"Hey, don't forget the proposal!" she yelled at him, and put the folder neatly into his briefcase.

"When did my proposal get this organised and has such a fine cover?" he grinned at her.

"See you later in the office!" he shouted as he left the house.

"Your tie!!!" she yelled and threw it at him as the elevator door closed.

"You are spoiling him too much, Jess." her God-ma said and gave a sigh. She continued "Have your breakfast now and don’t be late for work."

"Thanks, it's ok. You just didn't see how hard he worked for this project." Jess replied as she took a slice of bread and left the house too. She was running late for work.

It's almost lunch time when he got back to office.

"Here's your favourite chocolate muffin!" he dropped the bag onto her desk.

She smiled at him and said "Thanks, Brother. But it's almost lunch-time." She knew he would buy that for her because he knew that's her favourite muffin shop and he had just went to that area in the city for this morning's presentation. "And, how did the presentation go?" she quickly added.

"The presentation was perfect. The folder looked so professional and almost half the battle was won." He winked at her. "But of course, the contents of the presentation also counted. Who could resist or oppose to my ideas?" he bragged. She just shook her head at him, pretending to be embarrassed by his boastfulness.

"Have that for your tea-break then. Let's go for lunch now. I'm so hungry, I can eat a cow." he added on.

"Hey, Louis! Why I don’t get muffin for tea-break?" Joe .

"Because you didn't make me that perfect cover for my proposal." Louis answered and pushed Joe out of the office for lunch. Jessica quickly picked up her bag and followed behind them. She was shaking her head and smiling at them. "Just like two big boys." she thought to herself.

At the sandwich café.

"The usual?" Louis asked Jess and she gave a nod. He proceeded to counter with Joe and he soon returned with the sandwiches and drinks.

"This is your reward. You don't have to pay me back." Louis said to Jess before she could take out the money from her purse to pay him back.

He had gotten her a ham and cheese sandwich, ice lemon tea and a chocolate-chip cookie. She flipped open her sandwich and smiled when she saw that it had no tomato. "Of course, he knew that I hated raw tomatoes." she thought to herself.

"What time did you work till this morning?" Louis asked as he took one large bite off his sandwich.

Out of a habit, she put half her sandwich onto his plate. "Not too late." she said and bite her lower lip. She didn't sleep the whole night. She had just finished organising the folder when she had to wake him up.

Louis saw her biting her lower lip and said, "Don’t lie to me, gal."

"Then, don't ask me!" she talked back to him.

He gave her a light pat on the head and started drinking from her glass when he finished his drink.

Joe could take it anymore and said, "Why do you guys behave as if I’m not even here? And now I know why Louis is always so full that he doesn't need afternoon tea-break."

Jess smiled at Joe and offered her cookie to him. But before Joe could take it, Louis snatched it and said "Who says that I don’t need tea-break? Here it is." And, he waved the cookie at Joe and started to get up. "Please go back with Jess. I’ll need to get something first." he said to Joe before leaving.

Jess and Joe continued their lunch in silence and soon they left the café.

As they were walking side by side, Joe started chatting casually with Jess, "Jess, why do you treat Louis so well? He is such a big bully."

"Because he is my big brother." she said and smiled widely. She felt so lucky to have such a nice big brother who always looked out for her.

"Can I be your brother too? Since being your brother has so many advantages." Joe asked cheekily.

"Nope, you can't. I have only one brother, and no one else can take over him." she said and stuck out her tongue at Joe. Joe laughed. "She is always so cheerful." he thought.

Just at this moment, Jess tripped on a stone and fell forward. Joe quickly caught her into his arms to break the fall. A sense of rushed feelings came over Joe and he felt happy, but he could not explain why.

Jess quickly regained her balance and removed herself from Joe. She blushed and mumbled a quick thank you and hurried towards their office.

Louis was combing the news stand for the latest issue of the IT Games magazine when he saw it being lifted up by another hand. He glanced back at the place where the magazine was lifted and realised that was the last copy.

"Hi. Would you mind to let me have this magazine? I've bought every issue and would like to keep it as a collection. Please." he asked the lady who was holding the magazine.

