AVALYNN'S POV

          After I sign my remaining paperwork, I look up to Nicole who's playing with the office chair and singing "Merry go Round".

"Bored?" I ask as I cleaning up my desk. I stand up and pour a glass of champagne.

          "Kind of. I've lost count of how many times I yawned." She says as I look at the time before sipping my drink.

          "It's 1P.M.. Let's have lunch. Where shall we go?" I ask,

          she shrugs.

          It's my fault for asking her. "All Right. It's a surprise then." A surprise for me as well for I don't have an idea what to eat myself.

          "AVA!!! Let's have lunch together." A figure suddenly barges into my office like she owns the place. It gives Nicole a shock as well. "Oh .... the Mrs is here."

          Nicole's demeanour changes when she meets Fiona.

          "Hi, we've never met. I guess. I'm Fiona, one of Ava's talented and hot models." She offers her hand.

          "Nicole. Her wife."

          Whoa! She actually said the W word, that's new.

          "Anyway, shall we have lunch together?" She's still asking me that after knowing Nicole is with me?

          "I was hoping to have a romantic lunch with my wife. Yesterday was her birthday, and we haven't celebrated it yet. If you please excuse us, we have an island to explore." I grab Nicole's hand and drag her out of the room.

          "Who's Fiona?" She asks when we manage to get away from her.

          "She's just someone who works for me." That's not a lie though. She does work for me, and she ... developed such unnecessary feelings towards her boss. That's it.

          "You seemed pretty close to her when she called you Ava. She even sent a photo of herself on the bed half naked last night, right?"

          Wait, how did she know about that? Did she ... "You went through my phone without permission?" I ask.

          She doesn't respond to my question at all.

          "I don't mind you went through my stuff, but please, ask for my permission next time." I sigh mentally. There's no need for me to lecture her about privacy anymore, we're married after all.

          I lead her out of the building, and we both agree to walk towards our lunch venue. Once we arrive, I am surprised to see some familiar faces having their lunch as well. I smile and introduce my wife to them before we are led to our seat.

          "Is this place okay? Or do you wish for something fancier?"

          She shakes her head. "This is quite lovely. I love it."

          My eyes land on a couple not far from us who's sharing a plate of cake. I am not particularly liking the couple who's feeding each other the cake, but the cake itself looks delicious.

          "Nicole, do you bake?" I suddenly ask.

          "Bake? Hell no. I'm not into drugs." She replies.

          Wait, drugs? She misunderstood my question. "What I meant by bake is cake, cookies, muffins and cupcakes. Not drugs."

          She blushes. "Oh!" She laughs. "Hmmm. Bake Huh .... I did tried once for Christopher ... it was okay... I guess."

          She guess? "Bake some for me when we're home. Anyway, have you thought about the university? Do you really want to quit?" I ask.

          She doesn't respond to my question.

          When a waiter comes to us with the menu, we order, and I'm still waiting for her answer.

          "I don't know. I want to continue but .."

          I chuckle. "But you don't want to face them all, your friends that is."

          She nods.

          "You can change university if you wish to. I can manage it for you. We can even enroll you in an overseas university if you want." I offer. "I think my old university has an interior design course."

          She sighs. "Let me think about it, okay."

          I nod. At least, she will think about it.

          When our food comes, I sigh heavily as I look up at the entrance and see Fiona and the others walking inside.

          "Whats with the sigh?" Nicole asks before Fiona shouts my name. That makes Nicole seem annoyed for some reason.

          "You actually went to this restaurant as well?!"

          Fiona is being a nuisance.

          "Look at what the cat dragged in." Nicole says while looking away from us.

          Fiona's beginning to be such a bother now.

          "Fiona, go away. I want to spend this time with my wife." I chase her away from us. I am rather harsh, but I have to be. Otherwise, she won't listen to me.

          "So harsh. I wasn't being a bother." Fiona pouts before she goes back to her friends.

          "Who is that woman, really." Now Nicole's crossing her hands in front of me,

          Huh? I chuckle before pouring a glass of wine.   "Wine?"

          She shakes her head no.

          "Fiona is just someone who works for me. To be honest, she has feelings for me, but I never gave her a chance. Now that we're married, why would I lay my eyes on others? I have you now."

          She literally blushes. "She's looking at us like a hawk. Can't you like send her away from this island?"

          She actually asking me to abuse my power? "I can't do that. Despite her being a pain in the ass, she's one of the top models in the agency. Her face makes profits, a lot."

          She suddenly chuckles. "She sounds more like a thing than a human now that you say it that way."

          "She's beautiful, and she does her jobs well. Her face can sell, and more sales means more profit., More profit means more money, and more money, means the richer we get. Easy as that." I smile.

          We enjoy our day until it's time for us to go explore the island and go back to the villa.

