A/N: Hello my lovies! I am a woman of my word, so this chapter Rose getting some much needed girl time :) So after some extensive research (aka reading some good ass fan fiction I have figured out the missing piece to this puzzle...ROSE'S CUSSING! But don't worry, I have fixed that issue, and gradually she'll swear...I remember when I started writing I didn't want to over cuss so I averted the potty mouth, but I've decided that it's essential to Rose's character and thus is making it's grand appearance in this chapter or the next one.
"Please! One more," she pleaded in a whiny tone.
"Liss," I grumbled. "That's what you said three dresses ago."
"I know I know but I promise I have a hunch this is the one!"
"Fine." I went back into the makeshift dressing, aka we went into the master suit and added dividers for the section we'd try on dresses. Originally I was only going to try on three different styles, but since the dress lady brought like 50 dresses (I mean really how many different styles are there?) I've tried on like 10 dresses. I think I have good enough reason to be grumpy. Lissa hasn't even tried on any dresses!
I slipped on the dress with looking at it and walked out without checking how I looked in the mirror. When I stepped out I titled my head and looked at the ceiling, waiting for Lissa to tell me no and to try on another dress. That didn't happen, instead she said what I never thought I'd hear. She gasped.
"That's the one. This is it, Rose!" she said excitedly. I snapped my head down to look at her, she was nodding her head like she was hopping for her head to pop off. I turned around and looked in the mirror and couldn't help but gasp too. It was beautiful. Lissa and I shared a look and turned to the lady and nodded our head like fools. She smiled and wrote it down on the notepad she had and told me I could change into my clothes. I gladly did as such and then sat down as Lissa went back to try on her dresses.
Knowing Lissa, she would try on like 50 dresses, then slim it down to 10 dresses, and then have me pick one of those. So, I spaced out until she had the 10 dresses. That was probably a bad idea because my mind went to last night.
When Dimitri told me the street his mom's house on and seeing the tree filled with lights I knew I was a walk away from The Estate. So without thinking, I ran off towards the tree. The tree has been for as long as I can remember. It belongs to Lissa's former neighbor but as it grew some branches went onto Lissa's backyard, it got to the point that Mr. Dragomir and Mr. Doru rebuilt the fence so that a fence surrounded the tree and could be accessed by both houses. Lissa and I used to spend countless afternoon under the tree doing anything a little girl would do - talk, dance, play around, hell we even tried to climb the tree - and we always said that we would have our first kiss under that tree. That never happened. I had mine under the bleachers at St. Vlad's with George Dashkov, the quarterback of the football team at the time, before the Homecoming game, and Lissa had hers at Homecoming our freshman year with Aaron Drozdov, her boyfriend until the car crash in the middle of our summer after freshman year. Even after Lissa moved out and we never went back, I still remember that tree.
The whole run over, I was aware of a car trailing me, but I didn't pay it any attention. Soon enough I was at the gates of the Dragomir's Estate. I punched in the code and slipped in as they opened. It felt weird being back, so weird that I slowed down and walked to the front door. Even at night the place looked majestic and timeless. Instead of walking straight for the front door, I took time reacquainting myself with the entrance and walked to the fount in the middle for the drive way. As I walked there, I looked at the flowers that have been tended to for the past 6 years keeping Mrs. Dragomir's memory alive. When I got to the fountain, I took of my flip flops and stepped inside and sat down. I think I was the only person, aside from Lissa and Andre, that Mr. and Mrs. Dragomir let sit inside the fountain, but it was only at night when no one was over. Looking up I saw how big the moon was, almost like it was smiling at me for coming back. After a few minutes I stepped out, grabbed my flip flops, and walked up to the front door barefoot.
When I got to the door, I pulled out my keychain from my pocket and looked for the right key. Right when I opened the door, I felt someone grab my arm. I turned around and got my keys ready to use a weapon, but when I saw who it was I relaxed and put my keys away.
"Roza, what are you doing here?"
"I'm not breaking in if that's what you're wondering."
"Obviously, since you have keys to the place," Dimitri said observantly. "But there's no one here and I doubt you live here because it's not where I picked you up from earlier."
"It's...um...well," I stumbled on what to say, not sure if I should tell him or not. "I'm house sitting for the night."
"You need four luggages packed to the max to watch a house for the night?"
"Did I say night? I meant week."
"Rose…" he said in a warning tone, telling me he wanted the truth. But I wasn't sure if I should tell. Plus what if he didn't believe me? "Rose…"
"ROSE!" I bolted up looking for the sign of danger, but was met with the sight of Lissa in a beautiful white gown with an annoyed look on her face.
"You know if you keep that look on your face, it's going to become permanent. And I think your wedding already has one pessimistic too many, no need to make add more."
"I called your name like ten times," she said gruffly. But after she relaxed and twirled. "How does it look?"
"It looks beautiful, Liss. Any of these dresses would look gorgeous on you."
