A Plan For Danger

Alina and I met up with the girls for brunch. I have already told them about our plan last night and they were quite still unsure about it but they were willing to do it as long as it'll help alleviate my current helpless situation.

One thing for sure is Anna was pretty excited to be the mastermind planner. She already planned the whole thing the night before.

"Okay, so, I'm still not convinced with the motives why you are doing this guys," she said, squinting to Alina and me. "But, if Artemis said it's cool, then let's do it."

"Yeah, you were NOT exactly excited by it," Charlie remarked sarcastically.

"So, here it is. Since we will be island hopping tomorrow, it is the perfect chance to execute what we will be calling the "Getting Greggy Hitched" plan. In short, GGH plan."

"What are we, teenagers? Charlie rebutted.

Anna ignored Charlie and continued. We all jumped on our seats when Anna dropped a long rolled piece of paper on the table. It looked like she brought a literal blueprint of the plan with her, and it turned out, I was right.

As she rolled out the paper, it displayed an intricate and detailed flowchart, drawn with glittering colored pens, of what it seemed to be the GGH plan as written at the top.

We all dropped our jaws in a mix of disbelief and amusement of what Anna had brought in front of us. She held out a hush sign on her mouth as we were about to react.

Our eyebrows crossed as we tried to understand what the flowchart says, with pictures of everyone connecting to each other and it all went down to Gregory and Alina's pictures photoshopped in a wedding ceremony. How the hell did she do it?

"Basically, the first part of the plan is we are just going to have Gregory and Alina spend the night together, stranded on an island. Then, once Gregory is already within your hands Alina, that's where your charms come in." She explained briefly and rolled up the paper again. "Whatever happens after that, will tell what our next plan is."

Oh, did she just spend the whole night planning for just that?

We all felt dubious about the success rate of this GGH plan, we have no choice but to try it.

Later that afternoon, we all met together to do island hopping. As Jason planned, we will be spending the night on his luxury motor yacht after cruising along the islands we were going to visit.

Anna, Charlie and I were waiting on the dock. We were wearing our bikini top and short denim shorts while Alina wore a stunning, overly sexy, two-piece bikini suit. It's so bloody red that it looked like it was floating on her milky white skin. Even us girls can't take our eyes off her. She'll surely get some color after this activity.

"You're doing a great job, Alina," Anna praised. "No man can ever, ever turn down your beauty."

"Thanks. I mean, I can't do this without you guys," Anna said humbly.

"Oh, come on. You deserve the help," Charlie assured.

As we talked, Jason arrived with his luxury motor yacht. On it were Gregory, Gray Jansen, and a bunch of guys and girls. It seemed that Jason had another plan of his own.

"Please remind me not to kill my brother. He is such a show-off," I remarked annoyingly.

"Well, that makes our plan a little easier," Anna assured us.

We all sighed deeply as we commenced the start of our GGH plan. I looked at the people aboard who already started partying.

Gray and Gregory were looking down at us from the deck. Gray seemed to be pretty excited as the other three climbed the stairs. Then, my gaze went over to Gregory who was looking at me with cold hostility which made me shiver. I almost forgot to breathe as his piercing gaze made me freeze on my feet. At last, I was only able to move when a string of tears fell down on my one cheek. I turned around to wipe it quickly and plastered a fake smile on my face.

As I stepped on the deck, Gray Jansen jumped on me and hugged me, squeezing me in his large, bulky arms. He finally let go and put his one arm across my shoulder and led me to the bow deck and got me a bottle of beer. "I'm so happy to see you here, Artemis." Of course, he was already drunk.

His overly friendly gestures made me cringe and uncomfortable. Ann and Charlie were taken away by Jason to be introduced to some of his friends while Alina approached Gregory. Apparently, no one can save me from my wretched state.

Before I decided to push him away, Gregory appeared before us but I felt like he was ignoring my presence.

"You're drunk, Gray. Let the lady have her fun," Gregory demanded authoritatively.

