Chapter 3

Zack's POV:

The moment I fell on bed with Nadia's hair stuck on the button of the T-shirt I was wearing, I seriously wanted to burst out laughing but Sam's presence in the room, it kind of made the situation embarrassing that's why I freed Nadia's hair as quickly as I could.

"Next time, be careful" I smirked at Nadia, as she attempting to stand up.

"Nadia!" Sam called Nadia and we both turned our gazes to her direction "Mom says that you should eat something before you leave"

"Honey, tell her that we have no time to, we're a bit late" Nadia stood up and rushed to Sam who was holding a big car in her hand.

"Hey, I'm hungry" I followed Nadia and stood beside her "Tell your mother that something quick wouldn't bother us"

"We're late" Nadia glared at me.

"And I'm starving" I frowned at her and soon enough, it seemed like we were having a contest of who would blink first.

"I hate you" She poked my shoulder.

"I hate you too"

"I'll tell mommy to prepare something for you" Sam ran away, leaving Nadia and I in a position that a five years old kid would burst out laughing at the sight of it.

In fact, I wasn't even hungry but I actually said so because Nadia wanted the opposite since teasing her had always been a pleasure for me and the face she made whenever I smirked at her was phenomenal...

After sharing few glares with Nadia, she picked some random clothes from the wardrobe and headed back to her bathroom, mumbling some none sense words; I took all of my time admiring her room which was surprisingly not pink, it was huge, painted with blue and the furniture was white just like her curtains. It was quite organized, everything was in its right place, especially books since they were organized in an alphabetical order.

Nice...

If no one told me that it was her room, I would have guessed that it was a boy's room or maybe mine because I had the same colors, same books and same spirit. After taking one last glimpse at my surroundings, I headed out of her room immediately, walking down the hallway of the Mansion and searching for the kitchen but as I was looking, Sam stopped me and started studying me for few minutes until she blurted out...

"So, you're going to be Nadia's husband?" She questioned.

"Maybe, I don't know" I answered her nicely "I'm not sure"

"But I heard Nadia talking about you with mom" She whispered as if it was the nation's secret.

"Really?" Saying what exactly?" I suddenly felt interested of what would Nadia say about me.

"She said that now she sees you differently" Sam replied honestly.

It was kind of funny how things turned out to be, we were fighting every day for the last five years over silly stuff and now Nadia was walking around, telling people that she was starting to like me and that made me wonder if I should have started doing the same because it was going to be hard on me to confess others that I liked her while in fact, I seriously wanted to stay away from her.

/*circumstances*/

"Come on, mom's waiting for us" Sam jerked me out of my thoughts by holding my hand and leading me down the hallways to the kitchen.

As soon as I entered the kitchen, I took a look at my surroundings, the white and black kitchen was huge, a big table of six sat beside the glass door which led to their garden, a black island was in the middle of the kitchen with eight high stools surrounding it, and Nadia was seated on one of them.

"Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately?" I moved closer and sat beside her, analyzing her face which was dirtied with chocolate.

"Why?" She stared at me, confusingly.

"Because you look stupidly funny" I smirked at her as I took a piece of her pancakes "With chocolate on your face"

"Zack, stop smirking at me" She yelled at me "Eat and let's go"

"But you seriously have to look at yourself in the mirror" I advised her, lifting my shoulders in defense.

"Why are you so interested in my look?"

"Because I want you to look decent to suit my image" I simpered at her, pointing at myself.

"Really? Then I'll suit perfectly now" She put her finger in chocolate then wiped it on my face.

The moment her fingers made contact with my face, she burst out laughing, hysterically as Sam looked at her pretty shocked then suddenly hugged her car and strode away; rage started boiling in my veins at her stupid move so I literally did the same to her.

/*How could she release the wild side of me?*/

"What the hell?" She wiped her face with a tissue "What a kid"

"I can't believe I'll be staying with you for only god knows how much time" I ran my hands through my hair several times.

"Yeah, I think a year will be fine" She looked down at her plate then turned her gaze at me.

"A year? Don't you think it's too much?" I literally panicked when I processed her words in my mind "I'll die"

"Hey, I won't bite" She patted my back devilishly.

I couldn't even try to imagine an entire year with Nadia under the same roof, pretending that we were happy, and I ended up by mentally slapping myself for getting myself into that mess; why did I even think of it? How did I get myself involved?

"Stop acting like five years old kindergarten kids" Ann suddenly appeared from behind and patted my back "What's happening?"

"Mom, they were fighting with food" Sam laughed at us, hiding behind her mother "And now they're both dirty"

"Nothing important" Nadia smiled at her genuinely.

I had always wondered "Why did she affect me that much? Why did I always love to tease her?!" But I never found a conclusion or a convenient answer to my questions because maybe my brain had always used to mocking her as my heart loved to hate her...

"Does it make sense?" I thought to myself; then I realized that I was overthinking like usual so I stopped thinking about it and just concentrated on how would I handle lying for an entire year?

