When Ethan arrived at his office the next morning, he had a folder on his desk marked urgent, and it was from Bart and James. He opened it to find a hand written note from the both of them.

"Ethan – We are having invitations made up for the ball. They will be ready by the end of the day, and delivered first thing tomorrow. Bart and I need a guest list from you ASAP. Make you sure you invited all of your clients, past, present and future. And any family or friends you'd like to see there. I'm advising that you put a hand written note in with each one, telling the guest how much you look forward to seeing them there. There's a draft of the invitation included in the folder. Have it on my desk by 5.

James"

"Wow", Ethan thought out loud. "Friends, family and all clients, past, present and future? That could take a while." He had so much work to do, how could he do all of this and finish his notes for tomorrow's deposition? Just then, the door to his office opened.

"Good morning, Mr. Bennett. I thought you might like some coffee." Julie said, sitting a cup down in front of him.

"Thanks, Julie. And I'm glad you're here. I need to make a guest list for the ball of all of my clients, past, present and future. Any idea's on how to do that, quickly?"

"Of course, Mr. Bennett", Julie replied. "I have all of that information on my computer. Complete with full names, spouses names, and addresses, all current. I can have that for you in about 5 minutes."

Ethan breathed a deep sigh of relief. "I thought I was going to have to be here all day! You're a lifesaver! I'm also supposed to put a personal note in with all of them. I don't suppose you could...."

"Do it for you? Of course! I think I know you well enough to know what you'd say."

"Oh, thanks Julie. You're the best. Now, I still have to do a list of my friends and family, but that I can do myself, and it won't take long. When you get all of that done, can you bring it to me, and I'll put it in this folder and bring it to James myself."

"Yes, sir." she said, as she walked out of the office and closed the door behind her.

When she left, Ethan picked up the draft of the invitation.

Mr. Bartholomew Smith, Esq. and

Mr. James Wesson, Esq. of

Smith and Wesson, Attorney's at Law

Cordially invite you to a black tie ball

On Saturday, September 4th, 2004

Cocktail hour begins at six o'clock

With dinner to begin at seven o'clock

At the Seascape Restaurant,

Harmony, Maine

Invitation required for admittance

After reading over the rough draft of the invitation, Ethan sat down to make up his list, and start the personal notes. After listing and making personal notes for his father and Grace, his mother and Julian, Luis and Sheridan, Chad and Whitney, Kay and Miguel,

Jessica and Reese, and Pilar, he came to the invitation that meant the most, but the note that would be hardest to write, Theresa.

What could he write to her that would convince her to come? "Only one way to figure it out", he said to himself, and grabbed the notepad to start writing.

"Theresa – I'm hoping that you'll join me as my date for this evening. On what will be the most important night of my life so far, I want to share with the one and only woman I will ever love. You, my soul mate. Design your self a dress that will make you look even more beautiful than you already are. Love, Ethan."

Theresa's Thursday was starting out as a typical Thursday morning, until Maria called her out of her office to the front of the store. When she got there, Maria had an envelope in her hand.

"This just came for you, sweetie. Hand delivered, so it must be important." Theresa took the envelope from her hands and simply stared at it, trying to figure out what it could be.

"Well, don't just stare at it, open it already! The suspense is killing me!"

Theresa looked up at her and laughed, and turned the envelope over to open. She took out the invitation and read it. Then, she read the note attached. As she read them, Maria read it too, over her shoulder.

"Oh Theresa! This is wonderful!! Now you and Ethan can get back together!!"

"Oh, Maria, I don't know. I'm just not sure if I believe Ethan or not."

"Look sweetie, I know he hurt you, and I don't blame you for being mad. But I also think, if he really were just after sex, from either you or Gwen, he wouldn't have bothered crawling through the window to your brother's house at midnight to explain to you what happened. Just think about giving him another chance, think about going, okay?" Maria wrapped her arm around Theresa to give her a hug, and then went back to what she was doing.

Theresa went back to her office and sat down at her desk. As she read over the note from Ethan again, she sighed. "How did he know I had designed a dress for myself?" she wondered, as she pulled the design out from her drawer. Theresa had realized quickly in to their relationship, that Ethan was becoming quite the important figure in Harmony's business circles. She realized that an event like this one would come up eventually, and she knew she wanted to be ready. So one night after Ethan had dropped her off at her apartment, she sat down and designed the gown. Then, she put it away for safe keeping.

Suddenly, the intercom beeped on her phone. She picked it up. "Hello?"

"Hi, Theresa, it's Shelly from up front. Theresa, you had a phone call yesterday after you left. A woman called and insisted she have an appointment with you today for a personal design. I looked at your calendar and saw that you had 1 o'clock free today, so I penciled her in. I hope that's all right."

"Sure Shelly, that's fine. Just let me get a pen so I can write down her name.........Okay, go ahead, what's her name?"

"Hotchkiss....Gwen Hotchkiss."