Tonight's party was really grand and I had to be there about an hour before it began, so I left early in the morning for my office to wrap up today's work and scheduled meetings.

As I parked into the office parking lot, I noticed my red Porsche. Uggh...Vanessa! Someone please tell me why she does every single thing that I ask her not to?

I quitely walked up to my cabin and sat in front of my laptop. I checked a few dozen mails that had piled up in my inbox. It had become a daily routine now. Once I was done, I finally sighed with relief. Now I could do something rather productive.

Mrs. Ludwig, my secretary had reminded me of a client meeting so I attended it and when I came back, I received a rather unexpected guest.

"Nate?", I furrowed my brows.

"Oh, Hi!", He stood up and greeted.

"All is well, I hope?"

"Yeah! My part of the party planning is done. How is Vanessa faring?"

"Why don't you ask her?", I deadpanned.

He slightly chuckled and asked, "Well if you haven't allready observed, me and Vanessa are not on the best terms."

"I see."

"I mean...she is rather immature and she forgets that it is just a healthy competition and gets insecure.", Nate sighed.

What was he trying to do? I was sure he wasn't here just to talk low of his sister.

"So...what brings you here?"

"Oh, I was just passing from here, so I decided to drop by. "

I nodded.

Suddenly, he asked me a question which I didn't expect, "So, Adrian, from your point of view, who do you think should be the next CEO?"

"Um...I don't know yet. I am ambiguous for now."

However, Nate pressed further, "Still...you might have an inclination towards one side. You are going to be one of the members on the board."

Oh! Now I get it. He was trying to get me onto his side. Good move but not smart enough...

"When time comes, I will choose. Till then, I am merely going to observe you two, just like the others on the board.", I gave him an assuring smile, cautiously weighing my words.

I might hate Vanessa's guts but...she did work hard and was pretty smart but then Nate was logical and calculative. So, I still didn't know, which one of them was better but I was sure this party would help clear a few doubts.

"Well, it is almost four, I better get going."

I shook hands with him as he started to leave. "You are coming alone or bringing someone?", Nate asked.

"Rebecca, my girlfriend."

"Sanders, huh?"

I nodded.

"Nice.", He smiled and left my cabin. Rebecca does seem to be popular with the Hudson family, I chuckled and went back to work.

After a while, when I had learnt me speech, I picked up my coat, and walked into my inbuilt office closet. Yeah! I have one. It is easy to change for a date, party or air trips and directly go there from the office.

I picked up a standard white shirt, black tie, and a two piece, black suit. I slipped on my Rolex watch, cufflinks and set my hair. I looked at myself in the mirror one last time and with my car keys, I left for Conrad.

■■■

I arrived at the venue about fifteen minutes prior to the commencement of the party and boy, was I impressed. Vanessa did quite a number with the decor. An 'AROUND THE WORLD' themed party could be difficult to decorate but monuments, flags and famous buildings along with famous delicacies were just what was needed.

I scanned the hall for a familiar face and I spotted Nate. He had just arrived with his wife, Olivia. I walked up to them and greeted.

"Hi", I smiled.

"Thank heavens you are on time.",Nate smiled.

When am I not? Oh! I knew what was going to follow...

"I wonder when Vanessa will learn to be punctual.", He rolled his eyes.

Yup! He was still bitching about her.

I excused myself and left saying that I had to make a phone call. His constant ranting was irritating but Nate was obviously not one to notice.

I sighed and walked out of the door to the hall. The guests would start arriving any minute now. I thought to myself, if Vanessa was late today, I swear to god, there was no way in hell that she would get the CEO position.

At that moment, I heard a ringing laugh. I turned to see who it was and found myself looking at Mrs. Smith and another girl whose back was turned towards me and was wearing a well-fitted lilac coloured off shoulder gown, her wavy brown hairs glimmering under the bright lights on the ceiling.

She said, "Well, It's all set then. I must head inside now."

Mrs.Smith said, "All the best."

The girl nodded in response before turning towards me. I recognised that voice very well and when I saw her, my previous doubts materialised.

Vanessa.

"There you are.",she smiled as she made a beeline towards me.

I would have replied but I was simply too awestruck by how beautiful she looked and the fact that how easily she could go from the girl wearing pyjamas and eating chips while working in the office at 2 am to this...

"Adrian...",she tapped on my arm.

"H...hi.",I replied, waving like an idiot even though she was standing just a feet away.

She frowned,"You okay?"

"Ya. I...I thought you were beau...you were late.", I recovered.

"To my own party? Never. I came here half an hour ago and decided to do a final check on everything."

"Good. Let's go."

Vanessa went over to greet the guests and I retreated back to Bryan, trying to get over my daze.

I was behaving as if I had a girl for the first time.

"Hi, Bryan.", Vanessa said as she walked up to us, half an hour later.

"Vanessa! You look beautiful.",Bryan smiled.

"Oh thanks. You look pretty good too."

"Love what you have done with the place.", he continued.

"Thanks. Well, does anyone know how to speak Japanese?", she looked towards me hopefully.

"No. Why?", I replied.

"Oh. Remember the Nukera file I came to your office to get?"

"There is no way that I could forget." I reminisced how she fainted and I had to carry her to the car.

"So the company that we are dealing with is based in Tokyo and the CEO is not so fluent in English and he is standing right over there with...umm...Nate.", she rolled her eyes.

"Let me guess, he speaks Japanese?",Bryan pitched in.

"Is there anything that he doesn't do?", Vanessa gave a half smile and shrugged.

"My dear princess!", said a man in his mid sixties from behind us as he came up to us with his wife.

"Oh my god! Uncle Sam.", Vanessa visibly cheered up as she threw a bear hug around him.

This must be her maternal uncle. I motioned to Bryan to come along and give their family reunion some privacy.

As we walked away in a different direction, Bryan asked me, "So you and Vanessa are friends now?"

"Well, I won't exactly say that.", I replied in deep contemplation.

"Atleast you are not pulling each others hair apart.", He chuckled and so did I, "Atleast not until the end of this party. After that, I don't know."

Once most of the guests filled in, drinks and starters began to make their rounds. Rebecca too arrived excusing herself for being fashionably late and I shrugged it off.

William gave his speech followed by me. I adressed them on the lines of how glad I was about this partnership, how this would help to build successful business relationship and strengthen the foundations of both the companies, etc. This was followed by another round of drinks and starters before Nate spoke. I picked up a glass of champagne for myself too.

Everything was going very well and the turnout was great. It might have been one of the most successful parties I had attended.

As I took a sip from my glass of champagne, I heard a loud shriek and turned my head around in the direction of the voice just to see Vanessa, her mouth agape as wine trickled down her dress.