Author's Note: Hey guys, so the ball has begun! Keep in mind that this chapter kinda sets itself up for what comes up next so be warned, if you're completely disappointed afterwards… sorry but you wanted to read it. (Just kidding, love you guys!)

Alejandro:

As Alejandro finished combing his hair back, his mind was racking on something quite troublesome… as in Heather. His family certainly hadn't expected their youngest son having been almost completely burned to a crisp by the "quote on quote" hottest thing on. the. planet. And even after that, was placed into a robot suit to "heal" (and to cover up the whereabouts of himself and possible lawsuits).

The only person who found this extremely amusing was José. Only after 2 weeks out of the hospital, and José started with the insults and ridicule to no end. Then again, he had a reason this time around. Never in the history of his family, had someone outside their own relatives been able to out-manipulate them at anything. But it had happened, that day up on the volcano. The heat must have gotten to his head, or he would have seen it coming long before it could even start. Maybe then, he could have actually won the million dollars without getting trampled by everyone.

He had to admit that she had played well in the games, not even getting voted off when her entire team intended on it was good enough to get rid of her. He also had to admit: she certainly has many of the admirable skills and attributes of a Burromuerto. As Alejandro's mind wandered off yet again, he began to think of a few ways he and Heather could spend the night together alone. Perhaps a picnic or nighttime sight-seeing would suffice, as he had pleasant thoughts fill ever corner of his mind. In secret, away from the others, Alejandro had prepared for a way to take Heather along with him at around midnight, with a few calls, reservations and a convincing voice.

But he couldn't think straight with his bow tie not willing to stay straight. As he fumbled with it, Alano knocked on the door, and said tiredly "Alejandro, please come out soon, Esmerelda is waiting downstairs." as he hit the cane on the floor in a tired and somewhat demanding manner.

"Of course abuelo, just let me fix a few things..." Alejandro muttered particularly to himself. When a few minutes had passed by and with Alano's patience growing thin, he walked right in, observed the issue and fixed his grandson's pesky bow tie with practiced ease.

"Gracias abuelo..." Alejandro muttered, somewhat embarrassed.

As they both made their way downstairs, Esmerelda was standing at the bottom, hand to hip in a pretty, light-green dress that went up to her knees. She grinned as she surveyed Alejandro head to toe, which was somewhat nerve-wrecking to him. He himself wouldn't usually mind getting this sort of attention, (who wouldn't enjoy his face anyway, really). But when this certain person is someone you are supposed to marry when you don't truly enjoy their company, it can be a little, unnerving. As he absentmindedly came downstairs, Esmerelda ran up and gave him a hug and said, "Hubby! We should get a picture together!" with huge amounts of entusiasmo, as she pulled his arm towards the couch.

As the camera's timer was getting closer and closer to 0 seconds, Alejandro gave his most dashing-fake smile. As a diplomat's son, he was supposed to know what to do when people wanted it. While Esmerelda was busy looking at the pictures, Alejandro suddenly heard his ringtone go off. Taking his cell phone out, he viewed who the caller was and smiled happily. With a simple touch he began saying "¡Hola Carlos!" before realizing that there was too much noise going on his brother's end of the line. "Eh? Ah Alejandro! Merry Christmas little brother! But uh— I'll be busy attending another party so I can't come to yours, I hope you'll understand!".

Alejandro was just taking it all in, about to scream no it was not going to be "understood" and right as he was about to, the call ended. All he heard was the dead continuous tone coming off of his phone. He then "ended" his call and put his cell phone away. Carlos will not be coming...? Alejandro thought as he still was slowly processing that in.

It wasn't like Alejandro and Carlos had the best brother to brother relationship but it was surely far better than whatever Alejandro had with José. He was actually looking forward to seeing his older brother (José didn't count as an older brother with his childish teasing of course). And to what sorts of great achievements he had made in the past few years.

His parents were surely going to be disappointed. Sighing in aggravation, thinking about the dreaded encounter of having to report Carlos's absence he heard a gasp. Looking in the direction in which it came from he saw Esmerelda looking straight at the top of the staircase. Now turning his attention to it as well, he could see what all the commotion was about. There stood Heather in her absolutely beautiful red dress with matching jewelry and shoes (still flats but quite decorative). She let her long raven-black hair down which went down her back. Stunned with shock and a pleasant emotion he couldn't quite place, he watched as Heather gracefully made her way down the stairs with her most unamused face plastered on.

