"You're kidding!" Elena Gilbert let out a mildly embarrassing, and rather childish squeal. "He said yes?"

Bonnie, her best friend and co-worker shushed her, her index finger pressing against her own lips. "Elena, shh! If anyone in the office hears you, they'll obviously try to out do you. Wait until after the interview before you go around telling people."

Bonnie was right, no matter how wonderful the news seemed, she'd best keep quiet until the interview was finished.

"He agreed to meet with you Thursday, eight o'clock, sharp." Bonnie flipped open her datebook and tossed it across the desk at Elena before she could properly respond. "As your right hand woman, friend, and fellow Damon Salvatore fan, I advise we go shopping."

"Wait, wait, wait." Elena stopped her friend from heading into a banter about which stores were having sales. She knew it was coming, and as much as she wanted to talk about it, there was already a problem. "Thursday?" She wrinkled her eyebrows. "Like, two days from now Thursday?"

"Exactly, which is why we need to get to Barneys as soon as the clock strikes five tonight." Bonnie nodded her head, sneaking a glance at the clock. "One hour to go."

"I can't do it Thursday, Bon." Elena ran her fingers through her hair. She felt like smacking herself. The biggest actor – as far as she was concerned – in the world, and she had previous arangements.

"Why can't you?" Bonnie snapped. In her mind, there was no reasonable excuse for this type of thing. "It's Damon Salvatore, Elena!"

Elena pressed her fingers to her temples. "I know, but I promised Matt that I'd go see his parents with him tomorrow night. We won't be back until noon Thursday. I'm not even supposed to work Thursday, Bonnie!"

"Oh, right. I might have skipped that minor detail when I was setting you up for an interview with Hollywood's hottest actor. And I mean that in multiple ways." Bonnie was annoyed, and she had every right to be. The strings she had to pull to get her friend this interview rather than a "bigger" writer... Elena should be worshiping her.

"I know, I know." Elena sighed. "But I've canceled on him a dozen times already. I can't do it again."

"Yes, you can." Bonnie's eyes narrowed. "I weaseled you into an interview, one that any other journalist would have been thrilled about, and here you are canceling the biggest interview of your life to go play house with Matt?" Bonnie's words were heated, making Elena feel all that much worse.

"It's not that simple, Bon. I've promised him for the past eight months that I'd go see his parents again, and I haven't. I finally have a day off, I have to go see my fiance's parents."

"Elena Gilbert. You have the rest of your life to see the Donovan's, you have one day to see this magnificent Salvatore." Bonnie snapped, forcing a picture of the actor in front of Elena.

She sighed. He was absolutely stunning. "Alight," She nodded. "You're right, I know. I'll have to cancel again. Some wife I'm gonna be." She frowned down at Damon Salvatore's image. "Do you think his eyes are photoshopped?" She asked, knitting her eyebrows together.

"You'll find out in two days." Bonnie said, snagging the picture again. "Now get to work, we have less than an hour before Barney's is calling our names, and less than 48 hours before you get to meet this!"

Elena was almost positive that Bonnie was more excited than she was, but she supposed, that if she weren't engaged, and nothing was stopping her, she'd be excited too. At this point, the only thing she was excited about was getting the inside scoop on Mr. Salvatore's new movie, and being a renowned writer, even if it was short-lived. This could be her big break.

The next hour was deathly slow. It seemed like every time Elena checked the clock, the hands hadn't moved. She was almost positive that the second-hand was the only one moving, the other two were failing to do their job. Much like she was as well.

At five, Bonnie popped her head into Elena's office. Her dark hair was ruffled like she'd been in a rush. "Ready?"

"Um, yeah, hold on a sec." Elena rummaged through some papers, sorting them into three piles, and finishing up her day's work. Once she'd finished, she grabbed her belongings and threw on her blazer. "I haven't told Matt yet." She admitted.

"That we're going to Barneys to work out some retail therapy, or that you're blowing him off?" Bonnie was blunt. You could always tell when she didn't agree with something, didn't like someone, anything. She wasn't afraid to say what she felt – and in that instant, she felt that Elena was blowing off her fiance, for the greater good, of course.

"Both." She shrugged sheepishly, as she fiddled with her phone sending Matt a text to let him know she'll be home later. "One confession down, one to go." She tried to put a positive spin on things, but both of them knew it wasn't working, because as they approached the elevator it was hitting her, hard.

Matt had always been good to her, he went along with nearly everything she said and got her everything she wanted. Except to be married. That – was entirely his idea. She loved him, she did, but marriage at her age? She was barely twenty-four, why did she want to be married so young? But she figured after all he'd done for her the past seven years, she could repay him with this. She knew for a fact that she wanted to marry him eventually, but right now didn't seem like the time. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers.

