August woke up with a headache, serving as a dreadful reminder of how the previous night went. Dozens of bottles of wine, hundreds of honesty laced words. And of all the audience to have accompanying his foolishness, it just had to be Giovanni. “Fuck,” he groaned, reaching for his phone. He could remember Giovanni driving him home after he drank himself to stupor but that was all. He couldn’t remember anything else- like how he had gotten into his bed or how he had gotten his phone next to him. “Shit, what’s the time?” He swiped his phone unlock to check the time but literally immediately, his eyes caught something else. It was his call log. And sitting prettily at the top was a missed call from Tyler. It was more than enough to cure his hangover, his eyes immediately widening. A missed call from Tyler? How did that happen? When did that happen? Why did that happen? For the hundredth time, he let out a groan, realizing he still had no memory of what happened the previous night
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Giovanni watched August loosen his tie as he nodded, seeming convinced on the decision he was about to take. After what seemed like an eternity, they were both done with work for the day and naturally, were supposed to head home. But August had decided he wanted to visit a bar and of course, drag Giovanni with him. A sigh escaped Giovanni’s lips as he watched his best friend finally free himself from the clutches of his tie, dancing a little as he shoved the little piece of clothing down his pocket. Though he wasn’t sure what exactly he was expecting when he called Tyler several hours, he was sure that wasn’t it. “Yes,” August nodded, flinging his arm across Giovanni’s shoulders, earning a shudder from him. “I’m just going to drink a little then head home.” “A little?” it was hard to believe he wasn’t drunk already the way his words drawled. “August, you intended to drink just a little yesterday?” “That was yesterday,” he waved his fingers in
Several months later… “And that’s a wrap for today.” August raised his head over his macbook to take a glance at Giovanni, genuinely amused as those words escaped his lips. Months ago, he was the boss that didn’t care about things like a stated closing hour. He worked till whenever he pleased and only left the office when it was beginning to feel too late to be in the office. But now, he was a completely different person- he never spent a minute past 4pm working. “Alright sir.” “Yes, sir.” “Thank you for today, sir.” The sounds of papers shuffling filled the air, followed by the scraping of chairs as staffs rose to their feet, hitting the floor with their heels as they rushed out of the meeting room. In no time, the room was left empty to no one but August and Giovanni, preparing to do the same. Except Giovanni was more nervous than August could ever be. “You leaving work by exactly 4pm would never cease to amaze me,” August had to comment. “I guess love really does change
“Do you think the dress would fit?”Emily stared at her parent in horror as they pulled out the wedding gown specifically made for her elder sister out of the closet and tossed it in her direction, staring at her like they were trying to visually size her up. The entire Stark family had been thrown into chaos and the worrying about a wedding gown fitting was supposed to be the least of their worries. The very least of their worries. “Have you both lost your minds?” Emily immediately rose to her feet, unable to tolerate the madness anymore. “What are you talking about? You should be looking for Stacy not doing this. It’s her wedding not mine!” She could swear she was losing her mind. For the past couple of weeks, it had been already decided that her elder sister, Stacy Stark was to get married. Both families had been preparing for the wddding including Emily herself and when the day of the wedding finally came, her sister was declared missing. “Your sister isn’t missing, honey,” h
Emily gulped. She felt her realization hit her in a flash. She was really in a puddle. One sharp tongue couldn’t save her from. Her entire family was in a mess. And from the look of the Albert Rueben‘s face, she knew he meant every word. She wanted to glare at him but out of fear it’ll only make things worse, she tried to keep a neutral face one. She couldn’t afford for things to get any worse e than it was. There was no how in hell they were going to raise thirty million dollars in their entire lifetime and there was no way she was getting married in her sister’s place. Or at least, so she thought. So she wished. “Mr. Albert please have mercy!” Her mother immediately rushed to his side to beg. “Please we can’t afford such huge amount of money and we can’t go to- Please.” “Don’t make it sound like I’m an evil person,” he replied her. “I’m simply playing by the rules and you should too.” Just the mere sight of her mother almost falling to her feet and her father begging with all
“Giovanni Rueben.” Emily couldn’t believe she was relying on the internet to get information regarding her husband to be. She literally knew nothing about him. Other than his first and last name but after spending about an hour on the internet, jumping from sites to gossip blogs she could say that was slowly changing. There was something all the sites she visited had to say in common. He was a cold, arrogant and rich young man who ranked No. 1 in the aspect of eligible bachelors yet he was single. For what reason? Simply because he cared about his work more than anything. With every new page clicked, she could see him staring at her, his cold eyes glaring through the screen. There were tons of rumors about him- some speculating he was a hidden member of a mafia group, some saying he was gay and some saying an ex-girlfriend broke and battered his heart resulting in him becoming the cold and merciless person he now was. It was a lot and she found herself in more awe with every sec
"How's my schedule for today like?""You have a meeting by 10 am. Then another lunch meeting by 1 pm. By 3 pm, you go round the company for your usual impromptu supervision then you are to have the business dinner with Mr. Monroe's client by 8 pm."Giovanni clicked his tongue as he flipped through the pages of the file in his hand. It was another typical day at work except that he seemed to have less work to do than usual. "So I have free time today.”"What?" his personal assistant and the only person he could consider a friend, August Stone, said.Quickly checking his schedule one more time, he returned his gaze to Giovanni and shook his head."No, you are barely free.""I have a meeting by 10 am, 1pm, supervision by 3 pm and a dinner meeting by 8 pm. My meetings do not exceed an hour and right now, it's 8am. Meaning I have about 9 hours to spare before I officially get off work. 9 unallocated hours, Isn't that a lot of free time, August?""When you put it like that, yes," August sig
“He is the rudest person I’ve ever met in my entire life! And you know I’ve met my very unfair share of rude people so you should know how serious I’m being right now.” Emily huffed and folded her arms, every memory about Giovanni doing nothing but enraging her. Every single thing about him now angered her, leaving her with no choice but to rant on about it to her best friend. “Can you believe he didn’t even know my name?!” She continued. “He even called me by my sister’s name. That’s how uninterested he was in me.” “I know, Emily,” Tyler replied and pat her on the back. “And then he told you we were nothing but a replacement. Declared how uninterested he was in you. Expressed how he considers marriage as nothing but a contract. Yes, Emily. You’ve been ranting on about it for an hour now I get the point.” “Oh,” she pouted, realizing Tyler was right. She had been talking way too much about Giovanni but what could she do? She was baffled and infuriated and with every second that pa