Don't worry Magilineals, from now on, hot Rose comes in town. No more baggy ugly clothes. :)


'Oh gosh Liss, you have no idea how much I dislike that woman. She just walks around like she is the most important person on earth. And oh,' I say while I fill my mouth with popcorn 'and the way she looks down on me like I am some sort of peasant. Yeah, I can't afford some Louboutins but I am sure as hell that I have much more brain in my head than this painted doll.' I continue with my mouth full. 'I swear to God that if she-'

My phone begins to ring. Who could call me at eight in the evening? I pick up my phone and see a number I don't know. I answer anyway. It may be something important.

'Rose here.' I say while munching on my popcorn.

'Miss Hathaway?'

I get to my feet from instinct. Some popcorn gets blocked into my throat as I was swallowing and I begin to cough.

'Mister Belikov.' I say, my eyes watering. 'Y-yes, it's me.'

Lissa's eyes widen and she asks: 'The tyrant?' a little too loud. I swear that she has no control over how loud she speaks sometimes. And she does that in the most inconvenient moments. Like now.

'Shhhh' I say while I kick her with my foot and give her an ugly glare. She makes herself little and doesn't utter another word.

'I'm sorry, what?' he asks. Oh, fuck! Him and his sharp hearing.

'Um, nothing, Sir. It was just my, um, my cat.'

'I have a question for you, Miss Hathaway.' he seems pissed.

'Fine, Sir. Say it.'

'Where is Mister Alexei Rudov?'

Oh my God. I totally forgot about the dinner thing. What should I do? Maybe if I play the innocent card he will leave me alone.

'Um, I don't know, Sir. He should have been there already. No one called to cancel or something.'

'Miss Hathaway, I have been waiting for over an hour here. I don't like waiting for people. And I don't like having dinner on my own either. I hope that in the next, let's say, twenty minutes someone will eventually show up, otherwise you will be the one regretting this.' he says and hangs up, not giving me any chance to say anything.

I am so fucked. Monumentally fucked. Where should I get this man from? How could I have been so stupid and forget about this? What was I even thinking when I made that appointment in the first place? Why didn't I erase it? He surely knows it was me. Good job, Rose. Your master plan just turned against you.

I throw myself on the couch, cover my face and growl.

'Rose, what's the matter?'

I tell her everything starting with the appointment I made since Monday.

'And he said that if someone isn't going to show up in twenty minutes, I will be the one who will regret this. Whatever this means. I don't want to find out what that means. He already threatened me this morning with that penalization thing. Oh! I know! What if I pay some hobo to go there and pretend he's that man? I'll even find him a suit. Hell, I'll give him a bath too if he wants to.'

'Yeah, sure, do that. And they are going to talk about the best garbage cans in town where you can find tacos, right?'

'I am so fucked, Lissa. What should I do now?'

'You go there.'

'I what? Are you insane? Do I even look like a man? Is all this lack of sleep messing with your brain again sweetie? Of course it does because you are talking shit.'

'He said someone, Rose. Not that man in particular. And you are a someone, right?'

If I think about it, this might actually work. I get up and take my notebook. Shit! Why did I make reservations at one of the fanciest restaurants around here again?


Five minutes later I am dressed into a midi dark red dress, with my makeup done flawlessly by Lissa, God bless her soul for these skills, and my hair put up into a nice high ponytail. I get into a taxi, telling the driver to take me to The Emperor. Another ten minutes later, I get out of the taxi and I find myself in front of the restaurant. What am I doing here? This damn place is so fancy just from the outside with all these lights and modern architecture. Inside, people are surely dressed in expensive clothes. And I look like a homeless person in comparison. Fine, not really, but I just got my dress from Forever 21, so you get what I mean. But I have to do this. I really don't want to find out how I am going to regret this. Some time spent in here is way better than anything this man would be capable of doing to me. And I have the feeling that he has a great imagination.

As I enter, I can feel the stares people throw in my direction. I already know that this is not a place I have to be in people, you don't have to constantly remind me of that. I get to a little desk and I tell the man there, a short one, jowly and with a receding hairline but with a warm smile, that I came to meet Mister Belikov. Pity fills his eyes in a second. He feels sorry for me. Are things that bad? Does everybody around here know how pissed he is? God, I am so dead right now. The man tells me to follow him and takes me through tables with people eating.

