I discovered it the hard way that big parties weren't for me. I felt so out of my element immediately Keith and I walked into the hall where the party was holding.

First of all, I couldn't understand why her 51st birthday was so grand. She was doing it big and I had never even celebrated my birthday. Seth had called it her birthday/business get-together. So you can imagine the caliber of people there.

My grip on Keith's arm must have tightened because he reached up to pat my hand and said "It's not as serious as it seems. Just calm down, smile and say hello."

Keith beside me muttered a good evening to people while I tried smiling politely to them. I was nervous and uncomfortable, and the way some women glared or sneered at me didn't help my case at all.

My eyes scanned the place filled with snotty rich people and I immediately I saw my dad, a real smile broke across my face. He was standing apart from the rest with what looked like a glass of Scotch in his hand. Before I could veer off to say hello to him, I heard my mother in-laws voice as she approached her golden boy.

"Son, I'm so happy you could make it." She said as Keith leaned down to kiss her cheek. She looked happy, all smiles and diamonds. Apparently she loved diamonds.

"Happy Birthday mother." He said with a smile of his own. When she looked at me, her smile faltered a little.

"Happy Birthday Amanda." I said, and when her eyes hardened, I realized my mistake immediately. I had called her Amanda and not ma'am or Mrs James. Oh well. It was already out there.

"Thank you Danica." She replied as she looked at me from head to toe. I felt small underneath her gaze. Finally, she turned back to look at Seth, inaudibly dismissing me. A beautiful blond joined us then saying "Your cocktail, Mrs James." And Amanda turned to beam at her. Apparently it wasn't that she didn't like young women. She just didn't like me.

"Keith have you met Grace Banks? She's Mr Banks' daughter, the one that has been away for years." Amanda said. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you. I have hear so much about you before." I didn't want to be there while my mother in-law introduced my husband to a beautiful woman that obviously had the take-me-to-bed look in her eyes, so I politely excused myself and made my way to my dad.

"Hey daddy. I'm so happy to see you here. I didn't know you'd make it." I said with a smile as I returned his hug.

"Hey baby. You look beautiful."

"Thank you. You don't look too bad yourself." I replied as I pulled his suit jacket a little. Then I asked why he wasn't mingling with the rest and he said he had mingled enough for the evening. Besides, he only attended because of the relationship between the families and because Amanda was his business partner. It was only polite to do that. I nodded. When the waiter passed with a tray, I took a glass of wine and looked around while nursing it.

I watched Keith and his mother, ever the social birds, welcome the guests and he looked so natural doing that.

"You don't have to look so uncomfortable Maya." My dad said beside me and I let out a deep sigh.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Very. Times like this, I wish I had introduced you to all these earlier."

At that, I laughed a little and whispered a little thank you to God that he hadn't. I heard my stomach growl and felt my face heat up. I was hungry.

"Didn't you eat something before leaving?" he asked and I turned to reply only to hear Keith's voice and that cut me off.

"Good evening Sir." He said to my dad and shook my dad's hand while his other arm went to the small of my back. I hadn't seen him leave his mother's side.

"How are you Son?"

"I'm doing very good Sir, and you?"

"I'm doing fine thank you." And so they went on and on about whatever it was they were talking about while his spicy cologne enveloped me and I unconsciously leaned into him to get more than a whiff of it.

"Maya what are you doing?" I heard and I discovered I had unconsciously closed my eyes leaned in and my dad was giving me a strange look. "Nothing." I replied in a high pitched voice as I let out a nervous laugh. I hoped my dad hadn't seen me being weird. Again, my stomach made that embarrassing noise and this time, it was Keith who said something.

"May I steal my wife for a moment Sir?" he said as he laced our fingers together, slowly dragging me away from my dad.

"Of course. She is your wife after all. I will see you around Maya." He replied with a smile and walked away as Keith led me away from where we were standing. I took another glass of wine from the tray of a passing waiter and Keith asked how many I had taken since our arrival.

"this is my fourth."

"I don't think you should take more on an empty stomach. Let's get you something to eat instead."

I nodded and as we walked towards the food area, I saw two familiar faces walk in. I tugged on his sleeve to stop him. "Leo and Sammy just came in." he frowned as he looked at me. "Why do you sound so excited?"

"I like Leo. He's friendly. Sammy, I don't really know him but he's your friend, so I guess he's okay. Don't be jealous. You're totally hotter than them." I said as I stood reached up to press my lips against his. I swear it was the alcohol. Normal me wouldn't have said or done that. Keith grinned at me.

"You know you've never kissed me before."

"Shut up" I muttered in an embarrassed voice.

"And you've got people talking too. Half of these people are against PDA. I like this side of you." He said with a smile that spelled naughty.

My eyes skirted around us, taking in the look of disapproval from older generation and the envy in the girls' eyes whereas some people didn't even care nor did some even notice.

Whoa. Would you look at that? Who would have thought that plain fat Maya would be the envy of the hot gorgeous beautifully slim tall ones? Wonders they say shall never end.

"So I can't kiss my husband in public again?"

"Shit you sound so hot when you say it like that. You can kiss me all you want." He replied as he leaned down to kiss me again, not even caring that people were talking, the current issue forgotten. Just then, I heard someone clear his throat and we turned to look at the person and saw a grinning Leo.

"Well who would have thought we'd see this kissy touchy side of Keith in public. Dude you look smitten. Hey Nica. You look gorgeous." He said as he leaned in to kiss my cheek. As we exchanged pleasantries, Sammy joined us.