"I think this is one, though. The top looks like the one my mom wore and the skirt is like I dreamed it."
"Well then what are we waiting for? Say yes to the dress!" We broke into laughter at the mention of our favorite guilty pleasure.
"But I need two dresses!" She screamed as she went back to change and look for her second dress.
"Why? Why not just get a second skirt or top or something?"
"Because I want one with the big Cinderella ball gown skirt for the ceremony and the beginning of the reception and then after we do the garter and bouquet, I want to switch into a more relaxed but still wedding-y dress for the reception."
"Oh, and you're still going to change into one to leave in?"
"No. Christian and I are gonna spend the night in a hotel and then leave for our honeymoon the next day."
"Does he know that? And what about the dress?" She just peeked over the top of the divider and smiled. I shook my head and laid back on the bed. I looked in the ceiling thinking about what I should do tomorrow. I couldn't see Dimitri because he was working all day, as he kindly reminded me after he interrogated me and then brought in my luggages.
"Thanks," I said as he brought in the last of my luggages.
"No problem," he said with a smile. "Are you sure you're okay here by yourself?"
"It's not the first time I've spent a night here you know." He raised his eyebrow and I shrugged. "You can come in. I can make you a cup of coffee or something."
"That's ok. I should get home since I have to work in the morning."
"Oh yea," I said slightly gloomy. "It's Monday tomorrow."
"Don't you have a dress fitting tomorrow?"
"That, Comrade, would require me to have a dress to fit into," I said, causing him to chuckle.
"Well whatever it is, have fun, Roza." He leaned in and kissed my cheek before retreating back to his truck.
"Night," I called out.
"Good Night," he responded as he got in and started his truck. I stayed at the door until I saw him drive past the gate. Then I went inside and looked for my old room.
"Rose," Lissa called out from behind the divider. "Where were you last night?"
"What?" I asked dumbly, slowly sitting up as she came around and showed me her top pick. I nodded my approval and she came over and sat next to me.
"You came by the apartment and asked if you spent the night. When I said no, he shook his head and handed me your car keys, asking me to give it to you the next time I saw you."
"Oh," I said and looked down. "I met Dimitri's family"
"What?! Why? How?"
"I went over for dinner. I didn't plan on it, actually he had picked me up to give me a ride to your place but detoured to his mom's house for dinner."
"Why didn't you take your car?" I was about to come up with an excuse but she cut me off. "Rose what happened at home? Your dad looked worried, you didn't leave in your car, and unless you spend the night at the Belikov's house no one knows where you slept last night. I'm your best friend, please tell me."
I shook my head and plastered a smile on my face. "Lissa, nothing happened okay? I may hav spent the night here. It's just I saw the tree from the Belikov's house so I had to come over. Today's about getting ready for your big day, so unless that's the dress you're gonna party in, get back in that room and change!" I said while pushing her in the direction.
An hour later…
"Finally!" I said as I threw myself on the couch. Lissa found her second dress, her measurements were taken, and we had helped the dress lady load her car. How she fit all those dresses with in a mini cooper is beyond me. Lissa left to go back to her place to get the essentials for girl's night in. Mia said she could make it and I invited Viktoria, who's also coming. What was I going to do? Take a nice warm shower and make myself some food.
Ding Dong. "I got it!" Abe called out as he went to open the door. "How may I help you?"
"I'm looking for Rose. Rose Hathaway," responded the unfamiliar man. He was tall and pale with short, sandy brown hair that looked messy by choice and with the help of gel. He looked very put together, in black slacks and a navy button down. His eyes were hidden behind his black Oakley sunglasses.
"She's not in," Abe responded, puffing his chest as he sized up the stranger on his doorstep. "May I ask who's looking for her?"
"Oh, well when she comes back tell her Adrian stopped by."
"Adrian Ivashkov?"
"Yes, did she talk about me?" he said in a hopeful tone, a smile forming.
"Briefly, as an alibi," Abe said in an careless manner, taking slight joy in seeing the miniscule diminish in the boy's joy. "Nonetheless, now that you're here, I'd like to thank you for respecting my daughter and tending to her needs rather than your own."
"Yea, well she's special and I wouldn't want to ruin anything with her for one night," he said honestly before putting on one of his lazy grins, "But please don't go spreading that around, a man's got a reputation to keep up." Winking at the end.
Abe just shook his head. This kid is too much like I was, he thought. "Well Rose is not here and won't be back anytime soon. So if that is all, have a good day Mr. Ivashkov."
He closed the door behind him and went to walk around Adrian, when he stepped in front of him, blocking his way again. "Wait. First please don't call me that, that's what everyone calls my father. And secondly, when you do see her, can you give this to her?"
Abe eyed the enveloped Adrian was holding out to him. Adrian continued, "It's an invitation to a gala my mother is holding at her house. I usually hate going, but I was hoping Rose could go and make it more bearable. I put in three codes for Rose and yourself and your wife, thinking that it's better to have someone she knows in case the festivities turn sour."
