Chapter Selection:
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27]
[28] [29]

Chapter 1

  ‘What happened?’ she thought but kept her eyes closed. She felt how her head hurt while only doing the slowest and slightest movements. With one hand she grabbed her head. She slowly opened her eyes. She had to wink a few times until she got used to the sunlight in the room. She looked around… where was she? A hotel obviously but how the hell did she get here? She sat up slightly but startled when she realized that she only wore her underwear. She grabbed the duvet and pulled it closer to her body. Then she felt how someone moved next to her. She looked to her right seeing someone lying next to her under the duvet. She was shocked. A one night stand? How could she have done this? Well… did she do it? She looked again at the guy next to her. She rubbed her face with her hands.
‘Please… don’t let this be true’ she thought and got carefully out of the bed.
She slept with that guy. She didn’t even remember his name… or his face. He lay on his stomach and she couldn’t see it. She gently slid into her dress.
‘How wasted have I been?’ she thought. She was a good earning actress, successful and popular and a role model for so many children out there… and what did she do? ‘Getting pissed and end up having a one-night-stand.’ She felt how tears sting up her eyes. She probably had sex with this guy and she first didn’t remember it or even him and secondly then it must have been her first time. She rubbed away a tear from her cheek and sobbed slightly but fell silent when she saw him moving. She put on her shoes and fetched her purse but startled when she saw a white paper lying on top of it.
She just read the first letters and her face turned as white as the sheet.

  CERTIFICATE OF MARRIAGE

  She reached for the white paper and just searched for her name hoping it would not be her signature on it. But to her luck it was right there where it was needed.
“Bride: ” she read out loud but was cut off by a knock at the door. She spun around facing the door.
“? Are you there?” a voice yelled from outside. looked at the person lying in bed and saw him opening his eyes. She had to suppress a yelp when she realized who he was. She looked at the paper.
“Groom: ”

opened his eyes and felt his head aching. He sat up slightly and startled when he saw this woman standing in his hotel room.
“What the-“ he started but was again cut off by another knock at the door.
“? OPEN UP!” yelled someone again.
“Aren’t you ?” he asked looking at her puzzled.
nodded. “Hey ye-“ she managed to say.
“? MATE… IT’S URGENT!” grumbled out of the bed and made his way to the door. He didn’t see looking at him sending a prayer above that he still wore his boxers. opened the door and came in. And before could ask anything already talked.
“You know, you’re actually married?”
looked at and without hesitation he started to laugh. “That’s a good one, … honestly.” He laughed louder and reached for his jeans. He looked at and cut off his laughing when he saw the serious face expression of his mate.
“What do you mean I’m married?” asked puzzled.
looked at who obviously didn’t know what to do.
“You want to tell me you don’t know?”
“Know what, ?” pushed getting annoyed and more confused every second.
Before could say anything else interrupted.
“We’re married…”
looked at her… he totally forgot that she was in the room. He raised his eye brows.
“And I got a ring made out of cooking foil around my finger” she held up her left hand.
’s eyes widened. He looked at the “ring” and then at the paper was holding in her other hand. He snatched it away from her.
“Certificate of Marriage?” he read out loud in disbelief.
nodded. “I just saw the pictures…”
“What pictures?” asked and in unity.
looked at them. “Well… the ones that hung outside the hotel’s cathedral…”
widened his eyes. went with her hands through her hair.
“No... no… no…” she said and paced the floor up and down. “This is not happening.”
‘Once in Vegas and you already mess everything up’ she thought… getting more desperate each second.
“But don’t worry I put them down” smoothened .
“I cannot be married…” started and looked at the piece of paper. Suddenly there was another knock. didn’t even need to open the door but two other men that recognized as and , got themselves access.
“What the hell were you thinking?” started without waiting for him to answer he looked at . “And what were you thinking? I mean I could have understand it if you had married me… but him???”
watched the four men in front of her and didn’t know what to do. Everything was too much to take. She was in a room with four strangers and realized only a few minutes ago that she was married. How can she be married?
“When Louis finds out you’re going to be dead… and we are too” said pointing at himself, and .
“Why you?” asked .
“Because you idiot… and were the witness to the marriage” said . “And I was the one who took the photos…”
looked at him and his other friends. “Wait… where do you know from that they were the groomsmen?”
“Actually was yours… and was hers” he pointed at who sat on the couch looking into nothing. She didn’t even follow their conversation but was just totally over challenged with the new situation. “I asked the priest… and it’s on the paper, idiot!” said and snapped against it.
rubbed his face. “What are we going to do?” he asked his friends.
They shrugged their shoulders…
saw how the four lads in front of her were talking but she didn’t listen. All she knew is that she was in big trouble if her manager would find out… or even worse… if her parents and family would find out… She suddenly got nervous and her mind raced…
How did this happen? Yesterday she was a normal girl… a normal woman and today she is married.
She never drank much why did she yesterday? What made her ruin her life yesterday? She got up from the couch she sat on and looked around. Then she rushed towards the door. “Where are you going?” she heard someone asking. She spun around.
“Away…” she said and opened the door.
“No, no, no, no, no” said and followed her outside. was pacing down the corridor and ran after her. He spun her around. “You can’t leave… not now.”
“Oh… do we start this husband thing already? Let go of me… I don’t need someone to tell me what to do…” she reached for the button of the lift.
“What are you me accusing of? All I’m saying is that you can’t leave… we have to find a solution…”
“A solution? Great, got one. My agent will call you for the annulment!”
The lift arrived and she stepped in. looked at her… she avoided his eyes and looked to her right. The last thing he saw were tears that rolled down her face just before the doors closed.


Chapter 2

was back from Las Vegas… back in Ireland but he felt terrible. How could have changed this little trip his life so much? He was married… married to someone he didn’t know… Well, he knew her but not really. He thought of how to tell his parents what a huge mistake he did but couldn’t find a good way to drop the bombshell.
He knew that first of all he had to talk to Louis about his mistake and he hoped that the annulment papers were already somewhere near so he could get this over as fast as possible. , and tried their hardest to light up ’s mood but failed miserably. They knew that this thing had hit him hard and he didn’t know what to do next.
Once in Louis’ office the lads told him everything they knew.
“So you want to tell me that you got married, ?” asked Louis in disbelief.
nodded and looked at his hands.
“How… I mean… What has driven you?”
“I don’t know” started . “All I know is that we got wasted and I end up in my bed waking up the next morning with a terrible headache and standing in my room…”
“What was she doing there?” asked Louis puzzled.
“She’s the one I married…” pointed out.
“You married ? are you out of your mind? She started her career only one year ago and-“
“Well… good to know that you care about me so much, Louis” snapped but apologised when he saw Louis’ look.
“ , listen to me. Of course, I do care… I mean… I would have never expected this… honestly…” Louis rubbed his face.
“So… any idea what to do?” asked hopefully.

“We can’t annul your marriage…” sighed , ’s manager, in exhaustion. She had nearly yelled off the roof. could tell that she was angry and she could very well understand her. “Why not?” yelled desperately. had taken the first flight back to London after the shocking discovery because she honestly thought the faster the news are out, the faster she could make this un-happen.
“Because… don’t you realize what consequences this will have for your future? For your career?”
“I don’t care about my fucking career… all I want is to make this undone…” she cried.
“ , believe me… I understand that you want this but… you’ve signed two films already… you will lose these jobs when all this comes out. After all those are high school based films… Disney signed you to do this.”
rubbed her face. “And what do you intend to do then?”
“We need to talk to your husband and his manager…”
“Please… don’t call him like that… he’s not my husband…”
“Legally he is.”
rolled her eyes. “Great then… call him and make an appointment… as fast as possible” she hissed and rushed out of ’s office.

sat down into the lounge and took out her mobile. She knew who she had to call… she was the only one who would comfort her right now. sighed and dialled the number.
“Hey ye” said the voice on the other wire.
“? It’s me ” smiled feeling happy to hear her best friend’s voice again.
“I know… how are you feeling?”
“Well… I’m feeling… not available… Listen, I need you right now. Can you make it to ’s office within the next minutes?”
“Of course… but what’s wrong, Con, you’re worrying me.”
“I’ll tell you everything when you’re here… see you in a bit” sighed and ended the phone call.
sat in the lounge for the next fifteen minutes when finally arrived. She hugged her and both sat down onto the couch. Just before started to talk she couldn’t hold her despair inside and started to cry.
“Oh my God, , what’s wrong?” comforted her with a soft voice. hugged her friend.
She needed right now a shoulder to cry on…
After she could control her tears and sobbing again she looked into her eyes. “I’m married, … I’m married.”
looked at her friend knowing that she wasn’t fooling around. “What do you mean you are married?”
“That damn trip to Las Vegas…” she sobbed. “I ended up being pissed and the next morning I found a signed marriage certificate.”
gasped. “But… who did you-“
“ …” stated without giving the chance to finish her question.
“Westlife’s ?”
nodded and put her head into her hands. “Tell me… how could I have been so stupid? I ruined my life in only one night…”
put her hands on ’s cheeks and made her look into her eyes. “No… don’t say that… everything will turn out okay… believe me… it will.”
“You are only saying this to make me feel better” sobbed .
smiled. “And isn’t it working?”
“It is…” cried .
“Then I think I’ve done a great job” let out a light laugh and dried her tears with the palm of her hand.
“Will you help me confessing it to my mum and dad?” asked her eyes even more intense because of the crying.
“I can comfort you… but I’m not sure if I can help your parents when they get heart attacks…” pinched playfully her arm.
“Let’s see what’s up next and then we think about your parents, okay?”
nodded and hugged her friend again. got up and took ’s hand.
“Come on… let’s get us something to eat…”
smiled and took her purse. She couldn’t believe how her friend could make her smile every time she was with her or in deep trouble. And while they were walking out of the office building spoke her mind.
“You know… you are really lucky…”
“Why?” asked surprised.
“You could have married someone who is ugly” rolled her eyes and chased who was running away down the street.

Two days later found herself again back in ’s office. She wore casual jeans and a black jumper with a cap. Her hair was down and she wore barely make-up.
Neither nor talked much when they waited for , , , and Louis to arrive.
was convinced that they could pull through an annulment but she was scared to see them all again. She startled when someone knocked on the door.
“Come in” said and the door opened. Louis was first to walk in. He was followed by , , and, finally, .
didn’t look up but kept focusing on her finger nails. She was too scared and too nervous to see them.
“Louis” said and shook his hand. “I’m very pleased to meet you.” Louis smiled at her and looked at .
“I’m very pleased to meet you too. And of course you too, Ms. … or shall I now say Mrs. .”
’s head shot up and he threw a threatening glance at Louis who understood very well that this little joke was a little bit too much.
“I’m sorry… I was rude” he said. waved her hand and kept on looking on the ground. asked the men to sit down. Now each and everyone sat face to face.
“I’m really sorry to meet all of you under such circumstances…” began . “But I’m afraid this talk has to take place. As we all know how this situation arose we now have to find a suitable agreement both sides can live with.”
Louis nodded. “We understand that and it’s also in our interest to profit the most of it.”
and Louis discussed some things about the papers and then about the stay in Las Vegas.
didn’t say anything and nor did the lads. Everyone was just listening…
“Okay… what I was thinking about…” started . “… was that the two of them would make it public… you know… pretending to be in love… and then we organise a fake wedding and later… they divorce…”
looked up. What was this woman suggesting?
“Wait… whoa…” said . “All I want is an annulment.”
looked at . He could see in her eyes that she was over challenged with the whole situation… just like him. Her eyes were also swollen… he could tell… he has seen pictures of her before and her face looked on them happier than right now.
“ … I told you that we can’t annul you yet…”
“Why?” asked loudly.
“Because it will only harm your career…”
“I already told you I give a damn about it as long as I’m not married to this guy…” she pointed at .
“ , calm down!” whispered .
“I’m not… I’m too young to be married… I’m married to a complete stranger… my parents are going to kill me if they find out, means, if they even survive the news that their daughter married without them…
I want you to agree to the annulment… I’m an adult… I can make decisions on my own.”
“!” yelled and slammed some files onto the table. “I’m here to help you and all you do is moaning about each and every thing. If you were an adult and mature enough you would have not getting yourself into this situation… so we’re going to do this like we suggest it to…”
looked at with tears in her eyes. She felt stupid. Not only because she behaved like a child but mostly because embarrassed her in front of the lads and Louis. grabbed her purse and got up.
“Come back!” yelled .
“Fuck off!” yelled back and rushed out of the office. looked at the men in front of her. “I’m sorry… I’m going to-“
“No… I go” said and got to his feet. The lads watched him leave the office.


Chapter 3

sat on floor of the building ‘s balcony. She cling her arms around her knees and sobbed. She didn’t realize that somebody was watching her and she only realized it when she felt how someone sat down beside her.
“I guess we were the biggest fools that night” said and tilt his head back against the wall.
looked up.
sat next to her only a few inches away.
“That night? Please… how about all time?”
let out a laugh. “You know… my parents will get heart attacks too if I tell them.”
smiled. She wiped away the tears.
“I agree… an annulment would possibly be the best way to get out of it, wouldn’t it?”
nodded. “Yeah… but they won’t agree to it. Stupid managers… they always have success and money on their mind… not our personal interests…”
nodded. “Louis is different… he would do anything to make us happy…”
“Well… your luck… sometimes seems like the devil in person. You should have seen her when I told her about the marriage. She went total nuts. After all because I have signed a deal that I won’t get into a relationship for the first three years. Now she’s mad that I broke that deal and that this might affect my career.”
laughed again. “But she’s right… this story will affect your career enormously.”
“How? People don’t even know that we are… you know…” said and tossed a little stone against the wall next to her.
“But they’ll find out… believe me… sooner or later everything comes out…”
sighed.
“So what do you suggest? Following their instructions and pretending to be a couple and faking a wedding and getting a divorce then?”
looked at her. “It’s stupid, isn’t it?”
nodded. “Yeah… and it will affect our career anyway… it doesn’t matter how long we’re going to hesitate to sign the annulment or divorce papers… and to my mind… a divorce is even worse than an annulment…”
nodded. “But… if we don’t play this game everyone will know how wasted we have been and the papers will finish us off, you know what I’m talking about. , I’m not only asking you to agree to this act for your own career but also for mine and the lads’.”
looked at him. It hasn’t even come to her mind that not only her career would be affected by this story but also his. She looked again onto the ground.
“So when I say yes to it, it means that we’re going to be a couple… only a faked one of course…”
nodded. “That what it’s about basically.”
“I must be mad to agree to this…” she sighed.
“Yeah… but we were mad before, weren’t we?” asked and glanced at her. looked into his eyes.
“Guess it’s a deal then…”
“Thank you, . And I promise you… no stupid stories and situation will come along with our play… it’s just a little lie…”
“I hate lies” stated and looked him into his eyes again.
“Me too…” squeezed her hand and got up. He helped her to get up too, and then they made their way to ’s office to talk about the plan.

“Okay…” started Louis and looked at , and the lads. “Point is that you two have known each other for a bit of time and fell in love…” and nodded.
“You met in a club in London…” and nodded again.
“You are together since?”
“May” they chorused.
“Engaged?” asked Louis.
“No…” both said again.
“Okay… then I guess your first public appearance ought to be next week…”
“Next week?” asked .
“Yeah… at the premier of your new film” clarified .
“But that means…” started .
“That we have to tell our parents” continued and looked at .
The both sank back into their seats.
“You don’t need to tell them that you are married… in fact it should not be mentioned at all…” said and looked at and . Then her look strived to , and .
“We won’t say anything” said putting up his hands.
looked back at .
“And what about you?”
“I told already…” said and leaned forward.
“And that’s about it…okay?”
nodded and got up.
“Wait…” said and looked at who already grabbed her purse.
“What else?” asked . She was not in the mood to talk this through any longer.
“You have to sign this here…” held up a piece of paper.
“What’s this?” asked .
“Everyone in this room signs this piece of paper. It says that we agreed to this plan… relationship, marriage and divorce… we all stick to it whatever will happen.”
looked at his mates and at Louis who saw the fear and uncertainty in ’s eyes. Louis took hold of the paper and read out loud:
“The following people ensure to keep quiet about the marriage of and . The wedding that has taking place the 25th October is the reason and the basic of the deal.
Therefore everyone agrees to the following things. The couple will make their relationship public. A few months later they will announce their engagement and their wedding. This deal will end with the divorce of the couple also about half a year or rather a year after the wedding.”
“ , do we really have to sign a deal?” asked Louis.
“Yes… this way we all know what to do in the end… and no one does anything wrong… Louis, this incident is not allowed to get public…”
Louis sighed. He took the piece of paper and signed it. smiled and signed it too. She handed it over to who took it. She looked at it and sighed. Never had she thought she would sign such a deal… it’s like you make it official that you’re lying… She signed it and handed it to . He took it and with hesitation he did the same. The lads followed his example.
went towards the door. “ …” said once more. got angrier every second.
“What now?” she asked impolitely.
“I guess… it’s better when you swap number’s with …”
rubbed her forehead. She went back to the desk and scribbled down her mobile number on a piece of paper and gave it to .
“The premier is Wednesday call me in the morning and I’ll tell you everything.”
She gave him a weak and faked smile and stepped out of the room.

Two days after the meeting in ’s office was sitting at home trying to find out how she could possibly lie to her parents about . She didn’t like to lie but she signed the deal which meant that no body else besides and the people in the office were allowed to know about it.
sighed and rubbed her face. She actually was supposed to do the promotion for her upcoming film and now she was stuck at home finding a good lie for her family. She turned off the TV and looked at the ceiling. She was sitting on the couch and wondered what to do next. The past days and its adventures have been in her mind all the time. And while being lost in her own thoughts she startled when the doorbell rang.
She got up and opened the door without looking through the spy.
“ ?” she asked surprised.
“Hey…” he smiled and waved shortly at her.
She was irritated. “What are you doing here?”
“Well… visiting my wife” he joked but earned a pat on his arm from .
“Shush” she hissed and opened the door to let him enter.
“Sorry…” he apologised and looked uncomfortable around.
“What brings you to my place?” she asked again standing also uncomfortable in the room.
“Well… I thought that… well… I mean… we are now a couple… in some way… and we have to play…” he stumbled and couldn’t find the right words. He felt stupid… he was married to this woman and it felt so strange to talk to her.
“Okay… I understand…” she said and nodded towards the living room. “You want to have a seat?”
nodded and smiled. He went into the living room and looked around. Her flat was not that big and also the house was in a normal size in a private and calm neighbourhood.
“You want to have coffee? Tea? Beer? Coke? An annulment?” asked standing at the door that led into the kitchen.

“A coke would be perfect, thanks” he smiled and was surprised when she responded the same way when she disappeared into the kitchen.
A few moments later re-entered the living room again and placed the two glasses of coke onto the café table.
“You’ve got a pretty flat” said and looked into her eyes.
She seemed now more nervous than before and before he realized it she looked at him with an uncertain look in her eyes.
“We slept with each other” she suddenly said quickly like a shot.
looked at her for a moment and then he started to laugh. “No, we didn’t…”
looked at him and nodded her head. “Yeah we did…”
stopped laughing and looked at and saw her worried face expression.
“How do you know?”

“Well…” started and looked around uncomfortably. “The morning after our apparent wedding I woke up in your bed…”
“Wait you stood at the table when I woke up…”
“I thought you were a one-night-stand and I wanted to… well… get away… but then I saw the certificate and I stayed… for some reason and then you woke up…”
“You wanted to run away?” asked .
“I was scared and after all I knew that I did something wrong… I didn’t know it was you… all I saw at that moment were your back and your dark hair… I had no clue that you were… you…”
didn’t know what to say. When all different thoughts raced through his mind he finally found the words to speak again.
“And are you sure we really… you know… had sex?”
dropped down onto the couch next to and put her head into her hands. “I have absolutely no clue… I mean… after all I was dressed in my underwear when I woke up and you still wore your boxers too.”
was quiet and looked at who seemed to live the living hell. Then he started to laugh.
“What’s funny about that?” asked looking angry at .
“I just realized that when we really had sex and we could not remember it we must have been deadly drunk.”
“Great… I’m married to a wit…” she said rolling her eyes.
“ … don’t take it that serious… you can’t remember anything like that and neither do I… and even if we would have had sex I’m sure we had safe one… and we can’t remember so it’s like we haven’t had it…”
looked at him. “Are you kidding me? I shall not take it serious?” She looked at him and slapped his arm. looked at mouthing an ‘ahhh’ and smiling at her.
“Easy, love” he laughed.
threw a threatening glance at him. “Don’t call me like that” she snapped and got up from the couch.
“I can’t believe I’m married to such a macho…”
raised his eye brows and looked at her. “A macho? What about you? I’m married to pessimistic cow…”
“Did you just call me a cow?” turned to face him.
“Yeah… you heard right… a cow… what are you going to do? Getting divorced… I’m sorry to disappoint you ,love, but you signed a deal saying to stay with me up until a few months…”
“If it hadn’t been them I would have applied for an annulment straight away… and I would have given a fuck about your career…” yelled at .
“You are given a fuck about me anyway…” he yelled back.
“Congratulation… thousand points for Mr.-I’m- - -married-to-a-cow-and-able-to-get-better-women-actually!” threw a pillow at him and marched into her bedroom slamming the door.
“Yeah?” was everything could manage to get out of his mind. “Well… and… you…” he couldn’t find anything else to say to her. He sighed and rubbed his face letting out a yelp and dropped down onto the couch.


Chapter 4

dropped down onto her bed and cried silent tears. She had thought at the beginning that he wasn’t such a bad person and now she found out that he was a total idiot. She sobbed and looked into the mirror of her cupboard. She was still young and about to experience a divorce in only a few months. And up until then she had to act as if she was madly in love with the jerk that was sitting right now in her living room. For some reason she was happy when she saw him standing in front of her door only a few minutes ago and then when she was in the kitchen thinking about what has happened between them she just couldn’t behave normal anymore. She had to tell him… what if she was pregnant or anything… she just had to tell him that there might be the possibility that they have slept with each other. And now she did it and it resulted in a complete fight. She wiped away a tear that rolled down her cheek.
What was she going to do now? Get out of the bedroom behaving like this fight has not taken place at all… or what?
She sighed… She was bound to that deal and it didn’t matter if she was happy with it or not… she signed it and therefore she had to follow the rules and the plan. She got up again from the bed and dried her face. She was not going to let him see that she has cried. After putting a bit make up on she thought she didn’t look like she had been crying. She sighed and opened the door to enter the living room again. still sat on the couch with folded arms.
He looked up when he noticed that the door opened. He could see that she had cried and all of the sudden he felt sorry for what he had said. He didn’t even mean it but she just drove him crazy… He wished he could get to know her more… spent more time with her because secretly he was happy that there was no annulment yet… and secretly he knew more than she might do…
swallowed. “I made up my mind…” she started and raised his brows.
“As we both just can’t get along with each other…” she stopped and looked directly into his eyes. “… I would propose to limit each other’s company to occasions we have to appear on together… this means no private meetings… and barely contact…”
looked at her. This was not the way he thought the few months would be like. He was married to this woman and now… now he was not even allowed to spend time with her.
“Wait… wow… we are married… I don’t know you… how are we supposed to be convincing in our act when we don’t even know each other…”
“Use the internet…” she said shortly and walked to the door. She opened it and avoided ’s look. “I’ve got some fan pages… why don’t you find out something there…”
looked at her. She surely wanted him to leave… he sighed and got up from the couch. “Right… who’s the arrogant one now?” he said while passing her. The moment he stepped out of her flat slammed the door. All could do was going home… gutted.

It was the morning of Wednesday and was at home waiting for to call. She didn’t put much effort in the way she looked because she knew that she had appointments with the make-up artist and the hairdresser. When it was 12 pm she decided to leave even when hadn’t called yet… but hey… he had her mobile number anyway.
When she arrived at ’s office she stopped dead track when she saw sitting there.
“What are you doing here?” she asked offensive.
“Someone gave me the wrong number…” he waved with the little piece of paper that had given him during their first meeting in this office.
narrowed her eyes and snapped it away from him. “I did not give you the wrong num- ooh… it must be a 2 not a 5” she said staring at the number.
rolled his eyes and grabbed it back from her. “Are you going to the premier like that?”
threw a threatening glance at him. “No… I don’t. I’m here to get pretty…”
rolled again his eyes. “Great… listen, I just came here to tell you that I got your wrong number. Give the right one and I’ll be back the minute you leave the office…”
And before could say anything back he spoke again. “I couldn’t stand to be here with you all the time anyway…”
Again felt like someone had hit her right into her face. “You know what? I’d say… let’s quit this… you don’t want to go so you don’t have to go…”
“Believe me… if this was that easy I’d be the first to get away but unfortunately it’s not.”
entered her office hearing and arguing. “Stop it folks!” she said and put a pile of files onto her table. “The hairdresser and the make-up artist are about to enter and I don’t want them to see a fighting couple when they’re supposed to be deadly in love…”
“Dead is what I’m going to be even when I think about spending time with him…” spat avoiding ’s look. He shook his head and controlled his temper… this girl was driving him crazy. Suddenly the door opened again and the two employees came in.
“Lovely to see you ” smiled the hairdresser and give her a kiss on her cheek.
“Great to see you too John. Are you ready to do some magic?” smiled at John and sat down onto a chair. For the first time had seen her again with a smile on her face and he liked that smile it was way better then the cranky .
“ what are you doing here?” turned around seeing Suki, sometimes also Westlife’s make-up artist, standing in front of him.
“Hey Suki” he smiled and hugged her. watched him doing so and she couldn’t deny that she was a bit jealous of the fact that he had hugged her. “What brings you to this place?” Suki laughed. “Oh…” said and pointed at . “We’re actually supposed to make it public in the evening but why not telling you. We’re a couple…”
“Ohh…” said Suki looking at a bit annoyed. “Really? Well, lucky girl then…”
smiled and widened her eyes a bit as if to say in a sarcastic tone. “Yay… lucky me…”
smiled at Suki and got over to . He leaned in and kissed her cheek.
“See you later, love” and with that he went out of the door.

Stepping into the car that drove the two of them to the premier sighed. “Look at my make-up. She ruined it totally… she’s just jealous. Did you have to tell her that we’re a couple?” smiled when he watched fumbling with her make up trying to sort things out.
“ , you look great” he laughed and placed her hands down from her face. “And I told her because she wanted to know what I was doing there.”
“Great. Couldn’t you have just said that you lost your way?”
sighed. This girl was harder to crack than anything else in this world.
“I’ll remember that one.”
rolled her eyes. She looked out of the window and started to talk again. “And that kiss was not necessary.”
“I just kissed your cheek…” he defended.
“Oh please… first it’s the cheek and then comes the rest…”
“We already had the rest, have you forgotten?”
looked at him and saw how he grinned cheekily out of the window. “You’re an idiot…”
“And you’re a cow we had that already too…”
looked at him offended and sighed. She crossed her arms and stared out of the window.
on the other hand knew what he was doing… pretending that he didn’t care was the best he could do… that drives women crazy.
Once arrived looked at her. “Are you ready?”
She nodded but felt how she wanted to escape. The door opened and without knowing she felt ’s hand on hers. When she looked into his face she saw his eyes looking straight into hers. “Let the act begin!”
got out of the car first being followed by her. The flashes started to surround them. knew that everyone was shocked to see her with but she just kept on smiling and pretended that this was the most normal thing in the world.
Looking at the big screen above the cinema entrance she read the words “Another Little Lifetime – Premiere”. She took a deep breath and focused again at the cameras.
“ ! !” she heard many people yelling but led her into the middle of the red carpet and posed for some pictures.
“Look at me” he whispered making her to look up at him.
“You see… this is what they want to have. A couple that seems to be in love…”
smiled weakly and looked again into the cameras still holding ’s hand and leaning onto him. After a few minutes they went down the carpet being asked for interviews. stopped and smiled at the interviewer.
“ , tell us, what do you think about the film?”
“I haven’t seen it yet so I’m also quite nervous about it… I mean I know what’s going to happen but it’s a totally different feeling when you see everything finished.”
“And what are you wearing today?”
“Oh it’s Armani…”
“And what is that with you and ?” smiled and looked at him who was standing next to her being interviewed by another reporter.
“We’re a couple and we thought that it was a good idea to come public today…”
“How long goes this with you two already?”
kept smiling but she slightly got annoyed already. She was here to present her film not her fake relationship to . “For a few months now…”
“Are you serious about it?”
nodded. “Yes we are…”
And with that she went away towards the next reporter. After spending half an hour on the red carpet to answer journalists’ questions and posing for another bunch of photos she was really happy when she finally entered the theatre. approached her and smiled.
“Not bad at all… I’ve got two journalists who gave me their numbers… knowing that I’m with you made them jealous and they hoped for another chance…” waved with the two pieces of papers in front of ’s face which annoyed her enormously. She grabbed them and looked at him still holding his fingers that she also snatched while grabbing for the papers.
“You are supposed to behave like we’re in love so stop acting like always!”
smiled at her. “Okay” he said cheekily and turned away from her to walk off. stood right at the point where he had left her stunned. She then narrowed her eyes and stamped behind . Once they sat down and stared at the screen began “You cannot convince if you’re acting like a teenage boy” she whispered not looking at him and therefore not seeing the cheeky grin on his lips. “Is there someone jealous?” he asked.
“I’m not jealous… I’m concerned of our deal…” she stated.
“To me it sounds like you’re jealous.”
“I’m not jealous. I’m just so kind to tell you that you’re not acting very well if you’re taking other girls’ phone numbers.”
“Just admit that you’re jealous” he stated still not looking at her.
“I’m not…”
“You are…”
“I’m not!”
“You… are!”
“Damn it, , I’m not!” she hissed and then out of the blue he kissed her… but not on her cheek but fully on her lips. She felt how his hand on her neck pressed her closer to his lips. Her eyes were closed and for some reason she enjoyed this kiss a bit too much but as suddenly as it has started it had finished again. She opened her eyes slowly seeing grinning at her.
“I’m telling you, you are!”
The lights in the theatre were switched off and still looked at who was already staring at the screen. She blinked a few times and looked then to the screen too not knowing that smiled because he had achieved what he wanted.


