A/N: Hey there readers. The chapter 2 is here. So it picks from where Caroline had meeting for her column in the last chapter. Stefan and Caroline had been conversing on twitter, and there are few places in this chapter where the conversation is actually related to their tweets. Go and follow them to know more back story. The following details are on my profile. Also there is a video for this chapter. You can check that out on the Youtube link provided on my profile. Enjoy the Strings world.

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"And that's the column name and the layout. The column will focus on the trends that's happening today and the one that has happened in the past. It will focus on the stereotypical fashion sense and the one which is right for you. Not the the general mass, but it will focus on bringing the fashion to the individual. From street style to the formal events, the column can give you anything you will think about. What's trendy is not about the mass in bunch but about the individual who makes the mass ,what do you think?" Caroline asked the question in her meeting. It was one of those big meetings, and the one for which she prepare herself from weeks before.

"I like it. The idea feels refreshing to me." The Prada executive said.

"I knew that you will like the idea, ." Rebecca was with the Prada, and her smile said that Caroline had nailed it.

She peaked a glance at Miranda. Because she can impress anyone but her. Caroline never understood why she agreed to be her co-editor on the first place. She hates her. That's the vibe she always gets from her.

"Good, we can start the preparation for the launch of this column." Miranda said while standing up from her chair.

"We will see you in the launch party then, ." Ms. Rebecca shook hands with her and came out of the conference room.

"Well, it wasn't that bad." Caroline said.

"So you had a doubt that it will go wrong?" Miranda asked with a poker face.

"No, I didn't mean that."

"I hope you didn't." Miranda walked passed her.

Caroline was staring back at her when she got the tweet from Stefan.

Stefan Salvatore was her best friend. she called him Best of the best friend. And why wouldn't they be after knowing each other for about twenty something years. She has forgotten to keep the track of it. But, they know pretty much everything about each other.

She read the tweet, and he was asking her to come for the trip in France. His business meeting was there.

A smile came on her face when she remembered the time they made this pact of seeing the world together.

It was when they were twelve years old and they were going for a summer camp.

"Let's make a pact." the 12 years old Caroline said.

"And what will that be?" Stefan leaned back to take the support of the wall right behind him.

"That we will see the whole world… together. Every trip we will go to, we will make the picture book and keep the memories forever." She opened her pink colored bag, and brought out the big blinder kinda book.

"So, you carry that everywhere with you?" Stefan asked pointing at the giant book in her hand.

"Not everywhere. But, only when I go for the vacations." She dropped that book over his hand, under the weight of which he almost jerked, and she pulled out her sparkling camera.

"You put glitter on your camera?" The 12 years old Stefan asked with a shocked horror.

"Ugh, that is not important. Come here." She pulled him towards herself, and with one hand she flipped the camera, and kept the focus on themselves, making sure that the background is getting captured.

She nudged Stefan and said, "Smile, Stefan."

And he did smiled a little.

That was their official first picture for the picture book.

"Only if you will buy me the purses." She responded on his tweet.

And within a minute she got a call from him. "You already have so many purses, Caroline. What's the point?"

"Hey, if I am coming to give you my company and save myself from your boring business tours. Then I need some incentives."
"Fiiiine. But, only purses."

"Deal." She laughed. She knows how to convince him.

"And how is your Prada thing went, the one you were talking about on Twitter?"

"It was fine. The work is about to happen. Okay, I gotta go. I will see you…?"

"Tomorrow morning. I will mail you the details."

"Okay. And Stefan?"

"Yeah?"

"Go and eat something."

"Yeah.. I will. You too."

She ended the call and went to her office. That's when Nigel came in there.

"So, you are going to France?" He asked in a hush voice.

"How do you know THAT?"

"Not important. But, are you?"

"Yeah, of course. Me and Stefan always go together."

"And what about Miranda. You already got on her nerves when you came in late today. And now you wanna take break for a random holiday" He crossed his hands over his chest.

"I will take care of that, don't you worry." She shoved him away.