          I'm glad I could finish my work early and get to spend some time with her. It's almost time for our trip to Manila, the last destination before going back to Maestropolitan.

          "What are we doing in Manila?" She asks as we pack our own stuff for a change.

          "Well since we're here, why not visit the capital city? Besides, I have a photo shoot to attend to."

          She's nodding her head. "I googled about Manila before. I really want to try its unique food."

          I smile. "In that case, we shall have a food hunting activity together."

          That would be fun.

***

          "Welcome to Shangri la, Lady Avalynn and wife. We've been expecting your arrival."

          Nicole seems like a tourist now. She's taking pictures of everything she sees. "I've never been outside of Maestropolitan before, and this is my third time visiting an overseas country." She says while we walk into the hotel entrance. "This hotel .... just wow! It looks super fancy."

          I chuckle. "We're spending two nights here." I look at the time and sigh. It's almost time for me to go to work. "I have to go for now. If I manage to finish my work by tonight, we can have fun tomorrow in the city." I don't know what came over me when I kissed her head. When I realise what I had done I freeze instantly until she pushes me lightly. I notice her face turn red from my action."I'm sorry." I apologise while she's shaking her head.

          "It's fine .... I kind of ... like it."  I've never seen someone get so embarrassed like her before. She turns away from me and clears her throat."I'll be going to my room then. Or is that ... our room... anyway, see you soon." She abruptly goes to the elevator without taking her key from me.

          I chuckle and give it to the maids. "I've talked to the manager of this hotel, and they allowed our chef to be in the kitchen. If the mistress is hungry, just call our personal chef. Or if she wants to eat some of the local food, we also have a staff from here to serve her. I want her needs to be taken care of, okay?"

          The maids nod and make their way to the elevator where Nicole is waiting.

          Kelly comes to see me and leads me towards  the car. "I'm sorry that you can't be with your wife, but if we manage to finish this work soon, you can have fun with her till the last day of this vacation." Kelly smiles.

          That's what I want to hear actually.

          "You have a shoot at a studio first then, we have to go to the City of Dreams, Manila for your interview with the local magazine. Also, this shoot has to be done with Fiona. I don't know what happened in the process, but they want some fresh faces with you."

          Fiona again. I sigh. "If possible, I would like to work in groups or alone when I need to have a shoot session. If I work with someone man or woman one on one, Nicole will probably get too jealous for me to handle. I don't want my wife to feel jealous because of me."

          Kelly chuckles at my statement. "Just weeks ago you said you hated that woman with your life."

          I blush at my own words. "I know what I said okay? You don't have to remind me."

                   When we arrive at the studio, I go straight to hair and makeup. Then, someone wraps her arms around me from behind.

          "You were harsh with me in front of your wife the last time we met. Did you forget how amazing I was in bed, Ava? You broke my heart when you married that wench." It's Fiona,.

          "Fiona I'm married now. Everything I do will make my wife very unhappy. She's quite annoyed at how close we are."

          She chuckles. "Why not tell her about our history together, huh? If you do that, it  will make her angrier, and she will ask for you to divorce her. Then, we can be like before, right."

          I grab her hand and removed it. "No. There's no way I'll let her go. Not even in a million years."

          Fiona seems ticked off. "You just earned yourself an enemy, Avalynn." She lets go of me and walks away.

          I sigh. "Now we're enemies?" I say to no one in particular.

          I'm glad that Fiona never mixes her personal life with her career. The shoot went well, and I'm happy it ended smoothly. After I'm done, we go to the next destination and had my interview with some of the local magazines. After I'm done with today's agenda, I decide to go back to the hotel where Nicole's probably waiting for me. I did promise we would go  food hunting in the city. While we're here, we might as well have fun, right.

          "Remember, tomorrow you have a shoot for a business magazine as well. Please don't be late. I'll be waiting at the lobby for you."

          I nod at Kelly before I go out and go to the elevator. Once I press on our floor, I can't help but to smile all the way to our room.

          I am about to call for Nicole when I notice she's sitting in the armchair, as if she's been waiting for me. I don't know why, but I feel a murderous aura coming from her.

          "What's wrong with you?" I ask.

          "I was just sitting and waiting for you." She whips her phone out and texts someone.

          Before I can ask more, I hear my phone ring indicating a text just came. To my surprise, she sent me a picture of Fiona and me together.

          "Care to explain, Ava?"

          She's one jealous woman? I want to smile, but she's dead serious about this.

          "I'm waiting."

          Yup, she's dead serious.  Hmmm.

          "I admit, she hugged me from behind, and told me I should leave you and go back to her."

          Her expression changes. "What did you say to her?" She asks obviously trying to hide her feelings of uneasiness.

          "I said I marry someone for a reason, and I will never leave someone I married for somebody else."

          She wants to smile, but she hides it with a cough. "Don't think of this as I gave you a slip. I will be watching you, closely."