Chapter 5

The night ended and and found themselves back in the black BMW driving home. The rest of the evening after the kiss remained calm… they did not talk much to each other but just stayed together and holding hands. But once they were inside the car they did not touch each other and neither of them spoke.
“I liked the film” said wanting to break the tension.
looked at him. “Thank you.”
“I bet it was a lot of fun filming it.”
“Yeah it was” she smiled looking at him.
“I like that” he smiled back at her.
“You like what?” she asked a bit puzzled.
“I like it when you smile…”
’s smile faded. She knew that she had behaved like a diva the last days and totally not the way she was herself but… she just didn’t know how to handle everything. And he had to suffer under her confusion.
“I’m sorry ” she said looking into his eyes. “I didn’t mean to treat you the way I did. It was wrong and I’m sorry.”
then felt how the whole tension broke down and he took her hand. “I’m sorry too. What I said about not wanting to spent so much time with you… that was not true… I just said it because you drove me crazy…”
giggled. “Yeah… I sometimes have the talent to do that…”
“Shall we start once more?” he asked hopefully.
“No…” she said looking at him and seeing him being a bit disappointed. “No because if we do start a new I might forget what went wrong before and I don’t want that. Let’s move on… as friends…”
smiled and took the hand she offered him to shake. “Friends…” he whispered when he touched her hand sending a tingle into ’s stomach. His eyes were intense and they looked right into her own. She smiled a bit shyly and released his hand.
The car stopped and the window that separated the backseats with the driver’s seat was rolled down so that the man looked at and . “Do both of you leave the car?” he asked politely.
looked at . “No…” she smiled. “No… he drives home.”
looked at the driver who scrolled the window up again and then turned again to .
“So there’s not going to be any midnight chat?” he asked smiling.
“No… but… I’d love to see you tomorrow morning…”
“With newspapers?” he asked laughing.
“With newspapers” she confirmed laughing and leaned in to kiss him on his cheek. The door opened and she stepped out.
“Shall I escort you to your flat?” he asked making her turn around. She smiled and bent down so she could whisper into his ear. “This was not a date… don’t you think this should only happen if we had one?”
couldn’t answer. He nodded and felt that she kissed his cheek once more. “Good night, ” she whispered and turned around to walk into her flat.
The driver closed the door and still stared out the window knowing that she couldn’t see him inside the car. He smiled… and still smiled when he dropped down onto his bed to fall asleep.

New Westwife?

laughed at the headlines that crossed most of the front pages of any tabloid. was sitting next to her on the couch flicking through some magazine.
“I can’t believe how people can make such a fuss about a relationship” she stated reading a short article about yesterday’s premiere. grinned and looked at her. “That’s just the beginning. Think of how they will react when we get engaged and married…” he smiled.
raised her eye brow. “And the divorce” she stated.
“Of course… and the divorce…” added feeling a bit stupid that he forgot to mention the divorce.
“Have your parents called you already?” she asked looking back at the magazine.
“Can you believe” he started. “They have called ” he laughed.
“Why did they do that?” turned to him.
“Because they thought it was all set up, you know. The way it actually was.”
“And they thought that their own son wouldn’t tell them the truth?” she giggled.
“No… they just know that ’s a jabber-box” he laughed and made laugh along. He liked the sound of her laughter… it was naturally and cute. And while he looked at her she stopped laughing and looked right back at him.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing… nothing” he smiled turning again to his magazine in his hand. “Have your parents called you?” he asked avoiding any other questions.
“No they haven’t. Not yet…” she smiled. looked at her. “I got off the next week why don’t we go around meeting them?”
stopped flicking through the magazine and looked at him. “You want to meet my parents?”
laughed. “I meet yours and you meet mine…”
’s lips formed into a smile. “That’s set then.”
“Good… first your parents and then we’re off to Ireland…”
nodded her agreement. “Great. We only have to book tickets.”
“I’ll do that… no problem.” And he jumped up in delight to grab her phone.

Seeing the door being opened smiled at her father who was standing in front of her totally surprised to see his daughter.
“ ? What are you doing here?” he asked.
She smiled and kissed his cheek. “The promotion for the film is over so I have three weeks off before the filming of the other one starts. So I thought why not visiting my parents?”
Her father smiled and hugged his daughter one’s more before he caught a glimpse of a person standing behind her.
“You must be then, I assume?”
and looked at each other shocked that he already heard the news. smiled and offered his hand to Mr. . “Yes, sir, I’m .”
Mr. shook ’s hand and led him into the living room. “Can I have a word with you, ?” he asked. nodded and while being led into the living room he glared back at who could only give him an encouraging smile. The living room door closed and went into the kitchen finding her mother baking cookies.
“Hey, ma” she smiled and kissed her mother’s cheek.
“ , love. Lovely to see you” she smiled and kissed her daughter’s cheek too. “What’s the reason?”
“Why does everybody think I must have a reason for showing here up?”
Her mother laughed. “Because you never call us before you come here…”
looked at her. “I thought it would be rude if I’d just show up like that…”
“You brought your new boyfriend over, didn’t you?”
looked at her mother while dipped her finger into the batter. “I did…” she said not looking at her mother because she feared when she did so she’d immediately realize that he was already more than her boyfriend. They stood next to each other for a while until the door opened and her sister entered. looked at and smiled. “Wait… did she call earlier?”
smirked and nudged her sister into her side. “Yes I did…”
laughed. “What’s the big reason then?”
“Nothing…”
“She brought with her” smiled her mother causing to turn around and rolling her eyes.
“Yeah I already read it in the newspaper two days ago” laughed her sister. “So… when did this start?”
“May…” stated not looking at .
“Ooh… hey maybe you can get on stage with him after all you can sing every song of his band by heart…”
jumped off her chair and patted her sister’s arm. “Shut up, would you? I can not sing every song by heart and THIS is not the reason I’m with him…”
laughed and sat down onto the table taking also a dip of batter.
“So where is he?” asked her mother curiously.
“With dad in the living room…”
Her mother looked at her. “Child, have you never learned anything from your sister?” looked at her sister and then at the living room door. Jumping off the chair she rushed towards it.

Meanwhile ’s father closed the door behind himself pointing at the couch for to sit down. “Why don’t you take a seat” he smiled at him. nodded and sat down watching every move that ’s father did.
“How old are you, ?”
swallowed feeling his hands getting sweaty. “Two years older than your daughter, sir” he said.
’s father smiled and showed a bottle of whiskey. “You like this one?”
red the label and although he did not know how it tasted he just nodded his head. “Yes, sir…”
“So you drink occasionally?”
widened his eyes and shook his head. “No, no… don’t get me wrong… I just… I…”
“So you want one or not?” asked her father.
didn’t know what to answer but just nodded. “Great” smiled her father and turned his back on . felt extremely uncomfortable. This man was taller than he was and he bet he could kick his arse without any trouble. Mr. turned around again handing a glass of whiskey while sitting down in front of him into the lazy chair. took it and took a smell. He wrinkled his nose and looked at Mr. who took a grand sip of it. Not wanting to look like an idiot he took also a sip of it feeling his throat burning. He screwed up his eyes and put down the glass before he coughed uncontrollably. After getting back to a controllable breathing a few seconds later he looked at Mr. who smiled at him.
“So where did you meet ?”
“I met her in a-… in London…”
“Yes, I assume you did so after all she lives there” he laughed putting down his own glass. “I mean… where exactly?”
felt stupid to say that they met in a club after all was this man’s little daughter and he knew that he himself wouldn’t want to hear from a boyfriend of his daughter that they had met in a club. And after all this wasn’t true… they met at the hotel bar in Vegas… he remembered. He swallowed and looked at Mr. .
“In a nice pub” he said.
“A pub?” repeated Mr. . nodded.
“Thank goodness, you are not one of those she met in one of these stupid dance clubs…”
laughed nervously. “Yeah… thank goodness…” he said feeling uneasy.
“And how long do you date?”
“Since May…”
“May? Really? She never mentioned you before.”
smiled weakly searching for an explanation. “We didn’t want to make this so… erm… such a fuss about it. After all we didn’t know if it would work out…”
Mr. nodded and smiled at . “You do know that if you break ’s heart I will break you both legs, don’t you?”
swallowed. He only heard of such situation in TV and usually he laughed about it but this time he was the one who got threatened. He nodded and focused again. This was his chance to make a good impression. “Believe me, sir… I will never break your daughter’s heart… never…” looked ’s father directly into the eyes without breaking it while saying these words.
“Do you love her?”
still looked at him not knowing what to say. “You don’t need to answer… just think about it for yourself…” The man in front of smiled and took again his glass while leaning back into the lazy chair. took also his glass and took another sip. This time it actually tasted okay… no screwing eyes and no difficulty in breathing. Mr. raised his browns while watching taking another sip.
“So you do drink occasionally? After all you seem to be immune to the effects of this whiskey after drinking only one sip…”
started to laugh and leaned back too. “No, sir, I don’t. I promise you I’m no alcoholic and the reason why I can drink is that I’m Irish” he smiled at Mr. seeing him for the first time responding to a slightly amusing thing he has said with a smile. “Irish do best, don’t they?” he asked making grin.
“I guess hasn’t told you then that she’s half Irish, has she?”
shook his head. “When she was small she had a slightly reddish shade in her hair colour but it disappeared when she was about two years old.”
smiled feeling his heart beat quicken a bit when he heard her father talk about her like this.
“What do you do for living, ?” he asked making a bit surprised.
“I’m a singer, sir. Don’t know if you ever heard of the band Westlife…”
Suddenly ’s dad started to laugh. “Are you kidding me? used to listen to this band all day long. She has some of your albums upstairs… believe me… even I can sing along.”
grinned and feeling his heart doing somersaults.


Chapter 6

Suddenly the door opened and looked at her father and then at the table where ’s glass was positioned. Putting her finger once more into her mouth to get rid of the batter on it she looked at her father.
“You are still doing this? Have you no shame?”
’s father smiled cheekily while looking at his daughter. “ … please…”
shook her head while grabbing his father’s glass. She drank the rest and stared at her open-mouthed. “What?” she asked. “Surprised that I can drink this stuff so fast?”
nodded. “Well, it’s because it’s apple juice…”
looked at ’s father who smiled and he started to laugh. “Great act, Mr. , great act…” ’s dad laughed along and caused to roll her eyes.
“Men…” she said and stamped out of the room back into the kitchen. A minute later Mrs. appeared at the door making the two men stop laughing. “ would you please stop being so childish…” She put her hand onto her hip looking at him. stopped laughing and raised “Yes, … yes… sorry…” ’s mum turned around and left. looked at raising his brows. “Women…” smiled feeling so at ease at once with ’s father.
got up and winked at who stood up as well. “Welcome to the family, …”
stood there speechless. He shook ’s hand and didn’t know what to say. “Thank you, sir” were the only words which left his mouth. smiled and left the room as well. reappeared from the kitchen looking at . “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing” he smiled. “Nothing…”
smiled too. “Guess we will stay for dinner and then we can take a nap and then in the morning we will head to Ireland, okay?”
nodded and moved towards her. He leaned in and kissed her cheek. “Sounds great” he smiled at her and went into the kitchen to say a proper hello to ’s mum. still stood on her spot and touched her cheek. She felt it getting warm and she also felt the tingles in her tummy.

Getting up from the table said goodbye to and .
“It was nice to meet you, ” she smiled shaking his hand.
“It was nice to meet you too” he smiled.
She smiled and grabbed her purse. “See you loads, bye, ma, bye dad” she yelled back into the kitchen leaving and behind. They went back into the kitchen and looked around. “Shall we help you, mum?” asked putting already the dishes into the dish washer.
“No, love. It’s fine…” she smiled. “Just go and take a nap… it’s only a few things to tidy up.”
nodded and kissed her mother’s cheek. “Good night, ma” she said and walked towards the door.
“I’ll be in the bathroom, okay?” she said to and disappeared out of the kitchen.
coughed unsure and smiled. “Erm…” he started looking at ’s mum. “Thank you a lot for the delicious dinner” he said.
’s mum smiled warmly at him. “There’s no need to say thanks, . We are very happy to have you here” she said and put away the towel to grab the plates to put them into the dish washer.
“You know” she said. “ never used to bring her boyfriends around. So you must be something special. And if she loves you than you are more than welcome to be part of this family.”
smiled but it faded as quickly as it came. He liked her family a lot but this made the lying just so much harder and worse. He smiled again and nodded his head. “It’d be great to be part of your family. You did a great job with . She’s lovely, caring, beautiful and has a great sense of humour. Every guy would die to be with her.”
’s mum smiled at . “But I do hope that you won’t. ’s moods can be very hard to handle sometimes and there might occur some thoughts of killing” laughed her mother. laughed along nodding his head. “Yeah, I’ve experienced them too.”
He calmed down again and said in a peaceful tone “I might now go to bed… good night, Mrs. .” She smiled once more warmly at him and winked. “Good night, .”
He turned around and got upstairs. Stepping into her room he had to smile. It had orange walls and a big white canopy bed at the left side. He walked towards her desk and looked at the little photos on the wall. It had pictures of her and her family on it as well as pictures of her and, so he assumed, her friends. And then his glance caught a picture of and a guy. He removed it from the wall to get a better look. They were holding hands and she looked lovingly into his eyes while being close to his face. He looked into the camera and grinned cheekily.
“Thomas…” he mumbled. He remembered it… she sat there in the bar drinking one whiskey after another…

FLASHBACK

“Stop messing around, ” said being in a bad mood.
“What’s wrong with you, ?” he laughed while turning around when another woman passed. “Is it because of Beverly?”
threw a threatening glance at him. “What?” defended himself.
“Let’s not talk about it.”
“ ” started stopping dead track. “She told you that she was meeting this Chris guy for dinner, so what?”
“Don’t you get it, ? My girlfriend is going on a date with another man…”
“And a really good-looking one, indeed.”
raised his brows. “What?” asked offended. “He is good-looking… and that does not make me sound gay…”
rolled his eyes and began to walk down the promenade again. “It’s like she cheats on me…”
“But it’s only dinner-“
“Exactly… when I’m in Vegas! Miles away from home…”
sighed. “Listen, I get the guys and then we’re going to paint the town red, okay?”
mumbled something and dropped down onto a couch in the lounge of the hotel which they’ve arrived in just a moment ago.
“You can not do this to me…”
turned his head seeing a girl standing with her back towards him in the corner of the sitting area.
“What about the last two years we spent together? You just want to throw this away because of someone you met in a damn strip club yesterday?”
tried to look away but he found the conversation quite interesting.
“So you really want this? You really want an end?”
He heard a little sob escaping her. “Fine… but just so you know… I will not come back…”
There was a short silence and the next thing he heard was her mobile phone closing. She turned around helplessly. Looking to her left and right she then stormed into the hotel bar.
“Ready to go?” asked who had been followed by and .
followed the girl with his eyes and looked then up. “Yeah… let’s go…”
And with that they left the hotel to hit the clubs.

turned around the picture seeing something scribbled on it “Thomas and I – 1 and a half years anniversary”
He stuck the picture back to its place and looked at another one. She was posing with an Irish flag around her waist. She smiled and pointed towards a football. He grinned; so she had a thing for football. He could tell that she must have been about 16 on that particular picture. Her hair was in a ponytail and on her cheeks were also two small Irish flags been drawn on. He smiled and looked at the one next to this one. It was again a picture with Thomas but this time there were also a few other friends around. “Celebrating my birthday” it had written on the back and couldn’t stop but feel jealous of the fact that this Thomas was her boyfriend.
“What are you doing?”
spun around seeing putting down her clothes on the lazy chair near the window. “Oh, I was just looking at your photos, I hope you don’t mind” he said hoping she would not be mad.
“No…” she hesitated. “No… it’s fine. Hope you’re not too scared of me at the age of 13” she laughed. turned again seeing the picture of her with a guy and a girl. He took it into his hand and turned it around. “, and me… Mayo vacation”
“Who’s ?” he asked curiously. stepped forward and looked also at the picture in his hand. “ ’s my brother. He and are actually twins…”
“Where is he?”
’s smile faded a bit. “He lives in Ireland… in Mayo…”
put down the picture. “You don’t see him that often, do you?”
shook her head. “No… he’s busy with his own company over there and his family. It doesn’t really happen that often that we see each other. But we try to phone each other at least once a week.”
’s smile faded also when he saw how much missed her brother.
“I bet he’s thinking of you a lot” he said reassuringly and formed a smile on ’s face.
“I do hope so, otherwise I’d kick his ass…” she laughed slightly and attached the picture back onto the wall. She then removed another one holding it up to .
“This is me when I was six…”
started to laugh. “That’s you?” he asked amused.
put her hands onto her hips. “Hey… I know I was a little bit chubbier but that does not make me a bad person…” she acted offended but couldn’t hide a grin. “Wouldn’t you have married me if I still had been this state?” she asked giggling.
“Oh I wouldn’t have cared about your shape… I think I would have had a bigger problem with the missing teeth in the front…” he laughed and gave her a wink. And just then he realised what she had asked him and to her reaction she must have too. She coughed a bit and smiled up at him taking the picture out of his hand only to place it back to the spot it belonged to.
“I think” started not knowing how to behave. “I think I’ll go for the shower now, okay?”
nodded and handed him a towel out of her cupboard.
“The bathrooms just to your left. And don’t worry it belongs entirely to me. So you won’t run the risk to run into my mum… or even worse… my dad” she grinned and turned around to prepare the couch for a nice long nap.

reappeared into her bedroom while was already lying on the couch. She flicked through some book and put it under her pillow really fast when entered. He looked at her a bit puzzled but smiled nicely.
“Are you hiding something that I shall not see?” he asked.
“Oh, that were just an old… book…” she lied a bit nervous but returned the smile.
“Don’t you want to sleep in your bed?” he asked pointing at it.
“Oh no… it’s great here. I got used to sleep on the couch when I had some friends overnight…”
raised his brows and sat down onto the bed. “Boyfriends?”
looked at him and shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe…”
grinned a bit and his glance wandered to the shelf next to the window. He got up from the bed and took a closer look.
“So it is true…” he smiled making her looking up. She got to her feet at once and placed herself in front of the shelf.
“So you do like Westlife” he said smiling at her.
“I never said anything different…”
“Well but you didn’t behave like a… well… fan…”
“So? How do fans behave then when they see you?”
“They fall to our knees…” he joked.
She rolled her eyes and sighed. “I would never fall to my favourite singers’ knees.”
“But you marry them” he winked cheekily.
“That was an accident…” she stated and turned around to lie back onto the couch.
grinned to himself and walked over to the bed. He lay down and looked at her.
“Shall I tell you something?” he asked with a smile on his lips. “I really like your films and I even have the latest one on DVD… and that was all because of you…”
turned her head to look at him. “Good night, ” he smiled and switched off the lamp on his bedside. Darkness filled the room and couldn’t see ’s face turning a light shade of red.
“Good night, ” she said pulling her duvet over her body and fell asleep with a big grin on her face.


Chapter 7

“Good morning, sunshine” The sunlight fell into the room and had to blink a few times until her eyes got used to daylight again. Looking up she saw her mother standing there already dressed.
“What- what time is it?” she asked rubbing her eyes.
“It’s 10 o’clock and your flight takes off in three hours…”
“Oh yeah, right…” said sitting up straight and feeling a tingle of excitement rush through her body. In less then six hours she would meet ’s family. What would they think of her? She knew that this was only an act but technically she was his wife… not his girlfriend anymore… well and she’s never been… She got up and grabbed her clothes only to find her way to the bathroom somehow. She opened it and was met by the figure of standing in front of the mirror spiking up his hair. He only wore his boxers and a towel around his neck. widened her eyes and slammed the door shut when also startled.
“What’s wrong ?” asked her mother while passing her.
“Oh nothing, ’s just inside” she said and blushed. ‘Why am I blushing?’ she asked herself in disbelief and avoided her mother’s glance.
“He’s your boyfriend. I doubt that he has something against it and anyway… you don’t have much time left so either you go into that bathroom, young lady, or you use ours…”
nodded. “Right” she said and rushed past her mother. “Your bathroom then…”

Once she returned into the kitchen was already sitting there with her mother, her father and her sister.
“Morning” she smiled and sat down next to . He smiled shortly at her and focused again on his toast.
“Well, well” started watching her sister and . “Love is in the air” she said ironically and deserved a kick from under the table.
“Why, ” started looking at her with a faked smile. “How come that we deserve your precious company… again?! Don’t you have your own flat to eat breakfast in…”
smirked and took another bite from her toast while tossing another piece at ..
“When will you two grow up and stop fighting all the time?” asked helplessly.
“Daddy, we’re not fighting all the time. Just when I’m at home and she is too” smiled cheekily and got ’s full agreement. The sister’s looked at each other and started to laugh.
raised his brows surprised. Just a moment ago it seemed like they were angry at each other and in the next moment everything was good again.
“They are always like that, don’t mind…” laughed and sat down next to .
“You should see them fighting sometimes … it’s like they were still twelve…”
looked at and smiled. She turned a light shade of red and avoided his glance. “Stop it, mum…”
“But it’s true… Last Christmas they broke a whole tray of champagne glasses…”
“It was in our way” defended suppressing a laugh.
“True” agreed .
“It was on this very table here… and not just on the edge of it but in the centre. How could it have possibly been in your way?”
“Well…” started . “It has been in the way of the football’s flight path…”
“There you go…” stated and rolled her eyes.
started to laugh and looked at . “You broke it with a football?”
“ said I can’t do that dribbling thing more than 10 times and I wanted to prove her wrong…”
“And did you prove her wrong?” asked amused.
“Well… after the eighth time I first had collect the broken pieces of the glasses…”
started to laugh and so did . then interrupted her.
“Lovely story, sis, but you only broke them after the seventh time…”
“No no… it was the eighth time…” she smiled at .
“No… it was the seventh…”
“No… eighth…”
“And it starts again…” sighed ’s father watching his daughters.
“Noooo…” smiled . “You broke it after you dribbled it seven times…”
“No… I touched it eight times and then I broke it…” stated slightly annoyed.
let out a laugh. “You couldn’t dribble a ball eight times…”
“I already did it…”
“Sure…” smiled ironically.
“You don’t believe me?”
“I would… if I didn’t stand next to you and didn’t count how many times you touched the football…”
“You want me to prove you wrong?” asked and stood up.
“Be my guest…” snapped and got up as well. rushed out of the kitchen, upstairs and was back within ten seconds to head into the garden followed by her sister.
still watched the door when it closed a little bit shocked and amused.
“Let’s just hope they get this done before your flight leaves” sighed amused and watched her daughters playing outside in the garden.
got outside and sat down onto the porch watching dribbling the ball. She was determent to prove her sister wrong but could tell that she just did it so she could spent a bit time with her. And while he was watching his wife he had to smile. During the past days there were some sort of feelings that had developed that he couldn’t ignore. He was happy that she was in his life and he was also happy that he had seen her in the bar in Vegas. If he wouldn’t have talked to her everything would have definitely turned out differently and he was not so sure anymore if he would have wanted it in another way. Of course, he would have loved to get married differently, with his family around and maybe in a nicer place than the hotel’s cathedral but then he knew it would have maybe been with someone different and that’s what caused him to thank God that it turned out the way it did.
“WATCH IT” just looked at and flipped down his head causing the ball to fly right above him where his head actually was.
“Sorry” wailed and ran towards him being followed by a giggling .
looked at when she approached him and knelt down in front of him so she could look into his eyes on the same height.
“Are you okay?” she asked concerned.
“What happened?”
“There was a spider on the ball…” laughed . “And hates spiders…”
“So you kicked it towards me…” asked a bit irritated but amused.
“I just kicked it in scare…” smiled guiltily. started to laugh and took ’s face into his hands.
“You are unbelievable you know that?” he laughed.
nodded her head. “Sometimes I do get a bit… hectic…”
looked down at and . She smiled knowing that ’s heart must probably beat in double time. She just stepped back and went into the house.
“I know that” smiled .
“I’m sorry…” she said once more and blushed.
“There’s no need” laughed and kissed her forehead. “Although I nearly got a heart attack” he whispered and looked back into her eyes.
“Shall we go get our things?” he asked. nodded and smiled.


Chapter 8

“So…” smiled when he and were standing in front of his house. “This is my place…” looked at it with wide eyes and was speechless. It was a house and a beautiful one as well. Not too big and not too small… medium… but way too big for a single household.
“Are you sure you live here alone?” asked in disbelief.
let his suitcase drop and stared at . “Sorry?” he asked a bit unsure and nervously.
“That was a rhetorical question… this house is huge” she giggled.
let out a little laugh and smiled at her. “I see…” he smiled and picked up the suitcase from the ground.
“Why don’t you check out the garden… I have a pool” he smiled at her when they were already standing in the living room. smiled and went through the backdoor into the garden. closed the door slightly behind her and watched out of the window. Waiting for the other person to answer his phone he only prayed that everything was settled.
“Hello?”
“ , is that you?” asked feeling stupid because he called on his mobile phone.
“Oh no, , it’s me the pope…”
“Stop joking” snapped . “Listen, did you remove everything?”
“Yes, , we did… that means if we hadn’t overlooked something…”
“Great… and you told her that I wasn’t back until Wednesday?”
“Yeah… I did…”
“What did she say?”
“She said ‘okay’.”
“Great… fantastic…” said nodding his head.
“You haven’t told about Beverly have you?” asked unsure.
“Are you out of your mind? Of course not. Listen, all I’m going to do is going for dinner with Beverly the night she comes back form New York and then I will break up…”
“I so hope for you that won’t find out…” said honestly into the horn.
“Me too, …” sighed and ended the phone call to join in the garden.

“I love this place” smiled . “It’s nothing like in London… I really like that.”
“And you can enjoy this still a week” he smiled back at her. “Hey, listen, what about we go around to my parents’ house this evening for dinner?”
swallowed hard but smiled at while nodding. “Course…” she said while feeling again the nervousness rising. And as if could read the nervousness out of ’s eyes he smiled at her.
“Don’t be worried, okay… they will like you…”
nodded weakly and smiled at him. “Hey” suddenly said raising his eye brows. “How about showing you the town a bit?”
yawned and looked at him a bit unsure. “How about showing me the town in two hours?” she batted her lashes playfully. “I’m really tired…”
laughed and nodded. He led her upstairs into a guestroom where he also placed her suitcases although he would have loved to see them being unpacked in his very own bedroom. Shaking his head irritated for these thoughts he left her alone.