"What's with the codes?" Abe asked, intrigued.
"My mother has this system with her parties so no one can crash it or bring in unwanted guest. Every guest gets one code. The guard at the gate has a list of the guest and their codes. No code can be used twice. Ever. I was able to swipe three from some people who I knew weren't coming. I suggest you come early though in case they change their mind."
Abe nodded his head and started walking towards Rose's car. "Well I'll give it to her as soon as I can. Thank you for the invitation. Janine and I will be there."
Adrian gave a quick nod and went back to his car and drove off. Abe went into Rose's card and put the invitation on the passenger seat and then drove off to see Lissa.
"I...want...this one!" I said, pulling the nail polish bottle from Lissa's collection and holding it over my head. It was Essie's Merino Cool color, "a sensuous autumn mulberry" that really was a grey mixed with some lavender purple and maybe a touch of brown.
"That's nice," Lissa said. "It has like an elegant, classy, rebellious aura."
"Really, Liss? Nail polish has auras?" I said jokingly. Lissa always had an ability to read people, but nail polish might be stretching it. Mia and Viktoria fell into a fit of giggles.
GNI has been going on for like an hour or so. After the introductions, Viktoria blended right in, it was like she's been a part of our group for like ever. What was cool was that her and Mia were in the same grade and both went to the state college. Once we had all the supplies out, we made snacks and while those were popping or baking we did face masks and Lissa did our eyebrows. Lissa was studying business to open up and run her own salon business, she's the one that's always doing our make up and stuff like waxing and hair styling. I joke around with her, but her eye for detail and her precise hands are like magic. I never feel so beautiful until she does my make up and hair. Either way, now we were picking colors to do our nails, getting the snacks out of the oven and off the stove, and choosing a movie while Lissa made her infamous Purple Rain drink.
"I think," Viktoria said, emphasizing her words. "You need more color so your ring fingers and big toe will be...this color!" She pulled out Essie's A Cut Above luxeffects color, "shattered pink diamond glitz" that's pink glitter bedazzling the pink nail polish. Mia and Viktoria picked their colors next. Viktoria picked Essie's As God As It Gets luxeffects color for her fingers and Essie's Hip-Anema color for her toes. Mia picked Essie's Sssssexy snakeskin magnetic color. Lissa decided to do all her nails Essie's Lacy Not Racy color. With that done and over with, Mia went and got the manipedi supplies while I went to put away the nail polishes we weren't using and Lissa and Viktoria brought the drinks to the living room.
"What are we gonna watch?" I asked as I snowfalled a handful of popcorn into my mouth.
"No Lissa we are not watching Titanic or The Notebook again," Mia said sternly without looking up from Viktoria's toes. Lissa pouted and went back to doing my toenails.
"I think Viktoria should choose since it is her first genie," I suggested. Lissa and Mia nodded in agreement and Lissa handed Viktoria the movie box. It goes without saying that we never run out of movies to watch.
"Devil Wears Prada, 13 Going on 30, or What A Girl Wants," she said. And then her face lit up. "Or Another Cinderella Story or Burlesque."
"Good choices. Good. Choices." I said. "Your picks girls?"
"Cookies," Mia said, her and I sharing a mischevious grin while Lissa rolled her eyes.
"Cupid," Lissa said, causing the both of us to do the dance while laughing. Mia didn't hate the movie, she just didn't see why Lissa and I loved it so much.
"Well it seems we have tie, and you know how to break a tie right?" I said, Mia and Lissa nodding their heads while Viktoria shook hers. "For those who don't know. The way to break a tie is simple. We watch both!" Mia got up and put Burlesque on and then went back to giving Viktoria her manipedi.
By the end of the night, we were laughing, eating, sharing stories, and throwing food at each other. Wait no that was just me when Mia and Lissa would say something bad about me to Viktoria. I'm really glad that Viktoria came over. When we finished Another Cinderella Story, we moved the coffee table to the entrance of the elevator, which is probably a stupid move in case a serial rapist killer comes and attack us but who thinks about that at a time like this? When the table was gone, I plugged in my phone and blasted music and then we were dancing like dummies and singing like fools. All too soon exhaustion caught up to us and we brought pillows and blankets from Lissa's room and slept in the living room. We slept in a sort of circle, our heads all in the middle, Lissa on my right, Viktoria on my left, and Mia on the opposite side.
The last thing I remember before succumbing to Dreamworld was Viktoria mumbling, "I'm glad you came into my brother's life, Roza"
A/N: Genie = GNI (Girl's Night In)...it's basically how the girls say it instead of saying G-N- I
If anyone is confused about the Abe/Adrian moment, it takes place in the morning, before Abe saw Lissa and before Lissa and Rose did the dress fitting.