Everything seemed to be looking up since the night Max had invited her to the reunion party.

Or was it her mood which was at it's brightest that made it seem like it?

Whatever it was, Sofia wasn't complaining at all.

After their monumental late night visit at her diner and the invitation from Max for the party, two whole days had passed, and she had yet to hear a thing from him or at least get a single glimpse of him. So far, she had just gotten an excited phone call from Neil, letting her know that the coveted party was going to befall three days later. He acquainted her about the venue and time, and then cheered at the fact that she and Max were finally rekindling their lost friendship.

"Now we'll just have to wait and watch if this friendship of yours truly turns into a full blown romance," Neil drawled, his tone teasing but there was a hint of genuine excitement underlying.

"And I'm telling you for the thousandth time Neil — only in your dreams!" Sofia chastised and cut the call hastily, her face went red the same way as ten years ago.

Memories came back of when her friends used to tease her at school like this saying some silly shit about how Max stared at her when she wasn't looking and how she stared at Max when he wasn't looking. Those teasing sessions used to leave her so pathetically inflamed because of some obscure reason as they went on and on about how she and Max would surely hit it off one day.

Gosh!

Sofia shook her head to rid of the thoughts.

The next morning Skyler jumped around Sofia, squealing and clapping. "Ah! After a decade, finally, your childhood boyfriend's back awake and kicking after that dramatic escape of his."

Sofia grabbed Skyler to a stop to deliver a whack behind her head. 

"Oh, for devil's sake, he's not my bloody boyfriend!" Sofia indignantly protested but began to blush anyway.  

Skyler opened her mouth but Sofia cut in firmly, "And will never be."

"But it seems so," Skyler still insisted quite playfully. "Since always." 

There was just no point in arguing. Maybe it was her fate to endlessly get teased about Max. Couldn't they just see that they were hardly even friends?

Sofia busied herself in her diner for the rest of the day, her mind however stayed busy with the thoughts of a certain tall someone possessing deep brown eyes.  

Perhaps, yes. Or perhaps, no. Who knows! 

In the evening, after coming back home she took comfort of a hot shower that relaxed her sore muscles, eager heart and optimistic mind. She was feeling slightly hazy with laziness when she stepped out the shower. 

She was on her way to her room in pajamas, with a towel patting her hair softly behind her head, when she did a double take seeing over the railing at the sight downstairs of Skyler and Sammy interrogating a squirming man at the front door.  

"Skyler, Sam," Sofia called moving towards them with a frown. "What's going on over here?"  

 The man at the door looked relieved as she approached. "You've been sent a parcel ma'am," the man said in a formal tone. "You need to sign here."  

Sofia eyed the parcel curiously that the man held in one hand. "And who send it to me?"

"Mr. Wilder."

Skyler giggled like a giddy witch in the background which Sofia chose to ignore. Sam squealed, "It must be my tall monster!"

Sofia's heart jumped. 

Was it Max? 

But there were some three Mr. Wilder in the mighty Wilder clan. There was Max's father Robert, Max's cousins Neil and Nolan, and then Max himself.  Neil's father, Robert's brother, had passed away many years ago and since then Robert had been the father figure and mentor to Neil and his older brother Nolan. Robert had even let his brother's family live in his own palatial mansion which was no less than one palace truly, located in the richest suburb of the city.  

With a curious frown Sofia signed and took the parcel. She noticed the parcel was light weight and soft in her hands. Skyler and Sam still stood behind her, excitedly eyeing the parcel as if whatever was inside it was going to jump out any moment and begin dancing Joomba. 

Sofia raised a brow.

Skyler and Sam smiled sheepishly.

"It's for me," Sofia stated.

"But that doesn't mean we should be deprived of the unwrapping," Sam retorted innocently.

Tapping a finger on the chin, Sofia pretended to think hard for a few silent seconds. "Well, I guess you're right," she said, and the trio began their enthusiastic journey towards her room.

There is something incredible in sharing moments of joy to the loved ones. Little banters and playful moments between all the craziness and seriousness that is life, are the moments of respite, needed extremely to regenerate.

These were the little joys of life Sofia loved, that she had learned to engulf so that life never remained colorless.

Her towel was still flung over her shoulder. Going in her room, she threw it absentmindedly over the curtain rail above her forever opened window. Then she stood at her bed with Skyler and Sam at her both sides, her hands began ripping the wrapper of the parcel. It felt soft like a cloth. And true to her suspicion, it was indeed a cloth--an extremely elegant, beautiful evening dress.  

A royal blue ankle length, figure hugging long dress with intricate lace designs at the edges.

Skyler and Sam gasped, but Sofia was too engrossed looking at the dress, her mouth gaping open slightly.

Spellbound, as she held the dress open with both hands before her, a piece of paper--a note slipped out from the folds of the dress and fell down on her bed. Her eyes followed the note's downward journey, she picked it up already knowing in her heart who was it from.

Her fingers pried open the note, the silkiness of the dress now resting on her arm.

~Wear it at the party. - Max~

There were aws and ahs around her from the onlookers but the only thing Sofia could hear then was the sound of her own dreamy sigh.

That was not a request, there was no sign of a please anywhere. It had her brows pull into a frown for a second there, but then she shook her head off any unsettling feeling. She refused to have her mood spiral down because of such a non-existing issue.

Skyler snatched the dress out of her hands then.

Sofia looked on with a smile, wanting more than ever now for the evening of the party to arrive. For she couldn't wait. A new and hopefully a very magnificent beginning awaited for her and Max.

~

A/N:

A very magnificent beginning? Hmmm... let's see. ;)

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