Chapter 1: A good week

Serena pelted down the concrete streets of the Big Apple, the balls of her feet barely touching the pavement as she raced to her destination; her bag slapping against her leg. She glanced at the piece of crumpled paper in her hand. Suddenly she stopped; if not for friction she would have slid another block. Turning around she cursed, in her haste she had missed the building of her desire.

Taking a quick glance at her watch she swore again. She was seven minutes late. If she didn't find the building soon she was going to be in deep trouble.

Finally she breathed a slight breath of relief as the numbers she was searching for appeared in shiny brass numbers above two clean polished glass doors. 245. Hurriedly she entered the building, poorly avoiding the other pedestrians exiting the building. She once again checked the crumpled paper before heading towards a set of lifts. Jamming the up button repeatedly she waited impatiently until the machine's doors opened. Shoving her way into the crowded metal box, she managed to press the button for the tenth floor. Quietly she cursed the masses of peoples entering and exiting the lift at, what seemed to her to be, every floor.

When the doors finally opened to the tenth floor she forced her way out of the packed elevator and into a floor wide studio filled with chatter and the flash of light bulbs here and there. Turning a corner she saw a model seated on a stool in front of a white back drop with a couple camera men pointing and dictating inaudible instructions. With the sound of camera shutters resonating in her ears a pairs of hands grabbed her and dragged her into a changing room.

"You're late!" A tall brunette barked as she tugged out Serena's ponytail.

"Only by," she looked at her watch "thirteen minutes!"

"Twenty-three, we started early." The brunette roughly pulled a comb through Serena's hair removing knots and several strands of hair in the process.

"Damnit well that's not my fault! Why anyway?"

"That's how it is babe. If we can start early we'll start early. You should have been here fifteen-to like I told you."

"Yeah yeah Lita I get it. Did they notice I wasn't here?"

"For a moment, but Mina was here so they started with her first."

Serena sighed, she didn't like making people wait. Not only was it a bad habit from her younger days which she had been trying to kick, but as it was, as a model, if you were late, you ran the risk of being taken off a shoot, and subsequently loosing your pay.

"Agh! It's not my fault!

"Excuses excuses." The brunette brushed off Serena's comments as she changed into an outfit.

"No really! I got caught in the dark room and didn't realise what time it was!"

"Serena that means it IS your fault! How many times have I told you to fix the clock in your dark room?"

Serena rolled her eyes. Lita just didn't understand. Photography was an art and art could not be rushed.

"Lita I am sorry that there is simply no place for time in my art."

Lita raised one of her eyebrows at the blonde who had just stepped out of the changing curtain clad in a pair of brown boots, a denim mini skirt and a flowy top. "Serena, there is no time for being broke in your life. So maybe you should start setting alarms or something in that dark head of yours!"

"Come off it Lita, this isn't even a paying job."

"Serena, I just don't want to see you arrive late one day for a paying job and lose one of the best things going for you."

"Yes mommy." She responded sarcastically before walking out into the studio and waiting for the photographers to call her name. Her resume described her as twenty-three, blue eyes, blonde hair, and slim figure. She was not the height of your average model but she had a face and a personality that photographed like none other. For that she flooded magazines and store ads all the way from New York to Los Angeles. Today, she wasn't modelling for any magazine thought she was modelling for a fellow student at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University hoping to build up his portfolio. Casually s he lent against the door frame and watched as Ken re-adjusted the height of his tripod.

There were a couple things it was necessary to know about Serena. Firstly she was never on time. Forget what she argued, forget her promises, if there was a dire need for her to be somewhere by five one had best tell her to be there by four thirty. Secondly she was generous and trusting as all hell. Need a liver? She'd give you a liver. Need an eye, well hell if she wasn't using it she'd offer it up. Thirdly she was photographer first and foremost. Photography was her passion in life. In her mind, modelling was an act of necessity-a sacrifice for her work as an artist. After all chemicals, paper, film, camera repairs and the occasional rental of a darkroom cost money and her school surly wasn't paying her to get her degree. She watched him carefully adjusting the aperture on the lens. She watched him critically, assessing how she would go about framing the shot, lighting the model's face and more.