Gray pouted his lips, turned towards me which almost landed on my cheeks. I instinctively turned away awkwardly. "But I want to talk to Artemis," he pleaded.

Gregory crossed his eyebrows in annoyance and pulled his arm away from my shoulder. It was then, I relished his beautifully-sculpted muscular bod under the body-hugging white tank top. His hair was put again in a bun in my dismay. But his tanned skin glitters against the afternoon sun.

Gregory called someone from the crowd and emerged a woman in a shirt and jeans who turned out to be his manager. She called another one from the crowd who helped her take Gray Jansen away. They had to literally drag Gray Jansen as he tried to stay with me.

"Thank God!" I exclaimed loud enough to be heard by Gregory. I just realized that him ignoring me somehow made me a little hurtful. "Thank you," I muttered.

He didn't even turn around to respond. I could almost invisibly see him shrugging it off and then walked away.

The nerve of that man! Wow, that just stabbed my heart. He left me speechless with disbelief. I immediately ran away and looked for the restroom below deck.

I rushed inside, locked the door, and started to sob quietly. Being deliberately ignored is my most hated feeling. I'm not the kind of person who seeks attention or likes being given attention, but the feeling of dismissal is not a good feeling. Especially by someone who somehow matters to me.

I sat there for a few minutes to let my swollen eyes rest until one person came knocking.

"Hey, are you okay?" he announced on the other side. To not be further humiliated, I decided to go out. Just imagine my shock when I found Gregory outside, distressed.

Before I could speak or hide, he dragged me inside a private cabin and locked the door. He then cupped my face and inspected my whole face then my body.

Sounding a little angry and more concerned, he finally spoke. "Did Gray do something to you?"

I just opened my mouth and waited for my brain to form some words. Did he hear me crying? God, this is awkward.

"N-n-no," I said with my voice breaking.

"Are you sure?" he inquired demandingly.

"Y-y-yes. I was….um… feeling hot…so...I...uh… washed my….face," I explained, sounding like a scared kid.

"But I heard you crying, Artemis," he rebutted.

Not letting him catch me red-handed, I immediately made up an excuse. "No, I wasn't. That was probably the...um...broken faucet," I said then immediately bolted out and left the room.

I could hear my rapid heartbeat echoing all over my body as I ran outside to the saloon area where I was supposed to meet the other girls. I sat down on the sofa and held my chest to calm myself down. What the hell just happened? I need to stop embarrassing myself in front of Gregory. Suddenly, I remembered the way Gregory cupped my face and looked over my face. I instantly felt elated or kilig which sent a bolt of thrill all over my body. I could feel my face smiling ear to ear, hotness all over. My heart was dancing and so were the butterflies in my stomach. I grabbed a throw pillow and covered my face with it and started screaming. I tried to muffle the noise with the pillow as my body was writhing in romantic excitement.

I know, I wasn't supposed to be like this if I had decided to give up on Gregory. However, I am still a woman who can feel a circus of emotion after a romantic encounter. When I stopped screaming, I still couldn't stop smiling. The girls then arrived with alertness all over their faces.

"Hey, what are you smiling about?" Anna curiously asked.

"Not to mention, your eyes are a little red," Charlie added.

"Oh, was that caused by Gray Jansen?" Alina unknowingly asked.

No. It was Gregory. How I wished I could tell them that and then tell them that this plan is aborted and that I have changed my mind and decided to marry Gregory myself.

"No, of course not. I'm just excited to do the plan in action," I lied.

"Can you please stop smiling? It's giving me creeps," Anna said with a disgusted expression.

"Okay," I responded willingly but still couldn't stop smiling, not when Gregory's warm hands still lingered on my face.

"So, I already told Jason that we will go island hopping on our own and probably spend the night off in one of the islands," Anna reported.

Charlie continued. "He almost said no not until I told him that Leon is coming with us. We have to let Leon know before he blows our cover."

"I got it. I'll text him now," I said as I fished my phone to text him.

"Gregory said he'll come," Alina added.

"Okay, then, we're good," Anna decided.