Parking his car in front of his parent’s house he looked at . She was pale and he could tell that she was really nervous.
“Are you okay?” he asked unsure. only nodded not able to move her mouth. She was about to face his parents. She was never really good in meeting her boyfriend’s parents. What if they didn’t like her? She was married to this man and it would actually be a total disaster when they would hate her.
“ ?” already had opened the door for her to step out which she only realized a few seconds too late.
“Don’t be scared, okay? I survived your dad and you’re going to survive them all” he laughed pointing at his house. “And now come on, I bet they are dying to get to know you.”
placed his hand on her back and led her towards the door. Knocking once he opened it and got himself access. Seeing a bunch of little children running from one room into another was slightly taken aback.
“They are my cousins and nieces and nephews… don’t worry” he laughed taking off his coat and ’s.
“!” Suddenly a high-pitched girl voice could be heard.
A little girl with braided dark hair ran towards him and swung her into the air. Seeing her little arms flung around his neck had to smile. He would do a perfect father-
“Macy” smiled and got her onto the ground again. “Say hello to , would you?”
The little girl who mustn’t have been older than four years smiled up at her and gave a short wave.
“Hey yeh” she giggled and heard her Irish accent and smiled back at her.
“Hey Macy… how are you?”
“Dad!” Suddenly the little girl yelled still smiling. “Uncle has a new girlfriend…”
looked at who could only grin in humour at Macy.
“I told you so… I won the bet…” they heard someone saying from the living room.
“Hey you hear us?” asked keeping ’s eye-contact.
“Yes…” said the same voice from the living room irritated.
“Good, think about it…” said and rolled his eyes.
Suddenly a woman appeared at the door to the living room and let out a little yelp. “ !” she said and swung her arms around his neck. “Mum…” heard saying and while seeing his mothers face halfway cover by his shoulder, she was a tear rolling down her cheek.
Just a moment later a man appeared next to ’s mum and hugged as well. Loosening their embraces took a step back and looked at .
“Mum, Dad… this is …”
Mr. and Mrs. looked at her and a smile started to form on their faces. And without even realising found herself in a string embrace by ’s mum.
“It’s so nice to meet you, ” smiled .
“It’s nice to meet you too” smiled and all the nervousness she had felt before was blown away.
reached out his hand and shook it firmly with a big grin on his face.
“Nice to have you here, .”
smiled again and thanked him.
“Okay, come on, kids, dinner is ready in any moment” smiled and led by her hand into the dining room. She turned around to see walking behind her with a grin on his face. She smiled back and focused again to her front. Once inside the dining room she greeted every other person who was sitting there; some of ’s siblings and their partners as well as the children.
Having enjoyed a whole four-course meal found herself back inside ’s car sooner than she had actually liked to.
“Your family is so lovely” she smiled while already put the gear stick into the second gear.
“Well, they found you lovely as well” he smiled and glimpsed at her. She smiled and looked out of the window.

Fifteen minutes later they were back home sitting on the couch looking at the blank TV screen.
“And Macy is such a lovely girl” smiled .
“She was crazy about you” he laughed while doing the same. For a moment the both of them went silent.
“And I can’t really blame her” said finally.
“Sorry?”
“I can’t really blame her for being crazy about you. You are just…” he paused and looked at her.
“Unique” he continued and made smile.
“I do hope you mean it in a good way.”
“I do” he said and smiled.
felt how he squeezed her hand.
“So what are we going to do tomorrow?” she asked to stop the tension in the room. He lost hold of her hand and shrugged his shoulders casually.
“Don’t know. Have you already seen ?”
“ ?” she asked again.
“Yeah… it’s fantastic there… how about we’re going to spend the day there?”
“Alone?” she asked.
“Yeah, just you and me… and the other visitors” he laughed and felt a bit stupid that she had asked this question. Maybe he thought now that she WANTED to be alone with him… or maybe he thought that she had a crush on him?
She laughed along but got up really fast. “Okay, the dinner was fantastic but I think I will go upstairs now.”
nodded his head. “You do sleep quite a lot” he said cheekily.
“You know very well what days can be like as a person in lime light. Early mornings and late nights… I love to sleep” she said and stuck out her tongue.
“Or is it only because you don’t like to spend so much time with me alone?”
swallowed. “I never said that…”
grinned. “I know. Good night, .”
“Night” she said and went upstairs feeling that watched every step she took.


Chapter 9

FLASHBACK

“St.Patrick lead me to the gate, St.Peter let me in.
For I don't wanna see the face of ugly Mrs.Fenn,
She drinks from kegs has hairy legs, and a hideous devil's grin,
St.Patrick lead me to the gate, St.Peter let me-“
The guys were swaying into the hotel lounge and were chanting one Irish drinking song after another for all night long what they had done was… drinking. And it was then when caught a glimpse at a person he had seen before this night. Making his way over to the bar he once stumbled but steadied his balance again.
“ you going where?” he heard yelling after him. He just waved his hand dismissively and kept on walking towards her.
“Another one, please” he heard her babbling and saw her drowning a short snifter vodka at once.
“Are you here to take her with you?” the bartender asked when he had seen him sitting down next to her.
“Yeah…” answered . “Later…” The bartender shook his head and went away to serve another guest.
“Hey there” he said trying to make small talk. The girl turned her head and looked at him.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“I’m , and you?”
dried her mouth with her arm. “ …” she shook his hand. “I think…”
“Nice to meet you, I Think” he answered.
“Noooo” laughed and swallowed the other one. “’I think’ is not my surname…”
smiled when he saw her leaning against the bar to reach for a drinking straw. She looked pretty, her hair was reflecting the lights, the red dress she was wearing just fitted perfectly and her lightly tanned skin got even more accented by the colour of it.
“You want one?” she asked while looking at him holding up an olive.
looked into her eyes and had to grin. She looked like an innocent little school girl right now, even though she was totally drunk.
“No?” she asked, then she shrugged her shoulders and put an olive into her mouth only to spit it out a moment later.
“What’s wrong?” asked finding the situation amusing.
“God” whined and tossed the little bowl of olives away from her. “I’m so drunk I do not even remember that I hate these things…”
started to laugh and just then the bartender arrived again. “Another one?” he asked who just smiled at him and nodded. “And for my friend too” she laughed.
The bartender shook his head and gave them two snifters vodka and went away again.
“What happened?” asked feeling how his head starts turning again after swallowing the vodka.
“Hmm?” “Why are you drinking?”
“Oh I’m not drinking” she stated and leaned again over the bar to look for something to eat. “I’m just drowning my sorrows with alcohol… Why don’t they have cookies here?”
leaned also over the bar and was now ‘bending’ over it, like she was, with his feet slightly over the floor next to her.
“What’s causing you sorrows?” he asked looking to his left to look at her.
She kept on looking for something eatable behind the bar and started “My boyfriend broke up with me because of a girl he met in a strip club. Could you believe?” She sat down again and looked at him.
“He’s leaving me because of a stripper!?” Tears started to form in her eyes. “I mean… am I not good enough? Just because he doesn’t get access right ‘into’ me doesn’t mean that he has to leave me… does it?”
looked at her.
“My girlfriend is meeting a guy tonight for dinner too. He’s good-looking, probably rich and a womanizer.”
looked at and for the first time she really saw him. She didn’t take much note of him when he said down next to her, she just had company now. But this very person right now was as much hurt as she was right now.
“Relationships are the worst, aren’t they?” she asked.
nodded. “Your ex boyfriend doesn’t even deserve you. You can do with someone better…”
dried the tear that rolled down her cheek. “You too, . She’s a donkey if she meets this ‘womanizer’ tonight…”
laughed. “Another one?” asked and held the empty snifter in the air.
“How about a whole bottle? It’s going to be a long night” he laughed. nodded and just then he paid all his and hers drinks and both made their way to a table in the bar where they enjoyed a full bottle of vodka.

It was the third day was now in Ireland. She had spent a lot of time with and funnily enough she enjoyed every second she spent with him. It was in the morning when she was in the supermarket alone to do the groceries.
“No, I don’t know why he doesn’t answer his phone, mum.”
looked to her right seeing a girl with long blond hair standing next to the apples.
“I tried to call him so many times but every time I try it he either doesn’t pick it up or his mobile is turned off…. No, of course I tried to go to his house but no one’s there… I don’t know what I shall do. I mean I don’t even like spending time in this sick town but I so want to see him again.”
rolled her eyes. This girl was so rude, not was she even talking in the loudest voice someone could but also was she talking bad about while being here. So everyone could hear what she thought of it… not a nice impression to inhabitants.
“Excuse me, could you fetch me this bottle from up there” an old lady asked the blond girl. She turned around. “Can’t you see? I’m on the phone… it’s a new invention… it’s called mobile phone, so I can stay in touch with people I want to talk to wherever I am. Guess they haven’t even had a real telephone when you were younger…”
The old lady was shocked and just looked at the blond girl who was walking down the way towards the freezer cabinet. She passed without giving her a glance… being still in a shocked state went to the old lady and smiled friendly.
“You know I think that bleaching did not only affected her hair in a bad way” pointed with her finger to her forehead and tapped two times slightly against it which caused the old lady to smile.
reached out for a bottle of tomato juice in the highest shelf and gave it to the lady.
“Thank you, my dear” she smiled and put it into her trolley. “You know, girls like her always get what they deserve and girls like you too” she smiled at , thanked her once more and made her way to the checkout counter.
smiled but just the moment the lady disappeared out of view her face turned into stone and she made her way over to the freezer cabinet.
“Mum, no… listen. I think I’m going to go over to his house again this night, maybe he’s home then. And if not, I swear to God, I will tear him into pieces.”
positioned herself next to her.
“Yes, okay, mum. I will call you tomorrow morning then. Yes, bye…” She closed her mobile and reached out for a package of frozen carrots. sensed her chance and did the same.
“Oh I’m sorry” she lied when her hand and the girl’s hand bumped into each other.
“Ew, don’t touch me” said the girl and joggled her hand. went with her tongue over her teeth while keeping her mouth shut.
“I said sorry.”
“Yeah, whatever” said the girl and reached for the package again.
“You are not very polite” said .
“Because I’m pretty. Either you are pretty or polite… I’m pretty so there’s no need to be polite” she stated and grinned at just before her smile froze.
“You are …”
grinned “No… I’m pretty” and with that she snatched away the package of carrots that the girl was still holding in her hands away from her. She tossed it into her trolley and went towards the checkout counter not knowing that she left a high insulted girl behind.

She just entered the front door when was already heading towards her to help her with the bags.
“So you managed to find the way to the supermarket and back… I’m impressed…” smiled .
“You can be” she grinned back. “I even managed to pay the cashier in cash.”
stopped unpacking the bags. “I’m very impressed…”
He said it in such a serious tone that just had to slap his arm playfully. “So funny, !”
He giggled. “This town in nothing like London. I love it…” smiled helping to unpack the things.
“You are always welcomed” he smiled and for a short moment they looked into each others eyes and felt that warm feeling inside their tummies.
“How about you and me going to the cinema tonight?” asked casually to get rid of this tension in the kitchen. focused again on the bags. “Well… you know …” she started not really knowing how to put it the right way what she wanted to say. Did she even want to say it? She surely wanted him to know it but she felt too stupid to actually say it.
“Yeah?” he asked hoping his voice wasn’t giving away any curiosity.
looked at him. What now? Shall she tell him? What would he say?
“ ?” he asked a bit irritated actually than curious.
“I…” she started looking into his eyes… these handsome sparkling eyes, she was falling for the more time she spent with him… “I…”


Chapter 10

“I hate cinemas!”
“What?” asked even more irritated.
“I really hate them!” she stated pulling a grumpy face.
“ you’re an actress…”
‘Oh, yeah, right’ she thought. She could have punched herself… an actress hating cinemas? What an excuse…
“I know” she said starting to search for an explanation with her hands. “I just… I.. erm… when I’m not working I avoid them most of the time… ha ha” she said hoping she had convinced him.
Why couldn’t she just tell him? Why couldn’t she just say ‘ ? I don’t want to go out tonight but I want to have a nice, warm and cosy evening with you alone. Without anyone else around us who would probably just stare…’ Why couldn’t she just let these words come out of her mouth?
“So you want to go elsewhere?”
closed her eyes for a few seconds and opened them again. She smiled at him. “Yeah, why don’t we go somewhere else?”
“Any idea?” he asked.
“Just surprise me” she said turning around to put the milk into the fridge.
“Okay…” he stated watching her. She seemed a little bit distracted actually. Like she had something on her mind but she didn’t want to say so.
“I’ll be in my room… calling a friend” she said and headed upstairs. just nodded his head in confusion and watched her taking the steps towards the door.

“Help meeeeeee” begged into the horn.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“I don’t know… but just do something” wailed and dropped onto her bed. She heard how sighed.
“Okay… so you want me to tell him that you don’t want to go out?”
“No, I want you to tell me to stop falling for him.”
There was a pause. No one talked. just lay on the bed having her eyes closed and rubbing her forehead.
“ ?”
“Hmmm?”
“I won’t help you” said into the wire.
“What a friend are you?” she asked troubled.
“You are married to this guy and I think it’s a pretty good thing if you are falling for him…”
“No” said and opened her eyes. She sat up straight and looked at the wall. “No… it’s not a good thing when I fall for him.”
“Maybe it was destiny that you two have married…”
“It was not destiny. It was vodka… good vodka, by the way… I was drunk…”
“But you are falling for him… you are falling for your husband and I’m not going to be the person to tell you to stop doing so.”
“Fine… because I’m going to be able to fall out of love again… all by myself.”
“Why don’t you just accept it?”

Walking upstairs he kept thinking about what had said. For these whole fifteen minutes he tried to think about another place to go to but he failed miserably. He wanted to suggest , but they’ve been there before. He wanted to suggest the local pub but he thought that going for drinks wasn’t the most suitable thing to do. He still got headache when he only thought about the last night when he had drowned all his sorrows with litres of alcohol. Stopping in front of her door he was about to knock when-
“There is nothing to be accepted. Marrying this guy was a huge mistake.”
looked at the door. Did he just hear wrong? Did she really just say that? Maybe she wasn’t talking about their marriage…. She could have also talked about her friend’s marriage, couldn’t she? He pressed his ear softly against the door knowing it was wrong to earwig but he couldn’t just walk off. “Believe me when I say that if I were able to turn back time, I’d definitely do it. I did many mistakes in my life before like buying the wrong colour of trousers or you remember the night on the ship when I wanted to look at the dolphins and accidentally fell into the water? These were all mistakes I did… but compared to what I have done nearly two weeks ago, they seem to be little misfortunes.”
stepped back from the door. So that was what she was really thinking about their marriage. Of course, no doubt, could have done without this fast marriage but thinking about it now, he knew that he probably couldn’t do without her anymore.
He shook his head and took another few steps back and then without hesitation he turned around and went downstairs.

“Why are you talking like that?” snapped annoyed by the fact that her friend was talking absolute rubbish.
“I’m only saying what I am thinking.”
“No you know you don’t. Just because you are in another country doesn’t mean I forgot what you are like. So, would you please stop talking like that?”
sighed. “So it does not sound convincing?”
“Maybe to every other person but not to me!” she snapped. “So what’s the matter with you?”
“I’m scared, . I’m falling for a guy who I barely know and I feel that I’m not falling for him in an easy way. I get the really bad tingles in my tummy when I see him or even when he talks to me. The past nights I have dreamed about what it would be like to kiss him, to touch his skin and to sleep with him. It’s too fast, . Three weeks ago I was still with Thomas and now I’m in love with .”
“Finally!”
“Finally what?”
“Finally you realise that you are not falling for him anymore but that you already are in love. And why are you thinking about Thomas? Have you ever really loved him? No… I doubt it and you too. So actually you are in love for the first time.”
“You are not helping.”
“And do you think it is a big help for you when you try to convince yourself that marrying him was a mistake?”
“Well, it is worth a try…”
“You see, I know you know that all this mistake-stuff comes out of your imagination and probably also of your fears but if you really listen to that voice within and trust it than you’d realise that you are actually happy about it right now.”
“Stop quoting Christina Aguilera. I hate you, goodbye” sniffed into the wire.
“I love you too, Con” laughed . “Bye and don’t worry okay?”
“Okay…” stated and with this she ended the phone call.

walked down the stairs and watched him sitting in the living room. His head rested on his elbow which he steadied on the armrest. His left foot was on his right knee and with his other hand he zapped through the channels. sat down on a step silently and watched him from there.
Why was he doing this to her? No other guy before had so much control over her feelings like he had. How had he been able to make her liking him so much within a few days?
was ripped out of her thoughts when she heard his mobile phone ringing.
“Shit…” he cursed when he looked at the display. He rubbed his forehead and answered it.
“Hello?” he asked. “Beverly… hi…”
was about to get up from the stair not wanting to earwig but stopped in her actions when she heard him saying a girl’s name.
“Where I’ve been the past days? Well where have you been?... In ? Really?... Listen…-“
Suddenly he stopped talking and it seemed like he really was taught a lesson through the wire.
“I know… I’m sorry… baby, listen…”
suddenly felt how something ached inside her heart. She swallowed and continued to listen to what was saying.
“I know I haven’t been around much lately but” he paused and heard him taking a deep breath. She smiled knowing that this must be the part where he would tell that Beverly that he was seeing another girl.
“But I’d like to make it up to you.”
’s eyes widened and her smile faded abruptly.
“How about we meet tonight? I’ve missed you… I know I’ve been an eejit lately but I’d really like to make it up to you… really? Oh, that’s fantastic… okay… I’ll pick you up at eight, okay? Brilliant… see you then, baby. Bye…”
She heard how let his mobile drop onto the couch. He took hold of the remote again and started to zap again through the channels. got up from the stair again and went upstairs… silently… not knowing how closed his eyes when he heard her doing so.

Chapter 11

“ ?” she heard him calling her from downstairs. She sighed and rubbed her eyes. He felt absolutely nothing for her. He was about to meet another girl… would he tell her? Would he want to let her know that he was seeing another girl? Would she even want him to tell her?
It was still his life and his responsibility what he was doing. And it’s certainly not that wanted to have control over his life and that she needed to know who he was seeing… or better which gender. It was just this little fickle pain that started to prickle inside her heart that caused her to hope that he would not hurt her. That he would be honest with her… and it was also the same pain that caused her to hope that her heart might not have fallen too much for him.
“ ?” she heard a knock on the door. Opening her eyes she went to open it.
“So you’re awake?” he smiled weakly.
“Yeah…” she answered knowing that her voice was giving away that she was sad. She didn’t look into his eyes… she didn’t want to see them staring into her own and maybe seeing the pain she felt inside. She was even scared it might be the window to her heart and he’d see it breaking into small pieces.
“I’m going into town…” he said looking at her knowing that she avoided his glance. “I mean… I couldn’t really think of anything else but the cinema and I’d really like to see the film.”
“It’s fine” she said faking a smile and now she raised her head looking into his eyes.
“I’m going back to London tonight…”
felt how his heart cramped. He took a deep breath but smiled.
“Really? So soon?”
His reaction was like a bullet right into her heart.
“Yeah… I need to talk to someone before the filming starts.”
“Yeah, I understand” kept on smiling.
“So we’ll see each other in two months?” asked causing to stop smiling.
“Two months?”
“Yeah… the filming is in Canada and I’ll be there for two months.”
“You haven’t said that” he stated.
“I must have forgotten it” and for the first time her statement was cold. stepped back and nodded.
“Great. I’ll see you in two months then…”
“I’ll text you when I’ll land in Canada.”
“Don’t bother… I know you’ll be fine” he said and turned around. He grabbed his jacket which already hung over the banister. He took two steps at once downstairs and still stood at the door.
“Just slam the door when you are leaving” he called upstairs and with that she heard the door being closed causing tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Is everything okay, ?” Beverly asked when they’ve entered the cinema hall. He seemed distracted and he barely talked.
“Yeah, I’m fine…” he said nibbling his finger nails.
“Since when you’re nibbling your nails?”
looked at his hands and stopped immediately.
“So what movie are we going to see?” she asked not knowing which film had chosen as she has been in the restroom while he bought the tickets.
“Another little lifetime” he stated looking at the screen which was still grey.
“Oh, with that cow!”
turned to the girl sitting next to him.
“Did you know that she was actually in town this morning? I have seen her in the supermarket near your place and she was so rude. She was all like ‘I’m so pretty’ and ‘you’re so ugly’… and would you believe… she was talking on her mobile phone and this little grandmother who probably wasn’t much younger than a mummy asked her if she bothered passing her a bottle juice from the shelf and she just snapped at her and went away.”
looked at Beverly who was staring at the screen while telling the story. He shook his head in disbelief… how could he have been so wrong about ?
The lights went out and the usual advertisement started. started to eat his popcorn being lost in his own thoughts. He had to tell Beverly about … he had to… and then… he only had to survive the next five months and after that… he would never want to see her again.
looked at Beverly who did just the same. He held the popcorn bag towards her and her smile faded. “Oh my God, , do you know how many hours I will have to spend in the gym for losing these calories again if I eat this?” She shook her head and turned to the screen again.
kept looking at her for another second and did the same when he heard this oh so familiar voice saying the opening line of the film.
“When people make mistakes who is the one to decide how bad they have been?...”

“Hey , so soon back from your vacation in ?” asked who looked up from the papers on her desk when someone entered her office.
“Yeah, I wanted to make sure that I don’t miss my plane to Canada.”
raised her brows.
“You know that you’ll leave in three days, don’t you?”
“I know, it’s just I have to do so many things at home that I can’t find the time to chill in Ireland.”
looked at her suspiciously but nodded.
“But now that we’re talking about Ireland…” started and looked at while sitting down on the chair opposite the desk. “Did you already plan when we’ll announce the engagement?”
took a closer look at when she avoided her manager’s eyes.
“Well when do you wish to announce it?”
“After the filming” she stated. “Then it’ll get more publicity…”
nodded her head and started to smile. “That’s it, . Take advantage of it…”
“I do” she stated again and got up from the chair. “I’ll see you in three days. Bye, .”
And with those words she left the office to walk out into the frosty weather.

Taking his mobile from the table he looked at the screen and smirked when he read her name on it.
He looked at the girl sleeping on the couch next to him.
“Hello?” he answered his phone and couldn’t stop grinning.
“We need to talk…”
“Baby, I don’t know what you want to talk about.”
“About us…” she stated.
“ , I told you-“
“I miss you” she sobbed into the horn. His smile faded and he looked again at the girl next to him. Then he focused again on the girl on the other wire finding her more important than this one next to him.
“I miss you too…”
“Can we talk?”
“Sure” he answered and got up from the couch silently.
“Thanks, Thomas.”

Sitting down again into the car didn’t dare to look at Beverly. He knew that now was the time when he needed to tell her what have happened in Vegas but still, he found it very surprising that she hadn’t heard of anything yet.
He swallowed and took a deep breath. “I need to tell you something…” he started and looked at her. She was sitting on the passenger’s seat and looked at him.
“In Vegas-“
“Shush, … I know” she said and put a finger on his lips.
“You know?” he asked so surprised that he felt bad the moment after the words have left his mouth. “I know that you must have met there” she smiled.
“And what else do you know?” he asked curiously.
“That you two are a couple.”
“And it doesn’t bother you?”
“ ” she started to laugh and went with her hand over his cheek. “She just released a new film; your new single will be out in two weeks. I know it’s all for publicity.”
looked at her and he couldn’t believe that she even believed herself but then he started to smile. This was actually a good idea. If he told her that he was actually married to , she’d leave him straight away and probably sell the story to the some magazines. But this way everything would be cool. She’d live with the fact that he sometimes had to see without going wild about it. He leaned in and kissed her on her lips.
“How about you show me how much you love me instead of her?” Beverly asked cheekily and pressed her lips once more against his. ’s eyes opened up wide and he felt how his mouth dried up.
“You mean-“
“Let’s go over to your place and have some fun, okay?” she asked and started to kiss his neck.
“I’m not so-“
“Shush, ” she said once more and kissed him again on his lips. “I want you!”

“Thanks for showing up” she said while letting Thomas pass her into the flat.
“You didn’t sound too good” he said and sat down onto the couch. looked into his grey eyes that seemed to be so cold now compared to the ones she had stared into the last couple of days.
“I guess you have heard about already, haven’t you?”
Thomas smirked and a grin formed on his lips. “I have, indeed.”
raised her brows when this was everything that he had said. No yelling? No offensive saying? Nothing? Why was she even waiting for this? She shook her head and sat down onto a lazy chair as well.
“And?” she asked.
“And what? What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know… you seem to be cool with it.”
“ , we’re no longer a couple. I am cool with it!”
These words were like millions of bullets into her heart. She was with him for more than one year, nearly two years and now he was totally cool with the fact that she already had a new man by her side.
“But… what about us?” she asked hating herself that her voice sounded hurt.
“ , I think there is no us anymore. You told the press that you were with him since May this year. May is five months ago… I’m sorry if you’re surprised that I no longer want to be with you.”
looked at him. She totally forgot that they still have been a couple in May. She could only imagine his hurt… means if it even bothered him.
“So you must hate me right now, don’t you?” she asked.
“I don’t hate you, baby. I know that there must be reasons for you having an affair with him.”
raised her brows. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I had my reasons when I left you and you had yours when you started this affair. And that’s fine…”
“What were your reasons?” she asked dying to get to know his so called reasons.
“You are not going to yell at me?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“I was with her for a couple of weeks before I finished our relationship. I was always looking for the right moment to tell you and then you were in Vegas and I thought why not now? So I called you and the rest his history. You know I think you’re were a little bit too much for me. I mean, you can get chaotic and hyper and… you know.”
looked at him with a frozen expression. He cheated on her… he was sitting on her couch and telling her that he had cheated. He was smiling… he wasn’t showing any kind of regret. He was just sitting there and telling her this.
“I think it’s best if you leave now” she said in a low voice not really realizing that these words have left her mouth.
“Come on, Con, you can’t be mad at me for having an affair. What about you? Your affair with was even longer.”
I HAVEN’T HAD AN AFFAIR WITH HIM! her mind was screaming. She swallowed her anger and her hurt. She still looked into nothing and repeated once more clearly.
“Please, leave now.”
Thomas looked at her surprised. “I thought you wanted to tell me something? Why do you think I have come here?”
“What did you think I wanted to tell you?” she snapped back into reality.
“Well, I thought you want me back.”
“Well, I’m sorry if you’re surprised that I no longer want to be with you” she repeated his words still in a calm voice.
Thomas raised his brows. “But… you had an affair and I had one. We’re even…”
“No we’re not…” was everything that left her mouth. She got up from the lazy chair and opened the door. Thomas shook his head not understanding why she was making such a fuss about it. The moment his second foot left the flat closed the door. Leaning against it she slipped down onto the floor embracing her knees. She felt used. She felt dirty. She felt stupid. But above all… she felt hurt.
Slowly tears started to fall down her cheeks. When she closed her eyes she saw him standing with another girl in his arms… going with his hands though her hair and kissing her. And then suddenly his face changed and opened wide her eyes. Realizing which face his turned into she was determined that this shall not happen again. She was not allowing herself to fall for someone who’d betray her once more. And she knew that he… her so called husband… was doing so.