It was true; Serena didn't have the exact shape of a model-she wasn't stick thin and she wasn't six feet tall: her cousin Mina was far more suited for the job than she. But the moment Serena stepped into the camera's eye it was easy to see why people fell over themselves to photograph her. She exuded control and with her eyes there was always a world of stories hidden in the pictures. Even the most mediocre of all photographers would find Serena providing them with an exceptional piece of art. That is exactly why Ken felt so honoured to be working with Serena. And for free none the less!

Internally Ken thanked whoever he might thank that he was dating Lita. Not only was she an amazing girlfriend, but thanks of her long time friendship with Serena and Mina he had snagged the two best models on campus for his new portfolio.

---

Ken, cameras in hand, thanked the two girls profusely. "I couldn't have done it with out you guys. You are amazing!"

Mina grinned and winked. "As always!" Lita and Serena laughed at her boldness.

"Anything for you Ken, you treat Lita like a princess, what more repayment could we give to see our dear friend happy." Serena smiled at the couple. Mina on the other hand stood comically behind Serena making a gagging motion. Serena hearing the faint noise of retching turned to glare at her cousin. Sheepishly Mina shrugged.

"Sere, you're so mushy." Giggling, the two cousins left the studio and proceeded to lunch while the couple did the same elsewhere.

---

"You seem really distracted today, is there something going on?" Mina asked as she watched her cousin push the same piece of pasta across her plate over and over.

"Just thinking."

"About Prince Charming?" Mina teased. She knew all about Serena's dream-to meet and fall head over heals with the man she was betrothed to. Those closest to Serena had long since stopped trying to convince her that even though they were betrothed before Serena had been born, that fact did not assure love at first sight.

Serena glared at her cousin. She knew they were all skeptic about her plans, but she stood fast in her beliefs…and dreams. "I'm not always thinking about him. It's just that, I'm worried about that internship I applied for last month. They're only taking two students this year you know? And this internship could make my career if I'm lucky. I've just got to get that job."

Mina looked at her cousin-the dedicated one, the overachiever, the crazy fool.

---

She dropped her bags lethargically onto the floor and kicked off her runners. Passing her answering machine on the way towards the kitchen she hit the button to play the recorded messages.

Serena dear, it's your father. I have a surprise for you but you will have to wait until you join me for dinner next Friday

night at seven o'clock to find out. Now Serena that is seven so please pretend that I said six. See you soon.

Serena rolled her eyes as she tipped cool water into her mouth. She wasn't always late. And why was her father being so vague. Why not just tell her what the surprise was. After all she wasn't all too keen on her dad's surprises. The last "surprise" she'd received involved her giving up tickets to the opening of a gallery to baby sit her nephew.

The next message however was certainly a wanted surprise. The room filled with the sound of piercing joyous screaming. Her vocal pipes drowned out everything in New York. She jumped up and down dancing, laughing, screaming, everything imaginable to show her overwhelming joy. Her screams filled her ears to the point where she almost missed the phone ringing next to her left hand.

Reeling herself in, she pressed the talk button. "Hello?" The smile continuously plastered to her face.

"Serena it's your father, I wanted to make sure that you'd gotten the message earlier."

"Daddy? Daddy, I got it! I got IT!" She took another moment to proclaim her joy.

Confused Kevin Wilson tried to calm his overly excited daughter down and discern the cause of the ear splitting noises emitting from the phone. Holding the phone about a foot away from his ear he shouted into the receiver for Serena to cease her squealing so that he could have a conversation with her.

Laughing at her self Serena took a deep breath and began talking to her father. "I got the internship! The gallery is taking me on! Do you know what this means? It means they liked my work! And even more than that it means that I get to use their world class facilities! I mean, access to the newest technology and the oldest technology if I want, access to all of today's most prominent artist not to mention the possibility of getting some of my work seen! Daddy, they want me to start on Monday! All these years of work they're paying off!"

On the other end of the phone Kevin beamed-proud of his daughter and her accomplishments. "I knew you would get the internship Serena. Congratulations."

"Thank you." She sat herself down on the love seat and took a moment to breathe. She couldn't remember the last time she had been so excited and pleased. She assumed it was something around the ballpark of when she learnt to walk- but the jury would have to be out on that one for a while.

