oh no, Emma is dating George so she is out of the picture," Joshua added. "So that leaves us with Tina."

"Hot?"

"Let's just say that if she wasn't Rachael's best friend, I would have hit on her a long time ago," Joshua stated.

While the two men were passing comments on Tina, someone was burning.

Tightening his grip on the glass he was holding, Ben pursed his lips and glared at the two men simultaneously. He wasn't liking the way they were talking about Tina.

…..

[Collins Mansion]

[Rachael and Andrew's room]

"Do you wanna go out for dinner?"

"Can't we just stay in and eat cup noodles tonight?" she wrapped her arms around his waist. "I am so tired."

"Alright." Andrew kissed the top of her head. "Whatever you say."

"Wait—I don't think we have cup noodles," Rachael frowned.

"Then let's just order some takeouts," he suggested. "What do you wanna eat?"

Rachael was about to answer when her phone started ringing.

"One second—" She grabbed her phone from the bed. "It's Tina."

Andrew gestured her to answer it as he made his way towards his wardrobe.

"Hey—"

"Rach, I need to borrow a dress," Tina sighed. "I am coming to your place."

"A dress? Are you going somewhere?" Rachael inquired.

...