Moving back to America was probably the best decision she'd ever made. Because living in England with her family, made her so nervous, she hadn't had a steady bathroom schedule since college. But now she had to go back to support her little sister, who was getting married.

Marriage. She, Caroline Forbes, would have been having this wedding right now in America, if Stefan hadn't broken it all off suddenly two years ago. Now Rebekah was getting married. And one of her good friends from childhood, Marcel, was gonna be the bridegroom. But Stefan was to be the best man. She couldn't just go alone.

Caroline Forbes and Guest

Mr and Mrs Arnold Ellis request the honor of your presence at the marriage of their daughter

Rebekah Ellis

to

Marcellus Gerard

On Saturday the Eleventh of August at three o'clock

St Peter's Parish Church

Caroline had heard from Katherine when the wedding date was set and invitations sent out, that she knew of an exclusive, expensive, and other 'ex' words that Caroline could pay to be her date for that weekend. She just had to find the guy himself, because the guy had blocked Kath's number and wouldn't answer any of her messages on social media after she had announced publicly that she and the guy were getting married in a drunken rampage. The guy didn't think it was all that funny.

Caroline only had a clue to go off of, his name. But she found him easily enough after scrolling through Katherine's social media. Nick Michaels.

Finding him was the easy part apparently, because after she'd done all this work, Kath then deigned to tell her that Nick didn't say yes to everyone. Of course, he was a busy guy that was highly sought after. But he was also incredibly picky about his dates. Now that made her nervous. Did that mean if she said or did the wrong thing accidentally or otherwise, he'd publicly break up with her then cut himself off from her in her time of need?

The anxiety fueled her to pull extra shifts at the news station to get enough money to pay him for the entirety of their weekend together: $6,000. She wasn't even sure he'd say yes, or would actually meet her on the plane to England like they'd planned. But if he didn't, she'd certainly use his bad manners in not meeting against him on social media, and use the extra cash for a much-needed vacation.

In order to be chosen as his client, she had to plead her case, so she told him everything. Not the anxiety, but that she thought about Stefan every day and just wanted to be his wife. That he'd been all she ever wanted since she first met him. Also Nick could call her Care to save time, since Caroline was such a mouthful of a name.

The morning before she was to set off was the most nervous she'd been since Stefan had asked her out. Caroline felt like she was gonna puke every other minute, but first she had to move her plants into the kitchen to get light and to be watered.

She turned on her answering machine to write down the important people to call back when she had the time. The very first one to leave a message, was Nick Michaels.

Thank God.

First came her standard greeting;

'Hi, this is Care. Leave a message and I'll call you back'.

She'd remade this message fifty times over, worried she sounded too impatient, too eager, too flat, too boisterous, then her stepdad came to visit and left. After, Caroline's message was smooth, understanding, and clearly spoken. Perfect.

"Hi Care. This is Nick Michaels. Sorry I didn't get back to you last night." Damn right you're sorry, Caroline thought angrily. This is my life and you're taking your sweet time deciding to help me. "I got your messages. All seven of them."

She heard the judgment in his tone in that last statement, so she went on the defensive. She didn't know if he'd lost his phone and she was helping him find it, real professional and responsible by the way, or if he was ignoring her. She would normally be worried she was pestering him but she desperately needed help and he'd agreed to give it!

"I know you're nervous, Care. This is what I get paid to do." Money apparently isn't enough for you. "Care, don't worry." Normally she'd lash out at a statement like that, but Nick's tone was so...soothing, that she actually felt a little of the anxiety go. "Your ex-fiance is going to wish he never left you, and your parents are going to think we're in love." The pot she was holding fell on her bare foot and she yelped. Luckily the plant was alright.

"You're gonna have to trust me, I'll see you at the airport. Can't wait to meet you."

She considered calling him back, asking him to come up with a better plan that didn't involve the 'l' word, but she was running late. She had to be at the airport five hours.

So Caroline went to get dressed, she'd picked out a dress a week ago for when she'd meet Nick if it happened, and the less time she spent debating on her wardrobe, the better. But now...she had time to go through her floral box.

It was filled with love letters, pictures...and a ring box. More than half of the love letters were to Stefan, but he said he loved how nervous she got around him. Their photo booth pictures, and the picture they took after he'd asked her to marry him. It looked so perfect. He looked so perfect. And she looked so beautiful and happy kissing him while taking the picture.