"Serena this is great news but don't let that make you forget dinner next Friday." She smiled despite her self. Her father was always repeating things over and over as if she wouldn't remember things the first time. Sure she had a bad memory, sure she tended to forget little mildly important things, that didn't mean she should be treated like a child…

"I might not forget if you tell me what the surprise is." She fell into a more childlike voice in attempts at coaxing the information out of her fater. It was true, if she knew the surprise she would be more inclined to show up at the dinner (she would also be able to find an excuse if she hated the surprise)

"That would ruin the surprise."

"But I hate your surprises, they tend to leave me wishing I was invisible."

"Well I'm sure that this surprise will make you smile."

"Could you at least give me a hint?" She moved to position her self sideways into the loveseat so that her legs swung loosely over the arm rest.

"You're finally going to meet someone you've been waiting to meet for two and a half decades. See you next Friday!" There was a dial tone on the other end and faster than thought possible Serena broke decibel levels with her excited shriek (one that also toppled herself off the chair – so the scream wasn't only in excitement but hey it was mostly.) She knew that meant her fiancé she just knew it!

Hyperventilating she danced around the apartment blasting every piece of happy music she could find; and that is how her friends found her half an hour later.

---

After the chorus of screams had subsided the friends sat together on the floor enjoying buckets of junk food and a good chat.

Serena shoved a warm cookie into her mouth and grinned. "This has been the best day EVER!" She stretched her arms out and let gravity bring her to her back. "What more could I ask for? All in one day I've got an internship, I'm meeting my fiancée, I have gastronomically orgasmic cookies and friends who are always there for me! You guys are the best! Thanks for being happy for me!"

The lot of them grinned at her. "Hey Sere, if anyone deserves gastronomically orgasmic cookies it's you: oh right and a great day, that too." Mina nodded

The five friends spent their weekend reverting to their younger selves. They ate like university students, played like university students, slept like university students and stayed together all weekend trashing Serena's apartment like university students. By the time eight a.m. Monday morning rolled around Serena was carefully nursing a hangover formed from two nights of drinking, talking and a collective five hours of sleep.

Sipping her coffee lightly she savoured the taste of her caramel macchiato. She knw that Starbucks was the devil because she had willingly sold her soul ages ago.

Despite her headache and minor sensitivity to light she was ecstatic to be on her way to work. By the time she strolled into the art gallery no one could tell that only an hour ago the blonde had looked like the embodiment of death.

Ah, the wonder of eye drops, aspirin, coffee and a light coat of makeup.

Checking the information she had been given she stepped up to the security desk of the gallery and asked to be pointed in the direction of the administrative offices.

Following a fifteen minute background check she was directed to an elevator at the side of the entrance way with an access key for the fifth floor and strict instructions to lock the floor the moment she had accessed it.

When the elevator doors revealed the floor to her she followed the pathway in front of her until she found herself starting at the closed door of her new boss. Checking her watch she noticed for the first time that she was nearly fifteen minutes early for her orientation. Relaxing into a nearby sofa she closed her eyes momentarily.

She must have fallen asleep because she was startled awake when a warm body plumped down beside her. Her head foggy she opened her eyes half way to gaze upon what she could only assume (as he was sitting) was a tall, well dressed man. He was looking at a portfolio and she was instantly taken by his profile. Strong jaw, good complexion, she suspected him to be a model looking for one of the gallery artists to take him on. With not a second thought she closed her eyes again and let sleep take hold.

It was the sound of a distant voice calling her name which startled her from her slumber. Opening her eyes and yawning she realised it was the secretary to her new boss towering over her previously sleeping form. Embarrassed and flustered she quickly gathered her things, wiped the small trail of spit from her chin and entered the brightly lit office she was directed to.

Quickly dropping into a seat opposite her new boss she began spouting apologies.

"Save your excuses." The stern looking woman stopped Serena mid-sentence. "They're not worth anything."

She hung her head, disgusted and embarrassed. How had she managed to lose a job before she had even really started was beyond her. Dejected she moved to stand and leave the office but the woman's voice stopped her once again, however it was more the tone than the words which made her turn.

