When Haley got back to her apartment, there were six messages waiting for her on her machine. Three were from Lillian telling her to call her as soon as she got these. Two were from Billy saying the same. The final was from Nathan telling her, oddly enough, to go to her bedroom. She dropped her bag and noticed for the first time, that there was a line of roses waiting for her. On her bed was a bouquet of roses and a giant card. The card had an address, a date and a time written in Nathan's neat yet sloppy handwriting on one side and a short note on the other.
9880 Madison Ave.
Manhattan, NY
10280
Tomorrow
A limo will be waiting for you outside your building at 10:00 tomorrow morning. Dress to shop.
Nathan
Haley tried calling Nathan for an explanation, but his phone was turned off. Instead, she called Lillian and Billy who arrived at her door in a matter of minutes. After a thorough explanation of the day with Nathan, they returned to the flowers and strange card. After much analyzing, none of them could come to any conclusion.
"Okay, clearly Nathan is going shopping with you." Lillian said.
"No guy would put himself through that." Haley disagreed.
"Oh, I would." Billy said.
"You don't count." Haley replied. Billy, acting offended, through a pillow at her. They continued in this fashion for another fifteen minutes before Haley gave up.
"I'm done. I'll just do this tomorrow and call you guys after. I'm going to bed." The other two left and Haley drifted off into a much needed slumber.
The next morning started just like any other. Haley showered, ate breakfast, and began dressing when she realized a new pair of extra dark Seven for All Mankind jeans had been placed in her closet.
"What the-" Haley began when something else caught her eye. A pair of impossibly expensive shiny white Prada heals were placed purposefully next to the rest of her shoes.
"Who did-" Haley tried to start again when her cell phone rang. It was Lillian.
"Ready for the big day?" Lillian asked as soon as the call connected.
"Some extremely rich person bought me a brand new pair of Seven jeans and Prada heals." Haley stated, in shock. She had picked up the heals and was examining them from every angle.
"Card?" Lillian asked. She didn't even sound surprised.
"Not yet," Haley replied. She slipped off her robe and into her under garments. There was a Victoria's Secret gift card for $100 sitting on top of her underwear. "Jesus, someone's kinky." Haley mumbled.
"What happened?"
"Whoever bought me this stuff also bought me a $100 gift card to Victoria's Secret."
"Oh, no that was me and Billy. We figured you would want to buy yourself some lingerie for tonight."
"Wow, thanks guys." Haley said sarcastically. She threw the card into her Coach purse and told Lillian she would call her later. And thanks for the money. She slipped into the perfect fitting jeans and heals and searched through her closet for some kind of shirt to pair them with. She decided on a white flutter top, sprayed herself with perfume and walked out the door. It was exactly 10:00 AM when she got down to the lobby and sure enough there was a white stretch limousine with Nathan's personal driver leaning against it waiting for her.
"Ms. James, how are you?" he asked, opening the door for her.
"I'm great. Listen, do you mind telling me what's going on?" Haley asked expecting at least his driver to tell her something.
"Just get in, you'll find out soon enough. All I can say is that I hope you don't have plans for the rest of the day." He said. Haley got in and settled herself in the farthest seat away from the driver. As they maneuvered their way through the streets of New York, Haley watched the tall buildings pass without paying attention to where they were headed. They ended up stopping in front of Sacs 5th Ave.
"Why are we stopping here? 5th Ave. is the most expensive street in the entire city." Haley stated, clearly confused.
"You are going shopping." The driver said pushing her out of the car.
"Are you kidding? I don't have the money to shop here!"
"You may not, but Nathan does." He smiled and led her into the store. He pushed two cards into her hand. One was a white card that said V.I.P. on it in glimmering gold letters and the other was Nathan's credit card.
"Wow, I...I can't use this!" Haley called after the driver.
