The day which followed Dominic's visit, I was at the office sorting out the restaurant's accounts when my door was knocked.

“Who is it?” I asked.

“It's me, Khadja.” one of my waitresses answered from the other side of the door.

“Come in Khadja!” I called out to her.

“Ms. Luciano, I'm sorry for disturbing you, but there's a man out front asking to see you,” Khadja informed me.

“Khadja, I've told you a million times before to drop the formality with me. You can call me Lexi.” I said to her.

She was only a year younger than me, and it felt weird to be addressed so formally.

“So about this guy?”

“Oh, yeah. He is tall, dark hair, superb looking.” Khadja replied as she blushed like a high school girl with her first crush.

“Did you get a name Khadja?” I chuckled at her flushed state.

“Marc, that's what he said his name was.” Khadja responded.

“Oh Marc, I haven't seen him in years,” I immediately stood up now at the mention of Marc's name. “You can tell him to come in.”

“Okay Ms. Luciano” Khadja replied.

“Khadja” I warned.

I had probably told her over a billion times that just calling me Lexi would be fine, but she seemed to have a hard time processing that.

“Sorry... Lexi.” Khadja giggled guiltily before she exited my office.

I straightened my pencil skirt and blouse and smooth my hair just before Marc entered my office.

“Lexi?” He seemed surprised as he looked at me as if he was seeing me for the first time.

“Hey Marc,” I grinned at him “It has been a while.”

“Jesus, when did you get so beautiful and grown-up? Damn, a lot has happened over seven years.” Marc said as he came over to me and pulled me into a bear hug which I gladly returned.

“It is so nice to finally see you again Marc,” I said truthfully as we pulled away.

“Wow Lexi, you've grown so much. And so beautiful, I can't stop saying that. Wow.” Marc said to me as he held my hands.

“Thanks, Marc. You look great as well, quite handsome too.” I chuckled, “You seemed to have grown up in all the right places as well.”

“And you've grown confidence and boldness... I like that. You have no idea how happy I am to see you again.” Marc smiled at me.

“Same here. It has been forever.” I smiled back at him. “Please, have a seat.”

“Thanks. So how have you been? You and Nick finally getting along better now, huh?” he chuckled.

“I've been good considering. And yeah, who would have thought? Dominic had hated me so much once upon a time.” I laughed.

“He didn't hate you, he was just fearful for you” Marc reassured “And maybe a little jealous. Don't tell him I said that.”

“I won't,” I chuckled,
“And he didn't have to be so mean about it. Besides, he doesn't have to worry about me anymore now, well not so much now.”

“And listen to that” Marc held up a finger.

“Listen to what?” I looked around confused about what he meant.

“Not a trace of British accent, you've really mastered the American accent.” Marc chuckled.

“Shut up.” I laughed and pushed his shoulder playfully “The accent may be gone, but I'm still that same British girl.”

“Are you now?”

“Yes, I am.”

We had spent a good time after that talking about a lot of stuff, ranging from the past to now-- the present. I had discovered that he was now working as Dominic's right-hand man as well as being a partner in some hotel businesses with Dominic.

We needed more than a few hours to fully catch up as we hadn't seen each other in years.
We had agreed that we would definitely have to spend some more time catching up over coffee about the highlights of our lives. Before Marc left that evening, we had settled upon checking out inferno club on Friday night. He would pick me up at 7:00 and let me off there. He had told me that he would be entering the club with me but will be in the shadows keeping an eye on me. If he stayed in the background he would be able to avoid any attention from coming to himself.

I really hoped it was as easy as that.