"Where do you think you're going?" She looked to the lady, who was now sporting a beaming smile. "You didn't think that just because you fell asleep outside my office and were what" she checked her watch "five minutes late automatically means that you're sacked did you?"

"But…" Serena stuttered, hadn't she just been told off? Confused she did the only thing she could: stare at her new boss like she had three heads.

"Look kid, it was a joke. Don't worry so much. You're a university student, you're allowed to take twenty minute naps in any place decent for a shut eye. Now chill, I hired you over dozens of other applicants, now prove yourself and sit you bony butt back down in that chair and get it together."

Relieved she sat down and noticed, for the first time, that she wasn't the only other person in the room. To her right in a chair identical to hers sat the man from before. Slightly startled by his presence and the rapid-fire line of events which had just taken place she resolved herself to shine today: she would prove to herself that she deserved the internship.

---

"And here is where we store the art."

A gasp escaped her mouth. Before her eyes were rows upon rows of photographs, paintings and sculptures. The tour up to now had been exciting but this was icing on the cake. She felt like a child in a candy shop or a person who had just won the lottery. Grinning she turned to her boss Sandy who was smiling like a proud mother at Serena and her co-intern.

As she browsed the various pieces of artwork she wondered about her new co-worker. They had been touring the gallery for over an hour by now and he had yet to say a word. She wondered if he even cared or appreciated the job he was about to start. One backwards glance at him reassured her though. In his eyes she saw the same joy and admiration for the priceless works before them. Content she allowed her feet and eyes to bring her towards the black and white photographs. Here in front of the works, she felt at home.

---

She wiggled her toes as she waited for someone to pick up on the other end of the phone. When a chipper voice picked up she rolled onto her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows.

"I love my internship. Love love love love! It's the most perfect job ever! And the pay is decent. Mina, I think life is really starting to go right!"

Mina smiled, it was about time.

The conversation was short lived as Serena had to sleep early – tomorrow she would start her first day of actual work and she didn't want a repeat of today's embarrassing event.

Smiling, she fell into her favourite dream, the one where her fiancée swept her off her feet in a crisp black tuxedo and a deep red rose in his lapel.

Waking, refreshed and having just completed a wonderfully glorious dream she was ready to face the world. Practically skipping, she entered the offices above the gallery.

---

By the time noon approached, Serena was beginning to fall disillusioned to her job. She struggled ot stay devoted to her "dream" job but it was hard when instead of doing one's dream job, they sat tantalizingly close to art – unable to touch it and rather doing the taxes. That's right, she was doing TAXES, MATH in an ART gallery.

Sighing, she threw down her pencil and started at the calculator. She was doing something wrong in her calculations but couldn't figure out what. Groaning she landed her head squarely on the only clear patch of desk she could find. She repeated this action for nearly a minute before a deep voice caused her head to snap up rather painfully.

Embarrassed she lifted her eyes and found herself falling into a pair of deep blue eyes. The artist in her quickly took over as her mind filled with various colour paintings which could possibly contain such a colour; her mind whirled through her collection of paints and the various chemicals she had in her flat before realizing that the owner of the eyes was speaking directly to her. Mildly shacking herself out of her revere she realized that he was now looking into her eyes waiting for a response.

Flustered she scrambled to figure what he had just said to or asked her. '"Are you ok?" No, no, too short I zoned out for far longer than that… "Are you crazy?" no also short and he doesn't seem to be staring at you like you've got two heads, THINK SERENA THINK!

…

…

…

…

'Abandon ship abandon ship! Do something before he thinks you're just a staring gawking fool that bangs their head on a table!'

With the ease of a person who obviously had zoned off many a times in her life she nodded and said yes as if she had always been an attentive listener.

Inwardly she patted herself on the back when he smiled and stood up straighter. 'Good job Serena, you've evaded the emergency.'

"Great, grab your coat and let's go." She frowned as she watched his retreating back. A short wave of panic began taking her over again 'Dive dive dive! Emergency NOT adverted!' Go? Coat? Where was she going? What was she doing? What was going on? Still frowning she grabbed her coat off the chair and followed him down the corridor.

Giving up the front of being an attentive colleague she called to him. "Where are we going again?" She heard his deep chuckle as she caught up with him. Falling into pace next to him she caught him giving her a funny glance.