The taxi ride was short, and relatively silent. The driver didn't pester them, like some tend to do, which to Elena is nearly the most annoying thing in the world, and Bonnie kept to herself, typing away on her own phone, presumably setting up meeting after meeting and emailing clients even though they weren't at work anymore. She liked to do things on her own time, that way her time at work with Elena could be spent gossiping or talking about totally inappropriate things such as their sex lives.

As they stepped out of the cab, Elena's phone rang. Matt. Damn, she thought, but picked it up anyway. "Hey." She made a worried face at Bonnie, who held in a giggle and walked through the store's entrance.

"Hey babe," He said, however she could barely hear him over the outrageously loud football players in the background. "Look, I'm tied up at work anyway." He explained. "So, go have fun, I'll see you around ten, probably."

"Oh, what happened?" Elena asked, now sifting through racks of expensive clothing. She was alone now, Bonnie made a beeline for the sales, and left Elena to chat with her husband-to-be.

"Oh," He sighed. He wasn't having fun. "One of the players is suing another. Stupid stuff that I've decided I want to be a part of." She heart someone shout in the background. "Hold on, Lena." He said, and his hand muffled the phone's speaker. "Guys!" She heard him snap. "Will you please act like adults for twenty seconds?" These two were obviously people Matt had known for a while now, because otherwise there is no way he would have been anything but lawyer-like. "Sorry," He said to her. "They're acting like toddlers."

"Sounds like a blast. I'll let you get back to work." She said, pulling a black pencil skirt off of a rack.

"Okay, Len?" He said, his tone much lighter now.

"Yeah?" She folded the skirt over her forearm and began walking to find Bonnie.

"I love you." He said.

Elena could detect a smile in his voice. She smiled to herself, "Love you too, Matty." She replied, before hanging up.

It didn't take long before she found Bonnie, her arms wrapped around an enormous armful of clothing and still looking.

"I really hope those are all 90% off," Elena's eyes widened as she saw the true amount of fabric nestled in Bonnie's protective grip.

"Not quite, but these-" Bonnie held up a pair of dresses. "Are 60% off, clearance! I'm saving hundreds of dollars here, Lena." She was much too happy.

"You're also spending hundreds." Elena pointed out. "Anyway, your money, I found this." She held up the simple black skirt.

"No." Bonnie said flatly. "That simply won't suffice."

"What are you talking about?" Elena pressed. She saw nothing wrong with the skirt.

"You're going to be meeting the most beautiful man on earth, you need to look like a siren, not like you're double your age." She said, bringing Greek mythology into the conversation.

"Sirens were supposedly half-bird." Elena pointed out. "I don't want to look like I belong in an aviary."

"You're going to look like the sexy human portion of the siren, in this. Plus, I've always thought of them as a mermaid type deal. You know, Disney doesn't get sexier than Ariel." Bonnie declared, holding up what looked to be nothing more than a little black dress.

"What exactly makes that so much different than this?" She asked, hinting at her own clothing selection.

"Go try it on." Bonnie pressed. "Or, you can just buy it and save it for Thursday."

"You're giving me a clothing ultimatum?"

"I am." She smirked. "One or the other, Miss Gilbert."

Elena snatched the dress out of Bonnie's hands and checked the price. It wasn't too outrageous, seeing as they set foot in Barneys, so she made her decision promptly. "I'll save it for Thursday." Silently, she thought, that way, if it doesn't fit perfectly, I can wear normal interview clothes and bring it back. Of course, she didn't tell Bonnie that.
"Good girl." Bonnie praised. "However, I have to get out of here before I blow the entire year's paycheck on clothes." She exaggerated.

"You really should go to some sort of shopaholics anonymous meetings," Elena offered, completely joking. "Do they have those?"

"Duh." Bonnie rolled her eyes playfully. "Confessions of a Shopaholic, Bonnie Bennett edition."

They purchased their items left the store in near silence. They both had a lot on their minds – Damon Salvatore in particular.

"You've gotta tell me everything." Bonnie spoke up as Elena hailed another cab.

"About what?" She asked turning to face Bonnie.

"About him." Bonnie pointed at a teenager, who excitedly read a magazine with none other than Mr. Salvatore himself on the cover.

It was an excellent picture, that Elena had to acknowledge. He stood shirtless, covered in mud in front of a canopy of trees as a promotion for his new movie. As far as Elena could see, the cover page read something along the lines of Damon Salvatore, Hollywood's modern-day Tarzan. Which to Elena's understanding made absolutely no sense, as his new movie had nothing to do with living among apes, but she supposed that the company did anything to get him half naked on the cover of their beloved magazine.

"Modern day Tarzan?" She rolled her eyes.

Bonnie moaned. "I love me some monkey man."

Elena burst out laughing as they hopped in the taxi. Bonnie stated her address, since Elena lived no more than a half a block away, she usually walked home.

When the car came to a halt, the girls said their goodbyes and went separate ways, each still on the same internal topic, even though their point of views were much different. Bonnie was thinking simply about what she'd allow the Salvatore boy to do to her, while Elena thought about how the news about her interview with him would crush Matt.