"You don't have a problem with it, do you?", Lauren asked.

"Of course not. This is the key to Vanessa's empire.", I smirked at Vanessa as she scowled.

"Sorry?", Lauren frowned, not understanding the reference.

"Oh nothing. Get on with it.", I said, stepping off the white background.

Vanessa took her position, visibly pissed. Did she really think I wanted to get another cover photo with her? After yesterday, I don't think so.

It was a good thing that Elysa was free last night but after she came over to my place, I just wasn't in the mood and I told her I needed to sleep and I was sorry to call her so late.

It was definitely because of the jet lag, right? It had to be.

Ever since the Hudsons arrived, our house has became like the set of a soap opera that Charlotte would definitely binge watch.

The photographer demonstrated how Vanessa was supposed to pose and she imitated him exactly. When she was done with three pictures, I was called upon.

The guy instructed me to stand beside her with my hand on her waist while she was leaning her head away from me. We did click pictures in few other poses but the photographer and Lauren liked this one the best. It was in true sense, a professional cover. Neither of us was smiling, looking at the other and looked distant, to be honest. It was nothing like the picture for Eccentric, for which I still had mixed feelings.

While we were winding up, my phone began to buzz.

"Hi mom.", I said, after reading the caller ID.

"Adrian, where are you? You better return home quickly. We have to get the tree finished by tonight."

"I know. I am almost done. I was just here at the People magazine's studio for an interview."

"People Magazine, was it?", she asked.

"Yeah."

"Isn't Vanessa there too? Charlotte told me."

Of course Vanessa told Charlotte.

I rolled my eyes," Ya, Vanessa is here."

"Oh thank god. Now I won't have to persuade her."

"For what exactly?"

"For not skipping the tree decoration."

"And why not?", I didn't like where this was going. I knew from the tone of her voice, mom wanted me to do something.

"You both are coming home together, right?", mom asked as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"No! No! No! There is no way that I am going to be her chauffeur.", I said desperately.

"If you are returning back to the same place, what's the harm? Plus it saves fuel.", she persuaded me.

"And since when do we have to bother about the feul. If you want feul, I'll buy us an oil company."

"Don't get so cocky. Think green, Save the planet? You were taught that in school. I remember you drawing those cute little egg shaped Earths because you couldn't get your circle right."

"Mom! What is the actual motive behind this?", I said, seeing clearly through this facade.

"This will give you a chance to rethink."

"About wh...wait! Do you mean what happened day before?"

"Um hmm."

"So this is why you want me to drive her home? Mom, I already told dad and now I'm telling you, that was just..."

Mom cut me short, "What? A mistake. Do remember, every first kiss labeled as a mistake has the potential to blossom into a love story."

"Ew! Which horrendous movie are you quoting? You do realise that these movies that Charlotte makes you watch with her are meant for hormonal teenagers who don't have the guts to ask out the people they like.", I said, holding back my urge to puke.

"Adrian, please. Be a darling and bring her home. You know that otherwise she would bail and miss this."

"Is it not enough that we are letting her overstay at our house.", I said in exasperation. It was later that I realised I was way too loud, when Vanessa looked up at me and then turned away.

Shit!

"Mom, please.", I begged. I couldn't bear spending time with Vanessa alone. Even seeing her reminded me that she kissed Blake last night and that was the most disgusting thing in the world.

"I won't take no for an answer."

"Can't she go to her own house and decorate?", I said, consciously lowering my voice.

"Matthew talked to William and they have already decorated. Plus, you know if she won't come here, she'd definitely not go there."

"Is there any way I can skip this?"

"No. You can win in an argument with anyone but me."

"Ugh fine. I'll come home soon."

"With her.", she stated.

"With her.", I repeated, rolling my eyes as I cut the call.

I looked back to see Vanessa but she wasn't there. I frowned and then asked Lauren," Where's Vanessa?"

"Oh! She just left."