Alejandro gave her a respectful bow, all the while grinning to himself stupidly, but, thank his lucky stars, his overall face was hidden by his hair. When he came back up, he realized that he would now have to fix his hair again though it was worth it this time. As he came back up, he flashed Heather an arrogant smile and a flirtatious wink, which she glared back to.

"Having fun there? Sir Grins-A-Lot" Heather scoffed, rolling her eyes and placing her hands on her hips.

"Of course, thank you for the concern." Alejandro jokingly said with fake sincerity. Interesting, has she always noticed me grinning towards her?

"I was not concerned!-" Heather quickly said as she stamped her foot.

This is still fun to do, even after all that time apart…Alejandro found himself thinking. Wanting to make things more interesting, he took Heather's hand and gave it a kiss, which she didn't seem too disgusted by. Another arrogant smile flashed at Heather, and she swept her hand away and turned up her nose. She was so muy lindo, when she did that to him, which caused him to grin habitually. Suddenly, Esmerelda interrupted them by holding out the photos they had taken to show Alejandro how perfect they had come out, which Alejandro couldn't even care less for. While Esmerelda did that, Heather found this the perfect opportunity to slip away and grab her clipboard and headset to begin starting the preparations.

What a shame she decided to leave so soon, no matter, I'll be near her sooner or later, Alejandro grinned as he thought to himself watching Heather walk off in a flustered hurry.

Heather:

Busying herself with work and stress, Heather was dreading the thought of having to meet any one of the Burromuerto family members. Especially with the "I almost killed your son" incident. Thinking back, Heather didn't exactly regret her choice up on the volcano but she hadn't expected Alejandro getting hurt at all (or very well liked that it ended that way). It wasn't regret, it was just that things ended badly… she "tried" to convince herself of, unfortunately, it didn't sound convincing enough to reassure her.

She was about ready to slap herself in the face if she didn't stop this considerate thinking soon enough. Then again, to an average person, this didn't really seem like considerate thinking at all but this was as far as Heather would allow for it to go, on that matter. She was then abruptly interrupted by Alano and Maddie. Maddie then sheepishly went "Heather, I know that technically you're only here because this is just another job for you, but I hope you know that we think of you as family". Heather was actually surprised by how speechless she was. Unfortunately as a human-being, comforting comments like that still touched her evil little heart.

It wasn't like her family had liked her very much, and in turn, Heather found little to no reason to like them very much either. When she had decided to drop out of school and join her single-aunt for her wedding planning business, her parents didn't particularly care. They believed in her being a "free spirit and traveling the world" but her reasoning was only because she wanted to make some real money and not wait till after college to do that. Might have been a reckless and rushed choice to others but she managed quite well and the duo's business sky rocketed within a few weeks when Heather got to work. But things took an unexpected turn when her aunt went and fell in love with the best man at a wedding held in France (City of Love too, how ironic). Soon they started spending more time together, which eventually led to dates. Heather didn't mind though, he had a pretty face and seemed nice enough for her sweet naive aunt.

They've been dating for a while now and Heather's aunt gave her the business for herself, too busy with her "true love". Of course, Heather didn't want to run the business all by herself (at the moment), so she found the most highly qualified women for the job. And by highly qualified women, she meant: Courtney, Gwen and Lindsay.

Looking back towards Maddie and Alano, Heather began to say "It's really sweet that you two actually think of me like that, really, but it's a waste of time trying to be nice to me-" but Maddie stopped her. "Now Heather, I just happen to know a lot about families, and family doesn't have to be people who are blood-related to you. They just have to be people who can tolerate you no matter what and care about you. Whether's it's a sibling, or a husband, or anything really, we want you to know that we care about you."

Alano piped in and said "And it appears Alejandro has taken a liking to you as well" chuckling to himself.

God help me. Heather thought as she felt she might actually tear up a bit. Controlling herself, all she could do was nod her head nicely and take a picture with them since they insisted so much. Which actually came out quite nicely.

Heather hadn't felt that happy with people since, ever really. She then groaned to herself. I swear to God if I keep getting softer and softer, I am going to strangle myself. Clearing her throat, she went off to discuss with the caterers where to set up food, and what kinds of music to play with the entertainment for the evening.

And so the evening began.