"Ops! Leon said he will be coming with us. He will be bringing extra tents and food," I said as I read his text.

"No worries. I'll wait for him here. You better go," Charlie suggested.

We all went to the garage at the lower end of the yacht and jumped on one of the jet skis. Anna will be riding with me. Gregory will have no choice but to bring Alina on the other jet ski.

When I saw Gregory come out of the garage, I smiled at him genuinely aside from the fact that it made my heart flutter seeing him and also to act like nothing happened, opposite of what was happening to me.

"I'm happy you could join us, Gregory," I said as he hopped on the jet ski.

He smiled back this time which made me turn around to hide my much bigger smile. "Yeah, of course. I'm sure I'll enjoy it much more with you ladies and as soon as I leave this party."

We both started the engines and rode away from the yacht. Jason was waving us bye from the deck and shouting something indecipherable.

There were three beautiful islands near the Isla del Carmen namely Isla de Felipe and the other two smaller islands connected by a long sandbar, Amor and Oro. Local folklore says that Carmen and Felipe were once lovers. But then because Carmen comes from a rich family from the mainland, the family forbade her to see Felipe who was a humble fisherman. One day, both of them decided to elope and leave the mainland and settle down on a small island far away. On the day, they are going to meet in the middle of the sea, using their own boats, but they didn't find each other. It turned out, Felipe was imprisoned by Carmen's family while Carmen waited in the middle of the sea alone. She was then fetched by her family telling her that Felipe exchanged their love with money and ran away. Devastated, she jumped off the boat and drowned. On the other hand, Felipe was able to escape and went to their meeting place. Only to find no Carmen waiting for him. In despair, he went on to their island where they were supposed to live together. Carmen became our island today, Isla del Carmen while the other island opposite it is Isla Felipe where Grey's party was held. The two other islands connected by a sandbar mean love and gold which basically tells people that the love of Carmen and Felipe were bound by money and class inequality and love always comes with a price.

"What a tragic story," Anna commented as we set up a picnic in Isla de Amor, finishing our island hopping.

"Is that why the sand here in Amor is almost pinkish and Oro is kind of yellowish?" Anna inquired as she buried her feet on the sand.

"It's more like the other way around. These islands were named after their sand color," Alina chimed in, breaking the magical atmosphere.

I looked at her pouting my lips. "Please, don't ruin the story."

All of them laughed as we sat on the sand watching the sun set with cool waves massaging our feet, and cool breeze fanning us.

"Don't worry. I might disagree with the moral of the story but I liked it. Ingenious," Gregory remarked while looking at me with sincerity. I had to bite my inside cheek to stop myself from eagerly smiling. He was seated between Alina and I. I was overly sensitive and conscious of how his arms and feet brushed against mine. I was pinching my side to keep my circus of emotions to myself.

We were still at awe of the beauty before us, sky painted orange with the ball of fire sinking into the horizon with its light glittering on the wide sea, and me enjoying Gregory's warm skin brushing my own skin until Anna bumped my elbow.

"Let's take our plan into action. Now," she whispered. She reminded me but I wanted to kill her for cutting my fantasy short.

Anna started to act sick. "Awww. I'm getting a headache," she said, faking her pain as she touched her head.

"Oh, are you okay?" I asked her while feigning concern. "How about we get back to the yacht and take some medicine?"

"Yes, please," she said, almost crying. I hope we're believable enough.

"Let me drive her back," Gregory eagerly offered, which made us nervous of failing the plan.

"No! You stay here. Charlie and Leon are coming," I said as convincingly as I could.

"Yeah. We'll be back too. I just need my daily dose of aspirin," Anna supported.

"Are you sure?" He asked for assurance.

"Yep!" We both enthusiastically replied, forgetting our little acting.

As we walked away, Anna slipped into my pocket the keys to Gregory's jet ski. As much as I want to be happy with our plan taking off, it hurts me a little, wishing that if only the situation is different, I would be happy to spend time with Gregory.

I smiled, hurting inside as we left Gregory and Alina alone on the island as they will spend the night together.