"Sure. You go ahead." The lady smiled at Louis and handed the magazine to him.

Louis quickly made payment and he was about to thank her when he noticed that she had already left. "How rude I must have been." he thought to himself. "How lovely her smile was! I should have asked for her phone number." he thought again and then smacked himself on the side of his head. "Then I would appear like a ert."

Louis and Jess left the office on the dot that evening for Louis knew how tired Jess must be after working the whole night. When they reached their apartments, Jess had already dozed off in her seat. Louis smiled at her and decided to let her sleep a little longer.

He was reading his latest IT Games magazine when her God-ma called and asked when they would be home for dinner. Jess was woken up by the phone rings and she realised she must had slept for at least an hour in the car since they arrived. They left the car together and went up to their apartments. Louis was walking slightly behind Jess all the way, just to watch over her.

That night, Louis knew that Jess would not have much appetite so he just made her drunk the soup and rushed her to bed.

Jess could feel him left the room. She quietly took out the teddy bear key-chain from her bed-side drawer and held it to sleep. She drifted contently into her dreamland.

Meanwhile, Joe was tossing in his bed. He could not shake off the happy feeling that he felt when he held onto Jess that afternoon. He tried to figure out why. He could only remember being very comfortable in Jess' presence. She was always so cheerful and she never tried judging the people around her. He could be himself in front of her. He could fool around with Louis in front her and not worried about being silly. He never saw the need to impress her for she always accepted him as he was. Suddenly, it hit him. "Have I fallen in love with Jess?" he pondered and smiled. "How am I going to let her know?" and he fell asleep with this last thought.

"Hey, this is for you." Joe handed the chocolate muffin to Jess.

"Thanks. I've taken my breakfast though." Jessica took the muffin and smiled.

"What's the occasion? Why is Mr Stingy buying food for my little sister? What favour are you asking from her?" Louis teased Joe.

Joe gave Louis a hard punch on the arm "Don't call me Mr Stingy. I just happened to see some chocolate muffins for sale so I bought one for Jess. Do you have a problem with that?" he challenged Louis.

"The problem is it is from the wrong shop." With that, Louis walked away, smiling triumphantly.

"Don't worry about it. Thanks for the muffin. I’ll eat it later." Jess quickly said to Joe.

Suddenly, their boss, Bobby, called out "Hey, people! I want you to meet a new colleague. She is Joyce Tang. She just came back from Canada. Do look after her and happy working together."

Jess could not believe her eyes. It's her best friend from the university and they had not seen each other for almost four years. She ran forward and gave Joyce a tight hug. "I can't believe you are here." she gushed out.

"You can let me go now. I can't breathe." Joyce tried to say it with difficulty and pretended be suffocated. Jess quickly let her go. But when she saw Joyce was grinning, she knew she had been bluffed by her again. The two girls then started to giggle together.

Jess realised Joe and Louis were staring at them. She quickly introduced them to Joyce, "This is my brother, Louis, and his buddy, Joe. This is Joyce, my best friend from the university."

Louis could not keep his eyes off this new girl. She was so pretty and had such a charming smile. She looked so stylish with the black suit and knee-high boots. She was the girl who had let him had the magazine yesterday.

Jess, Joyce, Louis and Joe had been hanging out with each other throughout the week. Joyce had gotten used to the work environment and was getting along with the other colleagues.

Once again, they were hanging out at Jess' apartment. The guys were drinking their beers. The girls were happily sharing their ice-cream. Bernice (Louis' younger sister) had joined them for the night.

Bernice asked, "Was it very exciting to do the bungee jump, Joyce?"

"Yes, of course. The most exciting part is when you were about to jump. You are debating with yourself whether to do it or not. But once you jumped, it was all a rush. You just felt yourself going downwards, and then you were bouncing around." Joyce described excitedly.

"Wow! That sounds fun." Bernice was amazed. "Can you also tell us about you sky-diving experience, Joyce?"

"Sure." Joyce went on describing her sky-diving and other adventures.

Joe could not help but asked, "Both of you are so different. How could you be best friends?"

"Because Jess would do my assignment for me, and", "Joyce would keep the boys away from me." they finished each other sentences.