          I chuckle. "I'm glad you'll be watching me closely." I wink.

***

"        Nicole, what do you think about this?" I ask her opinion on a dress I have my eyes on." I turn to the mirror again and twirl around for her to see.

          "I think you'd look amazing in everything you choose."

          Something tells me she's not a very fashionable person.

          She seems to be looking outside of the shops. "I know we're in Asia, but looking outside, It feels like we're in Venice."

          I chuckle. "On our next trip, we should go to Venice. How about that?"

          She seems excited. "For real? Like, if I wish to go somewhere, will you be able to get us there?" She asks.

          "Hmmm. If it's somewhere we can reach, sure. I don't think I have had a problem traveling before. We could even go to the amazon if you want."

          She suddenly shakes her head vigorously. "Have you seen national geographic? There's a lot of wild animals there, and I can't handle anything that needs physical training."

          Just how weak is she?

          "I think I'm going to buy this." I simply say and ask the store keeper to place it on my bill. "Don't you want anything to remind you of this place?" I ask when I am about to pay.

          "I do but not clothes."

          After I pay for my stuff, she actually drags me towards a gift shop.

          "This is what I'm looking for, souvenirs for my friends and Mary. I decided that when we're back I'm going to visit her."

          Good for her.

          "Do you want to walk around? I mean, we might as well enjoy the day here." I offer.

          "Sure but first, let me search for souvenirs."

          I nod as I follow her like a puppy.

          "I can't buy too much though." She carefully selects her gifts.

          "Nicole, dear, I'm sure you could've used your card by now."

          She seems to realised something.

          "Don't tell me you forgot all about my parents' gift every month to you."

          She laughs it off and whips out her card. "Are you sure it's in?"

          I nod. "I'm pretty sure mine is. If that's so, yours probably is in as well."

          "Does this mean I can go crazy with shopping?"

          I slowly nod. Didn't she realise that the moment we went shopping? I'm waiting for her when I notice something on the walls. "Hey Nicole, can we go here next?" I point at the walls.

          "Archery Bonanza? You want to blow off some steam?"

          I nod.

          "Sure. I would love to see you in action."

          I smile.

          We enjoy our walk before we go to the archery event not far from where we are. For the first time, I let myself loose and let my passion for archery take over my whole body. This is heaven for me. There are so many kinds of bows across the globe here!

"Oh look. You wanna try?" I show her a trainer bow.

          She shakes her head vigorously.

          "Why? Don't you like archery?"

          She laughs it off. "It's not that I don't like archery I just never learned it."

          Oh ... not everyone has the passion like mine. "Well, do you want to learn? Or see me battle?"

          She says she's fine with watching me, so I pick a bow and request for a duel. I smile at the man who agrees to take me on.

          He takes the first turn, and I am impressed by his precision.

          "9." The announcer says.

          He smiles when he raises his hand telling me it's my turn. I take a deep breath before letting my skin determine the speed of the wind. When I draw the bow and aim it at the target, I close my eyes before releasing the string.

          "10!"

          I smile before opening my eyes and  turning my attention to the man next to me.

          He draws his bow again and aims. This time, it's a perfect 10 as well.

          So for me to win, I need to hit another 10, huh? Suddenly, it becomes too windy for a a normal arrow.

          I notice he begins to smirk. "Good luck." He says.

          Before I draw my bow, I aim carefully and match it with the speed of the wind. I release a little breath before releasing the string. When my arrow hits the target, everyone who was sitting on their stool stands up and claps their hands for me.

          "Incredible! PERFECT 10! AGAIN!" The announcer seems a little excited about this.

          The man laughs at nothing in particular and bows his head at me. "I lose." He says before giving me  full respect. I place the bow on the table nearby before I go to Nicole who looks like she's so out of place.

          "You look like you've seen a ghost."

          Nicole doesn't say anything when she hands her phone to me. It's a text from Mary.

It says 'everyone knows about your secret now.'

          What secret?

          "Everyone at the university knows about us. They claimed that Christopher made me pregnant and you took me in. How am I suppose to face everyone now?" She sounds worried.

          How did they find out so soon? I wonder what she's going to do now that the secret is out. "Do you want to quit now that everyone  spread that horrendous  rumour about you?" I ask just to jolt her spirits a little.

          "It's a false rumour. I am not pregnant. And, Christopher and I are over. He's history to me. No ... I won't back down. If I quit, that'll make the situation worse."

          Thats the spirit. This is the Nicole I've fallen for. Wait, fallen? Did I really just say that?

          "Once we're back to Maestropolitan, I'll show them that those rumours are wrong, and it's time for us to announce our marriage in public. I will not live in the shadows anymore. Like you said, I am a Grimaldi now."

          She finally realised it. What took her so long though. "Good choice." I smile.