DPOV begins

I spot her before she sees me. I am surprised that she actually came here. I thought that she would pull some other trick on me and she would actually find a man to impersonate this Rudov man. But I guess that even she has her limits. I thought about her not coming at all too. My ''you will regret this'' line was just something that I said in order to convince her somehow to come here, and it looks that it actually worked. After all, I want to pay her back for this little thing she did today. I begin to enjoy our back and forth game. It's fun.

As she is walking through the full tables, she is looking left and right, like an excited kid, admiring everything around the place, her eyes widened in awe. She is moving graciously, but under all that confident facade, she looks tense up too. What does she think that I am going to do to her anyway?

But at least now she is not wearing those dull clothes anymore. This dark red dress looks perfect on her, emphasizing every curve of her body. I was right about her. She looks amazing under all those baggy clothes. Her hair is still tied into a ponytail, like always, and it is moving left and right as she is making her way towards my table. To my surprise, she is now wearing makeup too. Not that she would really need any. She looks better than any fancy-dressed woman in here anyway. There is a certain appeal to her that I can't seem to resist. I want to know more about her. And I plan to study her all night long. Some time ago I called Tasha and dodged my way out of her bed once more, so I have all the time in the world.

DPOV ends

This place is superb. It has such an intimate air. And the colors are perfectly combined. Light brown, white, and dark purple. So much good taste. On the background, I can hear one of those classical songs with no lyrics that is perfectly completing the decor. The people around me are all dressed in fancy clothes and all women are having their hair done and are wearing a ton of jewelry. Me, on the other hand, I stand out from the crowd, just by not fitting in here. I am completely bland. But even though, I still catch some men staring at my ass as I pass their tables and I need to fight the urge to slap them. Of course, this feeling is surpassed by my anxiety that is reaching higher and higher limits as we get closer to his table.

We still have a little walking to do, but I spot him before we get there. And he is watching me as I get closer, his face undecipherable. His gaze moving up and down on me does funny things to me. I pretend to pull my dress down, trying to arrange it, in order to not make eye contact.

He is even hotter than three hours ago if that is even possible. It surely seems so. He is wearing a navy-blue Armani suit, with a white shirt, unbuttoned at his neck, letting his collarbones slightly visible, with no tie. He hasn't his coat on, and I can distinguish his toned muscles through the perfectly fitted shirt. But what shocks me the most is that his hair is untied, enframing his perfect face. It is the first time I see him like this and God, please keep me steady; I gulp as I think about passing my hands through his chocolate hair.

We get closer to his table, and I just can't look him into his eyes. I may have gone too far this time and I know that he knows what I did so I expect for him to snap at me anytime now. And it's perfect that we have some audience too. Double embarrassment. He rises when I get there and greets me, speaking calmly:

'Good evening, Miss Hathaway. I'm glad you could make it.'

What? He expected me to come? Okay, it seems that person played out here is me, not him. I mumble a ''Good evening'' in response.

Then, he comes beside me and helps me sit. As he is pushing my chair forward, I turn my head in his direction to thank him and I almost make contact with his face, that close he is to me. I take a deep breath in to calm myself and man, he smells divine. His scent is so fragrant that I feel like I am going to faint right on spot. He smells like wood, offering him a distinguishable earthy aura, combined with faint nuances of some spice. I just want to bury my nose into the crook of his neck and never leave that place. His scent persists around me long after he takes his seat, making me feel dizzy.

'May I bring you your food, Sir?' someone asks from my left and brings me back to reality.

'Yes.' my companion responds and he also orders a bottle of wine.

The waiter leaves and comes back two minutes later with the bottle of wine and pours some for us. The second he stops pouring into my glass, I extend my hand and take it, bring it to my mouth and drink like half of it. I am so going to need the booze. I predict a long evening. And the wine is so damn good. It is red and has a sweet cherry flavor, combined with some spice notes. And I can see that it is quite old too. Well, the older the better, right? My taste buds are practically in heaven right now, unlike the rest of me, who is surely in hell.


I already know how the dinner will turn out, but what do you think will happen next?