"Caroline-"

"Nigel, when I say that me and Stefan always go together for the trips, it means always."

"Okay, your wish. Even I would like to see how your talk with Miranda goes." He gave her the design files and went out.

[***]

"So, that way the first edition of the column will be about France's street fashion and how Prada is leading the style."

Caroline crossed her fingers in a hope that the idea will work.

"And for that you want to visit France."

"A story written from the First hand experience you know." She smiled.

Miranda was still looking in her newspaper, while Caroline stood there waiting for her response.

"Why are you still standing here?" Miranda asked her after a minute.

"You didn't say anything."

"About what?"

"About if it's fine for me to go to France."

"Caroline, when you walked inside here, you were already determined to go for this. Then, it should not be a concern whether I grant my permission or not."

Miranda was intimidating her now. "But, if you really want to know what I think, then I will tell you." She turned her head up to look at her straight. "I think it's a good idea. And you can explore the current trends going on in the France in more details."

Caroline grinned back and said, "I will be back in three days."

"I can't believe you."Nigel said once she was out of Miranda's office.

"I told you I can handle her." Caroline opened a google page on her tab, and started searching for stuff. There was a long list of items she had to make. From sightseeing to the work list, and of course her shopping list.

[***]

The flight was in the morning, and since she got up very very late last morning, she didn't go to sleep this time. She surely took a nap though. Beauty sleep and all.

She was waiting for Stefan at the terminal when he came through the entrance.

"Caroline…." He stared at her with a bit of an anger. "What the hell is that?"

"My luggage."

I told you to not pack a lot of things."

"I know."

"We are not going for a month."

"I know that too."

"And still you brought two bags with you."

"Oh, you think I will take two bags if the tour is for a MONTH… you don't know me at all, silly." She smiled and put her sunglasses on.

"Oh… I know you. I just don't understand the reason behind it."

"You don't need to." Caroline said walking ahead.

"I am hungry by the way." Caroline said when they were waiting for their flight on the JFK airport. The scheduled departure was after an hour.

"What do you wanna eat?"

"I don't know. Anything."

"What about coffee and scrambled eggs?"

"Works for me." Caroline said while opening her purse and took out her digital camera.

"What are you doing?"

"Taking pictures."

"I don't think it's allowed on the airport."

"What? I do it all the time."

"Caroline-" He started but by the time he finished taking her name she was already done with the snap.

"You done?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, don't give me that look. You know I am going to take millions of pictures right?"

"Yeah… yeah I know." He sighed and followed her into the restaurant.

[***]

It was around 2 p.m. when they landed in France.

"I am so so hungryyyy now." Caroline was getting cranky with her hunger.

"Okay, don't jump. There is this Japanese restaurant in the airport, which is really good. Wanna try that?

"Anything works for me Exotic ."

They took a corner seat in the restaurant and ordered the food.

"Don't tell me you are going to take pictures of the food as well." Stefan made a face when he saw her setting up her camera.

"Of course I will take it. Stefan, why do you ask me the same question all the time?"

"Sorry, I won't ask. Because there is no point of asking you about that."

"Listen." She started. "When you will be all old and wrinkly after 10 years, and see this picture book, it will send you back to the memory lane, and then you will have a smile on your face thinking about the time right now and how you were arguing with me over taking pictures."

He smiled thinking about the scenario. It looked good in his head.

"Wait, why am I the only one old and wrinkly but not you after 10 years?" Stefan questioned.

"Because I am Caroline, and I am not getting old in 10 years."

"And why is that?"

"Because I am younger than you."

"You are just one year younger!"

"So what? It matters."

Stefan sighed and didn't bother to argue much.

"Oh, by the way Damon said hello to you."

"He is back? I thought he went for some trip or something? Or was he just lying about the trip, and was somewhere doing his booty call."

He smiled. Caroline and Damon usually are on the hate and love relationship. And their terms work on that. "He is not that bad you know."

