The week had dragged on rather excruciatingly slow for Wendy Li. Despite her injury, her father still required her to attend every single extra-curricular activity he had placed into her summer schedule.

"Winners do not rest", he said patting her head softly. It was only the day after she fell from her bike and Wendy wanted nothing more but to just stay at home and rest.

Then she remembered. Perfect daughters are not one to complain.

There was an upside to her injury however as Wendy was allowed to take a break from sports in order for her ankle to properly heal. That included the dreadful sweaty sport of tennis which she loathed ever since her first forced lesson at the age of nine. But her small victory was fairly short the moment her father announced that Rafe would be the one driving her around town instead since she could not walk or bike to the places she needed to be. Wendy knew there was no use asking for the family driver. Henrick would always push his own daughter toward his business partner's son. 

Thankfully in the last week, Wendy was able to dodge Rafe's advances while busying herself with boring paperwork and advanced studying. This was not the summer in the Outter Banks that she desired.

In both the offices of Cameron Industries and Li Industries, her table was just by the window overlooking the pier. She would always see kids her age in their swimwear about to go to the beach or party with their boats. Sometimes she would even see her best friend Sarah. The pit in Wendy's stomach would feel heavier whenever she did. She was missing out. 

"Are you ready Wends?" Rafe brought her out of her trance.

"Yeah. Just give me a second." She brought her attention to her desk and fixed the order of the paperwork. Though it was not her job to fix the numbers on these papers, the sight of it would always make her head explode in a fit of dizziness. She stacked them together before putting them into color-coordinated folders. 

Rafe peered outside the window where he just saw Wendy stare blankly. He saw some of his friends jump into Kelce's boat. There was going to be another beach party tonight. Rafe was definitely going and he knew Wendy would not be allowed unless he asked her dad for her. But she thought that he was clean and he was determined for it to stay that way. Rafe could not also wait to get out of this prison called Cameron Industries. He only volunteered to work for his dad this summer for two reasons: to outshine Sarah as Ward's favorite and to get closer to Wendy. He looked at the girl with wavy jet-black hair, who was busy packing her things into her tote bag, in admiration. 

"I honestly don't know anyone who is as hardworking as you." He complimented. "I can already see it. Ms. Wendy Li, daughter of business mogul Henrick Li now the CEO of Li Industries on all the billboards." He waved his one hand envisioning it.

Wendy shook her head, "That's not going to happen anytime soon. Trust me."

"Why not? You're the heir to your father's company. I'm the heir to my father's company. It's the perfect match."

"Heir?" Wendy squinted her eyes. Sometimes, she wished Rafe would be more grounded. Humility was not his strong suit. "Don't forget that Wheezie and Sarah exist too. I don't think your dad would be the type of guy who just hands everything down to his firstborn."

"Well, they're both not here right now working their ass off like me. Sarah is probably doing something useless as usual and Wheezie is just weird. I'm the one who deserves the company. Not them." Rafe rolled his eyes getting defensive. 

Wendy scoffed at him degrading his sisters. "You literally just sleep on the couch and disappear from the office whenever your friends call. I'm the one ending up getting all the work you were assigned with." 

Rafe looked at her oddly. Was that the reason why she has been acting tense so lately?  "I thought that you'd appreciate me handing you more stuff to do since you've always liked keeping busy. I've been driving you around all week and all you do is do the most boring shit anyone would not think of doing during the summer. It's all in that itinerary of yours." He grabbed the itinerary from her desk and held it up high when Wendy tried to reach for it. "Henrick seriously forces you to attend tutor and study almost every morning?" He laughed. 

"Rafe it's not funny. Give it back!" She tried reaching for it again only for the itinerary to be dangled even higher.

"You people do base your lives around work huh." He laughed.

Wendy stopped what she was doing and stared at him in disbelief. "Did you seriously just say that? 'You people'? What kinds of people are you exactly referring to Rafe?" She interrogated narrowing her eyes.

"What? Have a sense of humor." He tried to pinch her arm but she moved away.