"We're going to lunch." She nodded in agreement, lunch, she should have guessed, damn that brain fart she'd had. She heard him chuckle again and gave him a questioning look. "You didn't hear a thing I was saying when I came by your desk did you?"

Blushing, she reluctantly shook her head. "Sorry" chuckling again he led her out the building and down the street. "Don't worry about it, I'm pretty sure I caught you at a bad time."

Rolling her eyes she groaned. "Yeah about that, let's just keep that between the two of us shall we? Unless of course there is a big red welt glowing on my forehead." She felt her head for any signs of a bump.

"Don't worry, you look fine – absolutely no signs of your attack on the table."

"Hey, it attacked me first." The two near-strangers laughed their way to a café where they shared a comfortable relaxing almost familiar meal together.

---

The two rode the elevator up to the fifth floor and he waited for her to exit the elevator before following her out. He had been the picture of chivalry since the moment they had begun their lunch break. Now if only she could remember the darned man's name!

Laughing at a joke he made she realized how much fun she had had in such a short period of time. Yet again, if only she could remember what his name was. She had felt silly asking him his name by the time they'd made it to lunch and thankfully she had managed to avoid addressing him directly for the whole of the forty-five minutes. As they walked to her desk in comfortable silence she racked her brain for the name of her fellow intern.

She snuck a quick glance at him and noted (for possibly the hundredth time that day) his dark hair, those eyes which had been her original captor, his strong jaw and tall, masculine figure, there must be a name that fit that sort of man, perhaps it was Adonis. She mentally kicked herself for that last idea.

'Get a grip Wilson, he's just a guy. You don't fall victim to good looking charming guys, he's no different.'

When they reached her desk he leant casually against it and picked up a paperweight she had brought in earlier that day. "So what do you say, we repeat this tomorrow, café of your choice?"

Smiling she nodded.

"Great, and hey, maybe tomorrow the desk will be spared. See you later Serena." Grinning his "usual" grin he strolled away.

"Bye." She smiled. Sitting down at the desk she waited for him to fall out of sight before she cursed heavily under her breath. Not only could she not recall the beautiful man's name, but more importantly, she found him beautiful. And she was acting like a teenage fool for the first time in her twenty years existence.

Sighing she turned back to her math. The word left a bitter taste in her mouth. It wasn't that she hated math, no, she just wasn't a mathematician, she was an artists and she should be dealing with art, not percents!

Friday rolled around and Serena had shared four lovely lunches with her co-intern, spent three lovely days working out the math for the whole bloody gallery, spent two days miss-calculating facts here and there because of her wandering mind (the art she wasn't allowed to touch was high up on the list, but her intern was in there too…a bit more than she allowed herself to admit) and one day searching the whole of the gallery for a name to go along with her new friend.

She felt like a cad.

Sitting at her desk at eleven thirty, she tapped her pencil rhythmically against her desk. She was excited and flustered at the same time: excited because after lunch she was finally going to be allowed to work with some of the artwork; flustered because in thirty minutes, her co-intern would be walking up that hallway in his smart outfit, his smooth jet black hair, his piercing eyes and his gorgeous smile: he's smile, say hi, pull out her chair and lead her away for lunch and she couldn't for the life of her ever EVER figure out his name! Growling she just wished someone would come up and say something along the lines of "hey seen that cute new intern so and so?" or "oh man that pretty boy intern blank has been doing a so and so job."

Sighing she put her head down on her desk. She felt horrible and stupid at the same time. Sure it wasn't hard asking a guy for his name, but after you shared four casual purely friend-lunches with a guy, it was terribly awkward asking him his name.

---

They sat at a café as they always did. Strange she thought, they'd only known each other a week and yet they already had a routine, were already comfortable with one another: had shared stories (non involving names, darnit!), laughed and talked about their art background. She could tell someone his family history (he had an older brother and his parents were divorced), what his favourite ice cream was (double fudge brownie), even what gym he liked going to (Club Med). But ask her his name? And she was at a loss for words. She knew that she'd heard it before in passing, but it just hadn't stuck and she couldn't for the life of her glue it down!