Chapter 12

“How are you doing?” asked while flicking through some magazines in her cosy little living room. “Well, it’s cold and I’d prefer to be over Christmas in London rather than in icy Canada” smiled looking out of the window of her little trailer. It was one day until Christmas and she felt lonely. She knew that there was no way around it. She had to spent it with the film crew or alone but she wished that she could be in London with or with her family.
“Well, then why don’t you come over?” asked again flicking through another magazine.
“Because it’s not possible” stated bemused. She heard how laughed on the other wire and sighed. “What are you doing anyway? You seem distracted.”
“Oh, sorry” she laughed but stopped. “I was just reading this joke and it’s so funny.”
“Really, what is it?” couldn’t wait for something that’d make her laugh. The last couple of weeks she had spent depressed and in loneliness. Laughing was something she hadn’t done for a while.
“No you wouldn’t get it” laughed and turned over the next page.
“Oh you are so not funny, ” snapped pretending to be angry but couldn’t stop herself from laughing. She calmed down though when she realised that there was no response from the other wire. “ ?” she asked insecure. “Are you still there?”
Still no answer. “ ! What’s wrong?”
“Oh my…” she stated.
“ !!!” got now extremely curious. “What’s wrong?”
“Pictures…”
“Pictures?”
“Paparazzi.”
“Paparazzi? Okay… now stop pretending to have an IQ of 7… try the common word order. Subject, verb, object!”
“There are pictures in a magazine of you and another man. And there are pictures in the same magazine of and another girl…”
“Okay, wait, what?!”
took a deep breath and started to read. “So called couple and seem to have taken a break from their early relationship. Irish boy band member was seen holding hands with another girl in his hometown / Ireland. Both seemed to have a great laugh and a good time. The girl by his side is said to be his former girlfriend Beverly Wood. Not so happy about this picture may be his still so called girlfriend who is recently filming her new Disney film ‘A Snowy Disaster’ (to be released next winter). She had been seen around Vancouver/ Canada extremely often with her filming partner Ryan Reds. It’s said that the sparks are spraying not only in front but also behind the cameras. Is the early love of the two love birds already dead? Or was it from the beginning a scheming game to play?”
widened her eyes. What were the people thinking? To speculate so many things about her life?
“ ?”
Half of the things that the damn reporters write is absolute rubbish but people start to believe it, means that her family must think by now that she’s no longer with but with this Ryan.
“Hello?”
What was she going to do? Of course she had been seen with him around town often… she was friends with him for this time in Canada. They were away from home, from their friends and basically from their normal life.
“ !”
And what was this thing with ? Why was he holding hands with another girl? He had to stick to the plan… to the deal. But was it really that surprising? knew from the moment told her he was going to the cinema that he must be going to have an affair with that girl. Or… what means affair? She knew that he was not going to tell that Beverly that he was seeing another girl, let alone he’d tell her, , that he was seeing his ex girlfriend. felt how her eyes seem to drown in tears.
“!”
Snapping back into reality she rubbed her cheeks, drying the tears.
“What are you thinking?”
sighed. “I have to leave . The director’s calling me…” she lied.
“Wait, you can’t just han-“
“Merry Christmas, hun…”
And with that finished the phone call. Tossing her mobile phone onto the other side of the van she dropped down onto the little couch and pulled the duvet over her head, not allowing anyone to see her tears.

“ , what were you thinking?” tossed the magazine into his friends’ lap.

“Where should I have known from that paparazzi were around town? We barely have paparazzi in town” defended .
“But tourists” stated who obviously wasn’t all happy about these pictures as well.
“I’m sorry” opened the magazine and flicked to the page where the pictures were.
“But look at her. She’s not better… walking around town with Ryan Reds… everyone knows what a womanizer he is.”
“But she’s not holding hands with him. They are filming partners… it’s like people would see us walking around town together” replied stressing the problem.
“She’s a girl and he’s a boy… it’s not quite the same case, you know.”
rolled his eyes and grabbed the remote control.
“You have to stop seeing Beverly” stressed after finishing pacing up and down the living room. “Are you mad? She’s my girlfriend…”
“And your wife!”
“She’s not my wife. She’s just . Someone I don’t know and someone I, honestly, don’t want to know.”
“Damn, ! What happened to you two?” was desperate. He sat down onto the couch next to . The last time he had seen them together was when she was in a month ago… and then she just left and he didn’t even remember one occasion since that had shown talking to her on phone or anything.
“We talked things through and that’s about it. I have my life and she has hers… we’re only waiting for the big announcements and that’s it.”
“When was the last time you’ve talked to her?” who absolutely didn’t understand the situation right now was eager trying to find some light at the end of the dark and dusty tunnel.
“A month ago” he said casually looking at the picture realising she looked differently.
“A month ago?” repeated in disbelief.
“Listen, this wedding night nearly two months ago was a huge mistake. We’re living both with the consequences of it… in about sixteen months we’ll be divorced. You realise what pressure it is to know that you are getting divorced? You all know what I think of marriage… I think it’s something that should last forever and not just a few months. But the deal says that we have to get a divorce, so we want at least something that is going to stay in our lives when we get over with it and in my case it’s Beverly.
I’m not going to leave her… and if you have anything against it then it is your problem not mine. Me and , we just don’t get along with each other.”
, and sat in front of silently. They knew that did not like the situation with the divorce but have they all thought that he and were good with each other.
“Any other things you want to bother me about?” asked annoyed.
The lads shook their heads.
“No” said and got up to leave the room. followed him without saying anything to . didn’t move but just stared at .
“Tomorrow’s Christmas. If I were you, I’d get in touch with her.”
“If you were me you wouldn’t do anything” he stated and leaned back onto the couch. watched him and got up.
“She still is your wife. You are connected to her in someway if you want it or not. So stop playing the cool one and do something!” shook his head and left the room. took the magazine again into his hands and looked at the photo of and Ryan.
It hurt him to see her again… it hurt him when he remembered how they have parted… and above all it hurt him that he couldn’t make the first step to call her. Not now that he knew what she was really thinking. He tossed the magazine away and closed his eyes seeing these oh so familiar pictures…

Chapter 13

FLASHBACK

“One more?” looked at the fragile girl in front of him who held a whiskey glass in the air while looking at him. He shook his head and positioned it again onto the table where it could rest and where he could stay until the room would stop dancing around.
“!”

His head shot up and he looked at a group of drunken guys swaying into the bar.
“We searched youuu…” mumbled who dropped down onto a chair next to .
“Found me!” he mumbled back.
and sat down as well.
“You are who?” asked perplex.
“ ” said and held his hand towards her. took it and both shook it so firmly that they had to laugh.
“Pleasure” she nodded her head once and flashed him a smile. “ , me… I’m .”
“Pleasure, right back at you.”
“There you go” she stated and got up. She swayed but grabbed hold of her before she could lose her balance completely. Her head was turning up and down, to the left and to the right and her eyes were coordinating like a drilling machine… going round and round and round and round, at least it felt like that. She tried to concentrate her eyes onto something in particular and it was then when she caught staring at her. She smiled when she saw him looking her up and down before he, himself, got up swaying.
“I need to crash” he mumbled. took hold of him and both started to move away.
“Wait” chanted not wanting to leave her. “Wait, I’m with you… coming… like… I’m on your heels.”
She lost hold of and swayed directly into ’s arms. He looked at her and smiled.
“Gotcha” he grinned. She then linked her arm through his and both made their way out of the bar being followed by the other three.

closed the trailer door behind her when her mobile phone was shrilling inside her purse. Dropping her big purse onto the ground to make it easier to find her phone she didn’t see Ryan coming over to her.
“Damn big bags” she hissed still not seeing her mobile.
“Searching for something in particular?”
She looked up when she heard his voice. She smiled at him but turned her attention back to her purse. “Remember me to buy a smaller purse and to change my ring tone. This one is dreadful.”
Ryan laughed. “Listen, a delivery man dropped this off for you.”
looked away from her purse and stared at the big brown envelope in Ryan hands which he was already offering her to take.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“If there wasn’t a big, not see-through envelope around it, I might be able to tell you but unfortunately there is one… so I don’t know.”
rolled her eyes but took it from him. “Thanks, Ryan.”
“No problem. Hey, what are you doing tomorrow for Christmas?”
sighed and turned back to her purse. Why was that damn thing still ringing? She really had to change her ring tone.
“I’ll take it slow. I don’t know, Ryan, I honestly don’t.”
“Aren’t you going to see your boyfriend?”
stopped in her actions abruptly but decided just the next moment that this reaction was given away too much information of her being hurt. So she started again to rumble in her purse. “No, he’s busy in Ireland and I’m busy over here. We’ll probably be just calling each other.”
Ryan nodded and knelt down next to her so that he was on the same level. With one grab into her purse he took out her mobile phone and handed in to her.
“I’m here over Christmas as well. Would be great if we can do something together.”
looked into his eyes and saw them so close to hers. The grey colour of them was right piercing into her eyes. She had to shake her head once to focus again. Taking the mobile phone out of his hands without breaking the eye contact she sighed. “I don’t know-“
When did the mobile phone stop ringing? Wow… how random can a person be? She tried her hardest to focus on something else only in the hope she didn’t have to answer the question and to explain herself.
“ ?” he asked. “I’m not biting, you know” he laughed. Oh and his laugh was gorgeous. With his white teeth he could star in every dentist advertisement. could only stare in his eyes without showing any kind of disinterest. Even if she was disinterested, his eyes and his smile were enough to make her fall in trance. But then something changed in the picture in front of her. It got closer. Why was the face coming closer? ‘Oh, oh…’ she thought when she finally realised why he was coming closer. He wanted to kiss her. Why did he want to kiss her?

Aja Yippy yippy jaj… singing, aja yippy yippy jaj-

’s eyes flicked to her hand where her mobile phone was ringing again.
“What?” she asked into the mobile without even looking who was ringing. Ryan backed away again but kept on smiling.
“ ?” asked the voice on the other wire.
“Who’s there?” she asked not really realising who she was talking to.
“ ” said the other voice.
? Which ? She didn’t know a … - she gasped.
“ ?”
“Yeah, hi” he said embarrassed. And it felt as if could feel him blush through the wire.
“Hi…” she said realizing that it was not him that she felt blushing but… herself. Ryan looked at her suspiciously. She got up from the ground not really paying attention to Ryan anymore.
“How is it going?” he asked casually.
“Great, I think. And how are you?” she asked and she couldn’t hide a smile.
“Oh, fine. It’s all a bit stressing right now with the party and everything but… I’m fine.”
Right… it was Christmas time. swallowed.
“That’s good.” Why was he calling again?
“Well, you might want to know why I’m calling.” As if he could read her mind.
“Yeah, well… it’s actually the question that occupies my mind for ten seconds already.”
laughed a bit. “Well, I just wanted to ask whether you got my letter.”
looked at the brown envelope next to her bag which she had positioned there to look for her mobile.
“Yeah, it’s yours?” she asked surprised.
“Yeah… have you already opened it?” She blushed… thank God he couldn’t see her right now.
“No… not yet. I just received it.”
“Well, then take a look at it” he encouraged her and grabbed the envelope. She wrapped it open and fumbled inside. Taking out another white envelope she knew exactly what it was.
“Oh my-“ she couldn’t say another word. She gasped when she read the letters in front of her.
“Terminal: Vancouver Int’l, BC (YVR) ; To: London (LHR)” she read to herself.
“What do you think?” asked someone. snapped back to reality and didn’t even realise that her mouth had dropped open. She shook her head in disbelief.
“You sent me a ticket to London?” she asked surprised.
“Well” stated feeling uncomfortable. “Well, actually to Ireland. From London you have to change for ” gasped once more. “What do you think?”
“I can’t believe it” her voice was still full of disbelief and excitement and… happiness.
“Why? Why did you do that?” she asked.
There was a small pause on the other wire and then he spoke the words would have never imagined to hear from him. “I’m your best man…”
’s eyes widened again and she felt how plumb seemed to fill her insides. He was her best man… yeah, he really was. smiled.
“Yeah, you are” she laughed. She knew she should be angry with what he was saying because it reminded her of but… she didn’t care. She was going home for Christmas.
“ , that is so kind of you.”
He giggled. “Yeah, I know. Listen, I invite you to the party tomorrow. It’d be great if you come.”
She paused and then smiled. “I’d love to, . I really do.”
“Amazing” he cheered. “I’ll pick you up at the airport.”
“No” said suddenly. She hadn’t forgotten that he was all stressed out. “I’ll come over to the party. Don’t bother picking me up, I’ll take a hotel room and we’ll see us at eight o’clock at yours.”
Again there was a pause and it seemed as if was thinking through whether is was a good deal or not. “Fine” he said and he seemed to smile on the other horn. “Then get yourself ready and head to the airport. I doubt that the plane will wait for you.”
smiled and knelt down again. Stuffing everything into her purse again she smiled. “I will, thanks, .” And with that she finished the call.
She got up and was ready to leave when she realised that Ryan was still standing there. She smiled at him. “I guess I have something to do in Ireland. Sorry, Ryan. See you.”
And with that she walked quickly away.


Chapter 14

She looked into the mirror. “Oh come on” she sighed seeing that she could do whatever she wanted but her hair was never going to fall the way she wanted it to fall. Once she let it fall down her shoulder it looked without any volume. Then when she pinned it up she felt uncomfortable… and rather naked. Her dress had no straps… and her upper back was totally naked. The red cloth was tight around her breasts but it lost that element the more it went down until it ended just above her knees and a white ribbon was around her waist. She felt ugly… maybe it was because she hasn’t slept well the past 14 hours… or maybe it was the jet lack… or… the fear? The fear that she was invited to her best man’s party… She didn’t know why but she felt sick. She shook her hair furiously again when it didn’t want to behave like it was supposed to. She did some head banging knowing exactly that it would be hell to comb her hairt in just a few moments and then she straightened up again. Her hair looked messy and definitely not appropriate for a Christmas party but then again... she curled up her right brow and took a hair tie. With three little movements her hair was in a bun. It looked kinda messy but… hell, it truly was sexy.
Smiling to herself she looked at the clock. It was half past eight… she was already half an hour too late. Sliding into her white heels she looked once more into the mirror. Okay… maybe she wasn’t ugly- although she still felt like that- but… she didn’t found herself really pretty either. It must be because of the flight… it must be because of that!
Grabbing her red coat she walked out of the door to meet her taxi downstairs. “You look lovely, Ms ” smiled the receptionist. smiled back at him. “Thank you” she walked over and gave him a little tip. “Merry Christmas to you, Mike” she smiled and went out of the door right into the taxi.

“ , the party is great” smiled while taking another sip of his punch. nodded in agreement while snuggling into ’s chest.
“Where’s ?” she asked. looked around looking for his girlfriend but didn’t see her anywhere.
“She must be in the kitchen” he stated already heading for it.
“ ?” chanted moving towards him. “You look… like…” he looked him up and down. “Like… me.” looked down at himself and found the same suit.
“Don’t you have your own clothes to wear?” asked in disbelief.
“I took this one from the video shoot” defended himself.
rolled his eyes. “Same here.”
laughed looking how horrified the two boys looked at each other. “Okay you go and change” said .
“You are going” he protested back.
“Why don’t you go?”
took over the word. “All his other suits are at the cleaner’s.”
rolled his eyes. “You are unbelievable” he stated and walked away. “Where are you going?”
asked . turned around. “Changing. I’ll be back in thirty minutes.”
nodded and moved forward to who was already talking to Louis.
“Louis, we have to do this song. It’s amazing and I want it on the next album.”
“I know, kid, but first we have to talk to Simon.”
“Always talking about business. It’s Christmas, guys, we have off for three weeks. Please, try to enjoy at least tonight without talking about how many records he have to sell next year.”
Louis and rolled their eyes. “Where’s ? I need to ask his opinion about this one song” stated Louis not paying attention to what had said before. shook his head and went away.

Meanwhile, was in the kitchen. “What are you doing?” asked over her shoulder. She jumped slightly in fear and turned to him.
“Everything has to be perfect when she arrives” she smiled at him.
“When who arrives?”
“ ” she stated. rolled his eyes. “Please, quit calling her , I know very well who you mean when you only say her first name.”
“I’m sorry, it’s just… I’m so excited. She’s going to be here… in my house- our house.”
rolled his eyes. “You will not behave impolite, will you?”
“I adore her… what do you think I will do?”
“I don’t know. Falling to her knees, asking her to marry you, asking for a baby as well- although that seems not possible.”
rolled her eyes. “I will just make some small talk.”
“Good” he stated and left the kitchen. Just then another person entered. “Hey there” she smiled.
The other person smiled back. “So he really invited her.”
“I asked him to do so. Does know?”
“He has no idea.”
“Ugh, I feel sick pretending to like her, Beverly.”
Beverly smiled back. “Don’t worry. I’m just going to make it clear who ’s girlfriend is and that’s me. Just so she’ll know for the future.”
smirked back. “I think today’s a good day for making her feel not welcomed in the band’s life.” Beverly nodded and took a glass from the tray that was next to . She held it up towards her. “To us” she cheered and both clinked their glasses.

“Keep the rest” smiled at the driver. She was walking towards the big white door a little bit hesitant. Now she really felt sick. With the hand where she held a white plastic bag in- and in the other one she held her purse- she rang the bell.
‘Calm down. Calm down’ she chanted to herself and suddenly the door opened.
“ ” smiled a face down to her. She smiled back, surprised by her own reaction. “You look” paused and looked her up and down. “Too sexy for Christmas” he laughed and leaned in to hug her. Surprise filled her body by his action but hugged him back. “Thanks for the invitation, .” He stepped aside and allowed her to enter. Taking her coat from her shoulders he stared at the white plastic bag. She raised her brows guiltily. “I forgot to buy a Christmas present for you” she admitted. “So I stopped at the filling station and bought you this” she grabbed into the plastic bag and pulled out a little reindeer. looked at it and suppressed a smile. “When you press that button” she pressed the button which was at the reindeer’s belly “It’s eyes start to shine red. Looks more like a devil but… merry Christmas.”
laughed when he saw that guilty look in ’s eyes. “It’s amazing… it gets a special place on my-“ he paused.
“Shelf in a basement’s room that no one will ever enter?” completed his answer. He laughed again. “At least that’s where I’d put it” she continued. She stuffed the reindeer back into the plastic bag and handed it to . “Have fun” she smiled. shook his head while keeping a big grin on his face.
“You are unbelievable” he smiled.
“I try my best” she stated and looked around. The living room was darkened and just from several lamps there were red, gold and green lights. It looked so calm and so… comfortable. Music drowned most of the conversations around the house. looked at all the different people. There were many… and she knew like what? Three people? Because as far as she could see there was only , and that she recognized.
Why did she agree to this party again? Oh, yeah, right, because she was lonely in Canada, waiting for some action, and desperate to NOT stay alone on Christmas Eve.
“Would you like to drink something?” asked when he led her into the living room. It was so full that no one even noticed her stepping in. turned to him.
“I’d rather not… my last alcohol experience turned into a marriage” she whispered so that only he could hear. He chuckled but understood.
“Anything else? Coke or any other sort of soda?”
thanked him but shook her head. “It took me two hours to like myself in this dress so for the beginning I’d not like to feel any kind of puffy.”
laughed but nodded once more. “I understand but just in case that you change your mind, the bar’s over there. We even have an own bart
nder.”
smiled. “I’ll remember that.” smiled but got distracted when he suddenly heard a glass break. He rolled his eyes. “That’s what I hate when being the host.” He apologised and went away leaving standing there.
She looked around and saw how all the others she knew were deepened in their conversations and she was not really excited about interrupting them.
She sat down at the little bar and looked around. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to come here anyway. She still felt alone… probably even more than when she would have stayed in Canada. At least she wouldn’t have seen all the other people having talks… AND company.
She turned to the bartender. “Hey there” she smiled.
He smiled back at her. “ , right?”
nodded. He probably wasn’t much older than 18. “Christmas punch?” he asked raising his brows.
“Rather a gun” she answered.
“Oh, they just ran out.”
“That’s my luck” she smiled and getting a charming smile back.
“ADAM” the bartender turned to his right seeing a black haired girl heading towards him. “Talking about your luck” he mumbled annoyed towards and turned to face the girl.
“Yes, ?” he asked politely.
“The glasses aren’t clean yet, look at the mess behind the bar. Your tie and your hair are messy and I don’t see you walking around with a tray in your hand, handing out champagne. I don’t pay you for doing nothing” this so called hissed at him. looked at her irritating… how rude can a person be? Hopefully, Adam is not going to cry.
“Listen, ” started Adam and to ’s surprise he had a smile on his face. “The cleaning of the glasses is not my job, neither the walking around with the tray. My hair and my tie can look like they want to because I actually give a damn about it and” he paused and his smile disappeared. “You don’t pay me anyway. It’s all ’s money and he told me to stay behind the bar… and that’s what I’m doing. And now would you please excuse me, I have a guest to serve” he smiled and suddenly turned to . “A shot, right?” he winked at and smiled.
“Right, a shot” laughed .
turned around and stormed away without even paying attention to . rolled her eyes. “Who was that?”
“ ’s girlfriend” he stated preparing a cocktail for her.
“Really?” asked raising her eye brows. How could he fall in love with her?
“Yeah, I honestly don’t know why he fancies her” stated Adam handing her the glass. “I thought you might first want to start out with a long drink” he smiled. “The shot was just a joke.”
smiled and took the cocktail a little hesitant. “Thanks, Adam.”
He smiled at took the three empty glasses from the bar to clean them in the basin next to him. “Where do you know from?” asked interested.
Adam turned a little to her so he could look at her while answering. “He’s my cousin” he stated smiling. “Oh and she treats you like that?” pointed over her shoulder without paying much attention to where she was pointing at as she knew Adam knew exactly who she meant.
“Well, me and every other person on this planet earth. Everyone… but .”
shook her head. She hated such people who thought they were something bigger and better. She sniffed and took a sip through the straw. “Oh my God” she said looking at Adam. “That’s fantastic.”
“I know” he smiled. “My creation.”
smiled and took another sip. “Won’t she be mad at you for not doing what she told you to do?”
“Yeah, probably… I don’t care.”
“I don’t want you to get in trouble” she said honestly.
“Oh, come on, it’s way more fun to talk to you than to walk around the room with a tray in one hand.”
took a deep breath. “Yeah, it really is fun to talk to you. Our conversation is the best I’ve had for the past month” she smiled.
“I can talk and talk and talk. Maybe we can keep on talking on a date” he grinned at her cheekily.
“Don’t push your luck” grinned causing Adam to laugh.
“Okay, I won’t.”
“Adam” Adam turned around while took another sip from her cocktail. This one was good… way too good. It was… orange juice with coke, a splash of coconut liqueur and couldn’t really figure out how much alcohol was in it but it must have been a proud amount.
“Give me two glasses of wine, would you?” someone asked. didn’t pay much attention to who was around her. This cocktail was way too good to not enjoy it.
“Sure” smiled Adam and bend down to take hold of a wine bottle. “Red?” he asked from under the bar.
“Yes” answered that someone. turned now to her left to see who was there and just in that moment the other one did the same.
“ ” smiled the person and couldn’t think straight for a moment.


Chapter 15

“Wow, Louis” smiled and got up from her stool. She offered her hand to him and he shook it. “Nice to see you again. Merry Christmas to you” he smiled.
“Merry Christmas as well” she smiled but then suddenly she saw that Louis face got all serious.
“Are you alone here?”
pulled back her hand and looked at him a bit irritated. “Yeah, why not?”
He suddenly chuckled and shook his head. “It was just pure interest” he took the two glasses of wine and smiled at her. “Maybe we’ll talk later” and with that he was gone. sat down again and looked at Adam.
“You don’t like him, do you?” he asked.
took another sip. “It’s not that” she stated truthfully. “Have you ever had a secret you weren’t allowed to tell anyone? And you actually didn’t want to hear about this secret but they just told you and now you have to live with it?”
Adam looked at her puzzled. “Not really, no.”
“Well, let’s just say that he and another person told me a secret and made me keep it to myself and… I actually didn’t even want to hear it.”
It was obvious that Adam didn’t know that she as talking about the deal but even to speak it out in riddles made her feel slightly better.
Adam sighed. “I think I’ll mix you another one” he smiled and pointed to ’s almost empty glass. “Mix two already” she stated and finished her drink.

“Where have you been?” asked when he saw her coming out of the kitchen.
“This door is only linked to the kitchen where do you think I was?” she snapped back. Adam was totally ruining her evening. Pretending that she didn’t have anything to say… as if she was just ’s girlfriend.
“What are you so angry about?” he asked.
“Adam” she snapped. “He’s ruining our party. He doesn’t do his job correctly and… he told me to piss off.”
stared at her. “What?”
“Yeah” said with tears in her eyes. “He told me to piss off.”
took a deep breath. “Do you want me to talk to him?”
“No, I want you to throw him out.”
“He’s my cousin” stated in disbelief. “And we don’t have another bartender.”
“Oh, okay, I see. So you’re on his side.”
“No, I’m not- Listen, I’ll talk to him.”
She sniffed and stormed away leaving behind all angry.
“Adam” he called out a few feet away from the bar still.
“What’s up, ? Another Bloody Mary?” he asked in hope.
“What are you thinking?” asked angrily.
“What do you mean?” asked Adam surprised.
“You told to piss off?” he asked in disbelief.
“What? Did she say that? – I’m going to-“ he started to whisper to himself but stopped when held up his hand. “She’s crying because of that.”
“I didn’t say anything like that” he protested. “You can ask ” he pointed at her. She looked up from her third whatsoever called cocktail and widened her eyes when she heard her name.
“Don’t draw her in” hissed . “I want you to do what she had told you to do, now.”
“But I have-“
“Now, Adam!”
turned around and walked away. Adam mumbled something didn’t understand and she just saw how he tossed his dish towel onto the bar. Drying his hands in his apron.
“Do you want me to help you?” asked feeling guilty that she wasn’t fast enough to tell that Adam was telling the truth.
“No… it’s okay” he sighed and started to gather all the glasses.
“No, I’m going to walk around with the tray, okay?” she asked already getting up. He shook his head. “You have drunk too much. You won’t be able to do it without breaking them.”
tightened her eyes. “Listen, Mr. Adam” Did she just really call him like that? Maybe she was already a bit drunk. “I can balance a tray. It’s not that hard…”
“ will kill me if something breaks…”
“Then he first has to kill me” she stated and held out her hands. “Give me the tray.”
“And you really want to do this?”
She nodded once and he shook his head not knowing why he agreed to this. “Just promise me to use both your hands.”
“Yes, sir” she smiled and turned around with the tray in her hands.

“I need champagne” Beverly complained. “The music is unbearable.”
rolled his eyes. “Is one glass enough or should I bring you a whole tray already?”
Beverly threw a threatening glance at him. “One is enough” she said.
He turned around and walked away. “Hey, Adam, two glasses of champagne, mate” he smiled.
Adam looked up at him with his hands in the water. His eyes tightened and he started to mumble. “A tray full of sparkling champagne must be somewhere walking around the room. Please, if it’s not too much to ask for… go and search for it all by yourself.”
looked at him still when he already turned to the water again. “What’s bugging you?” he asked.
“ ” mumbled Adam.
“You want to talk about it?” asked .
Adam looked up from the glasses again. “Don’t start with that chick-flick moments.”
“Okay” stated confused and left him behind. Okay, now he only has to search for the tray.
Means, someone must be walking around the room holding it. He looked to his right… no tray… no person carrying it. Why was ’s house that big again? He turned to his left. Yes! Something was moving there… and people were already sipping on champagne glasses. That must be the right way.
“Thank goodness you changed your suit” called and blocked ’s way. looked how someone, probably the woman with the tray moved away. She was wearing a red dress but he couldn’t see her face. Hmm… he needed to stop her to get the champagne.
“Yeah, . Told you I would do it.”
He tried to get past him. “Has already talked to you?”
looked at . “No… no, he hasn’t. I bet it wasn’t important then.”
“Oh, I do think it was. !”
turned to his right seeing already walking over to them. He then looked to the left again seeing how the woman moved away.
‘It’s not that hard. If I keep on holding both hands on this tray, I won’t smash them’ thought making her way to the crowd. How many people did invite? It seemed like there was barely even space for another one. ‘Whoops, and another glass gone’ she said to herself when someone grabbed for one. ‘If I ever fail in acting, I can do this for a living. Walking around the room with champagne in my hands.’
She turned around and took a look at the room. There were still seven glasses on her tray. ‘Don’t even know why everyone likes champagne. Drinking one of them and I get all dizzy.’
She took then a step forward to go back through the crowd she had just past and then suddenly she saw them again. and … she hasn’t talked to them yet and she didn’t really want to. She didn’t even know whether they knew she was here. Well, she was not going to show herself. And just then she looked at the person they were talking to. ‘Oh crap’ she thought. ‘No… no, no, no, no!’ Turning to her left again she tried to escape. He hadn’t seen her… that was good. Without thinking about it she took a glass from the tray and drank it. Why was she feeling nervous? She knew that there might be the possibility that he would be there, so why this reaction?

