The glass elevator's doors slid open on the top floor of the most renowned mall of the city. Stella walked out and made her way to the restaurant where she was supposed to meet Rachel. The pencil heels of her pumps were striking against the cream colored floor, making a small click sound with each of her steps.
She was able to locate the restaurant easily as it occupied almost a quarter of the entire floor. It was one of those fancy restaurants where one needed to make a reservation at least a week in advance or they won't let you take a single step inside the sitting area. She excused the person who was standing at the counter located right next to the entrance.
"Good evening. How can I help you Ma'am?" The man who was dressed in a formal working attire asked her politely.
"Well, I am here to meet Ms. Rachel Nelson. Can you check for me if she has arrived or not?" Stella replied to him.
The man looked through the reservation list and replied to her. "Ms. Rachel Nelson hasn't arrived yet, but there is a registration under her name. Are you Ms. Stella?"
Stella nodded her head in a yes to his question.
"I will guide you to your table. Please follow me Ma'am." The man replied and started to walk towards the dining area where only a few tables were placed despite the large area it occupied. The distance between the tables allowed people to talk freely about their personal affairs. There was no need for them to whisper in each other's ears while leaning over the table.
The man guided her to a table which was next to a floor to ceiling glass wall and only had two chairs. He pulled out one of the chairs for her.
"Thank you." Stella uttered her thanks as she sat down on the chair.
The man smiled politely in return and walked back towards the counter where another man who was dressed in the same professional attire was standing already.
"You didn't check her I.D." He glared at the first man.
"She's here to meet Ms. Rachel Nelson. There's no way I am going to upset her. Moreover, have a look at her. Even though the lady is dressed simply but her aura still oozes of royalty." The first man replied as he took his position again. Two years of this job had taught him when not to question the identity of their customers. He could tell that the lady wasn't someone ordinary.
Stella was getting bored with all the waiting. She had arrived on time yet there was still no sign of Rachel even after twenty minutes. She was scrolling through her phone's gallery, looking through the pictures. Most of them were stolen pictures of Adam when he was sleeping, or doing his work, typing on the laptop, sitting in his office while reading some files and so on.
A smile slowly crept on her face as she scrolled further down. No matter how many times she go through these pictures, she couldn't have enough of her man. 'Damnn!' She cursed inside her mind when a picture of shirtless Adam appeared on her screen. "Why is he so hot?" She muttered under her breath while ogling at his perfectly toned body and those well defined and. She secretly took this picture during one of their workout sessions when he was busy benching some weight.
"I am so sorry for being late." A female voice interrupted her thoughts, making her look up from the screen. A petite face full of makeup and a head full perfect blond curls greeted her eyes.
'Finally she is here.' Stella thought to herself as she forced a smile on her face. "It's alright. I didn't come too long ago either." She added politely.
"Why didn't you order something for yourself? There was no need to wait for me." Rachel spoke as she sat on the chair across her.
"Actually I am not hungry. I had some snacks in the evening with Adam." Stella gave her a lop-sided smile. If she wanted to expose her true intentions and break her facade of being a good person, then the easiest way to achieve it was to anger her. And what better way could be there than showing off her relationship with Adam.
"Oh!" Rachel exclaimed as she tried to keep the smile on her face intact.
'Dang! She's good at this.' Stella thought to herself while nodding her head slightly.
"Let's order something first, then we can talk." Rachel suggested politely to which Stella agreed. "Sure."
As the two of them were waiting for their orders to arrive, Rachel cleared her throat lightly and started to talk. "Listen, Stella. I know that we started on the wrong foot. But I want you to know that I am okay now with you and Adam being together. It's his choice to choose the person he wants to spend his life, and he chose you. It was hard for me in the beginning because of my feelings for him. But I can't force him to have feelings for me, right? So, I wanted to meet you today to apologise for whatever stunts I pulled on you." She spoke as earnestly as she could.
For a minute, Stella was shocked when she saw the sincerity in her eyes but she shook her head sideways. She knew she couldn't believe her out of all people. Moreover, she was an actor. She would definitely give it all of her.
"It's okay. As long as you know that you did wrong and don't try to pull off another one of those stunts on me again, then apology accepted." Stella gave her a small smile. She knew that it was hard for someone like Rachel to change, but she meant what she said to her. If Rachel really wanted to change her ways and stopped interfering in their lives, she could turn a blind eye to what happened in the past. Though, she herself was having a hard time believing that it could actually happen.
"Then can we be friends now?" Rachel's smile widened when she heard her answer. She offered her right hand forward while looking at Stella with hopeful eyes and wide smile adorning her face.
Stella breathed out loudly as she took her and shook it lightly.
Their 'moment' was disturbed as two waiters arrived with their orders and began to place them on the table without making any sound.
The two ladies quietly dug in their food as soon as the two waiters left are pouring some white wine in the long stemmed glasses which were placed before them.
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After getting done with the dinner, Stella was being dragged to a flagship store by Rachel. She had told her about some weird theory of hers that girls bond more over shopping. And since she wanted their bond to become stronger, she was almost dragging her to her designer outlet. To their ease, it was located just a floor below the restaurant.
Stella was awestruck when they finally arrived at the outlet. The golden interior paired with the off white furnishings and the bright white and yellow lighting was a sight to behold. The store looked more like a furnishing company for the high class society than a clothing brand. The store was divided further into small sections, depending on the type of clothing the section had on display.
Stella spent almost an hour inside the store with Rachel, going through a couple of dresses and casual wear. Well, it was mostly Rachel choosing dresses for herself and showing them off to her. The two ladies left the store with a couple of bags in their hands.
"You and me, we should go out more often like this." Rachel exclaimed in joy. She enjoyed shopping with her for real.
"Yeah, yeah." Stella replied with a slight nod while trying to stifle a yawn that was threatening to escape her lips.
"You look tired. You should go back home." Rachel suggested to her to which Stella nodded and took out her phone to call her driver. Despite of her saying no again and again, Adam still got her a driver for the night. She looked up from her phone after disconnecting the call to inform Rachel that he's waiting outside the entrance for her, but her eyes landed on nothing. She looked around her but didn't find her either.
"Rachel?" Stella called out to her with a frown marring her face.
She was about to go inside the store again but a voice stopped her from doing so. "Where do you think you are going?" She turned her face towards the source, only to find a scary looking man standing before her.
Stella shivered under his bone chilling gaze, cursing under her breath. "F@*#"
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