4

Katherine looked at herself in the mirror in her bedroom and frowned at what she was wearing. She could usually pick an outfit at the drop of a hat, but she had to admit that she was having trouble. She was already regretting agreeing to this, she knew it wasn't a date she was just meeting Rebekah's brother, but she knew Rebekah and Stefan will be too busy making googly eyes at each other to pay attention to them and she would like to know what kind of man he was if she was going to spend dinner with him.

She knew that Rebekah had two brothers older than her. Her first older brother was named Klaus and Katherine had only meet him once because he lived in Europe most of the time, she also knew she had another older brother, but Katherine didn't know his name or what his career was.

Well, there was no time like the present.

She frowned as she looked at her reflection. "Stupid cast." She looked perfect, if she did say so herself the only thing that was ruining the effect was the damn cast. She was wearing a black dress with a slightly puffy skirt, black tights, and black heels. She had clumsily managed to get her curls into a loose side bun and was just applying red lipstick when her cell phone rang with the directions for the restaurant. Great, it was only twenty minutes away.

"I'll be back soon, Marie." She cooed at her white kitten who purred from the loveseat. She locked the door of her house when she heard her name being called out.

"Aunt Katherine! Aunt Katherine!"

She turned around and saw Emma skipping towards her dressed in her ballet clothes while Eloise followed behind her, looking paranoid as if someone was going to jump her from behind. She relaxed when she saw Katherine though.

"Good evening, Katherine." She eyed the dress that she was wearing, the one that she had given her for her birthday last year. "You look nice. Are you going on a date?"

"Nope." She said looking eager at the disappointed look in her grandmother's face. She started braiding Emma's hair. "I'm going out with friends. Where's Anna?" Anna was Emma's nanny.

"Her mom got sick so she had to take care of her," Emma explained. "You look really pretty, Aunt Katherine."

"Thank you, honey."

"Well, have a nice time with your friends, dear," Eloise sighed as she grabbed Emma's hand. "And I told you wear something else rather than black and try to diminish the red lipstick. You look like a combination of Morticia Addams and Marilyn Monroe."

Katherine rolled her eyes as she watched Emma and Eloise walk away. Eloise always complained that she wore too much black, though she wondered why Eloise had given her a black dress instead of the pink dress she always wanted her to wear.

She got into the taxi and in twenty minutes she was standing in front of a small, crowded Italian place called Giovanni's. "Need help, ma'am opening the door?" the taxi driver asked.

She shook her head. "I've got it."

At the same time that she got out, another man was exiting the taxi next to her. A very familiar man with dark hair and green eyes. He frowned when he saw her. "Katherine?"

Katherine gave a curt nod, "Stefan." He looked like the classic good boy. Too bad he was the opposite. Ok, so maybe she was judging Stefan too harshly. He was a nice enough guy. His brother was the dick.

There was an awkward silence between them as they both walked towards the restaurant... Stefan finally broke the awkwardness. "How have you been? How's everything at the magazine?"

"It's good." She said refusing to meet his gaze. "I'm surprise you're here, I never thought I'd see you again. Emma keeps asking about you, though I wouldn't be surprise if you didn't know that."

"I call Emma every week and I've been helping Eloise with the expenses." Stefan said tiredly. "But I don't exactly live next door, Katherine and I appreciate everything you and Eloise do."

Katherine crossed her arms over her chest. "Emma just doesn't need her aunt and uncle, Stefan she needs her father by the way, where is he?"

"He's. . ." he trailed off. "Busy."

Katherine snorted. "Which means he's with women, why am I not surprise. Damon will hump everything that moves."

Stefan sighed. "Can we please, not do this? I'm guessing you're here with Rebekah."

"Yep. Her date crashed so I'm here as a replacement." She frowned when she approach the restaurant. Rebekah was already there in a red dress along with a man wearing a suit who looked surprisingly familiar. Opps.

"Are you ok?" Stefan asked.

"I know him." She said motioning towards the guy in the suit that was looking back at her with an equally perplexed expression. "He was the doctor that treated me when I broke my wrist. He's Rebekah's brother?"


"Elijah, will you please stop fidgeting?" Rebekah snapped as she applied more mascara. "They will be here soon, you're making me nervous."

"I'm making you nervous?" Elijah asked his sister amused. "You're not the one who's going to be having dinner with a complete stranger."

Rebekah rolled her eyes playfully. "It's just a friend, she's the fashion editor. You'll like her, she has a lot of . . . spirit."

"Last time you set me up, the woman kept talking about her ex-husband," Elijah's eyes trailed around the crowd. Fashion editor? That rang a bell. "What did you say her name was?"

Before Rebekah could respond she smiled. "There they are, finally!"

Elijah turned his gaze to where his sister was staring and had seen enough pictures to know which man was Stefan Salvatore and walking next to him, pouting was also a very familiar person that he hadn't seen in over two weeks.

"Katherine," he breathed as he looked at Rebekah and then at Katherine. "You two know each other?"

"Of course we know each other, silly. We work together." She giggled as she hugged Stefan. "I'm so happy you're here."

Katherine cocked her head to the side and crossed her arms over her chest. "You're Rebekah's older brother? Small world."

"Yeah, I can't believe I meet you and you two work together." He trailed off, unsure of what to say since Stefan and Rebekah were currently making out next to them. "How's the wrist?"

She shrugged. "It's good."

"I see you still haven't given up on the heels though." He said pointing to the five inch heels.

She smirked at she looked at her heels. "What can I say? I think I rather fall down the stairs again rather than give them up. Is this weird to you also?"

Elijah chuckled. "Very weird."

Rebekah and Stefan finally stopped kissing to stare back at them. "You two know each other?"

"Yep," she waved her wrist. "He fix all of this."

Rebekah smacked her forward. "I should have told you that Elijah works there when you told me which hospital you stayed overnight."

Yeah, it would have been a nice mention, she though sarcastically. She put on a smile. "So, shall we head to dinner?"

-End of Chapter Four-

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