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Chapter 17.

This has to be a joke.

I’m hallucinating.

Lack of sleep has caused me to hallucinate. I knew it. I knew I shouldn’t have over thought everything. I sat there for a few minutes as I willed myself to stop hallucinating. Then I realised. I wasn’t hallucinating. She really was there.

She tilted her head to the side, an amused smile spreading across her immaculate features.

“Lou?” her deep yet angelic voice called. “Are you okay?”

Hauling myself out of the clouds, I blinked at her.

“I‘m fine.” I answered meekly.

She started the car and we began driving down the road. I glanced toward her, my envy shining through as I regarded the golden mousy brown curls that spilled over her shoulders. This time she was wearing a deep burgundy blouse with a cardigan and smart black trousers. I had shrugged on a black cardigan earlier to hide the ugly bruise on my arm, but it was baggy and unfashionable - nothing like hers which was fitted and elegant with stylish gold military buttons embellished on the material.

“Zach has been having a hard time recently.” she told me softly. “That’s why he couldn’t come today.”

He has been having a hard time? I found that hard to believe.

“I would tell you more, but he would kill me. He hates people knowing his business. But I imagine if you ask him about it directly, he’ll tell you.” she explained, her warm hazel eyes genuine.

She seriously thought Zach would open up to me?

Was she crazy?

“I doubt it.” I muttered.

“You’d be surprised.” she laughed as she turned a corner.

I rolled my eyes as I sank into my seat.

For the rest of the ride I didn’t speak much. Only various conversations popped up, but I forced myself to cut them short, even though she was really easy to talk to. I could definitely see what Zach did in her and it drove me up the wall. There was absolutely no way I could compete with her; she was absolutely beautiful, carefree with a great sense of humour and a graceful aura that I could never achieve even with a thousand etiquette classes.

Arriving outside of Ebony Records, she smoothly parked the car then sighed and leaned back in her seat.

“There you go.” she smiled.

“Thanks.” I couldn’t help but return the expression and smiled back. I was just getting out when she suddenly spoke again.

“Lou-”

I turned to face her.

“If you’re not busy, we can have lunch?” she offered.

Initially, I had planned to say no, but then I realised I was just doing it out of spite. I couldn’t deny that she was a nice person and she didn’t deserve being hated for no reason.

“Yeah, okay.” I nodded.

“Great. I’ll pick you up at twelve then.” she beamed.

“Sounds good.” I replied.

She gave me one last smile before she pulled the car out and drove down the road.

Sighing, I looked toward the building and reluctantly made my way inside. It didn’t take me that long to reach Zach’s office and I stood nervously outside the door for a few moments. Finally getting the guts to go in, I took a deep breath before knocking lightly on the wooden surface.

“Come in.” his reverberating voice told me.

I opened the door gingerly and stepped inside.




Zach was sat at his desk and a middle aged man was sat opposite him accompanied by a file resting on his knees. He looked toward me, his dark eyes acknowledging me briefly before flickering back to the man. They talked quietly so I couldn’t hear what they were saying for a moment before the man got up, nodded understandingly at Zach before walking past me and out of the room.

I watched as Zach strode over to me, one hand in his pocket and the other holding a pile of various papers.

“Copy these. File this and make me a cup of coffee.” he ordered, handing them to me abruptly.

“File it where?” I raised an eyebrow.

“In the bottom cabinet.” he responded quickly as he strode over to his desk.

“Which divider does it go under?” I asked.

He glared at me, his copper eyes almost capable of charring me to the bone with a single look. “Figure it out yourself. I don’t have time to baby sit you today.” he shot at me unexpectedly.

A needle stabbed into my chest at that.

Baby sit?

Was I that immature?

Rubbing his jaw slowly, his deep eyes glanced at me as he sighed. “You know I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Right.” I muttered before exiting the room with the documents in hand.

Throughout the entire morning I tried to shrug off his comment as I carried out the many tasks he gave me. Noah was no where to be seen. I asked Melinda about it, but she just said he had been busy in the recording studio. By twelve, I was tired, frustrated and bored out of my mind - frankly, a tedious lunch with Zach’s model girlfriend-fiancée-wife was not exactly on my agenda.

Nevertheless Scarlett was parked out the building at twelve o’clock on the dot. I couldn’t back out now. When I went out to meet her she was leaning against the car, her hazel eyes glimmering as she greeted me.

“Fancy a coffee?” she asked.

“Are we going to the café around the corner?” I smiled.

“Of course.” she chuckled lightly. “I assume Noah told you about it then?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “How long have you known him?”

She beamed at me. “Zach, Noah and I grew up together. He has always loved cake, specifically chocolate cake, so it didn’t surprise me that he found that café. Zach was always a carrot cake fan. We always thought he was really strange for that.” she laughed as we walked across the street.

I suddenly felt two millimetres tall.

Scarlett grew up with them?

Even if I did have runway model looks she would always have something I didn’t. They had history. She knew Noah loved chocolate cake and that Zach preferred carrot cake.

“So, have you spoken to him yet?” she queried.

I shook my head silently as we approached the café.

“Why not?” she questioned softly.

“It didn’t seem appropriate.” I mumbled.

“I see. Maybe you should try when you get back?” she offered.

Scarlett was looking at me, her brows lowered with concern. I frowned. Why did she even care? She was the one involved with Zach, not me. I wanted to shout at her for being so fake, but the worst part was that I knew she wasn’t. Everything about her screamed honesty.

We entered little café and slid into our seats before Scarlett ordered two cups of coffee and cherry buns.

“If you want him to talk to you, you’re going to have to prompt him to do it. Zach is far too stubborn to make the first move.” she told me.

Make the first move?

His arms around me and his lips on my neck pervaded my mind.

Could’ve fooled me.

“It’s not really any of my business.” I responded quietly.

“I’ve got it! I’ll come with you.” she grinned, her hazel eyes glowing like a pair of tiny light bulbs.

“What?” I gawked. She had to be kidding.

“Well, if he won’t talk to you, someone needs to give him a nudge along.” she insisted, sipping her coffee.

As soon as she finished the sentence a shadow loomed over her. I didn’t even have to look to know who it was - his lush aftershave had already washed over me like a warm wave. I slowly dragged my eyes up to meet his sharp bronze gaze.

“Are you done gossiping, Scarlett?” he quipped curtly.

Her eyes widened and she whipped her head around to look at Zach who was towering above her. She stood up and frowned.

“I wasn’t gossiping-”

“If I knew you were going to interfere I wouldn’t have even invited you to come back from France.” he snarled.

He invited her?

“Well, I’m sorry for caring about you!” Scarlett shot back.

“You may as well be my fucking mother instead of my sister if all you want to do is meddle with my life!” he yelled.

At that point the cup of coffee I had been holding was dropped from my hand in shock. It spilled all over the table, soaking everything.

Scarlett was his sister?

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TA-DA!

Scarlett's true identity has finally been revealed, what say you?

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Sweets xxx