They continued chatting till wee hours in the morning. When the sun finally rose, they made plans to go cycling on the next day and everybody started to leave. Only Bernice and Jess remained to clean up the place. There were beer cans, spots of ice-creams and bits of potato chips on the floor.

"Are you sure you want to go cycling, Jess?" Bernice asked as she threw the beer cans into the trash bag.

While wiping the floor, Jess replied "Why not?"

"You can't cycle." Bernice stated as a matter-of-fact.

"So, it doesn't mean you guys can't enjoy yourselves because I can't cycle. It has been a long time since we play under the sun." Jess said smiling at Bernice.

"You got to think more for yourself." Bernice told Jess when she finally tied up the trash bag and brought it out to discard. Bernice had more meaning to her last sentence. She had noticed Louis' attraction to Joyce and she wanted to warn Jess.

It was pouring that evening and Louis' mood was just like the weather outside – dark and stormy. He was moody because tomorrow's outing would be cancelled if it continued to rain. Jess had been trying to cheer him up for the past two hours. Bernice simply could not care less about her sulking brother and she just continued to watch her television programmes. She even told Jess to save her efforts and let him just rot and grew mouldy.

Louis finally spoke up, "Mum, is there any dessert for supper?"

"Nope, we run out of sugar. Sorry, Son." she replied and continued to watch the television programme with Bernice.

Jess took a look at her watch and said that it was time for her to go home. Louis wanted to walk her back next door but she turned him down saying that it would fine.

"Ding Dong" The door-bell rang. "Who could be at this hour? And it is raining so hard." Louis' mum/Jess's God-ma said curiously. Bernice went to open the door and was surprised to find Jess standing there.

"Jess! Come in quickly. You’re all wet!" Her God-ma rushed over and pulled her into the house.

Jess stretched out her arms with two plastic bags and exclaimed, "Desserts, anyone?" She had a wide smile on her face.

"You're a silly girl. You should have done this." her God-ma reprimanded her.

Louis threw a towel at Jess and started digging into the plastic bags.

"Yours is the black sesame paste." Jess told Louis while she continued to dry herself.

The ladies soon joined Louis at the dining table. Jess put three out of the five sesame dumplings from her bowl into Louis' bowl of sesame paste while trying to dry her hair, and Louis fed her a spoonful of his sesame paste. Louis' mood had finally brightened up again.

When Bernice and her God-ma saw their gestures, they smiled at each other. They looked so much like a couple.

The sun was up and shining. Louis was cheerful and he excitedly went over to Jess' apartment to wake her up.

"Wake up, you lazy Ms Piggy." Louis teased Jess and started to rock her.

Jess did not wake up. Her face looked flushed but she was shivering. Louis noticed something was wrong. He put his hand on her forehead and he immediately frowned. "! You’re running a fever." he cursed.

He went to back to his apartment and instructed Bernice to cancel their appointment with Joe and Joyce. He then ran back to Jess' apartment. He piggy-backed her to the car and drove her to the doctor.

Jess had dozed off and on throughout the day. She vaguely remembered Louis had been feeding her with water and medicine. When she finally woke up in the evening, she saw Louis reading in her couch. She walked over to him and sat next to him. "Sorry, I spoilt your fun." Jess said to him weakly.

He poured the congee that his mum had prepared from the thermo flask into a bowl for her. "Keep quiet and drink this congee." he instructed. He was disappointed that the outing was cancelled but he was not angry because of that. He was angry because Jess was sick, and somehow he was angrier with himself than with Jess.

When Jess had finished the congee, he handed her a piece of tissue for her to clean and he gave her medication to her. He then helped her to bed again.

The following Saturday had arrived and the sun was shining brightly. It was a fine day for outdoor activities. It was their cycling day. Bernice could not join them because she had some other activities.

Louis, Joe and Joyce had each rented a bicycle but they felt bad leaving Jess behind. Jess could not cycle and she had cheerfully offered to look after their belongings while they went cycling. She even tried to convince them that it was perfectly fine because she could catch up on her reading. The trio finally gave in and went cycling without Jess.

