⭐ Zachary's POV ⭐

The waves lapped the seashore gently, sending a gentle breeze towards me. As I stood on the sandy ground, waves were gently washed up to the shore, wetting my toes in the process. I inhaled deeply, the sweet scent of salty seashore water, capturing every moment. I walked steadily along the shore listening to the gentle song of a whale in the distance. A strong sense of serenity took over the nerves that always seem to strung tightly.

Hands in my pockets, I closed my eyes to focus on hearing my surrounding, feeling them, remembering them. The sound of seagulls flying above me, children shrieking as the waves nearly caught up with them. The distant whooshing sound, feeling the cool breezy wind, messing with my hair. Unknowingly, the sides of my mouth lifted up into a smile.

As my eyes slowly open up, the sight of glittering sun, streaming through thick, rolling clouds was the first thing I saw.

Sadly, good things always have to come to an end. As if I was watching the television, the gorgeous view became pitch black in my eyes.

The shrilling sound of my house phone cut through my foggy mind. This time, my eyes flew open for real. I tried rubbing away the sleep from my eyes. A groan escaped my lips as I sat up to reach for the side table. The damn phone just wouldn't stop screaming until I pressed the answer button.

"Davis," I said.

"Good morning to you, brother! What took you so long to answer the phone huh? Did I interrupt something important?" I could practically hear the smirk in Jake's voice.

"Jake, why are you calling me at," I paused to give the clock a quick glance before continuing. "7 freaking a.m. on a Sunday?!" I purposely ignored his question because it might add more unwanted fuel into his dirty brain.

"Because... The early birds catches the worms!" Jake actually laughed out loud, as if he'd just told me a very funny joke.

"Jake..." I didn't bother to hide the irritation in my tone.

"Oooh, is cranky your middle name, Zach?"

"Jake Anderson! You–" I nearly yelled to the phone when my temper got the better of me.

"Okay! Jeez," Jake muttered under his breath. "Dylan and I are in town, just wanna ask if you can meet us later at 10?"

I pinched the bridge of my nose and successfully stopped heaving a sigh. I wanted to argue that he could have called me at 8 or 9 a.m. However, I decided that it would be redundant to do so.

"Alright. See you both later then. And good morning to you too, Jake," I said.

Jake chuckled at the other end of the line as he said his goodbye before hanging up. I lay back down, tried to fall asleep. But, the annoying fact was, I couldn't. After countless of tossing and turning, I gave up the thought of sleeping. Therefore, I pushed myself upright and headed for the bathroom.

As I stare at the guy in the mirror, I couldn't help but wonder what the hell was Jake and Dylan up to.
*~*~*~*~*~*

The traffic was better than expected, so I arrived 10 minutes earlier. When I thought I was very early, Dylan was already sitting in the bar.

"Hey Dylan! How long have you been sitting here?" I gave Dylan a friendly slap on the back.

"I've just sat down not too long ago," Dylan replied with a grin.

"How's marriage life?" I asked, while a waitress wearing red and black came to get my order.

"Oh man. I would love to say it has been awesome."

"Wait, why?" I asked, but paused as the waitress came back with my drink. "I mean, what's wrong?"

"It's not that something's wrong. It's just not easy for 2 person to live together. But, don't worry, we're working it out."

"Geez, you should have said that earlier. I thought you both have a serious problem."

Dylan chuckled as he gave me a sheepish smile. Both of us glanced at our watches and sighed at the same time. Jake was late, as usual.

"Yo my friends! Why are you guys so early?" We were greeted by Jake's loud voice before he came to our table.

"It's already 10.15am, my friend. Whatever happen to meeting at 10am?" I responded with an eye roll.

"Oh is it? It's 10am on my watch," Jake placed his watch right in front of eyes, too close for me to take a good look. He laughed as he caught the scowl on my face. He signalled for the same waitress to take his order.

Dylan and Jake looked at each other and I could feel that they were up to something. I folded my arms on the table and leant forward. One of my eyebrow was raised as I encouraged one of them to speak up.

"What do you think of this girl, Zach?"

"How do I know? I've never even met her before," I said.

"Just give us any opinion. Maybe how do you think she looks?" Jake replied with a smirk.

"She's," I started as I began to closely examine the photo on Dylan's smartphone. "Quite attractive," I concluded.

"Only quite?" Jake leant closer to me with a look that says 'I can't believe it'.

"Yeah, so?"

"She said you're very good looking," Dylan replied.

"Hold on for a minute. You both have shown her my photo? Why?" I questioned and nearly jumped out of my seat.

"That's not the main point now. You can get to know her more when she's here," Jake said.

When Jake finished his sentence, I was so pissed off that I wanted to strangle him with my bare hands. However, I simply stood up and started walking out.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Jake was quick to react as he planted himself right in front of me.

"Home. I don't need you guys to set up a blind date for me."

"This isn't a blind date, Dylan and I will be here the entire time. Just treat this as getting to know a new friend," Jake explained patiently.

I was thinking about what Jake had said. He did make sense and I was probably over reacting. The bell at the entrance rang softly, I heard Dylan's voice behind me as he greeted someone.

"Oh hey there, Elena!"

I peeked over Jake's broad shoulders and saw a woman with long wavy blond hair stepped into the bar. A huge grin lifted the corners of her pink lips as she spotted us. I could even see a spark of recognition in her grey-blue eyes. She must have recognised me from the photo that was shown to her previously.

Jake turned around to give Elena a friendly hug. When they were done, Elena offered me a shy smile. As Dylan did the introductions, we went back to our table.

Through the course of our conversation, I have learnt that Elena is a veterinarian. She owns a vet clinic at Queens Street. Even though she's the same age as us, she definitely looked younger than that.

"What type of girls do you like, Zachary?" Elena asked shyly. In my peripheral vision, I saw Jake smothering a smile.

"Well, I like girls who have compassion, caring and kindhearted," I replied.

"That actually sounds like someone we know," Dylan scratched his chin as he tried to remember who.

"Who?" Elena questioned as she seemed interested in Dylan's statement.

"Our good friend, Rachel Williams. She was Zach's girlfriend during high school too," Dylan responded.

"Oh. She sounds like a great person. Perhaps I should meet her one day!"

"What for?" This was my question for Elena.

"Because, I like you. I'm sure she knows a lot about you."

The 3 of us were stunned by Elena's straightforward answer. I stared at her disbelievingly. If my eyes weren't playing tricks on me, Elena actually blushed.

Oh boy.

"Elena, we've only just met. I don't want to give you false hope. Besides, I'm not looking for a girlfriend right now," I tried my best to explain clearly my intentions.

"Don't you believe in love at first sight?" Elena looked hurt by my bluntness.

"Honestly, no."

"Why won't you even give me a chance? Am I that bad?"

Grey-blue eyes shimmered with tears, white teeth bit her lips as if to control their trembling.

"Hey hey. You're a great girl, I'm just not the one for you," I reassured her but that didn't appear to work.

Elena totally ignored me as she turned to Jake, fixing him with a  glare that could melt steel.

"You told me that he will like me!" She pointed an accusatory finger at Jake.

"I didn't! I just said he wouldn't mind meeting you!" Jake held up his hands in surrender. He shot me a look, signalling me to help him. But, Dylan beat me to it.

"I'm sure there's some misunderstanding. Calm d-" Dylan couldn't finished what he wanted to say as Elena stomped off angrily.

"Wow. That went well," I mumbled and let out a low whistle.

Author's note :
Hi friends! First up,

for getting In Time to 5.6k reads! You guys are literally the best!! 😘 I really appreciate all the support! 💟 I hope you guys have enjoyed the story so far! 😉