You Never Knew

Chapter 7

All around us the assistants' phones go off all at once.

TEXT
Wave Time
Go to Cherryway 218
and take a swim in the owner's pool.
The team that first dips
their whole bodies in the
pool wins a reward.
Good luck! 

I stare at Jennie for a second before we both grab our stuff and start sprinting, leaving our hardly touched lunch behind.

"Do you have a car?", I shout at her.

"This way!"

All around us, assistants come running – from behind us, from nearby restaurants, from the office... It's utter chaos as people push, sprint, drive and bike to get ahead.

We jump into Jennies cute little Volkswagen and drive off.

Jennie presses the pedal to the floor. "Which way?!"

"Hang on...  typing it into the GPS... now!"

"You call directions, I steer!"

Feeling like well-timed rally drivers, we arrive at the address in record time. Unfortunately, we are nowhere near the first team onsite.

Jennie slaps the steering wheel. "How on earth did they get here so fast?"

More teams are coming in behind us, running towards the back of the house. Looking over the fence, there isn't even a swimming pool out back. Only a small kids plastic pool. That hasn't stopped any of the other teams, trying to get their clothes as soaked as possible from the limited water supply in the kid's pool.

Jennie wrinkles her nose.  "Well, I'm not doing that so I guess we should head back to the office."

"Wait!" From everything I've heard about Wave-challenges, this doesn't add up. It's too easy. I wreck my brain and suddenly it occurs to me.

I wonder if...

I move to the front door, pulling Jennie along with me. I gently knock on it. An elderly woman with an amused look on her face opens. "Yes?"

"Hi, my name is Kiara and this is Jennie." I point towards Jennie who does a small wave.

"Hello."

"May I ask – are you the owner of this house?"

Mischief twinkle in the woman's eyes. "No, I'm not."

"Could you please tell me who the owner is?"

"Matteo Matthews."

I try to hide my excitement. "And you don't happen to have his address, do you?"

She leans in and whispers, "Dovermounth road 15"

"Thank you so much!" I grab Jennie and rush towards her car. She drives off as I put in the new address in the GPS.

"What just happened?!"

I fidget on the phone. "The text said to swim in the owner's pool. Not the pool located at that address."

Jennie's eyes go wide with realisations as she speeds up. "Oh my god, that's genius! You are a genius!"

The car stops outside a large stone house. I take the lead, sprinting towards the side of the house. As I round the corner, I see the shimmer from the large pool.

"I hope your pockets are empty!" I grab onto Jennie and drag her down with me as I jump in the water.

As we resurface, I see Matthews walking towards us. He then turns and looks over our heads.

"Great work guys! But not as remarkably fast as Clarke and Brown."

I smile proudly and look over towards the end of the pool. Finn and his teammate are standing there, panting.

Matthews turns towards us again. "Really, really impressive. You did well ladies."

My smile turns smug as I look over to the other team again, Finn's eyes dark and furious.

I guess I won this round!

❦ 

"Just one more store! Your still need a dress for the gala and this card is not even hot yet!"

I laugh at Jennie's enthusiasm and agree to one more store. As part of our reward we had been given an unlimited credit card, and a two-hour shopping spree with only two rules:

1. Soaking wet clothes are not for the office – make sure to get at least one change.

2. Buy an outfit worthy of the Sapphire gala.

Jennie was definitely most excited about the limitless credit card and had roughly bought enough outfits to re-dress the entire group of Wave-assistants.

I on the other hand couldn't believe our luck regarding the Sapphire gala. Our win meant that we were guaranteed tickets to the most important social event of the season. Is also happened to take place the night before the final cut, meaning it might be the last chance to impress the managers, and network – in case you were fired the next day.

"Okay, time to focus! Is there really a thing as 'too much bling'? Because that pink dress over there might be the most gorgeous..." Jennie rushed over to a rack of dresses.

"You already have a gala dress! And I don't do pink or bling."

Jennie pouted her bottom lip, pretending to be offended when the sales clerk came up to us. Before he even had a chance to introduce himself, Jennie waved the credit card in front of him.

"We need to get her a dress. Sexy, yet classy. Insanely hot, but sophisticated. Jaw-dropping gorgeous, as well as extremely professional. No pink, no bling. Are we clear?"

The sales clerk stared at the credit card, nodded enthusiastically and scurried off.

"You're a mean rich!"

She smirked and started to look around the store. "It's easy when it's not my money."

The sales clerk came back and took me to a dressing room. My eyes immediately fell on a beautiful, black dress. The sales clerk noticed my reaction and helped me get into it.

It left me breathless! The dress felt like it was made solemnly for me. It flowed over my body and accentuated my curves. Once I stepped out from the curtain, Jennies jaw dropped. She looked behind me and nodded at the sales clerk: "We'll take it!"

"Really? Isn't it a bit..."

"That dress is your dress and we are buying it. You are absolutely gorgeous in that, and no one will be able to deny you anything!" She smiles cheekily at me. "Even I get all hot and flustered!"

We laughed and I carefully stroked my fingers over the soft fabric. I know I shouldn't be thinking about him, but I couldn't help but smile, envisioning Finn's reaction. 

That man will only bring me trouble.

If I had only known...

*****

A/N:
Beautiful and smart. Do you think you would have been able to crack the Wave challenge?

Shopping, shopping, shopping... what would you by if you had a limitless credit card? And don't say 'world peace'!

Thank you for reading YNK! Please vote if you want to make this writer extra happy. You are the best!