"Yes you can. And you will. Nathan set all this up especially for you. The V.I.P. card will get you especially good service at any store on this street. As for the credit card, Nathan put a million dollar limit on it so you can't literally spend all of his money. Now if you have any more questions I'm sure anyone in the store will be willing to help you. But as for me, I have to go pick up Nathan. I'll see you in about six hours."
Haley had six hours to shop on the most expensive street in New York City. Letting the confusing and flustering, but flattering, events of the morning go, she focused on the task at hand. A sales woman found her looking through the women's section on the second floor, where she usually shopped after a raise.
"Are you Haley James?" she asked.
"Yes," Haley replied wondering how this woman knew her.
"Hi, my name is Martha. I got a call from Mr. Scott yesterday letting me know you were coming. He said to help you find a dress for a very special occasion." Martha explained.
"Oh! Of course, thank you so much." Haley said finally realized what was going on. She began to walk towards the dress section on that floor.
"No, no. We're going upstairs." Martha said. They headed towards the escalators that led to the more expensive brand names. Haley could usually afford these after a raise, and after saving up for a while. When they started towards the next level up, Haley began to wonder how she was going to pay for the dress if they kept going further and further up into the brands.
"Remember who's paying for this." Martha said when she noticed Haley's hesitations. On the top level of Sacs, brands like Gucci, Armani, Prada, Roberto Cavalli, and Chanel rested.
Haley and Martha spent the next two hours searching for the perfect dress. Together they decided on a black satin floor length backless slip dress that clung to all of Haley's curves. It had tiny string straps with miniscule encrusted diamonds and an extreme v-neck cut.
"Wow," Martha said again for probably the tenth time since she had tried on the dress.
"I don't know. This isn't really my style." Haley contradicted, even though she knew this was the only dress for her.
"Honey, with a body like yours, anything is your style." Martha replied.
"I don't have shoes to go with this, or jewelry, or anything."
"That's why we're here!" They slipped the dress into a bag and went down to the first floor.
After what felt like a million more hours of shopping, silver heals, ear rings, bracelets and a hand bag were in Haley's hand when she left the store. There was another note waiting for her when she got into the limo again.
There's a room waiting for you at the hotel.
Get ready and meet me at 7:30
Haley was done with surprises. She pulled out her phone and dialed Nathan's number. Again, all she received was his message machine.
"Did you really expect to reach him?" the driver asked.
"What?" Haley asked, confused.
"He's Nathan Scott, if he doesn't want to be reached, he won't. He also gave me strict orders to keep him unreachable all day until he saw you. You're on floor 12 in room 1250. Enjoy yourself." The driver pulled over and let Haley out with her bags. Haley was ready within the hour. Finally her phone rang. It was Nathan.
"Finally!" She said exasperated.
"How are you?" Nathan asked in his calm cool voice that could calm any kind of nerves.
"A little confused, but I'm holding in." She said with a smile in her voice.
"Good, I'll see you soon."
"Okay, and I want some answers!" Haley said before they said their good-byes.
7:30 rolled around and no one had called or came to get her. She opted to turn the radio on and flip through the stations until she found something she recognized. Haley stopped turning the knob when familiar notes reached her ears. It was her ballet music from one of her first performances in New York. Haley closed her eyes and let the music fill her completely. After only a few seconds she felt her arms going through the motions of her solo piece. Haley got up and moved around the room doing a modified version of her performance piece. At the height of her arabesque, her eyes fell upon a figure standing in the doorway. Stepping out of the limo and seeing him standing there was nothing compared to this. He was dressed in a clean cut Hugo Boss tuxedo and his expression was unmatchable. Haley let her leg slowly drop to the floor as their eyes remained locked.
"Every time I think about you I think about how there is nothing in the world that can match how beautiful you are, but every time I see you, you prove me wrong." Nathan said. It took every muscle in Haley's body to restrain herself from sprinting to him and tearing his suit off. She calmly strode over to him and slipped one hand behind his neck pulling him to her lips.