"Sup Keith, Danica. You look nice." He said as he looked at me in a manner that made me feel naked, like he wanted to strip me out of the dress and have his way with me. I shivered in disgust. I excused myself and left in search of the restroom. Immediately I found it, I jumped in immediately and started struggling with the dress. I really needed to pee but didn't know how to go about it. I tried unzipping but remembered I couldn't do it on my own. When I reached out to the door of the stall to open it, I heard footsteps and giggles as some women walked in. I sighed and just kept quiet as I waited for them to leave so that I could go out in search of Keith.

"Mrs. James really does know how to throw the best parties." A voice said.

"I know right? And after not seeing Keith after all these months, the minute he walked in, I flooded my panties." Another voice replied.

"God! He's so hot. I can't believe he's married to that. I always thought he could do better than that. And the way they were kissing, maybe she felt desperate enough to show he belongs to her. Pure waste of such fine specimen." Voice number one said.

"Belongs to her my ass. They have been married for three years now, and Keith and I got together 6 months ago. It's obvious he doesn't want her sine he just sleeps with anyone that appeals to him the way he did before he even got married. Besides, I heard it was just a business arrangement to get their hands on her family property. I still find it hard to believe she's Gunther and Maria Roberts' daughter. DILF of a dad, super hot model of a mom, how did she turn out to be so...fat and plain? How does she live with herself? I swear I'd die if I ever add so much weight. Eww."

I pressed my fist against my lips to prevent a sound from leaving my mouth as tears burned the back of my eyes. I unconsciously blocked out their voices as I chanted be strong Maya in my head. I felt so humiliated. I knew people were mean but no one had ever said such mean things to me since high school, and what I heard in high school hadn't been as hurtful as everything I just heard from those girls. When i heard them walk out, I spent close to 5 minutes in there trying to calm myself before I finally reigned in my emotions and left the restroom, forgetting that I had wanted to pee.

I considered slipping away while Keith was preoccupied with his friends but then I shook my head against that idea. I didn't want to embarrass him. I made my way over to where he was with his friends and he frowned when he looked at me.

God let my eyes not be red, please.

"Why are your eyes red?" Damn it!

I plastered a fake smile on my face. "They do? I'm really tired and sleep deprived. It must be showing. Damn it. I didn't think it would be that obvious." I replied. He obviously didn't believe me but said nothing more on the issue. He handed me a plate of food and said "I got something for you" as he pulled me closer to him. I wanted nothing more than to go home and cry myself to sleep under the shower.

"Thank you." I whispered as I nibbled on the content of the plate while he went back to conversing with his friends. It tasted like carton in my mouth, not because it wasn't nice but because I wanted to leave and was no longer feeling like myself.

When Leo turned to say hi to someone and Sammy wandered off, Keith turned to me. "What's wrong Maya?" he asked softly and I shook my head. He sighed and cupped my cheek, raising my head so I could meet his eyes. "Do you want to leave now?"

I nodded and dropped the plate in the tray of a passing waiter as I took a glass of whisky from the tray, giving him an apologetic smile and making a silent request to which he nodded.

"Okay. We will just give the present to mother and leave alright?" I nodded, giving him a grateful smile. I didn't feel like talking. Apparently his mum had rented a room in the hotel for the night, and she had gone up about 5 minutes before I came out of the restroom and that was where we were going. The ride up to the room was a silent one, me thinking of my life and Keith tapping away on his phone. Soon I heard the ding, indicating that we had reached the floor where she was. Knocking on the door, Mrs Amanda James opened it, surprised to see us.

"Keith is everything alright?"

"yes mum. We just want to say goodnight to you, and we got you something." He replied her as he closed the door behind us. I gave him the small bag that contained the jewelry box which he had put in my bag when we were leaving and handed it over to her.

"Happy birthday once again mum." He said as she opened the box and gasped a little. She light reflected on the stones.

"Its beautiful. Thank you." She said as she looked at it over and over gain before closing it. She was obviously checking to know how real the stones were. Did she really think her golden boy would get her fake diamonds? And what was up with her love for diamonds? I just didn't get it.

Keith left me with her and walked into the adjoining bathroom. I pulled the scrapbook out of my purse. "I know it's not much but I made this for you." I said as I gave it to her. she looked at me before collecting it and then flipped through it before dropping it on the table.

"So Danica. It's not enough that you came here dressed like a prostitute, acting like a slut and indulging in PDA, you also had the guts to bring me something so...cheap."

"I..."

"You don't talk when I'm talking little girl. Even though I took it upon myself to ask you to not embarrass me, you didn't adhere to my words. I'd say I'm disappointed but that isn't a new thing is it?"

I took a deep breath and then picked up the scrapbook and put it back into my bag.

"You don't have to be such a bitch every time Amanda." I swear it was that whiskey.

"What did you just say to me?"

"I said, you don't have to be a little bitch every time. I left my books and everything important to make this scrapbook for you. I put my feelings into making this for you. If you didn't want it, all you had to do was tell me you didn't like it or pretend to like it, not out rightly hurt my feelings like this. It's not about the money or how expensive the gift is, but the thought that counts. You don't deserve my hard work. You don't deserve this scrapbook. By the way, your snobby act of spotting fake diamonds is one of the most useless things I've ever heard of, and that's saying a lot because I have heard of a lot of useless stupid things. Don't get me wrong. This, what I'm saying now, doesn't mean I no longer respect you as my mother in law. I do. This is just to show you that I won't let you hurt me like this again. If you don't like me, that is your problem. I was in my house minding my business before you and my father decided to plan this marriage thing. You must have known how I look, you must have known everything about me before you planned this thing, so don't go making my life miserable for no just cause. I didn't ask for this."

She just looked at me with wide eyes and just then, I heard the toilet flush and Keith came out looking pale and sweaty.

"Are you okay?" I asked him and he nodded as he patted his stomach lightly. "I don't think the caviar agrees with my stomach. Goodnight mother. We really have to go." He kissed her cheek and we left.