I remembered that I had another outfit in my car so after eating pancakes, I went directly and brought it to get changed; As I was going back to their guest's room, I had noticed that most of the pictures were Nadia's when she young, and I had to admit that she was so cute, especially when she was with her friends in her birthday's parties.

"How can someone so naive be harmful?" I thought to myself as I analyzed he face in one of the pictures that I was holding in my hand; she was smiling genuinely at the camera, throwing her hands around a women's neck who kissed her cheeks tenderly. But then the women looked familiar. She was the woman who came to the hospital last week.

When that women came, the air totally changed and it felt like electricity replaced Oxygen; Nadia froze in her spot when she turned her head as she cried even more on my chest. However, she sniffled several times, and put on her mask of 'The strong girl'.

/*Who could she be? And since when had I become a psychologist?*/

After being lost in my own thoughts, I put back the frame to its place then headed to the guest's room immediately, thinking of what if I had done a big mistake by dragging myself into that mess. However, I didn't regret my choice, I only had doubts about it.

Once I was done with my clothes, I headed out of the house where my car was parked, and just rested my back on it, putting on my sun glasses since the sun's heat was getting under my skin. I just closed my eyes for couple minutes until I heard footsteps and Sam's cheerful voice so I opened my eyes instantly to face Ann who was standing by the door's frame.

"Thank you for the delicious pancakes" I stated when Ann came to say goodbye.

"My pleasure, you have to come back then" She offered me a Megawatt grin, interlocking her arms.

"Sure" I smiled back at her.

"Hey, can I tell you something?" Sam ran toward me with a determined look on her face.

"Honey, stop disturbing him" Ann spoke with an authoritative voice.

"It's okay, she's not"

"Look! I think you make a prefect couple with Nadia" Sam whispered in my ear when I kneeled in front of her

"Really?" I was kind of surprised of what she said "And how can a six years old girl know that?" I teased her by poking her red cheeks.

"I'm young but defiantly not stupid" She clenched her teeth and twisted her hands "Now, goodbye and don't tell Nadia about what we've spoken of"

"Tell me what?" Nadia questioned which made me lift my head to look at her.

"She was telling me how cute you look in red" I mumbled these words as I kept staring at her in gawk, then when I realized what I said, I added "But I don't think so"

"Thank you, now let's go, we're late" She answered me with a low tone then turned her head to face Ann and stated "I'll call you later"

Without even adding anything else, I stood up silently, opened the passenger's door, waited for Nadia to settle in the car to close the door behind her then I sat in the driver's seat and left her Mansion quietly. I didn't even know how to call what happened to me in that moment but seeing her like that kind of threw me out of the window. Literally.

She was wearing a red dot swing dress which reached her knees, a black high heel platform sandals, and a black saddle bag hanged on her shoulder matched with a silver cuff bracelet, black earnings and a black faux Perl drop choker necklace, adding to it her red lipstick that suited her perfectly. And the way her hair was curled and rested on her shoulders was absolutely attractive. Overall, it was a casual look, but it fitted her flawlessly.

Before the blind date, I had never noticed what Nadia was wearing nor the way she fixed her hair, but in that moment, I couldn't take my eyes off her because she was absolutely beautiful, and I didn't even know what to say since my smirks of earlier jumped out of the window with my confidence.

/*What the hell was happening to me*/

"I told you, we'd be late" She commented as soon as we were stuck in the traffic line.

"But you have to admit that those pancakes were delicious" I turned my head to look at her, and she was glaring at me which made me annoy her even more "Weren't they?"

"You're annoying" She spoke coldly as she reached for the window's button and opened it.

"Ouh touché" I chuckled, trying my best to contain my laughter "But why? Because I'm handsome"

"You? Oh please" She pulled out her round sunglasses that were in her saddle bag and put them on.

"I know you can't resist my charm" I teased her by patting her hand "You should get used to us, I l mean being together my fiancee" I wiggled my eyebrows at her.

As soon as I touched her, I felt a tingling feeling down in my chest and warmth spread in my entire body just by a single interaction, and when I held her hand and squeezed her fingers in mine, she shifted awkwardly in her seat but she didn't pull her hand out of my grip, she just mumbled under her breath "You wish"

I thought that she would block me off or maybe pull her hand out of my hold but she didn't even retort as she just relaxed her clenched nerves and rested her hand in mine. For a whole minute I enjoyed the warmth of it but then again I remembered that as much as I felt comfortable around her, I couldn't just forget the past and everything she had done.

Two years ago:

First days of college were always the worse since I always got used to meeting my friends, camping and just sitting late at night to read books, which always meant that I wouldn't wake early, and I would end up annoyed throughout my day.

Heading to college to catch an important lecture, I was in my car, stuck in the traffic line, feeling bored and exhausted since I was pretty late and lacked sleep. Cars didn't even seem to move because I literally stayed in the same place for more than twenty minutes

I couldn't wait anymore since I really didn't want to miss that lecture so I stepped out of my car to check what was really happening. However, I could only glimpse few people running so I ran to see what the fuss was.

I caught sight of an ambulance and few police officers talking to car drivers, so I thought that it must have been a car accident. I was about to leave but then I thought of checking if someone got hurt, thus I moved closer to get a better view, and that's when I saw her, Nadia.

