The car screeched to a sudden halt, packing at the very middle of the road. Maria suddenly couldn't go on with her driving, she had to have heard wrong. Today had taken a lot of unexpected turns but this...this had to have been a mistake. First, The Jones Family, second—Harry, now this? Maybe Jackson was finding new ways to frustrate her. "W-what? What do you mean?" She blurted with surprise, "what are you talking about?""Marry me, Maria. You heard right." His head was resting on the seat and his eyes were covered by his arms as they rested on his forehead. His body language showed no nervousness or enthusiasm or fear, but it was quite the opposite for Maria. Her thoughts were clashing and electrical currents ran fervently down her spine. Confusion was the sole emotion she felt. Jackson had been acting weird since his meeting with his father, which she understood. From what she'd noticed, they probably had another clash or a disagreement. What she termed as unfathomable was

She watched the loving glint his eyes darken with sadness and his grip on her hands got loose. He rose slowly and settled on a chair. He sat with a tired slump.Silence swallowed the air and the atmosphere was thick enough to choke. They both choked, on unsaid words, on their feelings and emotions. A knot formed in her chest from seeing him that sad...or was it disappointment?Maria didn't know the next thing to say to him, explaining wouldn't do him any good. One thing she was sure of was that he wasn't a part of her priorities right now. She had far more important things to settle. To achieve, and the moment she gave in to her emotions, the faster she might give it all up. She had seen powerful people get ruined by the myth called Love, and she feared falling into that same trap.He sighed, "can you at least tell me why?"Why? Because I came to the USA to do far more important things. Would that hurt him more? Because I fear emotions and the ties they have on us. Because I don't w

Maria almost tripped as she stood up hurriedly from the chair, appalled by his action. Did he just wipe off ice cream from her lips and licked it, then winked right after!? Frankly speaking, if someone she had feelings for had done that, she would have fainted right on the spot—it was the sexiest thing she'd ever seen a person do to her. She immediately collected herself and shot him a mean glare. "Why did you do that!?" She exclaimed.He placed a finger on her lips to shush her, contrary to what he was about to say, he stilled his loving gaze on her mean one, "By your left, there's a man with completely thinned hair wearing a black coat."She immediately shot her stare in the direction he described."No, no no, don't look." He groaned, obviously frustrated. Well, too late. She shrugged."He is paparazzi itself, definitely. I've caught his tiny eyes glance here a couple of times and I've seen his face on countless occasions." He maintained his adorable smile, "I just made good use o

It was in situations like this that nighttime seemed to pass by fast. In a blink of an eye, the sun was up and blazing screaming for Maria to get off her bed and do something that matters. She sat up with her blanket still covering half of her body and a frown obvious on her face, she had agreed to meet Jackson at ACE last night, they won't be going together — not a good thing — but maybe not seeing him for a while would give her breathing space, the same breathing space she had hoped for last night before collapsing onto her bed like mashed potatoes. Her temple throbbed for no reason and waves of nervousness rose from the pit of her stomach, Maria threw a tantrum, falling on her back and throwing her legs in the air like it made her life any better or easier. Then again, she signed up for this, and hopefully, the pros would outweigh the cons. Since she had taken the first step, she might as well hammer the rest of it perfectly — no room for mistake, especially now that Mrs. Jone

"Dinner? I thought your mother said pretty soon, like in a fairly distant future, I didn't realize it was going to be this fast," she didn't successfully hide her protest as she had wanted to. She would have preferred moping the ocean to going to dinner at the Jones."She's happy, excited even to meet you, and that's the point of all of this. She's the reason this deal exists in the first place." He responded with a little harshness embedded in his tone. Somehow, it seemed to put Maria back on track, reminding her of the reasons they had adopted this method in the first place. He continued, "but she isn't the one who suggested this dinner, it's my father. This is the last piece in order to make the story complete."Oh wow. If Jackson had looked closely enough, he would have seen her mouth agape and her eyes burning with dread. She gulped."Okay, okay. Let's get this over with," she pushed the sliding door that led outside open, "you're driving.""Why?" His brow raised in confusion,