"He doesn't take anything seriously. God knows what he is doing with his life."

"Or are you just bitter because you once tried to set him up with that friend of yours and he never called her after one day."

"She was perfect for him!" Caroline shouted. "And he made me look bad when he did that."

"Caroline, you know that he doesn't do long term relationships. Why were you trying?"

"He doesn't even do the short term relationships. And I was trying because I wanted him to settle."

"No, no…" Stefan shook his head. "You were trying because you found a project in him."

"Let me eat, Stefan."

Whenever Caroline feels like she is losing the conversation, she changes the subject. And that has been going on for almost since he met her when they were five years old.

[***]

Their hotel room was on the twentieth floor, and the view from their room looked awesome. Caroline had been going back and forth from one room to another.

"It's the same view from both the rooms." he said while his head was turning in her direction.

"No, it's different!" She said while going to the other room.

"And I am taking this one." Caroline came in his room, and declared.

"Fine, but then we won't change it later." He gave her a warning, and she nodded at once.

"So, what's the plan now?" She asked while settling up on the bed. "Ooh, it's soft."

Stefan chuckled looking at her. "What about going to the beach in the evening, and then we can wander around the city?"

"Sounds fun…. Hey where are you going?" She asked him. He was near the door.

"Going to my room."

"I am not sleepy."

"That's because you had a good sleep in the flight. But, I didn't. and I really need a small nap."

"Fineeee… let me know when you are awake."

Caroline pulled out her bag, and started to make her checklist.

"Uh, what are you doing?"

"I am looking at my checklist."

"What checklist?"

"Wrong question. You should be asking which one of those checklist. This one is for my shopping. The one you are taking me for."

"After the beach though."

"Sure." She was so into her note, that she didn't even say a bye to him.

"At least tell me a goodbye."

"Goodbye, and now don't disturb me."

He closed the door behind him. Caroline had planned it out all. The shopping list, the shops where they have to stop by, and the things she had to buy.

She didn't realize the time, and Stefan was already there knocking on his room.

"You are not ready?" Stefan said while coming in the room.

"What? You never gave me the time. Okay let me get ready now."

"And how long does that gonna take?" Stefan knows how much time she takes to get ready and if he didn't stand there on her head, she will make them both late.

"It won't take much… I promise."

"Give me a number."

"An hour and a half."

"You are kidding right?" He raised an eyebrow. "Half an hour."

"Now you are kidding me. Okay, how about an hour?"

"Forty-five minutes."

"Done." She agreed instantly.

"You always wanted just forty-five minutes to get ready… didn't you?" He asked.

And she just smiled. "Now, go out of my room." She pushed him out.

"I will be here sharp after forty-five minutes."

[***]

Once she was ready, they locked the rooms and walked towards the beach.

"Bonjour madam." A guy on the street greeted Caroline.

"Bonjour." She smiled and tilted her hat a bit. "I love France." Caroline told Stefan.

"More like you love French guys." Stefan said while walking with his hands in his jeans pocket. He was wearing a grey shirt on the blue jeans, with a watch on his left wrist.

"Well, one and the same thing." She said. Caroline had chosen the outfit with a black jeans over which she was wearing a light blue colored jeans shirt. And of course and brown hat on her head.

"And you didn't want to come here?"

"I never said I won't. I just stated that your meetings are boring which is a fact."

"They are important."

"Whatever."

Caroline stopped him from whatever he was going to say. "Woah." The word came out of her mouth when she saw the sea view. It looks so beautiful from this close. Stefan chuckled.

"Let's go."

"Beaches are my favorite. We should make a trip for Florida together for future." A 15 year old Caroline said while doing her Math homework.

"Let's worry about that later." Stefan said while looking in her note. "And you did that calculation wrong."

"What?" Caroline stared at her book.

"Caroline how can you make mistakes when you are using a calculator?"

"The calculator gave me this answer. Your machine is wrong." She threw the calculator in his lap.