‘Another one’ a voice told her inside her head. And without hesitation she took a second glass off the tray only to swallow its content. She turned around and saw how was not standing with and anymore. Getting all panicky she paced through the crowd. ‘Another one!’
And number three was gone. Wow, why was everything turning? Faces looked at her when she passed them… did she look weird? Hopefully not! ‘Ooh, watch the step… watch it! You have to slow down… you’re wearing heels. Slow down!’
CLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Adam’s face shot up when he heard something break. He shook his head and forced him not to break down and cry. The music stopped and was already heading to the mess.
“ !” he cried out.
‘Told you to slow down. And now, you’re in pain.’
shook her head and tried to get up from the floor but failed. She was too drunk. Feeling a hand on her shoulder she opened her eyes.
“Are you okay?”
“ ?”
looked around seeing people standing around staring at her. She looked at the person the hand belonged to and found kneeling beside her. And then she looked at the person standing behind him. His eyes in shock and surprise at the same time.
“ , are you okay?” asked . nodded and wished the ground would just open up and swallow her.
“No, she’s not, can’t you see?” Suddenly talked. He moved towards her and looked at her hand. followed his eyes and saw how red liquid was dropping down her hand. She stared at it and couldn’t say anything. Her eyes saw the wound and it wasn’t small… it was rather... deep. Why did she have to hold a glass?

“Get her up, ” ordered . She felt how she got lifted from the floor.
“Get me down” she whispered. Why was she feeling suddenly so dizzy? Oh yeah, right. The alcohol.
“Take her, ” said . “I need to talk to Adam.”
“Don’t blame him” whispered when she felt how two other strong arms grabbed her. Her eyes were closed and she felt too tired and too exhausted and too… drunk to open them. She didn’t even feel the pain in her hand. She rested her head onto his chest without realising that her hand must probably bleed right onto his shirt. She opened her eyes a bit and indeed, his whole white shirt was already stained with a big red spot.
“We need a towel” he said. “Or something to stop the wound from bleeding. , bring something.”
She closed her eyes again. It wasn’t hurting so why would it need to be stopped bleeding.
“I’m tired” she whispered.
“ , baby, stay awake. You hear me?”
opened her eyes again in a small gap. “How did you call me?”
didn’t know what to say. “ , get her onto the couch.”
“Not my couch” cried . ‘Yeah, take me to the couch, please. Let me stain it’ her voice was telling her and she had to smile. felt how walked with her but it wasn’t until she felt a cold breeze that she realised that she was no longer going to be put onto the couch.
“Open the door, ” ordered . He seated her onto the backseat and sat down next to her.
didn’t care to open her eyes. She knew she was safe even though she didn’t want to be it right now. She wanted to escape his arms… but she couldn’t. The car was already driving before realised it. Hearing a heart beat next to her ear which was going really fast she felt herself drifting away more and more.


Chapter 16

  Aja Yippy yippy jaj… singing, aja yippy yippy jaj-

  “Crap” she heard someone hissing. She didn’t want to open her eyes… she felt every part of her body aching. Where was she? What day was it? And most of all… could somebody please erase the uncomfortable thought that she might have done something stupid?
‘Okay, let’s think back. What have I done?’ she paused and listened to her surroundings. No one was talking… he just heard someone breathing while putting down probably her mobile phone that just a moment ago had woken her up.
‘ ’ she remembered. ‘ ’s party… Adam…’ were other things she remembered and then her eyes shot open.
“ ” she breathed out.
“ ?”
Her eyes turned to that someone who said her name. Her eyes widened even more –if that was even possible.
“Are you awake?” she recognised his voice and snapped her eyes shut.
“ ?” he asked puzzled.
She hid her face and felt suddenly an aching pain in her right hand. She opened her eyes and looked at it. It was bandaged and it smelt… medical.
“Are you okay?” he asked once more and she felt how he moved closer and sat down onto the edge of her bed. She shook her head.
“Are you in pain?”
She shook her head once more.
“Are you thirsty?”
Thirsty? She had probably drunk the whole bar empty according to her aching head but she shook her head again.
“Do you need something?”
She shook her head and heard him sighing.
“How stupid have I been?” she asked still keeping her hands in front of her face to hide it.
“Well” he started happy that she said something. “It was an accident.”
“How bad has been this accident?”
“You stumbled over a step and… well, you twisted your wrist and… you cut your palm.”
shook her head. ‘Mental note: Don’t you ever dare to drink again!’
“How embarrassing have I been?”
He sighed. “Not at all, .”
She moved her fingers to open a bit so that one eye can look at him. Seeing that look in his face she started to moan. “I’m such a prat!”
He laughed and shook his head but already closed off her eyes with her fingers.
“It really was an accident” then he paused and the smile and laugh vanished. “And it wasn’t even funny to look at. I think you have given us all a little heart attack.”
She shook her head. “I’m so sorry for being an idiot.”
reached his hand out to caress her arm but let it drop again. “Don’t say that. It’s all good now.”
“How many days have I overslept? Do you think people will have forgotten about it already?”
There was silence in the room and knew that it was not good. She put her hands from her face and looked at him. His shirt was stained by a big red spot on his chest. gasped when she looked at it… she must have lost plenty of blood.
“Well, let’s say that you have slept two hours through” he tried to smile but failed. He had seen where was looking at. She took a deep breath.
“ , I’m so sor-“
“Don’t” he said before she could say it.
“ !” The door has been banged open and a woman entered it quickly. heaved herself up to find herself also still in her red dress. It was also stained with her blood and it was much… too much although it wasn’t as visible as on ’s white shirt.
“How is she?” Another person entered the room and widened her eyes even more. It was followed by and .
got up from the bed when the woman reached him and flew her arms around his neck kissing his lips urgently. tried to push her away but he only managed to get rid of her lips on his.
caught his eyes when he did so and she felt how her heart was aching. As if a knife was cutting right into it. Her pain in her wrist and her hand palm was nothing compared to that.
“How are you, ?” sat down onto the bed and took her not bandaged hand.
“It’s okay” she forced a smile and looked at him. “I’m so sorry for ruining your party.”
shook his head. “Don’t be stupid. It was an accident and Adam will pay for it” he tried to sound as if he was joking but knew that he wasn’t.
“Don’t blame Adam” she said sitting up straight but regretting it when her head was about to explode.
“I offered to take the tray. He didn’t want me to do it but I insisted.”
took a deep breath. “It’s okay.”
“No, promise me that you won’t punish him for something I have done wrong. Promise it to me!”
“Okay, I promise” he smiled.
She smiled and looked at and . “ , I assume you drove me to the hospital, don’t you?”
He nodded and no smile was on his face. “Thank you and sorry for scaring you.”
“You were unconscious” he said. looked away from him. “I’m sorry that I scared you.”
“It’s okay” he smiled now. “Now we know at least that you won’t get any trays to carry around anymore.”
shook her head but smiled. “I promise to stop carrying these things when trying to escape and being half drunk.”
and laughed though the atmosphere was still strange. looked at who was still in Beverly’s arms. Beverly then turned to .
“Get well soon, ” she smiled happily and turned to . “Are we leaving, baby?”
Ouch, and another cut. He was her husband… and he was with Beverly. She was calling him baby… she was staying at his house. She was the one he loved. Swallowing the lump in her throat she forced to smile.
“Thanks” Beverly flashed a smile and turned to again. Taking his face into her hands she kissed him fully on his lips.
“Come on, lets get home so you can change your clothes. The blood is disgusting.”
, and looked at them. coughed and managed to lose Beverly’s hold. “Can I just talk to alone?” he asked.
Beverly pulled a face and stormed out of the room. and nodded as well and before they left the room they each gave a peek on her cheek. breathed in heavily and nodded. He also gave her a kiss on her cheek. He left the room closing the door behind him.
“Did the doctor say when I was allowed to leave?” asked casually not wanting to talk about what have just happened.
“As soon as you’re awake” he stated sitting down onto the bed once more. swayed her legs slowly to the opposite side from where he sat to get up. “Great” she said and stood up. She swayed a little and at once took hold of her. She froze when his hands touched her waist and just the next moment she pulled away from his grab.
“Sorry” he mumbled knowing this wasn’t good what he had done.
“’s okay” she answered looking for her shoes. ‘Where did he put them?’ she hissed inside her mind. “Your shoes are on this side” he said as if he could have read her mind.
“Thanks” she mumbled.
“Erm…” he started but didn’t know how to continue. What should he tell her? What Beverly had done just a few moments ago was not okay. He was married to and Beverly had kissed him… what if she thought that both also sleep with each other.
“Beverly-“
“You don’t need to explain” stressed bending down to get her shoes. She sat down into the lazy chair and started to slide into them. raised his brows.
“But I think you might understand something wrong” he said looking how she managed herself.
“You two are a couple. It’s cool, you know. Just don’t let yourself be caught in public again. Our show is not authentic when you walk around with your so called ex in public holding hands.”
looked at her. The pictures… she also knew about them and she was cool with it. Why was she cool with it? Was it really just a show to her? It must be because if it wasn’t she wouldn’t call it like that.
“Says the girl who gets caught with Ryan Reds in town” he stated.
looked at his raising her brows. “We’re partners” she smiled. “And we were not holding hands.”
took a deep breath. “Okay, maybe I should really take more care about what I’m doing in public. Next time I’ll walk around in town with her I might also keep a distance from 10 feet. This distance is anyway gone when we’re alone.”
swallowed. Another fine and deep cut. “Well, as long as you’re happy.”
“I am” he stated.
“That’s good” she chanted back. ‘Blood, blood, even more blood. What’s this song? Bleeding love?
How about bleeding pain… bleeding blood… bleeding empty?’ she thought swallowing another lump in her throat.
“Do you want me to call you a taxi?” asked stubbornly.
“Nope. I’ll get one by myself” she smiled and took her purse. “It was nice to see you again, . I’ll call you in a month when I’m back from Canada.”
She was leaving today? Tonight? She was going back to Canada? He didn’t let him be caught thinking these questions. He nodded and smiled.
“Good flight. And don’t forget… paparazzi are everywhere” he said and walked towards the door.
“See you, bye” and with that he stepped out closing the door behind him. dropped down onto the lazy chair again crying in pain… but not because of what was coming from her hand but… because of this deep and dreadful pain right in her heart.


Chapter 17

sighed when she dropped down onto her couch at home. London- she was back. Two months of filming were over and she was allowed to sleep in her own bed again. Rubbing her forehead she wished she didn’t need to unpack. She wished that little brownies were coming to her flat and would tidy everything up and that they would do the laundry. Yes, that would be perfect.
She sighed again when she figured that this was all just wishful thinking. Looking at her answering machine she pressed the button to listen to all the messages.
Nothing was really interesting. Most of the messages belonged to some of her friends not knowing she was not at home… or they have forgotten it. She didn’t really pay much attention to them anymore after the tenth message was already playing. She was bending over her washing machine putting in all her clothes.

Hey when you are at home again call me. When you return you’ll be attending the premier of Johnny Depp’s new film. will be with you. All you need is a ring and then everything is settled.
Call me.

sighed. The engagement! She totally forgot about that. She pulled her hand back from the machine and glanced at it. A pink scar was inside her palm. It wasn’t big or long, but surprisingly small and short considering the amount of blood she had lost through it.

Message 14: Hey , just wanted to let you know that me and Jake are coming over for a few days. The house is getting renovated which means that sexy, tanned workers are walking in and out all the time. Don’t really have a problem with that but Jake can’t bear looking at them for too long. We’ll be at yours on Saturday. Love ye,

“Oh, come on, you must be kidding me” moaned in her bathroom. “I can’t home you and your husband for a few days. I need time off all by myself without that disturbing snoring from Jake.”
lay on the floor moaning and rubbing her forehead.
“Help me, God. Please, let Jake find interest in looking at sexy and tanned workers. Please, please, please” she cried.

Message 16: You are engaged? You are engaged? Engaged? I can’t… I just need to… I-

focused at the message. It was already over. Who knew they were engaged when she even herself got to know just a few moments ago?

Message 17: Tell me it’s a joke. Just tell me it’s a joke. We’re going to be four people in your little flat? Why didn’t you call me or mum to tell us? It’s so not fun to get the latest news from your life over the press. , come on, why didn’t you tell us? Well, at least we’re going to party it on Saturday. Say hello to your fiancé. … oh and ps… why didn’t you tell us?

“Because I didn’t know” was already kneeling on the floor. Her butt in the air and her head on her forearms shaking from left to right. ‘Mental note: Kick … and whoever that’s responsible for the announcement!’

“Why don’t you all leave me alone?” didn’t realise it but a tear was rolling down her cheek. She had problems of her own and didn’t want to handle with a sister… or thousand other people asking her about her engagement with .

Message 19: Hey , it’s me . Call me when you’re home. It’s about our engagement.

’s head shot up. Did he tell it? Did he already say that the two of them were engaged? She got up from the floor. Shutting the machine after preparing everything to wash the laundry she headed to the phone.

“Filan” said a voice on the other wire.
“Who announced our engagement?”
“ ?”
“Oh, yeah, hi. Who announced our engagement?” she didn’t want to have a small talk. She was still hurt and in pain about what had happened a month ago.
“ ” he answered.
‘Mental note: It was !’
“ ? Why did she do that?”
“I don’t know. It was in yesterday’s newspaper and I already got bombard with all different kind of questions, accusations and even more.”
dropped onto the couch. “Where are you?” she asked.
“In London. We’re promoting the tour and the single.”
“You published a new single?”
“Yes” he answered. didn’t have one clue about what was happening in ’s life. Well, the last time she had a small glimpse at it was a month ago. And that glimpse was far enough for her taste.
“Did reporters already ask you about it?”
“Well, all viewers who had seen GM:TV must know already.”
started to moan. “What was I supposed to do?”
“You didn’t do anything wrong… just… I thought that maybe it would have been better to tell our family first.”
There was a pause on the other wire. “Does your family know already?”
“Kinda” he answered truthfully.
“How?”
“I knew that you were back soon and so I already told them.”
“Great and I end up as the bad daughter for not telling my parents.”
“I have to leave, . I’m going to be on stage now.”
“Don’t you da-“
The line was gone. Growling into the horn stamped towards the door while grabbing her purse.
needed to explain things!

“Hey ” smiled wearily when she entered her friend’s flat.
“What’s wrong?” she asked guessing what her face was already giving away.
“My engagement happened” she sighed and dropped down onto the couch.
“Yeah, I heard him talking about it this morning” she smiled unnecessarily guilty.
whined and clapped her hands onto her face. “My mum’s going to kill me.”
“Why… why would she?”
glanced up at her raising an eyebrow. “Like you don’t know what she thinks about all this fame stuff. She always was scared that I might head for the gutter. Taking drugs, partying with It-girls and so on. And now… I’m engaged after I have introduced them to just two months ago.”
tried to smile. “It’s really bugging you, isn’t it?”
“Yes, no… I don’t know. It’s just that I’m engaged to him when he’s having sex with another woman.”
stiffened. “He has sex with her?”
“I don’t know and to be honest, I’d rather not want to know for sure.”
“But… he can’t…you’re… you’re married already. It’s… against law or something.”
raised her brows. “Against law?”
“You now what I mean” she stated and sat down next to her. “Wow… it must be hurting you… a LOT.” She shrugged her shoulders. Was it really hurting her anymore? It rather felt like the cut couldn’t get much deep and wider so she just dealt with it from dusk till dawn without really realising that it was there. It became sort of… normal.
“I’ve talked to ” she said. “The engagement shall last for 3 months and then there’ll be the wedding” she sighed.
“Do you really want to do this? Do you really want to pull this trough?”
looked into her friend’s eyes and saw nothing but sympathy. “There’s no way around it.”
“But you’ll end up hurt and… fooled… and…” she searched for the right words but she had already said enough. knew that she would end up just like that but that were the consequences she had to face. About three months ago she got drunk and married… and the pain and the trouble were the pay-offs.
“When will you see him again?” asked weary.
“In three hours” she stated.
“Are you going to yell at him, punch him, scratch him? Any plan?” asked in hope.
This felt good… laughed. “No… nothing planned. I was thinking about maybe telling my daddy about him betraying me but I thought that he’s not such a bad guy. I really like his family and I don’t want them to remember me as the girlfriend whose father killed their son.”
laughed and put her arms around her. “You’re strong… you’ll survive this.”
‘I have to’ stated in her mind not wanting to say anything but just feeling this comfort.


Chapter 17

sighed when she dropped down onto her couch at home. London- she was back. Two months of filming were over and she was allowed to sleep in her own bed again. Rubbing her forehead she wished she didn’t need to unpack. She wished that little brownies were coming to her flat and would tidy everything up and that they would do the laundry. Yes, that would be perfect.
She sighed again when she figured that this was all just wishful thinking. Looking at her answering machine she pressed the button to listen to all the messages.
Nothing was really interesting. Most of the messages belonged to some of her friends not knowing she was not at home… or they have forgotten it. She didn’t really pay much attention to them anymore after the tenth message was already playing. She was bending over her washing machine putting in all her clothes.

Hey when you are at home again call me. When you return you’ll be attending the premier of Johnny Depp’s new film. will be with you. All you need is a ring and then everything is settled.
Call me.

sighed. The engagement! She totally forgot about that. She pulled her hand back from the machine and glanced at it. A pink scar was inside her palm. It wasn’t big or long, but surprisingly small and short considering the amount of blood she had lost through it.

Message 14: Hey , just wanted to let you know that me and Jake are coming over for a few days. The house is getting renovated which means that sexy, tanned workers are walking in and out all the time. Don’t really have a problem with that but Jake can’t bear looking at them for too long. We’ll be at yours on Saturday. Love ye,

“Oh, come on, you must be kidding me” moaned in her bathroom. “I can’t home you and your husband for a few days. I need time off all by myself without that disturbing snoring from Jake.”
lay on the floor moaning and rubbing her forehead.
“Help me, God. Please, let Jake find interest in looking at sexy and tanned workers. Please, please, please” she cried.

Message 16: You are engaged? You are engaged? Engaged? I can’t… I just need to… I-

focused at the message. It was already over. Who knew they were engaged when she even herself got to know just a few moments ago?

Message 17: Tell me it’s a joke. Just tell me it’s a joke. We’re going to be four people in your little flat? Why didn’t you call me or mum to tell us? It’s so not fun to get the latest news from your life over the press. , come on, why didn’t you tell us? Well, at least we’re going to party it on Saturday. Say hello to your fiancé. … oh and ps… why didn’t you tell us?

“Because I didn’t know” was already kneeling on the floor. Her butt in the air and her head on her forearms shaking from left to right. ‘Mental note: Kick … and whoever that’s responsible for the announcement!’

“Why don’t you all leave me alone?” didn’t realise it but a tear was rolling down her cheek. She had problems of her own and didn’t want to handle with a sister… or thousand other people asking her about her engagement with .

Message 19: Hey , it’s me . Call me when you’re home. It’s about our engagement.

’s head shot up. Did he tell it? Did he already say that the two of them were engaged? She got up from the floor. Shutting the machine after preparing everything to wash the laundry she headed to the phone.

“Filan” said a voice on the other wire.
“Who announced our engagement?”
“ ?”
“Oh, yeah, hi. Who announced our engagement?” she didn’t want to have a small talk. She was still hurt and in pain about what had happened a month ago.
“ ” he answered.
‘Mental note: It was !’
“ ? Why did she do that?”
“I don’t know. It was in yesterday’s newspaper and I already got bombard with all different kind of questions, accusations and even more.”
dropped onto the couch. “Where are you?” she asked.
“In London. We’re promoting the tour and the single.”
“You published a new single?”
“Yes” he answered. didn’t have one clue about what was happening in ’s life. Well, the last time she had a small glimpse at it was a month ago. And that glimpse was far enough for her taste.
“Did reporters already ask you about it?”
“Well, all viewers who had seen GM:TV must know already.”
started to moan. “What was I supposed to do?”
“You didn’t do anything wrong… just… I thought that maybe it would have been better to tell our family first.”
There was a pause on the other wire. “Does your family know already?”
“Kinda” he answered truthfully.
“How?”
“I knew that you were back soon and so I already told them.”
“Great and I end up as the bad daughter for not telling my parents.”
“I have to leave, . I’m going to be on stage now.”
“Don’t you da-“
The line was gone. Growling into the horn stamped towards the door while grabbing her purse.
needed to explain things!

“Hey ” smiled wearily when she entered her friend’s flat.
“What’s wrong?” she asked guessing what her face was already giving away.
“My engagement happened” she sighed and dropped down onto the couch.
“Yeah, I heard him talking about it this morning” she smiled unnecessarily guilty.
whined and clapped her hands onto her face. “My mum’s going to kill me.”
“Why… why would she?”
glanced up at her raising an eyebrow. “Like you don’t know what she thinks about all this fame stuff. She always was scared that I might head for the gutter. Taking drugs, partying with It-girls and so on. And now… I’m engaged after I have introduced them to just two months ago.”
tried to smile. “It’s really bugging you, isn’t it?”
“Yes, no… I don’t know. It’s just that I’m engaged to him when he’s having sex with another woman.”
stiffened. “He has sex with her?”
“I don’t know and to be honest, I’d rather not want to know for sure.”
“But… he can’t…you’re… you’re married already. It’s… against law or something.”
raised her brows. “Against law?”
“You now what I mean” she stated and sat down next to her. “Wow… it must be hurting you… a LOT.” She shrugged her shoulders. Was it really hurting her anymore? It rather felt like the cut couldn’t get much deep and wider so she just dealt with it from dusk till dawn without really realising that it was there. It became sort of… normal.
“I’ve talked to ” she said. “The engagement shall last for 3 months and then there’ll be the wedding” she sighed.
“Do you really want to do this? Do you really want to pull this trough?”
looked into her friend’s eyes and saw nothing but sympathy. “There’s no way around it.”
“But you’ll end up hurt and… fooled… and…” she searched for the right words but she had already said enough. knew that she would end up just like that but that were the consequences she had to face. About three months ago she got drunk and married… and the pain and the trouble were the pay-offs.
“When will you see him again?” asked weary.
“In three hours” she stated.
“Are you going to yell at him, punch him, scratch him? Any plan?” asked in hope.
This felt good… laughed. “No… nothing planned. I was thinking about maybe telling my daddy about him betraying me but I thought that he’s not such a bad guy. I really like his family and I don’t want them to remember me as the girlfriend whose father killed their son.”
laughed and put her arms around her. “You’re strong… you’ll survive this.”
‘I have to’ stated in her mind not wanting to say anything but just feeling this comfort.


Chapter 18

Waiting in front of ’s office looked down the road. Just a few minutes to go and she would see him again. A sickening feeling started to creep up her insides. She didn’t want to see him again… it was only going to hurt. Hurt deeply.
How could she survive this evening with the thought that his hands were also touching another girl?
That his heart didn’t belong to her but to Beverly? Why did it always had to hurt so much?
She didn’t want to feel this pain… she wanted to be free. Free from the chains around her heart which made it impossible to move generously. She wanted to breathe in and out without fearing tears to roll down her cheeks. Why did this guy have such an effect on her? Why was she falling for him? She told herself already that she was not allowed to let it happen. Thomas had done just the same… she was not going to be fooled all over and over again. She had to be strong… she had to!
“Hey there.”
’s head shot up from the focused glance she had held to the ground. Stab! And again it was bleeding. He looked absolutely beautiful. His hair was slightly messy, he wore washed-out jeans and a grey shirt that were put into his trousers. To top his whole appearance he wore a black vest and a black tie. He completely looked sexy… he had a half smile on his face and looked at her from the car’s door. He stood outside of it with still one foot inside. Raising his brow he waited for her.
“Are you coming?” he asked.
nodded and pushed herself from the wall she was leaning at. She knew that was looking her although she didn’t hold his glare. She passed him and sat down. breathed out heavily still smelling her sweet scent surrounding him. He sat down as well.
“Have you talked to your mother yet?” he asked trying to make conversation.
shook her head and kept looking out of the window. looked at her… she looked unhappy. She wore a white dress that ended shortly above her knees. She looked absolutely amazing… her hair was in a sexy ponytail and her eyes were accented naturally…
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you that I already told my parents.”
She shrugged her shoulders again not really wanting to talk to him. Or maybe it was only because she didn’t want to throw all different kind of accusations at him.
“Please, talk to me” he pleaded catching ’s attention straight away. Why were his moods always so fast changing?
“I know you must hate me and that you are probably mad at me but could you please at least say something that makes me know that you really are? Just don’t ignore me” he said looking into her eyes.
smiled but then sighed. “I just want to get over with it” she said looking back out of the window. nodded his head and did the same to his side. Nothing’s going to work out when they behaved like that and both knew it. It was just… so hard to understand.
“Here” he suddenly said. felt how a little box dropped into her lap.
“Maybe you should wear this” looked at him but he was not looking at her but blankly out of the window. Looking at the box knew exactly what it was. She opened it and a shining sliver ring met her glance. It was absolutely beautiful… in some way but it didn’t have this sparkle someone would feel when seeing it. For her it was only jewellery, a ring, nothing more than that. It was no sign of love nor of commitment… it was just a ring.
“We’ve arrived” said the driver and at once opened the door. He stepped out offering his hand to help her. She took it without much gratitude. She slid her hand into his and felt its warmth and again she couldn’t bear the pain it was causing her. looked at her hand and flicked it around… it was the same hand that had gotten injured a month ago. The scars were still visible…
Taking a deep breath moved forwards with him, posing for some photos feeling that silver something on her right hand. She tried to smile but for some reason it didn’t work. The smile just didn’t want to appear.
Probably thousand questions and thousand answers later they found themselves inside the theatre watching the film. did not really made any attempt to start a conversation. She wasn’t really interested… to say it better, rather annoyed by his presence. But then again she knew it didn’t have anything to do with him… but with their current situation and her stupid feelings.

“Good night” she said when she got out of the car.
leaned a bit forward looking at her but she avoided his glance. She nodded once and shut the door before he could say another thing. Turning around at once she walked up the stairs to the front door.
“Evening” jumped when she suddenly saw someone lying on the couch in the living room. She grabbed her chest and tried to breathe in and out slowly.
“What” she started but couldn’t continue the question.
“How…” she tried once more. “I mean… what the hell are you doing here besides giving me a heart attack?”
“We told you that we’d be here” sighed patting her sister’s shoulder.
“No… you said on Saturday… on Saturday! Today is not Saturday.”
“Why are you so cranky?” asked slightly offended by ’s harsh tone.
“Why I’m cranky? , I come home from a two months filming and the first thing I had to do was going to a premier facing hundreds of reporters asking about my engagement. And now I come back looking forward to a calm evening and this is what I find” she pointed around the living room.
“You really need some rest” stated shaking her head. tightened her eyes… her sister was not going to survive this. Already making herself ready for the jump turned around.
“Where’s ?”
’s body froze. … she forgot about … totally. He was already on his way home.
And when they were engaged they were supposed to live together, weren’t they? It’s what every normal couple would do… you wouldn’t agree marrying someone without knowing what living with him would be like… well, every other person would agree to that. would… means, if she wasn’t drunk!!!
She coughed slightly and patted her eyelashes. “Why?”
“Because… he’s not here. I thought you might know where your boyf- pardon, fiancé is.”
raised her brows. “Of course, I know where he is” she stated.
“And where?”
“At the… park” she lied. ‘Park? Park?... Oh come on!’ she moaned and could have kicked herself.
“It’s 10pm, what is he doing in the park?”
‘Just don’t say anything stupid’ she pleaded her tongue. “Relaxing…”
raised her brows looking confused. “He’s relaxing?”
“Yeah” stated helplessly. “He loves to relax.”
“At 10 at night? In the park? In London?”
‘Mental note: , you suck!’
just nodded. “When will he be back?”
And that was about it. She couldn’t lie about that. He wasn’t coming back, yes, he was not even living here. Let alone that his clothes were here…
“He’s still at his own place” she finally said. raised her brows now even more.
“Why?”
“Because we haven’t found the time to get our things together. Like I just said I got back from filming today.”
“So you agreed to marry him but you haven’t found the time to move together?”
took a deep breath. “My love life or my way to handle a relationship is something that should not bother you.”
She stated and took a can from the café table. “Look at the mess” she sighed.
raised her brows and shaking her head. “Anyway, call him so that he can come for some pizza” she smiled.
“What?” said . Never ever has her sister been more annoying than now.
“We ordered pizza… for four people. So call him.”
“He’s tired… I’m not calling him.”
“He’s relaxing in the park… I think he can do that also in a safer place like your living room.”
‘Safe? The park is ten times safer for him than this madness!’ shook her head while handed her the phone. He grabbed it and went into her bedroom locking the door behind her. She breathed out heavily. She couldn’t just call him. How pathetic would she sound? But she had to…
“Yeah?”
took a deep breath. “Hey” she said trying to sound happy.
“Hey” he responded in the same ‘polite’ way.
“ ’s at my place” There was a pause on the other wire.
“So?”
Taking another deep breath she continued. “She asked where you are.”
Another moment of silence. “You want me to come?”
started to fumble with the duvet’s corner and allowed herself to think about this question as well. “I don’t want to push you or anything but yeah, it would make it easier for me to pretend that we were really engaged.”
“I’ll come” he said.
“If Beverly has something against it then… tell her I’m sorry” hesitated while saying these words.
“I will” he answered after another moment of pausing. “See you.”
And with that the call finished. sighed and took a deep breath. So he was coming… that was good but now… she has to act. She has to act as if she was in love and not in pain.
She changed into different clothes not really counting down the minutes that were left for her to see him again.