She had a bruise on her forehead as she looked pale, she was sitting inside an ambulance with a nurse who was checking her blood pressure, as a police officer handed her a bottle of water before he pulled a small note book out of his pocket and started questioning her. Hence, I walked toward them but I hid behind the ambulance and chose a spot where they couldn't see me, keen to listen to their conversation.

"So, tell me everything that happened?" The office officer started questioning.

"Well, even though the other driver and I, we have done a mistake, I take the blame" Nadia lowered her head and started twisting her fingers, as a sign of nervousness.

"What do you mean?" He asked her with an odd look.

"I was late for college so I tried to drive with a higher speed and that's when she hit me" She reasoned, looking everywhere but him.

"Let me get it, you were driving with a higher speed, if I may use your words, and she was the one to hit you?" He chuckled at her, obviously not buying a word she was saying "It doesn't make sense"

"I don't know what to say, that's what happened"

"Well, you left me no solution" He offered her his hand and stated "Then you know that we'll have to take your driving license and we might call you later to the police office to sign some papers" He smiled at her as she handed him her driving license.

I was pretty impressed by what she had done since she was courageous and she admitted her mistakes like any other grownup would do; it didn't mean that I was going to be her best friend but it only meant that I like what she did.

I was going to take a step forward and address her with what I thought when I saw her walking to the other driver, who was a women who looked in her late thirties, she had a bruise on her cheek and forehead, obviously from the impact of her head with the steering wheel; she was embracing a little boy in her arms, who seemed to be four years old or maybe five.

"Look, I told the police everything we've discussed earlier" Nadia looked around as if she was checking if anybody was watching them "And if you say the same thing, none of us will be harmed"

"I know, don't worry about it" The woman cried silently.

"I want you to leave and never come back, you took advantage of us already" Nadia pulled out something out of her purse, wrote something on it then handed it to the women "Take this and leave"

"But that's.... a lot" The women stared at Nadia, disbelievingly.

"Yeah and don't you even think of doing such thing ever again because you'll find me in your face" Nadia raised her hands in the air as she whispered loudly with a threatening tone "I don't want to hear anything from you, ever again" Nadia stared at the pure lady arrogantly then headed away.

I literally froze as I tried to process what happened in front of my eyes but I couldn't. "Nadia was using her fortune to blackmail people? For what? To cover something she had done? How could she?" I couldn't even believe what I was thinking of.

Everyone knew that I had a bad boy package as the magazines used to mention in their articles, but I had never thought of blackmailing someone to hide something bad that I had probably done; Nadia only showed hatred in her act so I had to step-in before she could go away.

"Hey, I can't believe that you just blackmailed that pure lady" I yelled at her when she was about to enter the cab "You're unbelievable"

"And why do you care about me that much?" She retorted right away with a question "Just leave me alone"

"I don't even give a shit about you but I only felt..." I stopped for a second to take a deep breathe "And why am I even talking with you? You could threaten me in any second"

"Maybe so get lost" She stated then entered the cab and slammed the door harshly.

No wonder I hated her that much, she had hidden a manipulative person under the skin of the beautiful, lovely and gentle lady everyone else saw in her while I was the only one who had seen the truth in front of his eyes...

Present:

Because of everything I had learnt about her, I couldn't just forget everything and act like nothing really happened so even when I was holding her hand, flashes of the past kept hunting me therefore I lifted my hand right away and focused on the fact that we were only going to be pretending for a year.

Throughout the entire drive to college, we were both silent as the music's sound echoed in the background, adding more intensity to that moment. It seemed as if we both lost our voices in the process of teasing each other, and nothing was convenient to say.

Students' faces when we arrived to college, were priceless since everyone knew how much we hated each other since we barely spoke even though we shared most of our classes, and even if it happened that we shared some sort of discussion, we always ended up disconnected from other and in a deep debate where only voices heard were Nadia's and mine.

I seriously wanted to park immediately then leave because I had no mood to stay longer with Nadia especially after having those flashbacks, but then again, I remembered that we had an image to build up due to our companies and magazines which followed us everywhere we went. Hence, as soon as I parked the car, I went to her side and opened the car's door for her.

"What a gentleman" She chuckled as soon as her feet touched the ground.

"Remember, we have a reputation to keep clean" I whispered, loudly.

"Hum, then don't forget to wait for me after five hours, I kind of forgot my car parked in my garage, purposely" She removed her glasses, winked then put them back on with a mischievous grin covering her face.

"Hey" I held her wrists when she was about to leave, pulling her back.

"What?" She hissed at me.

"We didn't even get married and you're already losing your mind, just to spend time with me" I smirked at her, only because I knew how much she hated it "Am I that charming?"

With that I blew on her face playfully before locking the car, and leaving an outraged Nadia behind me, obviously counting ways of killing me like usual. And that was one of the reasons why teasing her was a pleasure to me, I just knew that I could get her under her skin and what could tease her easily... 

/*Please, don't forget to vote, thank you*/