She reached for the ring box, and opened it, the shine of the square cute diamond laughing at her in the sunlight. 'you're single, you're never gonna have this, Stefan never loved you...'

She shut it and yanked her suitcases to her door one by one, going downstairs to have the cab driver she'd called earlier come and help her for an extra fifty.

After everything was packed in, she got in the back of the cab and chewed on her nails all the way to the airport. Soon she found a cart to put all her luggage on, and pushed it around wildly like corralling a drunken relative around the ropes put up for big lines at check-in.

Now Caroline was on the plane. Every bag accounted for, her ticket was paid, and she'd had to pay for Nick's as well. She found her correct seat, and snapped out the standardized airplane's laminated flight plan. She studied the pages intently until she noticed a black woman with a smile in her eyes. She smiled back and found the woman had compassion all over her face for her.

"First time?" She asked.

"I'm going to my sister's wedding and the best man is my ex. In case I chicken out I wanna know where all the exits are." Caroline breathed a laugh. The woman laughed as well.

"Take me with you if you do, I'm going to go help my best friend win back his girlfriend and it feels like a waste of time to me. She could do so much better."

Caroline's smile disappeared.

"I'm Bree." The woman said, putting a hand out. Caroline glanced at the hand, then to the woman's face, shook it curtly and then ignored her.

That wasn't a sign from the universe. That was just a coincidence, and this plan was going to work.

Caroline shot out of her seat to drink some water where Bree couldn't see her. But then a steward came up to her.

"I'm not a nervous flyer, I fly all the time." She cut in before he could utter a word. "The reason I can't feel my legs, is that any second my date is hopefully going to sit down in seat 3B, and I need him to look really really really really good today." She sipped at the water again, her bloodshot eyes on the steward begging him to not order her back to her seat. The man cocked his head to the side, and his eyes widened.

"Hello, 3B." The equivalent of 'hello gorgeous'. Now this was either another coincidence, her date had cancelled last minute and another handsome man ended up getting his seat...or he was actually here. She gulped the sip of water in her mouth, and slowly turned around to stare at the back of a well maintained head of dirty blonde hair.

Nick was standing beside his seat as the stewardess offered him a glass of mimosa, making eyes at him. He almost certainly was doing the same. When she turned away, so did Nick. Caroline was standing a few feet from him. His blue eyes landed on hers, and he smiled gently, making her notice a four o'clock shadow of the same complexion as his hair. She noticed he had taken two glasses, and was offering one to her. She kept the hand he held out to her like an anchor.

"Hi." She said in relief. He was here, he was going to help her, things were going to go back to the way they were.

Nick leaned in and she lent backwards in surprise as he pecked her cheek in greeting. When he pulled back his eyes were still gentle.

"Why don't we sit." He offered.

She gripped the back of her seat, only then did she notice she was crushing his hand against it, and he wasn't even uttering a word. She quickly released it, still staring at him.

"Did you find it okay? The airport-uh, the, plane." She mentally cursed herself. Nick nodded.

"I'm sorry we couldn't meet sooner, I know you wanted a few hours to get settled before the party." He replied calmly.

"Work must be so crazy." She said, sounding more impressed than she meant. Nick's eyes left her, and she suddenly realized what she was saying, trying to disappear into her seat and never be seen again.

Caroline peeked over the seat, too intrigued by how friendly and handsome he was, also too in her own head to realize how silly she looked. The stewardess came by and carefully handed him his plate of food. Carrots, fries, and a small circle of a steak. He set a napkin in his lap and she peeked over the seat farther.

"I should warn you," she added, his eyebrows twitching in reply as he looked back at her. "You know those families where they're all crazy but at the end of the day they're your family and you still love them?" She asked in a quick mutter, to which he nodded.

"My family's not like that." He nodded again with a chuckle. Then he reached for his glass of mimosa, his eyes on her as he took a sip. She smiled wide.

"I love my dad though." Caroline said. "Technically he's my stepdad, so he's not really family. He's more like a hostage."

Nick smiled back.

Caroline releasing all the tension of the past week from her muscles, and she fell asleep within minutes. What woke her eleven hours later was the overhead declaring they were now in England.

She realized she'd been snoring, and rubbed drool from the corner of her mouth. Realization hit her: had it been a dream? Had he not shown up and she just had a mental breakdown from the betrayal and the guy sitting behind her was just some average-looking Joe? She crept up the back of her seat and tipped her head over, looking back. Nick looked back at her. He smirked.