Chapter 19

KNOCK, KNOCK
looked at who was jumping off the couch to get to the door. She was so excited that it really annoyed to look at her. He was just … just .
“ ” she smiled widely already leaning forward to give him a warm welcoming hug. “So great to see you. Like, how much time has passed since our last meeting?” she smiled and already led him towards the living room.
“Not enough, I’d say” stated and poked out her tongue to .
rolled her eyes and led him to the couch. “Come and take a seat but why am I telling you. You must know exactly where everything is. It’s your home as well somehow, isn’t it?”
hesitated but smiled “Yeah, kinda.”
gave him a little smile. “So who wants pizza?” asked .
glanced at the clock. “At half past ten?”
glanced at the clock as well and pouted her lips. “Nah, nah… it’s still 25 past ten.”
rolled her eyes and looked at who just smiled. “Okay… well, in this case.”
smiled and gave each and every one a little plate so that they can take as many pieces of pizza as they want. watched staring at the TV screen. He had already changed his clothes. He still wore the same jeans but now he combined it with a dark blue pullover and… he still looked good. “Tell, me ” he suddenly started. “Why are you staying here?”
growled. “Argh… because Jake has the feeling that the workers in our house are not bearable to look at.”
Jake turned now to . “It’s like this… what did you feel like when you knew that was filming with Ryan Reds? Do you know that there is this one scene where he stands there topless and she only in her bra and then they have to kiss each other?”
‘Not good! Totally not good’ her mind chanted and she looked at seeing him slowly biting into a piece of pizza without looking at .
“Well… I bet it’s a quite disturbing feeling knowing that there is this one attractive guy and your girl is all over him.”
“I wasn’t all over the workers” protested .

“Please, you undressed them with your eyes” he chuckled. Luckily, he wasn’t that mad about it.
’s glance wandered to . He was still eating his pizza silently and looking at the TV screen.
The evening passed on calmly. and still didn’t talk much to each other but neither nor Jake seem to notice. It was not until 1 o’clock that realised what time it was.
“I think I’ll leave now” he smiled and got up.
“You’re leaving?” asked .
Nodding his head he reached for his coat. “Yeah, it’s time. I’ll leave early this morning. We’re off to Cardiff and will return I think at about 10pm.”
“But… then wouldn’t it be better if you just catch some sleep here? It took you about half an hour to get here… it’s half an hour of sleep you miss” stated looking at him.
‘Menta- no time for that: Kill her!’
looked at not knowing what to say. “ , if he wants to leave than it’s fine.”
pulled a face. “That’s stupid. Just stay here, .”
hesitated. “I think I should really go.”
“Where is the problem?” asked getting a bit angry. She sensed that something was not going the way it should go.
“The problem is that he has an early morning and I want him to have a peaceful sleep” stressed and walked towards .
“And you two are engaged? It’s like you don’t even want to be together for more than two hours.”
turned away from her and looked at . He was looking down into her eyes.
“Fine” he smiled. “I’ll stay.”
’s eyes widened… he was going to stay?
“But then I’ll head for the bathroom now. Have to wake up in a few hours already.”
“Of course” stated when passed her to go into the bedroom. She looked at and threw her a threatening glance.
“And where was the problem?” she asked innocently.
“Shut up” hissed and followed into her bedroom. She closed the door behind her and looked at him.
“You don’t need to… I’m sorry that she’s such a… pain.”
turned to her. “It’s okay. I don’t mind staying here although I know that I’m not really welcomed.”
’s eye brows contracted. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing, it’s okay. Hey, can you give me a towel?”
nodded and went to her closet. She took a white one out of it and handed it to him. “There you go” she said. nodded and went out of the room.
’s head followed him and she couldn’t feel anything but this… stifling emptiness.

“There you go” mumbled still angry with . She dropped two pillows and two duvets onto the couch and looked at .
“I’m not a very welcoming host so… just make your bed alone” she turned around and went towards the bedroom when the bathroom door opened and left it. His hair still a bit wet and he only wore the towel around his waist. He headed straight into the bedroom and saw him blushing. She turned to already ready to throw another threatening glance at her but she shook her head when just stared at him and mouthed a “WOW” to .
“No wonder Jake wants you away from the workers” shook her head and went into the bedroom.
“I should have thought about the fact that I don’t have anything to change” he laughed a bit embarrassed. smiled a half smile as well and moved towards her cupboard to pull out a pair of shorts. She reached them out for to take them. He raised his brows.
hesitated. “I… I bought them for my ex the week before I went to Las Vegas. I never had the chance to give them to him, so… if you want you… can… just use them or something. I don’t know… it’s strange to give them to you.”
laughed a little and nodded. “Yeah, it really is strange. But anyway… thanks.”
nodded and headed for the door. “I’m going to give you a little space so you can fall asleep.”
She smiled and walked out of the door leaving behind. He sighed and sank onto her bed to take a deep breath. He pulled on the shorts and lay down to snuggle into the pillow and the duvet. It smelt like her… he could smell this sweet, velvet scent and that caused him close his eyes.
tiptoed into the bedroom and looked around. No couch, no lazy chair… nothing but the bed that could give her a place to sleep but was already in it. Would he mind it when she lay down next to him? Would she mind it? Would her heart be okay with it? Before she could think about this question she slowly walked towards the bed and sat down onto the edge. Taking a deep breath she lay down and pulled the duvet over her body already feeling the warmth that came from . She smiled because she liked it… she liked this warm feeling around her. The feeling of being safe and protected. She closed her eyes and waited for sleep to fall over her.
“You are welcomed” whispered really silently not knowing whether had heard her or not. She turned to her right side so that her back showed to .
looked at it seeing how it rose softly up and down but he couldn’t smile...

FLASHBACK

They swayed across hallway into the big lounge of their hotel. Vegas was still full alive. looked at the girl in his arms whose head lied on his chest. He suddenly stopped and looked around for the elevator causing to bump straight into him.
“Sorry, mate” he laughed. ’s eyes shot back open and she looked around seeing laughing. Not knowing why she started to laugh along. She lost hold of and took a few steps away looking around in the lounge. It didn’t not really appear as a lounge, rather like a story of a mall… but just full of different things. There was a café, the bar that they have left, there was the entry to a casino, there one to a dance show, there was a cathedral… everything was in this hotel.
didn’t know why but he felt not tired anymore. All those colour, those lights… everything seemed to freshen up his mind. He watched swaying to the casino…..
“I want to play” she laughed grabbing inside her purse pulling out her money.
“No, I don’t think it’s smart” reasoned her . “You’re drunk… we all are. You will only lose your money.”
“But I want fun! I want to let lose” she insisted already moving towards the casino. and the others laughed when they saw her swaying towards the cathedral. Still laughing caught up with her spinning her around at her waist.

“Why do you want that?”
“I want to lose all my money, so that I can crash in Thomas car and not having to pay for it.”
rolled his eyes. “Why don’t we make him jealous?”
“What?” asked .
“Why don’t we send him a photo on his mobile with just the two of us?”
looked at him and suddenly leaned in. She kissed him on his lips and pulled him closer towards her. “Jeez, you’re hot” she breathed out. didn’t mind he just kept on kissing her in the middle of the lounge but then suddenly she stopped and turned to face the attraction behind him. A smile appeared on her lips and she turned to .
“You want to help me making him jealous?” she asked.
nodded already leaning in again to kiss her, ignoring the laughter of his friends in the background.
“Marry me” she stated within the kisses.
“Okay” he mumbled.
“Then let’s go” she said again in between the kisses where she could find the strength to pull away from him. He pulled away and took her hand. Both swaying into the cathedral getting followed by , and … laughing.


Chapter 20

“Good morning” chanted a voice and ’s eyes snapped open. Seeing her sister dancing into her room she shut them again.
“Get out!” she mumbled rolling onto her other side.
“It’s a nice, rainy day… come on. Get up! Jake made breakfast” opened her eyes and saw that the place next to her was empty. She didn’t want to get up. She wanted to stay here… in her warm, comfortable bed!
“Get out, ” she mumbled again.
“Get you out” she chanted once more and pulled away her duvet. “Look at what your fiancé left you” she smiled jumping onto her bed.
“Jeez, you may look like an adult but you’re pretending to be a eight year old school girl” got up and rubbed her head walking into the living room, closely followed by her sister. Once inside she gasped. There was a huge bouquet of white roses on the table. She paced through the living room and inhaled the scent of them once she reached the vase.
“They are amazing” she whispered.
“When was the last time you bought me flowers?” complained to Jake.
“You don’t get me on this one” smiled Jake and put his arms around her waist. “It was the week after our honeymoon, so two years ago” he smiled. rolled her eyes. “This was not a catch question.” She lost hold of Jake and walked over to . “What says the envelope?” she asked when she saw reading it. put the note back in urgently and smiled at .
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? I doubt that… what did he write?”
“Nothing… he wrote nothing… just…” she hesitated. “I love you.”
“Oh, it’s so romantic” snivelled happily.
“Why are you crying?” asked in confusion.
“I’m not” she sobbed.
“Yeah you are. Look!” took her sister’s hand and placed it onto her cheek to feel the wet tears.
“Oh my God, I’m crying” sat down onto the couch Jake by her side already.
“She has this erratic mood swings pretty often nowadays” he said looking shortly at then back at .
“When was your last period?” asked causing to snap her head up at her.
“I totally forgot about that” she realised. “Oh no, I’m pregnant.” She started to cry again.
“You don’t know that” tried to comfort her awkwardly. “Maybe you’re just late.”
looked at her, then at Jake. “We…” she pointed at herself and Jake. “Need to go and see the doctor” she insisted and got up. Within a minute her living room was empty. really didn’t realise how fast they have gone. Her sister was probably pregnant… lucky her. And then her own problems started to find their way back to her mind. Her glance wandered to the roses and she opened the envelope again.

I know you love white roses. I miss you… let’s meet. Love, Ryan

pressed the little note onto her chest and looked at the flowers. She remembered the time with him… how his face moved closer to her when they knelt down together. She remembered the kisses in front of the camera and everything around.
The phone rang and got ripped out of her thoughts. “Hello?” she asked still dreamingly.
“Did you get my roses?”
She swallowed hard. “Yeah, I just saw them.”
“And the card?”
“And the card” confirmed not knowing what to say.
“Do you miss me?”
She didn’t know. Did she miss him? No… yes… no… ?!?! Questions over questions were spinning in her head and she didn’t have one answer.
“How about we meet today?”
“Today?” she asked surprised.
“Yeah” he replied and she could firmly see him smiling on the other wire. “If that’s okay with your fiancé.”
swallowed… right her engagement had just been confirmed yesterday, she couldn’t possibly go out with Ryan today.
“ ?”
“I’m not sure whether it is okay” she finally said.
“Is he keeping you away from me?”
“No” defended . “He wouldn’t do that.”
“Has he seen the flowers today?”
“No… I don’t know.”
“Let’s meet for a coffee. What do you say?”
“Okay… I think a coffee is… okay.”
She heard Ryan letting out a sigh of relieve. “I’ll pick you up at four, okay?”
nodded before she realised that he hadn’t heard her. “Fine” she said and ended the call. She sighed and looked again at the note. ‘Why did you say yes? Why?’ She shook her head and headed back to her bedroom to dress herself.

“Hey Ryan” she smiled when he stood in front of her door. He held out a white rose and took it smiling at him. “Thanks.”
“Always welcomed” he smiled back. He stole a glance into her flat and caught it.
“He’s not here” she stressed knowing that he was wondering whether was with her or not.
“Oh” he said but kept on smiling. “Good. Shall we go?” he asked and nodded following him to his car.

“How was your day?” asked when entering ’s flat later the evening.
“Good” she smiled looking up from the TV. sat down next to her and Jake was on his way into the bathroom.
“And?” asked looking at her sister who put a pillow under her shirt to form a big belly.
“Pregnancy confirmed” she smiled and nudged into her side.
“Oh Jeez” squeaked smiling widely at her sister and hugging her the next moment. “That is… amazing.”
“I know” smiled . “It’s only the sixth week and that’s why we didn’t notice earlier.”
“I think it’s fantastic. Have you told mum and dad?”
“Of course, where do you think I was all day long?”
smiled and stroked her sister’s pillow belly. “Little , or little Jake… hey there. I’m your auntie” she smiled.
“By the way… where is its uncle?”
looked up from the belly and into her sister’s eyes.
“Sorry?”
“Where’s ? Giving you such beautiful flowers and not even showing up in the evening?”
“I haven’t talked to him today” admitted.
“You haven’t?” shook her head.
“May I ask why you are marrying him anyway? You two constantly seem to go separated ways.”
“It’s the way we are” she said and got up from the couch. “I think I’ll go to bed.”
watched her sister and nodded her head feeling something was wrong. “Good.”

stayed awake for quite awhile letting the day pass through her head. had left early this morning with no note, no phone call or anything. He was just gone… he didn’t care one thing about her. And then there were these beautiful flowers this morning which she got from Ryan who showed up and took her out for a coffee. She had fun hanging out with him and he made her laugh and forget about this thing with . How was she going to keep on living this life when everything seemed too hard to handle? She felt tears stinging up and closed her eyes rapidly. She was going to survive this chaos… no matter what. could do this thing then she could too.
She heard the door being opened and looked at it.
“I didn’t mean to wake you up” said a voice. gasped noiselessly and nodded her head.
“You didn’t” she said in a whisper.
“Okay” he said and stood in the room.
“I wasn’t sure whether I should come back or not so I… just decided that it would be better to come back” he stated and to it seemed like he was searching for the right words.
“It’s okay…”
“Would you mind?” he asked pointing at the bedside he slept it last night. The moon was lighting up the room in a blue sliver shade so she could actually see his face and movements. She shook her head and watched him lying down. He sighed when he finally could stretch his spine.
“That feels good” he said.
“Was it that exhausting?” asked not knowing what else to say or to do.
“Rather. We’ve been to Cardiff for half of the day and then we had other appointments. It was madness. How was your day?” he asked casually not really wanting to take the second step before the first and asking who had given her the roses. Maybe had given them to her-
“Good… calm.”
“The roses are really pretty” he said as casually as possible.
“Yeah, I love white roses” was everything answered. “Hey, is pregnant” she said to change to topic.
“Really?” asked in a surprised tone.
“Yeah, she just found out today.”
“Well, I think I need to congratulate her tomorrow.”
“You are going to stay tomorrow?” she asked.
“Tomorrow we have a day off so I thought yeah, why not.”
couldn’t hide a smile and was only happy that he didn’t turn his head to look at her. He was still staring at the ceiling.
“Any plans for tomorrow?” he asked.
“Nothing planned. Just living into the day…”
“Maybe we should go and see your parents. I mean because of the announcement.”
turned her head so she could look at him. “I don’t think it’s a good idea” she stated truthfully. “Why?” he asked closing his eyes only listening to her voice as his eyes gave him a hard to time to stay open.
‘Why? Why??? Because we are liars. Because you have a girlfriend and I have a… date… or something. That’s why. It’s because we are lying and I don’t want my parents to like you more than they should… THAT’S why!’ she thought but turned her head again so she looked at the ceiling.
“I am just not in the mood for any explanations.”
“Oh, okay” stated and could tell by the power of his voice, which actually barely existed anymore, that he was already falling asleep. She turned onto her side so she could face the wall.
“Night, ” she heard him saying but she never responded. She closed her eyes as well and slowly drifted into sleep.


Chapter 21

Swaying into the living room, ’s eyes were barely open. She had had a rough night. Having nightmares were not really on her favourite list but she couldn’t just stop them. They were illusions of her mind… which was right now a total chaos and basically a disaster. She felt like the worst person on this planet but what should she do? She could only keep on playing this game and do nothing more.
“Morning” greeted a familiar voice. rubbed her eyes and dropped down onto the chair in front of its owner.
“Coffee” she wailed waiting for it to come and to her surprise it happened. A few seconds later it was already steaming in front of her. She looked at it.
“Thanks” she smiled hesitantly.
“You’re welcome.”
“Where’s my sister?”
“She was gone before I woke up so I don’t know” he turned took a bite of his croissant and smiled at who had already looked up at him. She smiled when she saw small crumbs around his mouth. She leaned forward and reached slowly her hand out. He looked at it not knowing what she was going to do but he allowed her to do it. He felt how her fingers brushed away crumbs from his mouth. He had to laugh and she smiled along.
“Thought you would look better without them in your face.”
“Thanks” he smiled when already pulled her hand back to take her mug to take a sip of it. “I thought we might go to the park today or something like that.”
raised her brows. “Together?”
“Well, that’s what I thought when I said ‘we’.”
‘STUPID! You are so, so, so stupid’ If it didn’t look too stupid, would have hit herself straight away. What a stupid question.
“What do you say?”
“Okay… yeah, let’s do it.”
smiled at her and took the last sip of his coffee. “Good, I just go and fetch today’s newspaper and we’ll see us in thirty minutes.”

FLASHBACK

“Gather, gather, my friends” chanted already holding the camera up.
looked at while trying to not break down because her knees were no longer holding her up anymore. smiled at her while taking hold of the white rose in her hands as well. stood next to and next to grinning into the camera.
“And… say cheese” ordered laughing and with that the flash was already lightening up the surrounding at the four people.
smiled at . “We are spouses” she beamed.
“Yeah, you are my wife” he confirmed and both cracked up by the sound of it.
“You two should have your wedding night straight away before you start making out in the lounge again” laughed patting ’s shoulder.
He raised his brows and leaned in so he could kiss ’s lips again. “My room or yours?” he asked in between kisses.
“Yours” replied giving herself away to .
“I’d love to pick you up but… I think I’ll fall down if I do so.”
“No need for tradition… I can walk” and with that pulled her into the nearest elevator leaving his friends behind giggling.
was again occupied to kiss and tried to stuff the piece of paper into her purse but she just couldn’t open it. Once the elevator doors opened both stumbled out of it and made their way- glued to one and another’s lips- into ’s hotel room.
He broke the kiss when he had to look for his card. “Damn wallet” he hissed while trying to get it out of his pocket. watched him doing so and giggled.
“You look super sexy when cursing” she whispered into his ear while getting closer to him.
“If you want us to have our wedding night in a bed it would be better to take a step back from me right now” he said getting the card out of his wallet. He let it slide through the detector and with a small click the door opened. pulled inside and both were already over each other.
stopped caring about falling down or not he lifted her up so ’s legs could cling around his waist. With one foot he closed the door behind him and tossed her purse and the piece of paper onto the café table.
“We are married” mumbled in between the breaths she could take while still kissing . “Wife and husband” he confirmed-

“I want you, ” she whispered and caused to stop. “I just want to let you know for sure” she giggled. smiled and put her back onto the ground. He unzipped her dress and it slipped down onto the ground leaving her standing in front of him with a red g-string and a red strapless bra. She tried to smile but he knew that she felt too uncomfortable right now to show any kind of not embarrassment. He leaned forward and kissed her again unbuttoning his own shirt. He felt how two soft hands got replaced by his own and did the job for him. First the shirt was gone and then the jeans. With his body he pushed her slowly towards the bed where both dropped down. “I’ve got champagne inside the mini-bar” he breathed.
“Fetch it” smiled against his lips. He parted and jumped up from the bed and walked towards the bar taking out champagne and two glasses of the little fridge.
“Ooh, take the M&Ms too” called seeing them smiling at her next to the fridge. did how he was asked, or rather ordered, and joined back onto the bed.
Opening the bottle he let the champagne fill the glasses. Not even realising how fast the bottle was empty found himself lying next to who just stared at the M&Ms.
“I’m stuffed… and I’m drunk” she guessed but hesitated a bit. “I’m stuffed and drunk!” She confirmed after just a second moment of thinking about the fact. The alcohol was already making her head go crazy and dizzy. Her eye lids were heavier than ever and it took her all her strength to not fall asleep. “Me too” mumbled . “Though I’m just drunk” he stressed. He closed his eyes and listened to what was happening around him. Was he spinning? Or maybe just the bed? Or maybe the world thought it’d be time for some change and instead of spinning once in 24 hours, it turns now 240 time in 24 hours… at least it felt like that.
“I’m tired” he heard someone saying. His wife… yeah, it was her. The beautiful girl with the beautiful voice… the girl he had got to known only four hours ago… his wife.
“Night, ” he heard her saying but he never replied. His mind was following his eyes… it just shut down.

entered ’s flat after having a trip down to the kiosk. He shut the door and sat down onto the couch reading several headlines of today’s newspaper… he paused when he saw the two pictures. He knew the two people in them. He was touching her hand over the table and she laughed. He looked at them more closely… he would love to see her laughing like that in his present. She never did… It didn’t take him too long to get interrupted when someone cleared his throat.
“Can we go?” she asked shyly.
“Sure” he smiled looking at her. She looked pretty… just a little make up and not too over dressed.
“Great… haven’t been at the park for ages” she smiled.
“I think the park can wait. I’ve figured we can go to a better place” he said with a smile hiding the slight pain inside his heart.
“So? What is it?”
“We go” he paused and turned his head to while opening the door. “And see your parents.”
stopped dead track. “Why?”
“Because the explanations are necessary and I’d like to see them again. I haven’t seen them for one month.”
mumbled something did not catch and folded her arms. “… I don’t care what you are doing but I’m not moving.”
“If you don’t move by yourself, I’ll have to move you.”
“How will you do that?”
shrugged his shoulders and made a step forward. With one movement he flipped her over his shoulder and made his way outside only to turn around once because he had to close the door.
“Get me down” squeaked .
“I’ll get you down when we reach the car.”
“You can’t force me to see my parents.”
“I can… I’m your husband.”
narrowed her eyes and pinched ’s butt. “Ouch!” he yelped. “What was that for?”
“For being a man!”
rolled his eyes and paced his step. He stopped and put her back onto her feet when he reached the car. She raised her right brow and looked at him. “I’m not getting into the car.”
“And if I say please?”

“I will not even get in if your saying please” she stated flatly looking away from him.
“ , please get into the car” he asked looking deep into her eyes that had found his glance again.
breathed out heavily and opened the car. “Just because you said please.”
She slammed the door and looked straight ahead out of the window. rolled his eyes when walking around to get into the driver’s seat. He couldn’t wait for today to come…

The drive was rather calm. was looking out of the window only listening to the radio.
“You were wrong” she suddenly said.
raised his brows looking at her. “Sorry?”
“You were wrong when you said you haven’t seen them for one month. The last time we have been there was about two months ago.”
stole a glance at her; she was still looking out of the window in her own thoughts.
“I wasn’t wrong” he said after a short hesitation.
Her head turned to her right and her eyes were looking at him intensively.
“What do you mean?”
“I visited them about a month ago.”
“But I was in Canada” she said.
“I know. I just… I think I wanted to see them again. I was bored… it was after Christmas and I still had off so I thought I’d say hi.”
“You went to see my parents?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
stared again out of the windscreen not knowing what to say.
“They were happy to see me, if you like to know” he said in a careful tone.
“That’s… not good, .”
He stole another glance at her but didn’t reply.
“They shouldn’t like you. I don’t want them to get hurt after all this ends and to be honest we both know that it will end.”
turned the car left and stopped at a pavement. The rain was dropping down at the windows and looked at her after turning down the engine.
“What do you mean?”
She faced him. “What I mean? You are still with Beverly, . You love her… what we have done was a mistake… a mistake that will end in a few months when we get divorced. I don’t want my parents to like you more than it’s healthy for them. You will be no longer part of this family after the divorce.”
He looked at her and couldn’t hide the disbelief in his eyes. “I won’t?”
shook her head. “No.”

“I think you should get out of the car right now” he stated looking out of the windscreen too. Without saying another word she opened the door. A tear was rolling down her cheek when she turned her back on him to climb out of the car. She was just about to shut the door when she heard talking again.
“I broke up with Beverly” he stated flatly.
looked at him feeling the rain soaking her hair. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath… “That’s fair but… that does not change anything.”
nodded once and kept his gaze out of the windscreen, totally avoiding looking at her. He pouted his lips and his head tilt slightly to his right. He put the gearshift into the first gear and just then he heard the door being shut. Without looking away or behind, he drove away.
watched the car driving away.
No… she couldn’t allow her feelings to take the better of her. He was not better than Thomas and she knew that. was hurting her all way long… and she had to stop it before even more people than her were getting hurt.


Chapter 22

She sat in her flat and hugged her knees while staring at the wall. He was at her parents’ house… what for? Why did he go there? He didn’t have anything to do with them so why did he go there? They were happy to see me, if you like to know were the words that kept on spinning in her mind. ‘Happy? Why happy?’ she thought. Why can’t her dad just hate him?
Was it that thing that she wanted? Did she want everyone to not like him so it would be easier for her to dislike him? She rolled her eyes and tilted her head back.
“Unbelievable” she sighed and stared at the ceiling.
She knew that she was passed liking him… her feelings for him were stronger than that. She was in love with him for some incomprehensible reason… they have known each other for such a short time so how could she possibly be feeling for him this way?
There was a knock at the door that made jump slightly. She got up and opened the door.
“Hey” she smiled at the girl in front of her.
“Can I come in?”
nodded and let pass. “What are the pictures about?” she asked straight out.
“Excuse me?” asked not knowing what was referring to.
“The pictures of you and Ryan in the newspaper… what were you thinking? The announcement of your engagement was just a few days ago and now there are again pictures of you and Ryan in the press. Explain this” ordered .
shook her head in irritation and moved forward to take hold of the newspaper had bought this morning. She flicked to the part of the newspaper that could only hold the gossip section and there was it: A picture of her and Ryan touching each others hands and laughing. She shook her head in disbelief.
“I hate paparazzi” she sighed and tossed the newspaper into the corner.
“ , what the hell is wrong with you?”
took of her coat and threw it onto the couch.
“Nothing is wrong.”
“Nothing? This isn’t nothing. First you walk away from Ireland without a reason. You confessed that you were in love and then you just leave behind to go to Canada filming your film nearly a week earlier than supposed. Whenever I talked to you in Canada you were all sad and idly and then you go and see him on that Christmas party and you… you just let him slip away again. Can’t you see that you are hurting yourself?” she snapped.
“ , if you came over to preach, you can leave at once, as well” fired back.
“Look at you. You are locked in your flat doing nothing. I’ve seen the pictures of the premiere you attended with him. No smile, . A ring but no smile… a handsome husband but no smile.”
“What do you want me to do? Fake it? Force it to appear on my lips although all I want to do is to cry?” Both didn’t even realise that they were already yelling at each other. backed away after she had done a few steps towards while having this heated conversation.
“ ” she breathed out. “Have you heard yourself right now?”
She didn’t answer but sat down onto the chair at the kitchen table. A tear was rolling down her cheek.
“You are in love with him. You are not happy with this situation and you know it. Why can’t you just accept it? Why can’t you just give it a try? Why can’t you?”
“It’s hard to believe that he could feel the same. I mean I know what I’m like. I’ve been with Thomas for so long and he never seemed to be interested in me… let alone that he was in love. I did love him, , but he didn’t care. And then I find out that he had cheated on me with that stripper. And now compare Thomas to . He also still had his girlfriend when this with us started. He didn’t tell me… you can say that he had cheated on me with her. He is no difference to Thomas. I can’t allow myself to get hurt that much again. And after all we have signed a deal… it will end in a divorce.”
“It does not need to” whispered . “ is not like Thomas. He was the one who came over to help you with and Jake. He was the one who stood by your side in hospital. He was the one who went to your parents to ask for your hand. He cares so much about you, . More than Thomas could ever imagine caring about you.”
“What did you say?” she asked after a sob escaped her.
“He cares about you” she stated.
shook her head. “Before that.”
“He asked your parents for your hand.”
“He did what?”
nodded her head. “He asked them. Your mum had called me excitedly telling me what he had done. He brought your mum a white rose and your dad a whiskey” laughed and had to smile too. “Then he sat down and didn’t know how to start and just then… he asked. He told them that you mean the world to him. Your mum than cried and just said yes… your father agreed as well.”
whipped away the tears. “Why did he do that?”
“I think it just clearly shows how much he cares about you. And you can do yourself a favour by accepting it and open up. Forget about Thomas, about the deal and certainly” went into the corner and picked up the newspaper. “Forget about that Ryan.”
manoeuvred the newspaper into the bin. She sat down next to again and looked at her. “I haven’t spoke to him since. It was obvious that he was just trying to duel .”
smiled half-heartedly.
“Go and see . Tell him what you are feeling and what you fear… I think he’ll understand.”
“I doubt it” whined .
“Why’s that?”
“I might have been cruel to him this morning” she stated. rolled her eyes and got up from the chair. She grabbed her coat and went over to take ’s coat into her hands as well. She waited for to take it.
“We are going to see him” she stated. “Now!”
shook her head. “I can’t. He probably hates me… he probably never wants to see my face again.”
“We can only know for sure when you face him.”
took hold of coat and pulled it over. “Now, stop complaining… we have to find him.”
And with that got pushed out of the door to make her way to face .