Fuck my life!

I facepalmed myself before running down the building to catch her before she left. She was at the entrance of the building when I called out to her," Vanessa...wait!"

She looked at me and frowned," Did you just run down 12 floors."

"Good cardio.", I said, still heaving.

"Oookaay??", she said, continuing to frown.

"Mom wants me bring you back home for the tree decoration."

"No! No! I've got to buy me a dress for tomorrow.", she said, raising her hands in surrender.

"She did say you might give an excuse to bail."

"I am not bailing. I really need a dress for tomorrow's party. I can't roam around in my pyjamas. Now can I?"

Well, there was no harm. I bet my bank balance, she'd look equally pretty.

"Fine then. You get a dress and then we'll go home."

"Wait. So you're going dress shopping with me?"

"I guess so.", I sighed.

■■■

Uggh. I hate this. This was the one reason I never had a long term relationship and now here I was, telling Vanessa my opinion on which dress was better.

"Which one?", she asked me, holding out a fancy red dress and a sky blue one. Honestly, they both looked the same to me. They were long, flowy and had some sparkly things on them. How was I supposed to know which was better?

"The red one.", I said, "Goes with the theme."

"Even a Christmas tree would go with the theme, should I wear that?", she narrowed her eyes.

"It's your wish.", I laughed.

"Uggh. The red one it is.", she rolled her eyes before walking over to the counter and asking the cashier to bill it.

"That would be $4,500", the cashier smiled.

"Here.", Vanessa said, giving the cashier, her debit card who swiped it. Vanessa entered her pin and was waiting for it to be processed when the cashier frowned, "It's been declined."

"What? That can't be. Try it again.", Vanessa said. The cashier did, but it was declined again.

I offered, "Vanessa, I..."

"Nope. I am paying. Must be a machine error.", she interrupted me and then turned back to the cashier, "Do you have another working machine?"

"I just cashed the last customer with this machine. It works just fine.", the cashier said, offended.

Vanessa stiffened up before frantically going through her purse to look for money but I held her arm, "Vanessa, it's OK."

"Nope, I'll pay. I must have another card."

"Vanessa! It. Is. O. K.", I said again.

She sighed before giving a short nod, looking at her feet, embarrassed as I paid for the dress.

I put the dress on the back seat of the Maserati as Vanessa got in. I sat beside her but before starting the car, I asked her again, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I am so sorry. This doesn't usually happen."

"It's OK. This has been quite an expensive month. You paid for your flight tickets, the hotel room, dresses for the Cairo event, Christmas gifts and you even had to pay off the paparazzi to prevent them from printing about the Wine incident on the front page, remember?"

She sighed, "And I bought a house."

"Ya and th...Wait! What?"

"I need a place to stay, right? So I bought a house.", she said as if that was what normal people did.

"You can stay over at our place for as long as you like. You know th..."

"Stay over? You mean overstay, right?", she said, accusingly.

She never leaves anything out, does she?

"Hey, I didn't mean that.", I tried explaining myself.

"It's okay. I know I am overstaying. I'll be moving out day after."

"That's Christmas!"

"Well, Christmas has proven to be the most auspicious day to move out, for me. Last time I did that, it landed me three years of peace. Plus it would be weird as shit if Blake keeps dropping by your house when he comes to pick me up."

I knew this was the end of the conversation. She brought him up intentionally, so that I would stop explaining myself. We drove in silence for the rest of the ride.

We decorated the tree, had eggnog and gingerbread and did everything Christmas. The best part was that Vanessa fit right in. She was more comfortable with our family than her own.

The night passed away quite quickly, especially because Charlotte wasn't there to order us and say that her style sense was best so she got to decide how the tree was decorated. I don't know what kind of a shameless client would do that to her, calling her in two days before Christmas. May this client get the worst presents of all time.