Stefan sighed. Caroline was upset because of her last grade in Math and it was giving her control freak side a headache, because she never gets bad marks.

"Okay, let's think bigger than Florida. How about… if you give me the solution of this problem correctly, I will take you to France."

"Wow, really?" She was brighter than the sun shining outside, and just because of the name of place she heard.

"Mhmmm. But, only if you solve it correctly."

"You have gotten yourself to buy the tickets to France for me."

Stefan smiled, and they went back to working on her homework.

"Thank you." She said while listening to the winds blowing and the noise of the waves rushing in their direction.

"For what?"

"For keeping the promise." She said slowly.

"Hey, we made a pact of seeing the whole world. Didn't we? And anyways it was a business trip."

"Stefan, I know you were planning for this for next month. You just got lucky and the trip happened early. So… thanks."

"Don't mention it." He said and closed his eyes to enjoy the sound of the water.

[***]

"Caroline, I thought we had talked about only the purse."

"But, . … AND THE SUNGLASS… AND THE WATCH." Caroline made a puppy eyes at him. They were standing in the Armani showroom as their deal was to get her purses and then she will join him for the trip, which was just an excuse from her to get the gifts from him.

He sighed while taking out his credit card. Caroline gets what she wants.

"By the way, tomorrow I have the meeting in the morning." He said while looking for the cab.

"That's good… because even I have some work tomorrow for my column."

"The one you are launching in your magazine?"

"Yep."

"Alright. Then let's meet after that."

"Sure."

[***]

Next day she had wandered around the streets noting down the trends going on. The different mix and match clothes she tried in the shops, and took a note in her tab. And after all the work, she was tired. Shopping can be tiring.

"You shopped again?" Stefan came in her room and he saw three more new bags.

"Well, it was for work."

"Yeah, like you need a reason for shopping." Stefan said looking at the stuff.

"Do you wanna see what I bought?"

"Later. Right now get ready."

"Why? Where are we going."

"You will see. But, please get ready fast."

Stefan took her to the Yacht later that evening.

"Wow first an evening at the beach, and now at Yacht. I LOVE IT." she exclaimed.

"I knew you will." Stefan said.

"Okay now stop using the twitter. Let's gooooo." She took his hand and pulled him towards the yacht while Stefan just smiled.

[***]

It was their last day when she printing out the photographs. From beginning of the journey to Stefan's business party, she had taken pictures of everything.

"You really gonna put that picture?" He asked looking at the one where he was talking to the waitress in the business party. Caroline was his plus one.

"I thought you liked her." She said while pasting the photograph.

"I was just talking to her."

"Yeah and blushing."

"Let's move on to the next pictures." He changed the subject because there is really no point in arguing with Caroline. "Also, I brought you something."

"What?" She raised an eyebrow.

And he put the wrapped box on her bed.

Salvatore Fragrance.

"Wow, it smells so good. Thanks." She put the perfume on herself and said, "The Salvatore I own."

"What?" Stefan almost choked on water he was drinking after hearing it.

"The perfume." She cleared.

"Are you taking something for Hannah?" He asked the question.

Hannah was Caroline's little sister.

"Already took one purse for her."

"Is she home?"

"You really think I will leave my house alone with her?"

"I guess you wanted to say that you won't leave HER alone in the house."

"No, I said it correctly. She would burn my house down, and I would go back to the ashes of my house."

Stefan looked at her. "So, where is she?"

"She has gone on a camp trip with her friends."

Stefan frowned.

"Don't worry, she will be fine." Caroline reassured him. Just like Caroline, Stefan had known almost since she was a kid, and since she was a baby sister of Caroline, Stefan looked out for her like his own baby sister as well. Thus, overprotective and all.

"Anyways. I think you should start packing." Stefan said when he realized the stuff she bought were all outside her bag.

"Sure."

She sighed, because the trip was over and she didn't want to go back now.

A/N: So, how was it? If you haven't checked the video and the tweets, you should. The conversations are there on their account. Don't forget to leave a review. Have a nice day :)