“Are you ever going to leave my apartment again?” asked looking from the corner of his eyes at who sat on the couch zapping through several TV channels.
“Yes… later” he stated and pressed again the forward button.
“You haven’t even told me what she had said to you that made you bugging me with your presence” he tried to joke but no smile appeared on ’s face.
“ ” chanted a voice from the door. He sat up straight and turned his head to his girlfriend. “Yes?”
“Can I talk to you in the kitchen?”
He looked at her a bit puzzled but followed her.
“I think misses Beverly” she stated.
“What?”
“Yes. Look at him. He’s all sad and depressed… I think he needs to see her again and that’s why I was thinking about asking her to come over. She misses him as well.”
looked at in disbelief. “No, you’re not going to invited her. Are you out of your mind?”
’s anger got visible. “How are you talking to me? I’m trying to help your friend-“
“No, you are trying to help your friend. You are trying to help Beverly, not .”
“He needs her” she snapped.
“He needs ” he yelled back.
Both heads turned towards the sound of the door bell. Without taking another look at who had a smile in her face headed to the door. He passed the entrance to the living room and saw still sitting there watching TV.
He opened the door.
“Hey” said a voice.
“Who are you?” asked puzzled. The girl smiled and tightened her coat around her body.
“I’m .”
raised his brows signalising her to keep on explaining. “I… I’m ’s friend. She’s a chicken and hides behind this column” She pointed at the column next to her.
“Traitor” both heard a girl hissing and a moment afterwards she stepped out of her hiding-place. She smiled at . “Hey ye…”
greeted her half-heartedly back. He didn’t forget that it was her fault that was in such a state and mood.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“We were looking for everywhere. He was not at home and we couldn’t reach him on his phone and didn’t want to tell me your number so I came over to ask you personally if you know where he is,” told him .
“He’s here” he stated looking at whose face changed within a split second. She furrowed her brows and without a glance at she asked, “May I talk to him?”

didn’t answer but stepped aside to make her way to pass him. took the steps to pass him and walked into the hall. She didn’t know where to go and to look for him but the most logical idea would be the living room. And yes… just when she stood in the big entrance she saw him sitting there with his back towards her. The TV was still showing a film that concentrated on. What was she going to do now? Going over sitting down beside him and making a joke? She couldn’t joke now… she had hurt him. But how was she going to handle the situation? And before she could think about it even longer she let her purse fall onto the ground noiselessly and took the steps forward to the couch. She knelt down behind him and without thinking twice she put her arms around his body and hugged him softly from behind. He didn’t startle but sat still just like before.
“I’m sorry, ” she whispered and put her head down onto his shoulder. “For my behaviour and my words.”
He still didn’t response and turned her head towards his neck and kissed the side of it softly.
“You will always be part of my life and my family. I couldn’t even change it if I wanted- which I don’t.”
She closed her eyes and waited for to say something but no word was said but a warm and soft hand touched hers and it rested on it.
“So I am part of your family?”
“Yes… and you’ll always be” she confirmed still hiding into his neck. There was again a longer silence when started to talk again.
“Why don’t you come and sit down next to me?” he half laughed and a smile formed on her lips.


Chapter 23

looked at who noticed it and turned his head towards her as well. “I’m thirsty” she said and got up from the couch. “Me too” stated and followed her into the kitchen.
opened the door and rushed in just behind her which caused her to giggle. “Can’t wait to be alone with me?” she laughed.
“Guess so” he smiled.
“Where are the glasses?” she asked helplessly and looked at the wall cupboards. rushed forward and opened the white polished one on the very right side. He took out five glasses and handed them .
“Here you are” he smiled. thanked him and placed the glasses onto the bar. She stopped in her actions and her smile faded slowly.
“You know” she started. “Sometimes I wonder… or rather… I’d die to know what our wedding night was like.”
watched her carefully and noticed that sad expression in her face. “It’s just… a wedding night is something you should remember for the rest of your life and… I can’t. I just can’t find one piece of memory…”
moved forward a bit and reached out his hands. Slowly he touched her bare arm and pulled her closer. “I mean… even this” she said desperately. “I can’t even remember a kiss… or a touch… or a look in your eyes. Nothing… everything is blank… a blur.”
hugged her tightly. “What would you like to know?” he asked carefully.
“Everything” she mumbled. “Every second of it… for example starting with whether we have had sex or not…”
“We haven’t had” answered causing to look up at him. “How do you know?”
“I started to remember things and… I know what our wedding night looked like” he said.
“You remember?” she asked surprised.
“Yes… the whole evening…”
“And you are sure we didn’t sleep with each other?”
“No… actually you fell asleep because of the alcohol and the M&Ms… and well, I fell asleep too.”
“But” started absorbing ’s statement “we wanted, right?”
“Yeah… pretty much” he laughed. “You were all over me.”
felt as if her whole blood suddenly rushed into her head. She had been all over him… how embarrassing. sensed that she felt awkward.
“But” he added softly. “I liked it and I would lie if I told you that I didn’t want you probably as much as you wanted me.”
smiled half-heartedly. “Wow… so we’re married for months already and all we’ve done so far is kissing.”
“And the last time we did that was also months ago” added looking at her.
suddenly looked up at him. “Have you kissed Beverly?”
looked away from her and nodded. took a deep breath and exhaled it again. “Okay, I’m fine with that… I mean, technically we weren’t really together… just on paper…”
“But nothing more happened” he interrupted her and was now looking into her eyes. “I didn’t like kissing her you must believe me. And I still wonder how I managed to keep her away from my body but I did. Maybe we have been only a couple on paper but… I couldn’t do that… it didn’t feel right.” looked into his eyes and she knew he said the truth. “Thank you” she whispered in a shy and uncomfortable voice.
“Listen, how about we go out tonight? I take you out for dinner and then… we’ll go home so that is satisfied” he grinned and nodded.
“Okay, let’s say I’ll pick you up at nine.”
’s lips formed a smile. “Good” she said and made her way back into the living room.
“So I’ll pick you up at nine, okay?” asked when he escorted the two girls to the door.
nodded and leaned forward to kiss his cheek. “See you, ” she smiled just before she turned to and gave him also a little peek on his cheek.
“ ’s definitely not the one” she whispered and winked at him. tightened his eyes not knowing what she meant but watched her and walking to her car.
“You got a date?” he asked .
“Yeah… with my wife” he smiled back and turned around when the car was gone.

opened the door for to leave the restaurant. Flashing a smile at him he responded the same way and moved forward to walk next to her. “Have I told you already that you look absolutely stunning tonight?” he asked looking at her when he tilted his head to his right.
“Thank you” she responded shyly and kept on walking.
“You’re welcome” he smiled and looked ahead again. “It’s fresh isn’t it?”
nodded knowing that her goosebumps was probably visible. ‘Mental note: Take a coat with ye next time!’
“Sort of… didn’t expect that” she admitted. Well, of course, she could have known after all it was just the beginning of February. “You want my coat?” he asked looking at her.
“Oh no” she shook her head. “No need for that. We’ll be in the car in no time” she said pretending she wasn’t that cold at all. She looked at the ground and listened to the clicking tones of her heels.
Suddenly she felt a warm cloth being wrapped around her. She looked to her right and saw flashing a shy smile at her. “No time is too long” he answered.
‘Mental note: No… I will definitely forget it again!’ She smiled at him and thanked him once more. They kept on walking next to each other without talking much. It wasn’t because they hadn’t enough things to talk about it was rather the fact that both didn’t know how to behave. The dinner was no problem at all… they have talked, they have laughed and joked around and they were comfortable but now? The date was soon going to finish and… they both didn’t know what to do or what to say.
Again the next reaction was nothing would have expected. She felt how his hand slid slowly into hers. But this time she didn’t look up in surprise… she squeezed it softly and allowed his hand to stay exactly where it was.
“Do you want to repeat it again… someday? I mean… if you liked it…”
started to giggle. “Yes, . I’d love to.”
He let out a sigh of relief and grinned. “Great, so I drive you home now and-“
“I’ve never been at your place here in London” she said still not looking up from the ground. looked at her and saw a light shade of pink on her face.
“You want to come over?”
She nodded not daring to say it out loud. “Brilliant” he smiled and squeezed her hand. looked up and smiled too.


Chapter 24

“Wow… this one is smaller than the one in . I would have expected a villa at least” she shook her head in shock. pulled a face. “Ha ha… I’m not that posh.”
“Absolutely not” she said in a voice that gave away that she was joking. shook his head and rolled his eyes while opening the door for her.
“Not everyone has such a ‘comfortable’ apartment like you.”
“Are you insulting my flat?” she asked raising her eye brows while a little smile played on her lips which she tried to suppress.
“What will you do against it?” he laughed when he closed the door behind him.
“I will” she started, paused and looked around. “I will…” her glance wandered into the living room. “I will watch my favourite soap opera on this TV” she was walking towards it. “Oh my goodness, how big is it?”
In front of her was a big plasma TV screen right on the wall. “You could do public live broadcasts in your living room.” She stated, turned around to look at him while pointing over her shoulder to the TV. giggled. “Or private ones” he suggested winking at her.
“What? Is there something you want to show me?” she asked and smiled.
“I show you whatever you want” he smiled.
“How about… Westlife’s first gig?”
widened his eyes. “Our first gig? Why would you want to see it? We were terrible.”
“Because I want to laugh at your stupid haircut, means, if you have had one.”
laughed. “I did… and the others as well.” He moved forward and opened a cupboard to pull out some DVDs. watched him and she had to smile. “And…” she started. “I want to know what have happened in your life that means a lot to you. I want to know what it was like and…” she paused.
“Well, I guess I want to be part of it.”
looked at her forgetting about the DVDs in his hands. “You are part of it, .”
“Yes, but I feel like I know nothing about you. I don’t know what your favourite food is, your favourite country, or whether you like spiders or not. I don’t know if you have allergies or whether you have big scars which I don’t see. I don’t know anything, . I’m your wife and I don’t know you.”
“Italian food, Ireland, not really. No allergies and no big scars but this one on my head which I got when I fell when I was younger. All I really remember is blood… plenty of blood.”
He smiled at her. “We have time to get to know each other. We’re not in a hurry.”
“But it would be easier if I already knew you.”
He smirked and looked at the DVDs again. “What’s your favourite food?”
looked at him. “I really like McDonalds…”
laughed and looked at her. “It’s absolutely not obvious.”
winked at him. “I know… I think it must be something in the food that’s keeping me fit.”
“Yeah… it’s the bread.”
“I think so too” she smiled and winked at him.
looked at her and started to laugh. “You are absolutely crazy.”
“And you like it, Mister” she joked and took of his jacket that she was still wearing.
got up shaking his head. “Here is it” he smiled and held up a DVD. “Thank goodness we were able to rerecord the old gigs from tapes to DVDs.”
“Wouldn’t have wanted to miss it” she smiled. He put the DVD into the player. “What was your first film?” he asked and smiled.
“When I was nine years old I was in this really bad production. The film is called ‘Kids in Town’. It was a blast filming it but the result was… hideous.”
laughed. “How did you get the part?”
“We have been on holiday in Florida and there was an audition and well, my daddy kind of wanted me to give it a try. On that day I realised that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I got the part and was allowed to stay in Florida for another month. I got really tanned, I tell you that” she winked at him and laughed again.
“You have to show me that film, okay?”
She smiled and nodded. “I promise, I will.”
“Who gave you your first kiss that was not filmed?”
’s laugh faded which noticed immediately. “Sorry, if it was rude or something. You don’t need to answer-“
“Thomas” she answered knowing that didn’t need to apologise. “I thought he was the love of my life. Funny how wrong you can be about a person.”
took hold of the remote. “I’m sorry that he was… he.”
“Fate” she laughed and shook the bad thoughts out of her head. “Show me the gig” she pushed and flashed a smile at him.
“Okay, but… don’t laugh.” He pressed the play button and a five piece band appeared on the screen. recognised in the close up and when the camera moved further left she suddenly burst into laughter.
“Ha ha ha ha ha” she pointed towards the TV. raised his brows and stared at the screen pouting his mouth.
“Ha ha ha ha ha” she continued.
“Not funny, ” he stated still staring at the screen. pressed her lips together and forced the corners of her mouth to stay down. The tape continued to play… and then again…
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha” she erupted into a fist of laughter again.
“I look very normal” stated convinced.
“No you don’t” she laughed not forcing to stay controlled anymore. “Look at you” she pointed at the screen.
“You think I look hilarious?”
She nodded and looked at him still grinning widely.
“Okay you know what?”
She stopped and looked at him. “What?”
“If I were you, I would run” he stated and with one movement he started to chase her. jumped in scare and started to run away.
“Don’t” she laughed while running across the hall. She started to run faster and up the stairs. “Arghhh” she squeaked and ran even faster when she felt how had nearly caught her. Swaying a bit she caught her balance in last second when she missed the last step. This action didn’t do her any good as she even more felt the need to laugh. She felt as if she was about to choke. The excitement and the laughing supported the inability to breathe normally. She ran down the little hall and opened a door to hide in the room. She slammed the door shut and looked around.
‘The bathroom. Fantastic’ she thought and rolled her eyes. The door opened again and let out a little yelp and stepped backwards onto the wall.
“Don’t” she laughed when stood in front of her and moved slowly in her direction. “I’m sorry for everything.”
“Are you?” he asked raising his brows.
“Yes, I am… please, have mercy.”
laughed. “I can’t let you come through with a sorry” he smirked.
“I will do whatever you want” she begged hiding a smile.
“Tempting” he laughed, “but…” he paused and for a short moment his eyes broke the contact with hers. “Nope” he laughed. He moved forward and just in the same moment felt how cold liquid touched her body. Her green dress suddenly felt like a second skin to her and its colour got even darker. Her hair started to get heavier and goosebumps was all over her body. Her eyes tightened when she saw in front of her having a ball.
“” she yelled and reached to her right to switch off the water causing the last drops to fall on her head. ‘The shower… of course’ she thought hating herself for not realising the fact that she stood in it. Maybe it was because of the fact that in her flat she had to lift her feet to get into it. But this very one is a… a total different one. She just needed to walk in… no lifting feet!
“Are you satisfied?” she asked.
looked at her and smiled. “Absolutely. Nothing can beat this picture” he grinned.
nodded her head. “We’re even… I had a blast and you had yours too.”
She shook her arms to get the water from it. laughed and handed her a towel.
“I bet I look like a mess” she moaned but couldn’t suppress a smile herself.
“Yes, but it’s a cute mess” winked .
responded with a smile. “I doubt it” she responded. moved forward and locked his eyes with hers. Never had she looked more beautiful to him than in this very moment. felt how he moved forward and she didn’t back away.
“Don’t doubt it” he whispered. His face was now only a few inches away. “Can I?” he asked in a whisper. Her eyes still fixed on his she nodded. Her eyes closed and slowly she felt how two sweet lips touched softly hers. Although she had felt cold just a moment ago her body was now heating up with every tiny second his lips touched hers. She lost hold of the towel and moved her hands slowly onto his neck which encouraged him to place his hands on her waist to pull her closer.
The feelings that were running through ’s body were indescribable. She felt joy, happiness, excitement, lust and… love.
His hands trailed down her back which caused to break the kiss. She opened her eyes and stared deeply into ’s. She moved her hands to her back and led his hands to the zipper of her dress. She felt how he took hold of it and with her soft hand on his she started to unzip her dress.
A smile played on her lips when she moved forward again to kiss him. managed to take off her dress and held his hands above his head signalising her to take off his shirt. laughed against his lips and did what she was asked and giggled when she did so. stroked her still wet back and felt the goosebumps on her body. He smiled and lifted her up.
“Argh” she suddenly yelped softly. “Get me down.”
“I haven’t carried you over the threshold yet” he smiled winking at her.
“You don’t need to” she laughed shyly and hid in his chest. He carried her into the bedroom and lay her softly onto the bed. smiled at him and reached out for his neck. Feeling how his body touched hers again made her feel safe again and the love she was feeling for this man, the love that for so long didn’t want to surrender, finally all came out of her. She kissed him tenderly on his lips waiting for him to undress her and himself. The kisses got more passionate with each moment and soon found herself caving in to him.
His body on hers made her feel more relaxed then ever. She enjoyed every moment of it and she knew that whatever will come… this is the man she will love forever.


Chapter 25

’s eyes slowly opened when she felt a soft squeeze around her waist. She turned her head softly backwards and saw sleeping there, holding her in his hands. She smiled and rested her head again on the pillow.
She smiled widely when she realised how happy she felt. Now she has everything she ever wanted. Maybe the trip to Vegas was really meant to be. Maybe it was really her and his fate to meet, to get married and fall in love. Maybe it was only in this mixed up way possible for her and maybe for him as well to fall in love. Thinking about how their relationship would have ended if everything had gone the normal way – like meeting, dating, relationship, meeting parents, moving in together, engagement, and finally marriage (last part of the order not guaranteed)- she would have probably gotten scared and would have ran away from everything. But their order made it possible to just face everything because it needed to be faced.
She felt a soft kiss on her shoulder. Turning her head backwards again she saw him looking up at her with tired eyes… but still a smile played on his lips.
“Good morning” smiled at him.
“The best morning ever” he smiled back at her snuggling his head again into her shoulder.
“What about breakfast?” she giggled.
“But then I have to get up” he whined playfully.
“Yeah, that’s the disadvantage of eating” she responded.
“Do I have to?”
turned her body so she was now face to face with him. She smiled at him and looked deeply into her eyes. “I love you, ” he told her out of the blue.
’s smile faded as she was slightly taken aback by his openness but… she enjoyed it. He, the man she loves, loves her too. What could be more perfect?
“I love you” she smiled back and moved slowly forward to kiss him lightly on his lips.
“Reason enough to stay in bed” he replied to the kiss causing to giggle. “With my wife…”
’s smile suddenly faded. “How about we make it official?”
“What our marriage?”
“Not the already existing one but… the common. I mean we are already engaged, right? So why not setting a date. But if you don’t want to, if you think it’s going too fast then I understand this. I don’t want to force you into any-“ The eruption of words got interrupted by ’s kiss.
“Don’t panic” he laughed when he pulled back. “I’d love to plan everything with you. Each and every detail” he smiled causing to respond just the same way. Her lips crashed on his and a smile appeared on her lips.
“Maybe breakfast can still wait” she teased and started to kiss his neck.

“Hey mum” called when she entered the kitchen. “Mum?”
No one responded. Putting her purse onto the table she made her way into the living room. “Mum?”
“Upstairs” she heard her mum calling.
“What are you doing?” asked seeing her mother painting her sister’s room in a light orange shade.
“Its for the baby” responded her mother cheerfully.
“The baby?” she asked.
“I thought that it would be nice to have a place for it also at its grandparent’s house. Don’t worry your and ’s children will find a place here as well.”
widened her eyes. Why was she talking about their children when they certainly didn’t have ones… neither were they planning.
“I think that has time” she smiled politely and sat down onto one of the chairs in the room.
“You never know. also thought that she would have time for babies and now she’s pregnant.”
“Yeah, but as you certainly know and Jake are married… me and are engaged.”
“And about to marry” added her mother winking at her.
realised that there was no point in disagreeing after all now that the conversation headed into a direction intended it to go.
“About the marriage” she started causing her mother to turn her head to her. “We’ve already set the date but want to announce it first to our family. So I wanted to ask whether you and dad are available to fly to Ireland this weekend.”
Her mother looked at her with big eyes. “Ireland?”
“Yes” confirmed . “We are the only ones here in England and grandma and everyone is in Ireland and of course ’s family too. So we thought that it might be a good idea.”
“You are taking us to Ireland for a weekend?” her mother now climbed down the letter and swung her arms around her daughter. “Of course, , love. You announce the date for the wedding and I can see again and my other grandchildren. We are coming without a doubt, love. Thank you so much.” She kissed her daughters cheek a hundred times until she lost hold of her.
“My baby becomes a woman and a wife.”
watched her mother being happy and excited about the fact that ’s going to get married soon. This was the first time, for a long time, that she felt sorry for already being married. Her mother was not with her on this very day… ‘well, I haven’t been with me either’ she told herself and nearly laughed. She just shook her head and watched her mother painting the wall again. Telling her goodbye and the exact time she and will pick them all up at Friday, she made her way out into her car heading for ’s place to tell her exactly the same.

“Hey ” entered the office after being at ’s place for the good news. still felt the pain in her ribs. She was convinced that a few of them actually broke when hugged her as firmly as possible.
“ ” she smiled. She pointed at the chair in front of her. “Come sit down. I’m a bit in a hurry but I think it won’t take too long, will it?”
sat down and shook her head. “No it won’t. I actually just wanted to tell you that me and had already set a date for the wedding.”
’s brows raised and a smile formed on her lips. “Good. When?”
“In three months… May…”
“May?”
“Yes… we thought the weather might be good. Because then it won’t be too hot or too cold.”
“May is not possible.”
started to grin in disbelief. Did she just heard right?
“Not possible?”
“ , you’ll be filming in May. I doubt that this is possible.”
She hasn’t thought about that… was right. She was filming the whole May, June and part of July. Why didn’t she think about it earlier?
“But… isn’t it possible for me to get like a week off or something?”
“Why are you two in such a hurry? I mean I know that you want to get divorced as soon as possible but…”
kept on talking but didn’t listen anymore. I know that you want to get divorced… The deal. She totally forgot about the deal as well. It clearly said… engagement, marriage, divorce. And she was bound to it… as well as . Did this also mean that she now really has to get divorced? What is if she didn’t want that anymore?
“… ?”
snapped back into reality. stood at the door looking at her. “I have to go.”
“Sure” she said and got up.
“So like I just said you’ll have to talk to the director about that week… but if I were you I would just postpone the wedding to July or something.”
nodded. “Sure” she said again and left the office with a sudden burden on her shoulders.

“May is perfect” smiled Louis and patted ’s shoulder.
“Wow, look at that” smiled . “It just took one night to make you settle down.”
rolled his eyes. “I just want you guys to know. And although you know already I still want you to be in the restaurant this weekend, okay? You know, when we tell our family.”
“We’ll be there, mate” smiled feeling proud of himself and the fact that and found finally together in his house.
“Have you also talked about the future yet?” asked when Louis had left the room. looked at him.
“What do you mean?”
“Well” he started hesitantly. “The deal said that a divorce needs to follow.”
“I haven’t thought about that” he said feeling a bit overwhelmed with this information. was right.
It’s said that a divorce follows. And a deal is a deal, isn’t it?
“You don’t want the divorce, do you?”
“No of course not. Not now when I feel like this is really working out between me and her.”
“Well, maybe you should talk to Louis” suggested feeling that the mood is falling.
“No, first I have to talk to about it.”
Yeah, that was what he had to do. He needed to talk to her about it. Play with open cards…


Chapter 26

Four weeks had passed already. was able to convince the director of her new film to give her off for a week to get married. The weekend where she and told their parents about their plans and about the exact date had been an absolute blast. Their parents got along brilliantly and everything that could have come in the way was also already settled.
There was no way that something could ruin their plans anymore.
looked at who looked at the bouquet of yellow roses. “What are you thinking?” she asked when she noticed the critical expression on his face.
“You don’t like yellow roses” he stated looking at her. raised her brows. “Sorry?”
“You hate yellow roses” he said once more. “You love white ones.”
A smile appeared on her lips. “How do you know?”
“I remember” he smiled at her. She moved forward and gave him a small kiss on his lips. “I’m going to check out the flowers over there, okay?”
He nodded and watched her walking over. The smile faded and the thoughts started to creep up inside his mind again. He still hadn’t talked to about the deal. Four weeks had already passed and he seemed like he was fooling himself with ignoring the fact of the divorce. But he didn’t want to ruin the atmosphere between them. He didn’t want her to think that he was thinking about it. Maybe she would misunderstand those thoughts and think that he was eager to get divorced… that this was still the main reason why he wants to marry her. It wasn’t… it was because he fell in love with that girl… just blew his mind… from that very first day in the lounge till today where she was looking for the perfect decoration for the restaurant. He loved her… he really loved her and this shouldn’t be ruined by a stupid sorrow.
“ ” he heard his name and turned around. was standing there with a bouquet of white roses and very light red ones. “Look at the roses” she smiled and held them up to him.
“I love the white ones” her eyes sparkled when she took in their sweet scent.
He laughed and took a step closer. He took her hands which still held the bouquet into his and over the roses he kissed her. “They are perfect” he smiled.
“Are we taking them?” she smiled and it grew even bigger when he nodded. “You’re the best” she giggled and gave him a kiss.
She headed to the seller while turned to some other flowers. She looked back seeing him standing in front of a bouquet of red tulips with an expression that showed that he was million miles away thinking about something. Maybe he wasn’t so sure about marrying her anymore. Well, anyway he was in some way forced to marry her because of the deal but… couldn’t stop feeling as if she was the reason why he seemed unhappy lately. She didn’t want to be the reason… she didn’t even want him to be unhappy… but… what could she do against it?
“Have you already decided what flowers it should be?” snapped back into reality and focused again on the woman in front of her.
“Yes… those roses” she showed her the roses she was holding in her hands.
“So you and are taking it serious?”
looked at the young woman in front of her. “Yes…”
“It seems like something’s on his mind” he said politely while typing something into the computer.
looked at him again. “I know” she whispered more to herself than to the seller.
“How many?” she asked not reacting to ’s answer.
“I think two hundred will make it at first” she smiled half-heartedly.
looked again at who ordered the flowers. Seeing her signing something and turning around to him he put on a smile.
“Is everything okay?” asked when she reached him.
“Sure” he smiled and took her hand into his. Both left the florists and made their way to the car.
“You seemed like something was bothering you” she said not looking at him. He waited for a while wondering what he should answer.
“You don’t like the idea of marrying me, do you?”

stopped dead track. That was exactly what he had feared. “ , oh my goodness, no… that’s not what’s on my mind. I want to marry you again… officially.”
“Then what’s bugging you? The last weeks since that weekend in Ireland it seemed as if you think that we’re making a mistake or something.”
“No of course not” he stated looking her into the eyes. “I don’t think we are making a mistake.”
“Then what are you thinking?”
He took a deep breath. “That we have already made one.”
“Pardon me?”
“The deal is bugging me.”
“Oh” stated looking at the ground. “You feel bound to it, don’t you?”
“Yes” he answered truthfully causing to look up at him hurt. “But not in that way… it’s just” he paused and looked at her. “Can you remember how this all… this act… this play… is supposed to end?”
nodded slowly. “Yes… I remember.”
“You see… that’s what’s bugging me. We are happy now and I bet that when we get married officially we will be even happier. I don’t want that divorce.”
“Neither do I but… it’s a deal, isn’t it? And said there is no way around it.”
“But you know her… don’t you think that she understands that we don’t want to get divorced now that we… well love each other.”
“It’s … she wants to go back to that point before this marriage. Remember when I told you that I have had a deal with her not getting into a relationship for three years? She will not allow me to get out of this one. So she will probably stick to this deal.”
sighed. “But maybe Louis can do something about it?”
“What can he do? We have all signed this deal… he’s bound to it as much as we are” sighed. “Let’s just forget about it for a while okay? We will deal with it when time comes to deal with it” she tried to comfort him.
“You are right” he stated looking at her. He felt a lot more at ease now that he knew that she knew what was on his mind and that she was so optimistic about it. He slid his hand into hers and both made their way home.

