Chapter 06

APOV

We pull up to the house Christian rented and it's breathtaking. It's in the Hollywood Hills with a pool, a deck, and an amazing view of the city below. This is like a dream.

"Whoa, bro. This place is sweet." Elliot tells Christian as he continues looking through the house.

"Well, unfortunately, my PA was only able to get a place with 4 bedrooms on the short notice so someone will have to take the pull out sofa." Christian sounds disappointed but I'm not sure why. This place is amazing.

"Christian, this place is amazing. I'll take the sofa, I don't mind." He looks up at me in surprise. I guess he didn't expect anyone to volunteer.

"Ana, stay in the room with me. There's plenty of space." Mia says excitedly.

"OK, that sounds like it would be fun." I pick up my bag and follow Mia to her room. As I walk past Christian, I stop, "Thank you, Christian. Please allow me to give you something for this place. It's amazing."

"No, don't give me anything. It's my treat." He smiles at me and for the first time, I think I see some genuine emotion in his face before his smile becomes a bit insincere.

Something about the exchange with him makes my heart beat faster. I feel my cheeks heat and have to get away. "Oh, um, thank you. That's very nice." I turn and quickly walk away from him with a strange feeling like I just walked through clouds or a sticky spider web and everything is all fuzzy.

I walk into the room I am sharing with Mia and am happy to see the king bed can be split into two separate beds. So, we get working on changing the room around a bit. After we get settled in, we gather in the well-appointed kitchen.

"So what should we do this afternoon?" Kate asks.

"Well, we can always hang out by the pool," I suggest. I'm not very good at things like this.

"No! We should do one of those celebrity tours. Only for a couple of hours, anyway. It'll be fun." Mia says. She really should be an event planner or something.

"Well, if we do something like that, I need to change out of these jean shorts into something a little nicer, anyway," I add.

"OK, let's get changed and then after the tour we can hang out by the pool before we go for dinner and drinks." I can tell Kate is excited to go out tonight.

About a half hour later, Kate, Mia, and I are ready to head out. "Took you guys long enough." Elliot gripes but you can tell by his smile he isn't serious.

"Mia, are you sure you can walk around in those shoes?" Christian asks her.

"What? They're my Lucita Colorblock espadrilles from Sophia Webster. They're cute and they go with my romper." She's wearing a pink cold shoulder romper which perfectly coordinates with the sandals.

"How high are those things? There is no way you can safely walk around in them." You definitely can tell Mia is the baby of the family and Christian is an overprotective brother.

"They're 6 inches but they have a 2-inch platform so it's not that bad." Christian rolls his eyes at her in defeat. "Ana, you look so cute! You can definitely pull off that boho look." Mia changes the subject.

I look down at my outfit; it's a black and white patterned romper with spaghetti straps and crochet detailing. I'm wearing flat black sandals with them since I don't know how much walking we will be doing. "Oh, thanks." Everyone turns to look at me and I blush.

"Ana, are you going to be warm enough in the A/C?" Ethan asks me as he rubs my upper arm.

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

The tour was pretty cool. They drove us around in a limo and took us to all the spots around LA including the Hollywood sign. I never knew it was originally supposed to be 'Hollywoodland' and it's supposedly haunted by an actress who committed suicide.

After the tour, we stopped at Pink's for lunch hoping to spot someone famous. We didn't see anyone but Elliot managed to entertain us by eating a giant 12" jalapeño dog, a pastrami reuben dog, a chicago polish dog, an order of french fries, and an order of onion rings all by himself. Honestly, I don't know how he didn't get sick.

CPOV

The tour of Los Angeles was pretty boring but the women seemed to love it. Elliot and I were bored to tears. Once we are back to the house I pour Elliot and myself a bourbon and we head outside to sit on the deck and relax. I step out on the deck and I freeze. There is Ana wearing a black bikini with a flounce top that looks like a big ruffle. She looks so hot. Shit. I didn't know she was this hot. I mean, she was kind of cute before, but seeing her sitting in the sun wearing that bikini she is beautiful. Stunning, even. We take a seat on the lounges and I sit in the one facing the pool so I can watch her. I need to calm the fuck down. It's a hot chick in a bikini. Surely this is just because I haven't had sex in a while.

Trying to ignore these errant thoughts, I talk to Elliot about the plans for the evening. "So, Elliot. What do you want to do tonight?"

"Well, when I mentioned the guys and girls splitting up, Kate got upset so I think we will probably all go out to dinner and then bar hop. Kate loves karaoke so that would be cool if we can find a karaoke bar." I have to admit since Elliot has been with Kate he seems a lot more mature.

"Why don't you talk to the girls and see what everyone wants to do. I have to check in with work." Without waiting for a response from him I make my way inside studying my blackberry. I am not looking forward to spending the entire evening with my little sister, obnoxious Kate, and goody-two-shoes-with-the- great-ass Ana. She probably doesn't even know how to have a good time. Maybe she'll bring a book along with her to read. I'm not the wildest guy out there but I know how to have a good time. I don't think Ana would know a good time if it bit her in that full round ass.

Once I get inside I call Andrea and have her reserve a table for us at Spago Beverly Hills. Usually, it's difficult to get a table for a group our size on a weekend with such short notice. These are the times when it's nice to be Christian Grey. All my PA has to do is drop my name and we get what we want.

After the dinner reservations are made I also have Andrea schedule a limo for us for the evening. That way no one has to worry about drinking and driving. I also instruct her to make sure there is plenty of Bollinger in the limo for everyone. If we're going to celebrate, we're going to do it right.

I go back outside and tell Elliot about the plans. "Awesome, bro. Thanks! Kate has always wanted to go to Spago's. She's going to be so excited and you know Mia will be over the moon. We should tell the girls to start getting ready now."