Meeting again

In the few days since Lucas has submitted his resume and headshots to several talent agencies, Lucas was hopefully waiting for at least a phone call from those talent agencies.

Lucas held his new iPhone 3G carefully. This is the first iPhone of Lucas; even in his previous life, he didn't have the luxury to own an iPhone. It was quite expensive, after all.

And of course, he can afford old iPhones such as iPhone 3G up to 6S or something in his previous life. But considering that Android offers much affordable prices and good performance, Lucas would prefer an Android phone. Of course, even with Lucas's curiosity about having an old model iPhone, he still didn't have such luxury in his previous life. Not to mention, having an old model iPhone in an era where 5G smartphones are pretty common in his home country is quite laughable.

But it was different in this current life of Lucas; in this reality, the world was still in the year 2009, and the iPhone 3G was still relatively new, despite being released in 2008.

Anyway, Lucas went straight to the restaurant early in the morning. When the restaurant opened, a few customers had already entered, and Lucas saw a familiar young woman.

"Wait, isn't she the young woman from the bar?" Lucas thought. Approaching her, he said, "Hey, what brings you here?"

The young woman almost chirped in surprise when someone talked to her. Upon realizing it was the young man who had performed at the bar where she worked, she exclaimed, "You're that guy!"

"I'm that guy!" Lucas chuckled, raising both of his hands as if surrendering.

"How could I forget you!" The young woman, Samantha, playfully hit Lucas softly on the chest with her hand. Then she exclaimed, "You're Lucas, right?"

After saying that, Samantha observed Lucas from head to toe and realized that Lucas was wearing a waiter uniform.

Seeing Lucas's faint smile, she remarked, "I didn't know that you are working here, Mr. Lucas."

"Yeah. Anyway, you're a customer now, right? Have a seat and tell me your order." After feeling a bit happy meeting the young woman once more, Lucas returned to his usual waiter professionalism.

"Well, you don't have to act so serious, Mr. Lucas. I'm here to see my brother." Samantha chuckled as she observed Lucas adopting a professional waiter persona.

"Brother?" Lucas was a bit surprised, then he heard Leonard in the near distance exclaiming, "Samantha!"

Lucas turned to Leonard and noticed that the young woman also had her head turned to Leonard.

"Brother," Samantha nodded to Leonard and approached him.

Meanwhile, Lucas was a bit stunned; he didn't expect Leonard to have a sister, and a beautiful one at that.

What's more, Lucas only came to know the young woman's name to be Samantha.

Knowing Leonard's last name to be Martin, Lucas expected the young woman's name to be Samantha Martin.

Lucas didn't know why, but he felt the name doesn't quite fit. But he was not one to talk; after all, in his previous life, his name was Lucas Calculus.

Fortunately, he didn't have such a freaking stupid name in this life, and he was thankful to God for that.

Around 8:30 PM, after serving the few customers, Lucas noticed more people entering the restaurant. In the meantime, he walked towards Leonard and Samantha, who were having a conversation and occupied a table.

Lucas heard Samantha talking to Leonard.

"Mom was quite concerned about your situation. So she wants me to see how you are faring—"

Leonard, with an annoyed expression, interrupted, "I don't need my little sister watching over me, alright? Just tell her I'm doing fine, better than before."

"Sigh, you're really stubborn," Samantha sighed helplessly.

"I'm not stubborn. I'm just an adult trying to be independent, alright?" Leonard snorted.

"We both know that's not the case. You just didn't like the man that our mothe—"

"Stop. I don't want to hear about it." Leonard interrupted with a frown. Then his face relaxed as he looked at Lucas, who had turned their back on him and Samantha, seemingly trying to hide.

"Hey, how much longer do you want to listen in on our drama?" Leonard said to Lucas, who had his back turned to them. However, Lucas's blonde hair was too eye-catching, not to mention he was still wearing the waiter uniform.

Lucas awkwardly turned to face Leonard and Samantha, who had their eyes upon him. He said as he approached, "I swear, I didn't know you two were in discussions of sensitive topics when I just approached."

"Don't worry about it. It doesn't matter," Leonard replied, not really caring.

"Lucas," Samantha nodded to Lucas in greeting.

Lucas nodded and then sat beside Leonard, feeling shy about sitting next to Samantha.