I woke up to my phone's ringtone. I had declined the call three times already but the caller just wouldn't stop. I finally sat up, rubbing my eyes before looking at my phone. The caller was Charlotte and this was 5 o'clock in the morning.

What the hell?

"Hello. You alright?", I picked up, preventing myself from yawning.

"Yeah. I need you to open the door. It's locked."

"Which door?", I scratched my head.

"The main door Vanessa!"

Now I was wide awake.

"Are you just returning?", I asked, almost yelling.

"Shut up! Will you. What if someone heard?", she repriminded me.

"Did you and Bryan...you know?", I asked, paying no heed to what she had said. I just heard silence on the other end so I asked," Charlotte?"

"W...we did.", she finally said.

"Wow! You really need to tell Adrian that you are with him. Things have gotten very serious."

"I...know. I'll tell him after Christmas."

This sentence made my heart stop. This line was way to familiar and last time someone waited for Christmas to pass, things didn't end well.

"Wait, I am coming down.", I said.

I went down stealthily before opening the door just to see a blonde mess waving at me, smiling guiltily.

"You better go to your room quickly. There is no way you could excuse yourself out of it, if someone asked you, why you got held up."

"I know.", she nodded and rushed up to her room and I went back to mine to catch some more sleep. However, before I went to bed, I left this for Blake:

■■■

The staff was running frantically around the house to get everything perfectly in order while all of us where getting ready. It was now that I realised that my family was going to be there too. Oh god! Hopefully there would be no drama.

I got into my dress and Adrian was right, this did look better. It was a Mahogany sheath dress with a V-neck and was sleeveless. Who would have thought that he could give good dress advice. Charlotte was going to die laughing the minute I told her.

I put on the earrings Blake gave me as I smiled. We was going to be here soon. I put on my perfume and selected the make up I was going to put. I had called Charlotte to help me with that and when there was a knock on the door, I knew it was her.

She entered my room, wearing the most gorgeous ball gown ever.

"Wow! Where was that dress all this time? You look exactly like Cinderella with all the blue going on.", I exclaimed in awe.

"Sweetheart, you have no idea how much time this dress took me to make. And guess what, half the guests here wait in anticipation of what I am going to wear."

"Really?", I asked.

"Umhumm.", She said, strutting across my room,"That's a nice dress too.", she said pointing to me.

"Thanks. Let's get on with the make-up, shall we?"

"Sure. Where's your stuff?", she asked and I pointed to a bunch of eyeshadow and liners I had picked out and kept on the dressing table.

She walked over to the table and grabbed hold of the make up items but then frowned, "What's this?"

I walked over to where she stood and looked at the velvet box she had laid her hands on.

"It's a Christmas gift from the Greys and Co. You must have got one too, right?"

She examined the note on top of the box which said: Wishing you a Merry Christmas.

- Greys and Co.

"Is that from Adrian?", she asked me.

"What? No...It's from the company.", I frowned.

"Really? Cause I don't remember the last time Adrian personally wrote a letter for the company."

"It's his handwriting? Are you sure?", I said, shocked.

"Sweetie, I grew up correcting his spellings, believe it or not. If there is someone who knows his handwriting, it's me."

"Oh!", I said, not knowing how to react.

"Have you even opened it yet?", she asked me.

"Nope. I just found it here some two hours ago but didn't check. Wait! I'll open it.", I said, opening the box which almost gave me asked heart failure.

Inside lay a beautiful ruby encrusted two-line diamond necklace and similar earrings. It matched exactly with my dress.

Oh! Of course, it did. He helped me pick it! Gosh, he was sneaky.

Charlotte handed me another note which was stuck to the inside of the box. It read:

'You want my fashion advice...that dress would look better with a necklace. ; ) '

"Seriously? You still want me to believe that there is nothing going on between the two of you?", Charlotte said, her hands crossed across her chest.

"Nothing, really. Trust me. You know what, you tell me what is going on with you and Bryan."