After about an hour, Heather was able to finally adjust to everything and recognize some major companies as well. But then again, no one particularly close to Alejandro's parents had started screaming their heads off to Heather yet (or even recognize her for that matter). She was dreading her impending doom, whether it would come sooner or later was nerve-wrecking and (obviously) stressful to her overall health. She was then interrupted of her thoughts yet again, by two hands covering up her eyes.

"Oh come on! It took me forever to get myself ready!" Heather annoyed, said to whom the hands belonged to. The hands didn't move at all, in fact, she sensed that they wrapped themselves closer to each other completely blocking Heather's vision. Heather then heard a gruff voice go "Guess who?" in a fake-menacing sort of way. Heather had to think for a moment because she could think of three possibly dead people right now.

As she sniffed the air, she could detect an earthy smell, perhaps dirt? And combined with the fact that they were both outside, and she could tell that the person had some kind of powder on their hands, and that's when she instantly knew.

"Ricardo you have 3 seconds, to get your gross, dirty hands off of my face." Heather threateningly said through gritted teeth as she crossed her arms together.

"Hey! So I work in the gardens! Can't blame me for the dirt you know—" Ricardo defended himself while releasing his hands from her face.

"Right, because a quick and simple process called "Washing Your Hands", takes years and years of practice to master." Heather spat back, oozing with sarcasm.

"Harsh. Your sarcasm could kill." Ricardo said as he pressed his hands to his heart and pretended to faint.

Rolling her eyes at such an immature teenage boy, she turned and walked off to do, really anything else but watch Ricardo fake-die on the back porch. When she made it into the kitchen she heard a quiet rustling coming from behind, but was too slow to turn around and face the person or thing in time.

She then felt another pair of hands cover her eyes this time, which made her tense up. "Ricardo! What did I just tell you?!.. Ricardo?!"

Heather's shoulders suddenly slumped down and at the same time stiffened, as she instantly recognized this voice. "And... what makes you think I could ever be Ricardo?" the voice seductively purred into her ear.

"G-get off Alejandro!-" Heather said feeling the heat on her face as she tried to pull his hands away. The hands suddenly released themselves and Heather turned around to face a devilishly handsome Alejandro crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow at her.

"Well?" Alejandro asked again.

"W-well what?" Heather asked, still obviously flustered.

"What on this earth made you think I was Ricardo?" Alejandro asked again, with more interest, raising his eyebrow, and leaning in more and more towards her.

"No reason in particular…" Heather said, finding herself muttering as she stepped farther back, eventually meeting the counter on one end of the kitchen. Keeping her eyes from looking anywhere but at Alejandro in particular at the moment.

Alejandro only raised his eyebrow higher, letting the subject go for a moment. Clearing his voice, he went "So, I was thinking about the evening, and perhaps, you would care to join me for a night of wonder around Spain?" grinning devilishly at Heather as he wrapped an arm around her waist, collectively pulling her closer to him.

"I have many things planned out if you're willing to come along." Alejandro said as seductively as he could.

"What? You're kidding right? Do you have any idea what I'm working on here?!" Heather said, straining her voice with emphasis on how important tonight was. "Even if I did want to go, which I don't, I'm pretty sure your family would kill me for not being responsible enough or something, to be here." Heather explained, even though it would be fun to get away from everyone, this was her job nonetheless which meant staying committed to it.

Alejandro merely blinked back in response. "Only a suggestion… But I hope you plan on keeping them in mind." He slyly said as he took his arm away from her waist and walked off, arm's behind back.

Heather waited until the kitchen door swung open and close, and the heel click of his boots was faint enough, so she could sigh in a loud and overwhelming manner. Tonight sucks already, Heather bitterly thought to herself.

Tonight, is going to be a long night.

That is, that's what she would have said, if it wasn't for the sound of 4 pairs of shoes making their way towards her. Turning around for the second time, she now knew without a doubt in her mind. That tonight was going to be disastrous.

Author's Note: Okay so this doesn't really seem like much, but I believe it kind of sets up the mood for it... right…? *cough* I have a lot (maybe even too many) ideas for these chapters so hopefully I won't screw it up. Also I know that this chapter is WAY smaller than my other "recent" chapters but I think it's time I step it down a notch. (( Also oh, 4 pairs of shoes? As in four people? Who could they possibly be?! ))