"Good morning." Had he even slept? He still looked perfect, not a wrinkle in his clothing or a hair out of place. She didn't reply, but slid back down her seat. At least she hadn't been dreaming.

Out of morbid curiosity, she took out her mirror from her purse, and looked in. Smudged makeup making her look twenty years older, mussed hair and bloodshot eyes. She snapped it shut and held her face in her hands with a groan. Without her realizing, Nick chuckled to himself.

Nick waited for her outside the airport, all her bags and suitcases neatly stacked on top of the other better than she had done in her anxiety-fueled state. His tie matched it all and his hand was in his suit pocket. He had a black bag slung over one shoulder. Unfortunately, his tie, her suitcase and her dress were all matching.

"Oh please tell me you're not wearing that tie." Caroline groaned. He straightened up with an eyebrow raised in offense.

"I am." He sniffed, and began to push her cases.

"It's no big deal, it's just it looks like someone cut a yard off the hem of my dress and made a tie out of it." Caroline protested, walking quickly beside him. "Don't get me wrong, you look perfect. Matching's fine, But exact same color matching's definitely something you want to look out for." She pointed to her dress, then to her cases, then to his tie.

"You think we look like we're trying too hard."

"Exactly. I want us to look like we fit, but not like we're trying too hard."

"Allow me to teach you a trick." Nick's gaze became more intense somehow on hers. "If you look someone in the eye, they never notice what you're wearing." His smooth confidence washed over her and she felt slight goosebumps and butterflies, all at once.

They got into a cab with all her cases, the driver complaining about it until she offered an extra twenty to him.

"Well there's no way I'm showing up in his and her outfits. So if you're not changing one stupid tie, then I'm going to have to change my entire dress." Caroline announced, not giving in. She didn't notice Nick smiling at her. "Driver, could you please pull over at the next shop?" The driver grumbled to himself. She missed the cab drivers in New York.

Luckily they had five more hours until the party would start and people would begin arriving. She spent two of them in a dress store. She'd put down two sheets for her bare feet so she didn't have to worry if the janitor had come in to clean recently.

"I'm sorry, I promise this is the last one." She called out to Nick, who sat in a chair beside the wall waiting for her to come out for the fifteenth dress showing. "You must think...who knows what you think..."

"I know this is important to you, love. But remember you are a beautiful woman and you have everything in the world going for you." Nick called out in reply, taking a peek at his watch. They weren't running late yet.

"Don't patronize me." Caroline snapped. He chuckled to himself. "I feel like crap." She hurried out of the room in slippers she'd just put on, smoothing down a strapless sweetheart collar red speckled dress that cut off at the knees.

"But if I feel like crap I wanna look Princess Grace of Monaco hot doing it." Caroline forced her arms into stillness, showing every side to Nick on her tip toes. He nodded his approval.

"Mission accomplished." He affirmed. Caroline let slip a genuine smile.

"Really?" She asked. Caroline pointed a warning finger at him before he could reply. "Don't get too attached." She stormed back into the dressing room. She couldn't actually have her date fall in love with her, she had to put on something else.

Nick noticed a cleaner for the store polishing a nearby table again, waiting for him to pick his head up.

"I preferred the blue one." He quipped. Nick nodded.

"I'll let her know." He replied in annoyance. He didn't think Care would actually want to take advice for a two-bit stranger with a Cockney accent. Talk about low standards.

Caroline breezed out one more time on her toes in a dark green dress. She'd moved her hair to show him the sheer back.

"Hmm." Nick replied, unsure what it was that she needed to hear to pick a dress so they could leave.

"Hmm, nice dress or 'gorgeous', she faked a british accent 'I was insane to let you go'. She tipped her head back dramatically. Nick nodded again and she genuinely didn't know what he was saying. She squinted madly at him.

"Well I'd shag ya," the cleaner from the other side of the room chimed in. He looked over at Nick. "If that's alright with you." He added.

What, I don't get a vote, you Cockney asshole?

Caroline stormed back in the dressing room. Nick glared at the man, who shrugged and walked away.

She threw on a white knee-length dress with cotton overcoat, snapping a diamond clip into her loose hair. Putting on matching white heels, she marched determinedly from the room, not leaving any time for negotiation. This was the one she wanted, and now it was time to go.