I switched the topic, knowing that this name would definitely divert her attention from the question that even I didn't have a clear answer to.

"He is just the man for me. He...he gets me and I think I am in love with him.", she admitted, colour rushing up her cheeks.

"Wow! That is quite a commitment.", I said a little sceptically. Though it wasn't my place to speak, I really felt that this relationship of hers was not going to end very well for Adrian.

"Ya, it is but I know, if I was to spend the rest of my life with someone, it is him. And the best part is, he has already been a part of this family for so long, even Kevin really likes him. If we were to say, get married, I wouldn't have to convince anyone that he is a nice guy."

"Except Adrian.", I warned her.

"Yes except him. Telling him will be the hardest part of this entire relationship. I am afraid it will affect their friendship and maybe even alter it.", She said sadly, a frown marring her face.

"Hey!", I said, placing my hand on her arm, "We don't choose who we fall in love with. Love just happens.", I smiled, trying to cheer her up.

"I could say the same to you."

"What. No! I don't feel that way about Adrian.", I said defensively.

"Vanessa, I was talking about Blake.", she said, raising her eyebrow.

"Oh! You know it's getting late, why don't we get done with the make-up.", I hopelessly tried to change the topic again.

"Vanessa, do whatever your heart feels is right, just don't break someone else's in the process.", she said with concern.

"Trust me, I'll try my best not to."

"Adrian has never had girl problems before and as much as I'd like him to be in a long term relationship, I don't want him to get hurt.", She warned me.

I nodded and sat down quitely on the bed as Charlotte did my makeup.

When she was done, she smiled, "There! You look perfect."

I smiled back at her and then she handed me the velvet box, saying,"You need to choose quickly."

"I will be down in a minute."

She sighed, " I'm not talking about the jewellery."

I sighed, staring at my feet as she left me to my thoughts. This wasn't fair. She shouldn't pressurise me to choose and wait! Since when was Adrian a choice. There was just one choice, Blake, right?

After pondering for a while, I took off the earrings and replaced it with a sleek diamond necklace and studs that I had bought myself.

Charlotte was right, I had to make a decision and before I did that, I was wearing neither what Blake nor what Adrian gave me.

I went down, putting on a pair of wedges that were comfortable but invisible under my dress so the fact that they were blue, didn't matter. Though I could still vividly imagine the look of disgust on Charlotte's face, if she found out.

A lot of people were already here. My family was to. I quickly scurried of to the other corner of the room, ten feet away from them where I spotted Blake.

I didn't go up to him. Instead I took a mocktail, waiting for him to notice me. When he did, he quickly walked over to me.

"Hey, Vanessa."

"Hi.", I smiled.

He frowned, "You aren't wearing the earrings I gave you?"

"I was but they didn't quite go with this outfit. I'll wear it on our next date though, promise.", I smiled and he did too.

"Most people here are looking at me like hawks.", He complained.

"I know that. You are not the most favourite person here, considering it's a party thrown by your rival company."

"I am just here for you.", He sighed.

"Thank you.", I smiled.

We chatted for a while, picked some stuff to eat from the buffet, I showed him around the house and then we began chatting with other people. After a while, we were both in totally different directions, engrossed in our conversation with people we knew.

Somewhere, deep down I began to feel that this was how it was going to be. We were from opposite teams, we would always have different paths. I questioned myself if he was actually the right guys for me but before I could answer my question, I heard a clear ringing sound as if someone was clinking a spoon against a glass.

I turned towards the origin of the sound like everyone else just to see Jacob.

What the hell?

Once all of us were looking at him, he grinned as he addressed us, "You must be wondering why I am drawing your attention to me. Afterall, I am not the host but today I am going to speak for love. I met this beautiful woman seven years ago and she changed my life.", He said, pointing to Jennifer.

Yeah sure, not like I met Jacob and introduced him to her. So I changed his life. That ungrateful piece of shit. I really feel like tossing him into a dustbin right now.