Its was only two weeks to the official wedding. Her mother and sister were really excited about it which scared a lot. She could understand her mother as it was her baby daughters wedding but her sister? She was so emotional since she was pregnant which made it sometimes so annoying to hang around with her.
Like this time in ’s flat surrounded by her mother, and .
“You look so lovely” chanted her mother. “You are truly a princess.”
“You look so thin” a tear was rolling down her sister’s cheek. “I’m a walrus.”
“You are not even close to a walrus” sighed .
“And I feel as if I’m going to have a baby walrus” rolled her eyes when her sister fell onto her back and sighed heavily.
“Do you think will like it?” she asked doubtfully.
“Like it?” asked raising her brows. “He’s going to adore you. This dress is absolutely sensational.
And you look absolutely gorgeous.”
“So you think that would like to marry me in this dress? You don’t think that he would be… disappointed?” hesitated when she asked for advice. She was not sure whether this dress would be perfect or not. She wanted to look perfect that was sure but still she was always so… doubtful when it came to a point if liked her.
“He absolutely won’t” smoothed. “He’ll be gobsmacked.”
“Thanks, ” she smiled and turned around when suddenly there was a knock at the door. “Will you open, ” she smiled at her. She sat down onto the couch next to her mother who stroked her hair from her face.
“My baby will marry another mother’s baby” she smiled. raised a brow… wow, she had never seen her mother that… emotional… and scary at the same time. opened the door.
“Sorry baby, I forgot the key-“ stepped in even before anyone could realise it. jumped up in shock while and her sister started to yell at . “Close your eyes!”
“SHUT THEM” demanded and raised her brows. caught a glimpse of standing in the middle of the living room in her wedding gown. He stopped dead track in his actions and looked at who just looked at him with her eyes opened wide. The next thing he saw was… darkness.
“Ahh, , watch it” he pleaded when he felt how her hands covered his eyes.
“You’re not supposed to see your bride in her dress” she squealed.
“I’m sorry” he said. “I didn’t know she was… well… wearing it.”
“You could have waited in front of the door.”
“Oh yeah, because with my X-ray eyes I could have seen right through the door knowing that I was not allowed to enter” he responded sarcastically.
rolled her eyes. “ , go and change!”
nodded in agreement and turned around to walk into her bedroom. Once they heard the bedroom door closing freed ’s eyes.
“Man, you’re dominant” he said shaking his head looking at confused.
“Just really careful, mate” she said raising her brows. shook his head again but couldn’t suppress a smile.
“Why was she wearing it anyway?”
“Because she wanted to show me how thin she is in that piece of cloth” sighed .

looked at her irritated and turned to ’s mother.
“The walrus talking again?” he asked causing to nod her head helplessly.
“I can hear you ” snapped .
“Good so you’ll hear it when I say that you look really pretty” he smiled at her while walking into the kitchen.
“Have you heard it?” she turned to and her mother with a wide smile. “He thinks I’m pretty” she winked at them and got up from the couch. “I’ll go home and have a yell at Jake and ask him why he never says that to me.” She grabbed her purse and walked out of the door. just entered the living room again seeing reaching for her jacket as well.
“You’re going?” he asked surprised.
“Yes… I’ll save Jake” she smiled and moved towards him to place a little kiss on his cheek. “Give a kiss, will you?”
nodded. “Yeah, I will.”
The door shut behind her and dropped down onto the couch. Feeling how two eyes bore into him he looked at .
“What?”
“You have seen her!”
“I’m sorry.”
“Oh, you should be” she said narrowing her eyes. The bedroom door opened and stepped back in.
“Your friend’s crazy” he stated looking at .
“Tell me about it” rolled her eyes and went to . “It’s time for you to leave” she smiled and escorted her to the door.
“You know… I hope you’re happy now” said turning back to who just smiled at her.
pushed out of the door. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
looked at her. “Bye.”
Closing the door slowly turned around looking at him uncomfortably. “Hey…” she said.
“Hey ye” he smiled back and got up from the couch again. “You looked…”
“Don’t” she insisted and put up her hand.
“You don’t want me to tell you?”
“No… I’d rather see it in your eyes when I walk down the aisle.” She smiled and sat down next to him.
She put her hands onto his shoulder and rested her chin on it.
“Are you nervous about it?”
“The wedding?” asked .
“No… what comes after that.”
“Oh, you mean our life?”
“Yes… and the many, many problems we have to solve.”
“Like?”
“Like… trying to get around a divorce.”
“You haven’t talked to yet, hu?”
“No I haven’t” she confirmed and sighed. “It’s so… difficult. Why can’t my life be easy for once?”
“Then it wouldn’t be that exciting” he winked at her. “Hey you know what… how about we take a little trip somewhere else.”
“You want to go on vacation?” she asked surprised.
“Yes… Hawaii for example. Just you and me… and the others.”
“Others?”
“ , , … their girlfriends…”
“ ?”
“Deal!”
“Deal” she smiled and kissed his cheek. “And when are we going?”
“Tomorrow. If I were you I’d really start packing” he smiled.
jumped up in shock. “Tomorrow?” And with that outburst she was heading right into the bedroom packing her things.


Chapter 27

“Huge” gasped standing in front of the hotel.
“Exotic” confirmed , ’s girlfriend.
“Is that Orlando Bloom?” all the girls’ head spun around to ’s question.
“Must have mistaken” she recalled when she noticed that this person was actually a woman. The other girls shook their heads and made their way with their partners into the hotel.
“Are you looking forward to the vacation?” asked hugging her from behind.
“Yes... but Orlando would have been great too” she stated knowing that she was teasing him.
“I think he isn’t really after married women.”
“He doesn’t know” she winked and turned around.
“You want to tease me, hmm?”
“Not at all” she stated pretending to be offended but just the other second a smile appeared.
“I love you” she smiled at him and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“And I love you” he smiled back and put his arms around her waist. He leaned in and kissed her lips lightly, feeling how the love he felt for her was just overwhelming.
“Get yourself a room” they heard someone teasing. They separated and looked at who poked out her tongue.
“Oh we will” smiled but didn’t look at but straight into ’s eyes and with a pull of her hand already dragged her into the hotel leaving to roll her eyes.
“Ma’am… someone has to pay for the taxi” smiled the driver. ’s eyes contracted.
“Oh I knew that there was something wrong about this trip” she said to herself and pulled out her wallet.
“No need for that” she heard a male’s voice and turned around to see jogging towards the driver. “Keep the rest” he smiled at the driver and handed him the money. The driver thanked him and sat down again to drive away.
“I love you! I’ve already seen my Louis Vuitton shoes disappearing” she stated looking at him shocked. chuckled. “I thought that and that’s why I came for help. I didn’t want you to go broke.”
“And that’s very nice” giggled . chuckled as well.
“Sooo” said after the giggled calmed down and an unbearable silence was left.
“Sooo” repeated putting his hands into his pockets while raising his brows.
nodded and smiled. “I think the pool’s calling me.”
“Yeah, I heard it calling you too” he said in a strangely serious tone causing to raise her brows.
“Yeah… see ye later” she said and headed off.

“Are we all ready?” asked the man with the Hawaiian shorts whose name was Vince.
“Yes…” chorused the team.
“Who wants to go first?” asked Vince. “ ?”
looked at Vince. “Me?” she asked a bit scared.
“No I mean the one behind you.”
turned around. “There’s no one.”
Vince raised his brows. “No shit!” he teased and winked at her.
“But I don’t want to die now…”
“Baby, you’re going to swim with a dolphin” stated with a giggle.
got up and took a deep breath. “Okay… you might not know this but I’m deadly scared of these things. Every little girl and boy dreams of swimming with them… but I don’t. I never did so why do I have to go first?”
Vince laughed. “You are worse than some six year old girls.”
“Ha ha… so funny, Vince” she said ironically. “ , come with me…” she pleaded.
looked at Vince who just nodded. “Of course.”
got up as well and stood next to . “I want you to enjoy it.”
“I will… once I’m in the sea everything will be fine… right?” she turned to Vince.
“Right” he confirmed making his way down the little ladder right into the crystal clear water being followed by and .
“Just remember… all they want to have is fun” smiled Vince when they reached the dolphin. “That’s Maja” he smiled at the couple. took a step forward and reached out for the dolphin’s skin.
“She won’t bite, will she?” she asked still looking at Maja.
“No she won’t, I promise” smiled Vince. nodded… was behind her and suddenly she felt how his hands were placed onto her waist… that was encouragement enough for her to reach out.
Gently she touched Maja’s skin.
“Oh my goodness” smiled . “That’s amazing. Touch her ” she smiled and turned halfway around. His hand reached out as well and touched her skin. “Wow…” was everything that left his mouth.
“Thank you so much” she said in a whisper.
“You’re welcome” he smiled back at her taking away his eyes form the dolphin to look into ’s amazed eyes.

It was the last night in Hawaii when and lay on some lounger looking at the horizon watching the sun go down. rested her hands on her belly and smiled at the view.
“In two days you’re married” smiled at her. “Of course you already are but you know… it’s your wedding. It’s your big day.”
“Yes” beamed . “Yes, my big day. Our big day” she added. “You know looking back I can’t quite believe it. The fights and I had and you know, all those problems… they seem to matter no more. I would have never believed it but I’m happy. I’m happy with everything. My life can’t get any better.”
“Yes, I can’t quite believe it myself that you and finally realised that all of this was somehow meant to be.”
“Yes, I bet if we hadn’t had married the first night he would have never even considered dating me. I mean… I’m crazy. I’m complicated… too hard to handle.”
“Alright but I think because you two have married the first night he was made to look twice you know. See what was behind all this… act.”
“You think I was acting?” asked looking now also at her friend.
“Yes… you know you liked him even before it worked out with him. You just didn’t want to accept it because it felt wrong. But it wasn’t you know. It was right… for you two, it was the right way.”
“Actually, I am quite lucky you know. Because I know I am difficult. And sometimes I’m honestly convinced that he wouldn’t want me anymore if he got the chance to think about it twice.”
“He wants you and you want him and that’s what matters” smiled at her friend encouraging and they both watched the moon staring to kiss the sea.

“ , come on… they are already at the bar. It’s our last night” pushed when he walked towards the hotel room door.
“I’m on my way” he replied while following his friend out of the door. But he did a u-turn when he heard his mobile phone ringing. “I’ll be right there” smiled and answered his phone.
“Yep” he said and waited.
“Am I talking to Mr. ?”
“Yes” he confirmed a bit irritated. “Who’s there?”
“My name’s Andrea Feldman and I’m the Lovely Weddings Cathedral’s manager.”
thought for a moment. “What?”
“Mr ” started the woman again. “I’m the manager of the cathedral you and your wife got married in.”
“Oh. Hey” he said still confused why that woman was calling him. “And… what can I do for you?”
There was a moment of silence before the woman started to talk again. “I’m very sorry to inform you that… well…” she said and knew that she was looking for the right words. “It’s really difficult to put this into words…”
“Why don’t you just say what’s going on, ma’am” he now insisted feeling that something was wrong. “Your wife is… not your wife” she said waiting for a reaction. waited for the woman to continue but she didn’t.
“Excuse me? What are you saying?”
“Mr , I’m very sorry to inform you that the priest that had married you was a… fraud.”
sat down onto the bed. “A fraud?”
“He was not licensed to marry you off in the name of God.”
swallowed hard. The room was starting to get really hot. “So… I’m not married?”
“No, I’m sorry, Mr. ” said the woman and that was everything needed to hear. He didn’t find the power to yell and curse. He closed his phone and looked into nothing. He was not married. was not married. They were not married. Everything was not true. They have lived a life that did not need to be lived. They have shared moments that did not need to be shared.
What was going to say when she found out that they weren’t married? Panic rushed through his body… of course she didn’t want to get married anymore. There was no need for that anymore. The deal they have made with and Louis was not relevant anymore. That was good, thought . “At least we won’t get divorced” he tried to comfort himself but sorely realised that there was nothing anymore to get divorced from. Should he tell or should he shut up and marry her again for real without telling her the truth?
He put his hands into his hands when he figured what he had to do.


Chapter 28

watched the two dancers swaying around the dance floor and smiled to herself. She never realised how sexy Salsa could be. She turned around when she felt a tap on her shoulder.
“Can we talk?” asked . leaned forward and kissed his lips.
“One moment, baby” she smiled and pointed at the dancers. “I want to watch them finish the dance.”
“It’s urgent, ” he said and knew that he wasn’t playing. His face was serious… more serious than she had ever seen it. She nodded and got up. was already walking away and followed him without saying another word. When they have reached the beach stopped and turned around to face her.
“What’s wrong?” she asked and looked at him irritated.
“I love you” he said and looked her deep in the eyes. “Everything that has happened… I wouldn’t want to miss one second of it. I fell in love with you, , and I didn’t even know how. It just happened… you blew me away the moment I saw you and we ended up being drunk and getting married and now we live together and we’re worrying about the deal and the divorce. In two days we’re going to marry again and… I guess, what I’m trying to say is that… I love you and I want you to know it.”
smiled at him. “I love you too” she said and took a step closer but on the other hand backed away one step. started to get worried.
“No, , I really love you. I want you… no, I need you to know it.”
“What are you talking about? You’re scaring me” she said and felt how her heart was beating in her chest heavily.
“We are not married” he said the words before he lost the courage.
started too smile. “Sorry?” she asked and her smile turned into a really confused one.
lowered his head. “I just got a phone call. The priest… he was a fraud. He wasn’t able to marry people off. He wasn’t licensed.”
’s smile had already disappeared. Her eyes were filling with tears and she looked around.
“No… no…”
“The manager just called me” finished and didn’t dare to look up. He was as lost as her and he didn’t want to see her reaction. He was scared what he would find… relief? Happiness? Luck?
’s tears were already rolling down her cheeks. “I have to leave” she said.
“ ” said and looked up while she was already walking away. “Where are you going?” he asked but she just shook her head and continued to walk off.
watched her doing so and couldn’t move. He knew that this was the reaction he had feared most… she was walking away… out of his life.

tossed her purse onto the bed and slammed the door. She slid down the door onto the floor and sobbed silently. What was happening? She thought they were meant to be… she thought that this marriage was fate, that she was destined to be his wife. But this wish had burst like a bubble.
Everything seemed scattered… broken, even. Now that she was not married to him why would they should really marry? This was all a play… the forthcoming wedding was part of it and now that it’s over why should they continue? Why would he want to continue? He could be free again… he could find someone better than her… someone more mature.
She got up and walked towards the cupboard. Once she had opened her suitcase she tossed every piece of cloth in it that belonged to her. She needed to get out of here… she would rather leave herself than watch him leaving because she knew that under the new circumstances sooner or later he would.

The following morning watched walking towards the table. He was staring at the floor and didn’t look like he have had much sleep at all. He sat down in front of her and next to .
“Jeez” laughed . “You look like you haven’t slept at all.” He looked at him and spoke what was on ’s mind.
“Stop it, . I’m not in the mood for that” he mumbled and took a sip of water.
“Oh, are we having a fight with our queen of hearts?” he asked and raised his brows while smiled back waiting for some news. didn’t answer and took another sip.
“What’s wrong, mate? You can tell us” he said nudging his friend’s side but didn’t respond and put a toast into his mouth. watched him chewing it but he didn’t make any attempt to take another bite. He seemed to have no appetite at all.
“Where’s anyway?” asked now hoping that at least she would tell her why was in such a mood. But never could she have known the following answer to her question.
“Gone” he said and didn’t look up but took another sip of water.
“Gone?” asked irritated.
“Yeah, gone” he confirmed again and this time he looked her into the eyes.
“Where did she go?” asked probably as confused as .
“Don’t know. Her things aren’t in the room anymore… she had packed her things and… left.”
’s eyes widened when she figured he wasn’t joking around. “What the-“
“Yesterday” started before someone could ask another question. “Before I came downstairs I received a phone call from the cathedral’s manager. She told me that the priest that has married us was not licensed” everyone was now listening to what was saying. “So… we aren’t married. I told her and she left.”
“You’re not married?” asked shocked.
shook his head. “No… all this time it was not real. It was like if some of you would have married us… it hasn’t got any meaning.”
“But why didn’t you follow her?” asked still irritated by the fact that had left.
looked at her. “Before I told her what was going on I told her how much I love her and still she left. I’m not mad… she backed off and it’s fine.”
“And what about the wedding?” asked lost for words.
“I cancelled it this night.”
“You have cancelled it?” asked .
“Yes” he said. “I cancelled the catering, the live band, the hotel… everything but the mass. I wanted to ask you guys to do it… I- I couldn’t.”
His friends nodded in unity though that was the last thing that they wanted to do either.
“So… no wedding?” put down his toast.
“No wedding” confirmed and got tired of the questions. He got up from his chair. “I’m in my room” he said. “Don’t forget to be on time… we need to get the plane back home.” And with these words he turned around and walked away. watched him like every other person on the table.
“They are not married” repeated in disbelief.
“They’ve never been” continued .
“And ’s gone” summed .
“And no one knows where” added .
“What a mess.”
“Like it has been differently before” mumbled . “Listen guys, we need to sort this out.”
“And what are you thinking we should do?”
raised her brows and leaned forward. “I’ve got an idea-“


Chapter 29

was staring at the ceiling. She felt exhausted… the past hours had gone by in a rush. She felt like everything was moving in slow motion but her. And everything was going wrong. Why was their marriage not legal? Who in the world was having a blast playing with her feelings? Towards the end everything seemed perfect. She was in love with and he seemed to love her two and now… now that they are not married anymore he’s free again. He was able to rethink everything. If she was in ’s position she wouldn’t think twice. She would never consider taking her voluntarily. She was a pain. She was cranky and stupid and stubborn. No guy would fall for her…
suddenly thought back and she remembered one face. Thomas. She exhaled. She had forgotten him so well since their last meeting. He wasn’t present in her life anymore and now he was back. She couldn’t believe she had once compared to Thomas. was nothing like Thomas… but she was still the same. And she didn’t have enough faith in her to believe that someone would want to be with her… for the rest of that someone’s life.
jumped up in scare when she heard a knock at the door. She got out of the bedroom and moved slowly towards the door. When she looked through the soy she sighed but opened the door. “What’s up?”
“What’s up?” asked the other person.
“Shall I rather ask what’s not up?”
“Why did you leave?”
sighed and turned around. “Because I felt I needed to get out of the place.”
“And so you booked a flight and left the island?”
“Yes because I wanted to be far, far away.”
“Away from what?”
“My so called life” she said and turned around angrily.
“He was heartbroken.”
“I don’t care” she lied.
“ , I don’t get it. So the two of you weren’t married, so what?”
“Don’t you get it? It’s like I’m out of luck. We were married and now we’re not… he’s free. Do you really think he considers marrying me again now that he’s sober and sane and able to make decisions on his own? No one would… And I couldn’t have taken the picture of him leaving me. So I was first… I left so he doesn’t need to do it anymore.”
“You are so stupid” said shaking her head. “Do you even hear yourself?”
“ , I’m just sick of all this mess… it has ended. And I don’t have the strength to struggle with an unfortunate love.”
looked at her. “So it’s over?”
“He didn’t get in touch with me. That has pretty much stated his attitude towards our relationship or rather future.”
looked at her. “Would you like to go for a walk?”
“I’m tired. I want to sleep and never wake up again.”
“I think a walk would do you well…”
“ , I-“
“Take your jacket and come on… I don’t take no for an answer.”
rolled her eyes. She grabbed her purse and both made their way out of the flat.

“ ! I can’t believe you forgot to tell the priest” mumbled while walking down the street.
“I just didn’t think about it. I was in shock about what have happened” he defended himself.
“You know that he must be pissed already” he said and paced up the few steps into the church. He opened the door and it was empty. “Where is he?” he asked and looked around.
“ , why are you dragging me down here? It’s not really the greatest day to be here, you know”
heard someone saying and he recognised the voice at once. He turned towards the door at the side and saw her stepping inside. “He cancelled the wedding so he made it clear he doesn’t want me anymo- ?” She stopped dead track when she saw him standing at the door.
Taking a deep breath she nodded once. “Hi” she tried to smile but it only worked halfway.
“Hey” he said back and a corner of his mouth hinted to a smile as well.
“I think we should leave, ” smiled and both made their way out of the church.
“Neutral ground” said and looked around. “I guess here we can’t rip each other apart, can we?”
smiled and shook his head. “Guess not…”
“We are not even allowed to curse” she added trying to lighten up the atmosphere as well as preventing the conversation to head into the direction it would definitely lead. “Do I curse when I say the word curse?” she raised her brows. “I should really stop saying curse… I mean, that word… I mean, it defines something bad and you’re not allowed to be bad in church. So I should really stop saying bad words like… bad or curse- Damn, I did it again. Oops, I said damn… Jesus, again!” She paused and looked at him. “I will just shut up.” She had gotten all hyper and was talking way to fast… “Yeah, I think that’s better” he said looking at her irritated.
“Yeah, it is” she said before she started to giggle in a faked way. “We-he-hell, you must be thinking you’re lucky… you know, now that you’re not with me anymore.”
contracted his brows. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t pretend like you don’t know…” she said and smiled at him which scared a bit.
“I don’t know… tell me” he said and waited.
“You are better off without me” she said and kept on smiling. “I mean… no cranky girl on your side anymore. I mean, I know I can get hyper and start talking to myself in an incomprehensible way… and I talk way to fast when I’m nervous. Ooh, and don’t forget my fear of spiders or my stubbornness. Be thankful you don’t need to deal with that anymore.”
looked at her irritated. “What are you trying to tell me?”
“That you are better off without me” she said and the smiled disappeared from her face. And saw how much she tried to hold back the tears. “That you deserve someone better…”
“What the-“
“Don’t curse!” She said and put up a finger before could finish his statement.
“ , I’m not happy about our wedding not being legal. It broke my heart. I couldn’t get someone more perfect for me than you already are. I like your hyper way talking and I can deal with your stubbornness… and I do understand what you’re saying when you think you’re talking like a nut-“
“I didn’t say I was talking like a nut” she said and rolled her eyes.
“And I like it when you’re trying to make a joke when you feel uncomfortable. And please, who likes spiders?” he asked and took one step closer. “So you left because?” he asked.
“When you said that we weren’t married I felt lucky for you because I can understand if you didn’t want me anymore. I’m crazy! And suddenly with the news I thought it was better for you to be off the hook again…”
“But I don’t want to be off the hook” he said desperately. “I want you. Before I told you the priest being a fraud I thought I had made clear how much I love you. That hasn’t changed with the news…”
“You really think you could deal with me for the rest of your life?” she asked in disbelief.
“And longer” he smiled and was now close enough to take her into his arms. “I love you, ” he said and kissed her head. “Please, trust me.”
Suddenly it hit her like a lightening. That was her problem all the time. She didn’t trust. She didn’t trust him nor any other person that he would be honest with her. She didn’t trust herself being a good person with a good personality. All this time she has had no faith in what was going on. She didn’t figured that there might have been someone who wanted her to be happy and who had led her this way to make her see what she would miss if she didn’t start to trust in herself and other people.
“I love you” she whispered and hugged him.
“So, back to normal?” he asked and looked at her while still holding her in his arms. nodded…
“Back to normal, if we’ve ever been normal” she smiled and kissed his lips softly.
“Oh, I have missed that” he smiled and suddenly a though occurred in his mind. “Wait, how did you get home from Hawaii?”
raised her brows. “Let me tell you” she started. “I flew from Hawaii to Vegas where I’ve painted a moustache on the cathedral’s Elvis. After that I’ve talked to the manager of the cathedral and told her she had ruined my life then we both cried and I forgave her. Then I kicked the Elvis and took the next flight to New York where I’ve had the biggest McDonalds meal ever… and finally I flew to London.
Where eight hours later I got a phone call from telling me to meet her. And now I’m here.”
looked at her puzzled. “You kicked the Elvis?”
“He was staring at me saying ‘Love me tender, love me sweet’” she said in a low voice and caused to laugh.
“How could you think I would find someone better than you?” he asked and kissed her again.
“So we start anew?” she asked.
“Yes… the wedding’s cancelled anyway.”
“That’s what you think” they turned around and saw and standing at the door.
“What do you mean?” asked .
“ , you really think we have allowed the wedding to be cancelled?” asked with a laugh.
“We have called everywhere tell them you’ve had been pretty tipsy and that you didn’t know what you were doing. So the wedding’s still on today… in two hours… if I were you, I’d hurry up.”
was already grabbing ’s arm. “You need to see the hairdresser” she laughed. was so perplex she didn’t know what to do. She was just following and she saw smiling at her before the door separated them. dragged her into the cab.

Two hours later, and honestly couldn’t recall how she had managed to get done so fast, she was sitting in a white limousine driving to the church. She looked at who was sitting in front of her before her glance wandered to her father who was sitting next to her.
“What are you thinking, Daddy?” she asked and looked at him.
He turned to her and smiled widely. “I’m happy for you, . If I think of you nearly marring Thomas… I can’t say how much I thank God for the day you two have broke up.”
smiled and kissed her father’s cheek. “I’m happy too.”
And it was then that she realised what he was saying. That day indeed had changed her life… the break-up, her getting drunk and being in the same hotel like , them getting married and coming from London, the deal which made them stay in touch and which forced them to getting to know each other, and then they slowly fell in love and suddenly they were bound to each other. And then the news of their marriage being illegal… the news that made the deal invalid. They were free… no divorce… nothing.
“Do you believe in fate, Dad?” she asked.
He turned to her. “I believe that there’s someone up there wanting the best for us and he makes us go detours and go through hard times but in the end he will bring us happiness.”
smiled. “Yeah… that sounds good” she said more to herself than to her dad.
The car stopped and her dad got out of the car reaching out a hand for his daughter to hold.
“Ready?” asked her father and she nodded.
The door opened and she stepped in linked to her father’s arm. She looked around… the church wasn’t much decorated and it didn’t bother her. It was all about and her, right? Not about if the flowers have the right colour or if the benches were comfortable enough. It was just about herself and him. She smiled when she walked down the isle in her snow white dress. When she reached her father kissed her cheek before she took ’s reached out hand. She smiled at him and turned to the priest.
The mass didn’t take too long and couldn’t think about anything but how lucky she was. That must have been fate, right? Because she couldn’t find another explanation to her luck. She snapped out of her thoughts when she felt how squeezed her hand. She was turning to face him and he was looking at her puzzled. She turned around and watched her mother staring to get irritated and nervous.
“I said” said the priest looking at her as puzzled as every other person. “Do you, , take this man, , to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
looked back at who was now getting more irritated by each second that passed without a response. Never has she been more certain about something. Never has she wanted something more than that. Everything else didn’t matter. She wanted to be with him. She wanted to grow old with him. She wanted to look at a future with children playing in the garden while she and were watching them. She wanted him so bad and finally she was able to have him. Entirely. No deals… no doubts… this was official… this was true. This was her destiny. A smile appeared on her face and she slowly nodded.
“I do!”


THE END



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