"Just take me home Rafe." She replied in a flat tone.

Rafe groaned looking up at the white office ceiling and cursed. "C'mon Wends. I didn't mean it like that." Wendy was too offended to even look at him let alone too exhausted from today to even waste her breath from arguing with a tone-death overly privileged white boy like Rafe Cameron."Fine. Fuck it. Whatever, I'll just take a piss first." Rafe believed that the situation became unnecessarily tense and that he was not at fault. He needed to destress. So before hopping into his car with Wendy, he decided to take a few bumps of cocaine in the office bathroom.

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The car ride to the Briar Estate was filled with silence. Rafe had been trying to make conversation with Wendy the entire time even playing some of her favorite music through the speakers of his new Jeep, however, the girl did not budge. Wendy Li just sat there observing silence with her head tilted towards the window. The sun cast a golden shade over the town of OBX as usual and it enticed people from all walks of life of all ages to be out and about enjoying their summer. She wanted to be like them. 

Wendy thought about leaving her house as soon as Rafe dropped her off. She was deciding whether to go to town to meet with Sarah and explore the seafood the Outer Banks was known for. Or at the beach enjoying the sand and maybe even run into that JJ Maybank. She did not understand why she still thought of him randomly. The last time she saw him was when that idiot caused her to fall on her bike and injure her ankle. Her cut has healed and she was no longer limping, however, her father still insisted that she avoid any activities that would prevent her from gaining her strength again. That included putting a temporary ban on her biking which sentenced her to be inside Rafe's car at the moment. It made her even more annoyed at JJ. It was his fault she was in this predicament. Still, in moments when she thought of him, she could not deny her curiosity to know more about this blonde troublemaker.

"-as I was saying. Again, I'm sorry Wends. I'm an idiot and I really should watch what I say at times." 

They were finally in the Briar Estate property, in front of her porch exactly. Wendy decided to finally mind Rafe after his poor attempts of an apology.

"It's okay Rafe. I forgive you. Just don't do that again and don't leave me hanging at the office. I also don't want to be there as much as you but I don't want to let down my father and Mr. Cameron too." Her eyes landed on the white powder on the collar of his shirt. "What is that?"

Rafe looked down and quickly wiped it off in a panic. "Oh shit. Looks like I got powder on me. It's nothing. I was making pancakes for Wheezie earlier."

"You do not make pancakes for your sister."

"I do! I'm not that much for a shit brother for your information. I like treating my youngest sister." 

Wendy believed his lie and was therefore taken back. Growing up as an only child, she always longed for a younger sister. She did not consider herself the perfect role model but she desired someone such as a younger sibling to look up to her and be close to her. Like Sarah and Wheezie who do everything together. "You really did that for Wheezie?" She awed. 

"Of course Wends. I'm a sweet older brother. And speaking of being sweet..." He cleared his throat. "You know that ever since we were younger I have always cared for you and now that you're here-" Oh no. Not again."-I just want to have the chance to take you out on an actual date."

"Rafe, please. Can we just talk about this another time?" Wendy exhaled only to jump back when Rafe hit the steering wheel.

"I'm sorry I did not mean that. I fucked up again. I'm sorry." He rambled shaking his head and hitting himself. 

"Rafe? Stop that." She pried his hands away from his face. She was growing scared.

"I know you do not forgive me for what happened in Hong Kong. It was an accident. You know that. I never intended for that to happen. You have to believe me." He pleaded.

Wendy shuddered at the thought of what happened on that horrible night. She grew up with Rafe Cameron. They were best friends. She thought she knew everything about him. Their romance only started budding when the accident happened. After that, she never saw him the same way again. She heard the car speeding away not even waiting for her to enter her home.

Even from the outside, she could hear voices. One belonged to her dad and the other she was not sure of yet sounded familiar. As she got closer to the door, the sounds of laughter became louder. Wendy did not have to open the door handle as someone from the other end did it for her. 

"Princess, lovely to see you." She was met with the ocean-blue eyes of no other than JJ Maybank.