And while she felt like a complete fool for letting things get so out of hand, she couldn't help loving how he seemed to always make her smile no matter what he said. She was confused when she felt butterflies beat heavily against the walls of her stomach every time his hand brushed against hers. She frowned when she found herself falling into the depth of his eyes during their brief talks. And she scorned just how sappy she'd become since meeting him and more so how she couldn't get him out of her mind.

She cursed herself – she'd made it twenty years of celibacy and here she was tripping, grinning and all around acting like a pre-pubescent fool over a guy she couldn't even name! And they were only friends! Just friends.

She was startled out of her mental soliloquy by the ringing of her phone. Picking it up she cleared her voice. "Serena Wilson."

"Serena," she heard a familiar silky voice address her and instantly she knew it to be her co-intern "it's Darien, I'm calling to tell you that I'm a lazy ass and couldn't bring myself to come to your desk and apologize, but I'm swamped with this paper work and I don't think I can make it to lunch today – that's if I want to get all this stuff done before we get to finally work on some art. I'm really sorry, can you forgive me?"

She was far too happy to finally know his name to really feel at a loss for their lunch appointment. She nodded before realising that he wouldn't be able to see that and so she responded.

"That's alright, I understand. I should also try and finish balancing these books before we go down to the gallery, I'll see you around one then?"

"See you, sorry again Serena."

"Don't worry about it. I'll see you later Darien." She grinned, Darien, the name fit him well and rolled off her tongue so easily. Smiling like a buffoon she began tackling the numbers again with renewed vigour.

---

Serena couldn't help smiling randomly as she packed up her things for the day. She had spent a glorious five hours learning how to properly appraise art and being taught how to pick out a real piece of work from a fake – Serena and Darien were brought down to the sub-basement where they took part in making paper which would be shipped off to one of the galleries artists who worked solely for the gallery.

She was thankful for how well this day seemed to be going. Sure she hadn't had a chance to spend any time alone with Darien, but after she didn't really care about that because it was enough that she finally was able to address him by name 'yay!' and more importantly, in a couple hours she would be eating dinner with her fiancé! 'About time too!'

She felt like she was in some sort of sitcom where everything went well and birds chirped in the background.

She pressed the button for the ground floor and waited for the metal doors to close: twenty seconds later Darien jumped in between the closing doors. Once again she involuntarily smiled as the two struck up a casual conversation.

They exited the building together in comfortable companionship as the hot air enveloped them both in a warm hug. Partway down the block Darien stopped Serena and turned her towards him. With a shy grin on his face he shocked her with his words.

"Go out to dinner with me tonight."

Serena looked at him apprehensively yet smiling. "Is that a command?"

He smiled slyly. "More like an offer." He nudged her playfully.

"I can't" the response came reluctantly but unconsciously paired with a bat of her eyelashes.

"You can't or you won't?" He tried to catch her gaze as it continuously shifted.

She sighed, "Both. I'm supposed to be meeting someone for dinner tonight."

Darien grinned at her awkwardness. She sure was cute. "Is this someone a guy?"

Serena was at a lost for words. She certainly was not used to such forwardness. However it wasn't his attitude that surprised her, but her reaction. Of course she was meeting another guy. She was meeting her FIANCEE! So why was it then that she felt so reluctant to answer his question?

"It might be."

'Might be Serena? You sound like you're flirting with this guy! Tell him you're promised to someone else and move on! Just like you always do!'

Darien grinned again; her discomfort was endearing. "Look, Serena, I like you, and I have a feeling you feel at least somewhat the same. So how about we say this: here is my number." He grabbed her mobile and programmed his number into her contacts list, "give me a call when you're ready to say yes. I promise it's not going to be anything huge. Just, dinner with your new co-worker." He flashed her a winning smile and a seductive wink before shoving his hands into his pockets and walking down the street; a sideways grin glued to his face leaving her glued to the spot staring at her phone.

She gave a small laugh at the name he'd programmed in " Darien-your date for the night." Confused, shocked, mildly disturbed and obviously flattered she willed her feet to move home where she would have to get ready for dinner; a little less reluctantly than she would have ever imagined.

Well! There's Chapter 1! I hope you all enjoy it and review! Lots and lots of reviews nods or they won't end up together! I joke…I joke…or do I?

Anyway cheers!

Jing