But Leonard, with his spider sense tingling, sensed something as he sniffed in Lucas and Samantha's direction. Then he asked Lucas, "What led you to approach us, my friend Lucas?" He felt suspicious as he looked at Lucas and Samantha, noticing the way his sister was glancing at Lucas, sensing something happening behind his back.

"Me? Nothing." Lucas shook his head, but Leonard seemed unconvinced.

"Really? I think you just wanted to get close to my sister, right?" Leonard said, stroking his chin.

"What? No way." Lucas denied with an awkward chuckle.

"Wh-what are you saying?" Samantha was obviously the most affected; she even stuttered slightly. When she saw the smug smile on Leonard's face, she became even more defensive, saying, "Lucas and I just happened to meet in a bar, and there's nothing more to that!"

Samantha thought that with that explanation, it would clarify everything. However, Lucas and Leonard fell silent upon hearing her words.

Although Lucas had no experience with women in his previous life, except for when he was acting with an actress, of course, he still felt that Samantha's words didn't feel right.

Sure enough, Leonard smirked when he heard that and decided to tease his sister, and of course, also tease Lucas. He said, "I see... You two have met in the bar... And then..." Leonard's eyebrow kept jumping up and down as he looked at Lucas and Samantha.

When Samantha saw that, her face turned red. Not because she was blushing due to having feelings for Lucas, but because of the anger she was feeling at this moment.

She felt incredibly angry at Leonard. Seeing him still teasing her, Samantha said coldly, "Alright, I'll tell mom about this..."

"Go on, I'm not afraid of her anymore," Leonard felt smug, happy that he could finally get back at Samantha. When they were still living under one roof, she was always snitching, and now, seeing her angry, he felt satisfaction building up.

Samantha couldn't help but grit her teeth in frustration.

Lucas, who saw this, wasn't really sure about meddling in sibling matters, even though it also involved him.

"You shouldn't bully your sister."

Leonard, feeling smug, suddenly froze. He turned towards the voice and saw it was his cousin, Liza.

"Sister Liza!" Samantha greeted Liza, and Liza approached her, hugging her.

Liza patted Samantha's head and then looked at Leonard, who acted ignorantly, seeming to want to return to work. However, Liza stopped Leonard.

As Lucas expected, his friend Leonard received a punishment. Lucas saw that Leonard was genuinely fearful of Liza, and he admired her for that.

After that, Lucas and the others talked for a while.

"What? You met Lucas in the bar?" Liza exclaimed, a bit surprised. She then said, "Did you two really develop—"

Before Liza could finish her words, Samantha interrupted her and explained, "No! It's not what you think! You know I'm working as an artist in Alphabet Lounge; it's not a bad bar. I met Lucas there where he performed...." She explained that Lucas was performing a beautiful piece of music that he had originally composed.

When Liza and Leonard heard that, they looked at Lucas in surprise.

"Really, man? You can sing?" Leonard scrutinized Lucas as he said so.

"Unlike you, Lucas can act and sing. He's a world apart from you, Leo," Liza smiled as she said.

When Samantha heard that Lucas could act, she was actually quite curious, but she didn't think much about it.

Lucas noticed that he had the chance to fully introduce himself. He said, "My name's Lucas Knight, by the way."

Samantha nodded, and before she could introduce herself, Lucas interrupted.

Lucas said curiously to Samantha, "You're Samantha Martin, right?"

When Samantha, Liza, and Leonard heard that, they chuckled.

Leonard said, "You're getting ahead of yourself, Lucas."

Lucas furrowed his brows confusedly and said, "What do you mean?"

Leonard didn't answer, but let Samantha respond, who chucklingly said, "My name is Samantha Taylor."

When Lucas heard that, he was noticeably confused, but he soon got his answer.

"Well, Leonard and I have different last names because Leonard had the last name of our father, while I have the last name of my mother..." Samantha explained to Lucas.

Lucas nodded understandingly.

During the conversation, Lucas learned that Leonard and Samantha's mother had remarried, leading to a split. Leonard took custody of his father's last name, while Samantha took her mother's side. It was complicated stuff.

After that, Samantha bid farewell to the others, giving her contact number to Lucas. Although she was teased slightly, she hurriedly left.

Lucas then resumed his work as usual, and around afternoon, the customers gradually faded out until it was finally 6:00 PM. Lucas's shift was over, so after bidding farewell to Liza and Leonard for the day, Lucas headed out. Just as he walked out, he received a phone call on his new iPhone 3G.

Lucas hurriedly answered it, hoping it might be the talent agency he was looking for.