MARIANNA

"You said you have feelings for me." He blurts out. I am completely taken off guard.

"Feelings? Seriously, I said that? It must have been the alcohol." I end it with a chuckle. How the hell did I blurt that out? Remind me never to drink again if possible.

"I thought as much. Feelings? That would be crazy. Right?" He says, laughing it off like it's nothing. Actually it is supposed to be nothing but here I am, the crazy one who is already catching feelings in a no-strings attached bestieship. Welldone for signing your heart up for breaks. I say in my head, mentally giving myself a thumbs up.

"Yeah. Very crazy. Excuse my drunken self." I fake a chuckle, waving the air off with my hands.

He leans forward, his eyes narrowing into mine. My eyes stare into his and I blink twice to keep myself in check. Beauty like that of Lucas is intriguing and difficult to ignore.

His hand moves to my mouth and swipes on the area just by my lips to wipe off the bread crumbs on it before he smiles again.

After leaving his place, I head straight to André's office. We discuss and agree on a price. He forwards me my payment and hands a black card to me.

"Here's the password." He slides a small piece of paper across the table to me with the numbers '1752' written.

Sitting on his chair, he looks so composed. No strand of hair was out of place.

"Nice doing business with you, André." I smile widely.

"I would say the same thing for you too. Just make her look great. Bye." He says.

•••••

What is even more surprising is that she stays in his house. These men don't bring women to their houses to spend the night. Well, apart from me that stays over at Lucas'. She must be really special. I arrive at my destination and park my car before highlighting and heading to knock.

"Hi, I'm Marianna." I say, immediately she answers the door.

"You must be Sophia. You don't look bad at all, girl." I say to her and gives her a nudge on the shoulders, just for the fun of it.

"Thank you. Please come in." She says, smiling at me.

"Alright, so we have alot to do. First stop, spa and hair salon, boutique for dress and shoes l, and finally back for your make up." I say, clapping my hand as I sit on the chair.

"Dress up so we could leave." I inform her. As we drive to begin preparation, I could not help but notice the weird stares she kept giving me. Is it what I think? Haha, girl is subtly marking territory.

"Don't think too much, I'm their friend. I've known them since we were younger." I say to reassure her.

"You'll meet the others later today." I add.

"Okay, we have arrived at our destination." Seems I am the one doing most of the talking, hopefully she loosens up later.

Our first stop is the beauty parlour where we would get ourselves pampered. Spoiler alert: André is footing the bills for my treatment also. He is that generous.

"So, we'll be having spa treatment and fixing our hair here. This is Loiusa, she'll attend to us." For the next one hour, we were treated to massages, facials, body glow, etc and after that, our hair and nails were done.

The curls on the edges of her hair made it look bouncy and nice. For me, I still preferred my straight hair with a parting in the middle, it gives me the fierce look that I want.

"Alright, till another time, guys!" I say to the staff and we take our leave. I come here alot when I have clients and as such, I am familiar with the workers here.

"Next stop, the boutique." I say to her, flashing her a big smile.

"Ohh, I love to play dress up."  I say in excitement.

"I won't agree less with you." She says  in response. At least, she's talking now.

Next stop was the boutique for dress and shoes shopping. We were greeted by an attendant who took us around to see the dresses.

"Where's the changing room?" I ask him.

"Over there." The attendant points at it and excuses us.

"Alright, pick whatever interests you, let's see what suits you best."

After series of trying and changing, one particular dress catches her attention. For shoes, she picks a pair of silver heels.

I get myself a dark purple dress with matching heels too. I make a signal for the attendant to come pick up the dresses and shoes that we have selected. It's not like he will notice me in this dress but I don't care. I don't have this body to restrict flaunting it because of one man.

We also pick matching purses and then head to the counter where I bring out the card to make payment for the items. They are then bagged and we exit the store.

"I'm hungry." Hungry is an understatement. I am famished. Whatever prompted me to skip breakfast this morning, I am never trying it again. Well, I have said that a thousand times before.

"Do we get take outs or can you wait till we get back then I'll cook?" I check for the time and it is 5:30pm already. Cooking now will be like a death sentence to me because I can't wait.

"I'll just get Chicken and Chips. A chilled can of Soda would be refreshing too, and besides we have just 2 hours left." We stop by at a nearby restaurant to buy the food and head back home.

"Finally!" I say as I sit on the chair, sighing and stretching in relief.

After eating and resting for a short while, I proceed with the make up. The excitement in doing this for people never gets old. I am talented like that.

"Alright, he'll be ready any moment from now." I say to her, recalling the agreement I had with him. She nods her head, still staring at herself in awe.

"You look perfect, heads will turn this night and they'll be just for you." I say to her.

"Thank you so much, Anna." During the course of our glam up experience, we bonded and I told her to refer to me by Anna. Plus, I like her.

True to his words, when a knock sounds on the door, I knew it was André. Sophia sighs and looks at me. I nod in encouragement and motion to the door. The first thing I notice when she opens it is how his gaze sweeps from her head to her feet, staring in a way I badly want Lucas to look at me. This man might not know or acknowledge it but he is already smitten by her.

"You look very lovely." I hear him say.

"Thank you, you don't look bad, yourself." She replies him. Awww, they look cute together.

"Hello, the transformer is here." André laughs at my declaration.

"Hey!" He exclaims with excitement.

"Well, I understand. Enjoy the evening, I'll go in my car." I say to them, not missing the 'thank you' that he mouths to me.

The party was well, a party. Occasionally, my eyes linger at Lucas' figure as he converses with the guys. In time, André excuses himself from their midst, leaving Nikolas and Fabian with him.

When his gaze accidentally matches mine, I wave at him so he doesn't catch my momentary weakness. He makes a gesture for me to come over and as much as I did not want to, my legs had a different reasoning of their own for in a matter of minutes, I approach them.

"Hey, Anna. Oops, Wifey duties." Fabian says, silently excusing himself from the convo. He is the most reserved of all the guys.

"Hi, Nick." The swift playboy takes my hand in his and gives me a light kiss on it.

"Hi, beautiful." He says. I swat my hand off his using the free one and roll my eyes afterwards.

"You know those things don't work on me, Nikolas Galanis." He chuckles and pulls me in for a hug.

"Where have you hidden?" He asks me after releasing me.

"I have not hidden. You just did not ask of little me. Lucas sees me often" I shrug with a smile.

"Yeah. Well, the ladies out there seem lonely. Excuse me." He makes a head movement to his front and I turn to see a group of three ladies, chatting away. They don't look like they are in need of company but it is typical Nikolas, he always has his ways around them.

"Are you joining him too?" I raise an eyebrow in question at Lucas.

"Sure." He chuckles. I feel a tiny pinch inside of me.

"But not now. You look nice, by the way." He says, sipping on his wine.

"Thank you." I say, bending my head to hide my flushing cheeks.

"Hey, Josie." He calls out to a lady and just like that, he slips away and I am back to being alone. So much for 'not now' and having his attention.