Chapter Two

Blaze stepped into the big house after it was past eleven in the night. In the past few months, he had been working on an important case. Although he has tried to reject the case – on the grounds that there are still many cases being handled and, in fact, there are many other lawyers who are quite reliable – but his superior, the owner of the law firm where he works, continues to insist and say that the client is someone important and wants Blaze himself to handle it.

So, he had no other choice because his boss slightly threatened him not to give him the year-end leave that he had been trying to get for the last few months. Not without reason, he insisted on asking for leave. Apart from that, he rarely takes time off. At the end of the year, he wants to invite Hailey on vacation to Siargao – as well as propose to his lover.

Well, Blaze and Hailey Reyes, college friends and also, she is the daughter of the famous Lawyer Jordan Reyes, who happens to be the owner of the law firm where he is currently working, have been in a relationship for the past six years. A relationship that is quite long considering they are both too busy working to forget about marriage, even though both families are pressing it.

He could have proposed to the woman three years ago, but his girlfriend is currently studying in Japan to get another bachelor's degree and asked to postpone it. Blaze, of course, obeyed his lover's wishes. At the end of the year, his girlfriend plans to return to Manila, and he will take her to Siargao after Christmas Eve and propose to her there. Just thinking about the proposal plan that he had prepared for a long time already made him excited.

"Blaze.." A girl's soft voice woke him and he turned his head towards the living room.

He smiled at the girl and approached her. He then sat next to the girl and rubbed her head gently. "Yes, sweetheart?"

The girl named Benice smiled. "Why did you just come home? Have you had dinner, ehm?" she asked anxiously.

Blaze nodded. "Of course. Then why haven't you slept yet?"

"I'm waiting for you. Ahmm… regarding your meeting with Siegfried Lowells today, didn't it go well?" asked his sister – Benice Schift, the eldest daughter of the Schift family.

He took a short breath and smiled slightly – a little forced. "Yeah, not so good. It seems that he is not interested in marriage. He didn't even ask why you didn't come. He's just busy with his cellphone," he said honestly.

Benice didn't smile. This is the third failed matchmaking attempt. The two previous arranged marriages, she herself came to the first meeting, but the man she was going to match never asked for a second meeting after that. Therefore, in this third match, their mom decided that her brother should be the first to come, just to see how the man would react – in this case, Siegfried Lowells reacted the same as the two previous men, maybe even worse. And Blaze was very grateful that he came and not his sister.

"Sweetheart, don't think about it too much. There are still many good men who are more worthy to be your husband. You better sleep now. I'm so tired too. Good night, sweetheart," Blaze then kissed his sister's cheek and went to his room on the second floor.

While Benice was still silent on the sofa. She breathed slowly. "Good night, Blaze."

*****

Blaze tidied up some documents on his desk. Finally, after months of waiting, he finally got a very difficult year-end leave. Even if it was only two weeks, at least it was more than enough for him. And tomorrow, Hailey will return from Japan and they can prepare for their trip to Siargao. He was so excited just thinking about it that he didn't notice Jae was already in his room. The man snorted and smiled.

"Hey, you look like you're going on a date. Very excited." said the man while patting his shoulder.

He turned and smiled. "I'm not going on a date, but a vacation. I've been waiting for this for a long time. So, see you next year, Jae. Enjoy your duty."

"Hey! Hey! You're so outrageous. Leaving your co-workers with a pile of cases that you delegated to me," Jae protested, who then chose to sit in his work chair.

"Sorry about that. But I think you can hold on. Alright, these are the documents regarding CEO Lee's case. I don't think there's any problem. But if there's a problem, you…"

"I won't call you Blaze. You're on leave. How could I bother you just because of this case? Never mind, you go on vacation in peace with your lover, okay? I'm waiting for good news next year," The man said with a grin.

Blaze just laughed. "Well, I hope so."

*****

Siegfried hissed in annoyance when Cameron pulled him out of his warm room to take a look at the resort that the Lowells Group was about to take over. Well, this actually started with Cameron's agreement with the previous resort owner when he was doing a collaborative project. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to him, the resort was in trouble and he had to intervene himself to take care of it so that the company would not be affected. And another part of the agreement is that Lowells Group takes over the ownership of the resort without having to fire the employees.

He sighed and tightened his coat. "Tell me Cameron, why do we have to go to Siargao in this cold weather? Especially since it's almost Christmas Eve. And why do we have to do an evaluation when the temperature is dropping like this?" he grumbled.

"Well, it's just before sunset. And one of the best views from this resort is that we can see the sunset without having to go to the beach. In addition, at times like this, the resort gets a lot of visitors. We have to see how the employees work, right? After all, they have to meet the quality of Lowells Group, right?" Cameron said.

Siegfried rolled his eyes. His cousin will always have more reasons to relax than work. Even the resort evaluation is part of his plan to get a free vacation. Well, it's not that the Lowells family can't afford their vacation, but their time is very important and most of their time is just focused on work. So, an easy excuse for a vacation is to take a business trip.

"Hell, yeah. I won't easily believe your excuses," he said.

Cameron himself just smirked and pulled him to go around the resort further. Well, the resort is indeed quite spacious and has international class facilities. That's why most of the resort visitors are foreign tourists. At least this is an enormous advantage received by Lowells Group.

They both walked through the path to a large grass field behind the resort, which was still a resort area. Behind the field, they can see the view of the beach. Actually, the resort is located almost close to the cliff, so most of the views are the beach and the sea. And when they arrived, some of the resort staff were preparing a special table for two. Well, it looks like there will be a special event tonight.

Siegfried snorted. "Dinner in this cold weather? Well, whoever made that is really very romantic," he said sarcastically.

"Well, I heard that resorts do provide services like that. Even for the entire year and more in the holiday season. I think if it's night, the view will be worth the chill," Cameron commented.

"Tch… yeah, tomorrow morning it will be confirmed that an ambulance will come because of the pneumonia emergency call. Remind me to discuss this with the resort managers," said Siegfried as he walked again.

Cameron took a deep breath. "He really doesn't have a romantic side. No wonder he can't get married. The one who will be his partner later must suffer a lot," then he followed his cousin, who started screaming in annoyance because he was already cold.

*****