Joe did not go far when he decided to turned back. He went to the bicycle shop to exchange for a two-seater bicycle instead. He then returned to Jess. He grinned at her, "Do you care to join me?"

"Are you sure? I really can't cycle." Jess hesitated.

"No worry. I'll manoeuvre this. You can just sit back or you can help to cycle. Come on!" Jess climbed onto the bicycle and Joe started to cycle slowly. Once they gained the momentum, Jess was smiling away. Joe felt great to have made Jess happy. They had lost sight of Louis and Joyce.

As they cycled through the breeze, Jess was thinking of the times when Louis would let her sit behind his bicycle. They used to do that until she had a bad fall and it left a scar on her right knee. Unknown to her, the reason why Louis never let her sit on his bike again was that he felt guilty about the scar and did not want to the one who hurt her again.

Joe and Jess finally stopped to rest. "Oops!" Jess was passing Joe a bottle of drinking water when she accidentally splashed some onto Joe's face. She started wiping his face for him. Joe was feeling so sweet and he took hold of Jess’ wrist. He looked into her eyes and asked, "Will you be my girlfriend?"

Jess was shocked. She could feel his sincerity but before she could stop herself, she replied "No."

Joe frowned upon hearing her reply. "I'm sorry." Jess apologised and she really meant it. She felt so bad to hurt Joe. She decided he needed some time alone and she started to walk away.

"Still friends?" he asked softly. She ran back to him. "Yes, we are." She held his hands into hers.

"Thanks. At least you didn’t keep me guessing." he said to her. This was another thing that he liked about her. She would always tell you the truth even if it hurt. He finally managed to smile at her. She could only smile back at him. She did not want to lose him as friend, especially when he was Louis' buddy. There was no way she would ever be the cause of damage in their friendship.

They said on a bench together. When the uneasiness finally passed, Joe asked her "There is someone. Right?" Jess wondered how she answered this.

"My sixth sense is sharp. So don't lie to me." he urged her.

"Yes." she finally replied. It's time for her to share this little secret with someone too.

"Who is it? No, don't tell me. Let me guess." Joe went on. She could help but smiled at him. The normal chatty Joe was back.

"LOUIS! It must be him!" Joe exclaimed.

"Not so loud." Jess quickly put her hand over his mouth.

"Don't worry he can't hear us from here. So, I'm right. Huh?" Joe said to her. Her cheeks were turning red.

"At least he was a worthy challenger." he added, teasing her. She gave him a slap on his arm.

"Let's go back now." he stood up and dragged her towards the bike.

Joe and Jess had grown closer after this little chat. She did not mind him holding her arms anymore.

At a slope above where Joe and Jess were, Louis and Joyce were also resting on a bench.

"You are a good cyclist. Most girls would have not been able to catch up with the guys." he said to Joyce.

"You're letting me, that's all." she said. She knew Louis had slowed down at some stages to let her caught up.

He was really attracted to Joyce. She was intelligent, sporty, vocal and most of all cheerful. "How about giving us a chance?" Louis popped the question.

She was attracted to him too. His good looks and her observation on the way he had treated Jess told her he was a gentleman. "Why not?" Joyce winked at Louis and they hugged.

They rested a little longer at the bench before they decided to leave. As they stood up, Louis caught sight of Joe and Jess. He saw Jess putting her hand over Joe's mouth, Joe was pulling Jess' wrists and he caught Jess' smile. He wasn't feeling too good about it but he brushed it away.

"Don't tell Jess about us yet." Joyce told Louis out of the blue. "I've the exact same thought. Not until we are more stable." he said. They then cycled side by side to the bicycle shop.

When they finally reached the shop, they found Joe and Jess making funny faces with each other. As Louis approached them, Joe said to him "I'm borrowing Jess for tonight. Don't wait up for her. She may not be going back tonight." He started to run after saying that.

"I'm just having dinner with him." Jess shouted as she chased after him towards his car.

Louis had another fleeting sense of sourness and he brushed it away again. He brought Joyce out for a movie and a nice dinner that evening too. They shared a passionate goodbye kiss too. He really liked Joyce and he wanted to make this relationship work.

It was a beginning for both couples.

(30.03.2007)