I pressed the button for the fifty seventh floor and looked at my watch. It was only two-thirty.

Earlier, Adrian had texted me to come home by three. I was curious as to why he had asked me to do so on a monday when weekday dates were off-limits for both of us due to our busy schedules.

I left my office right after finishing lunch because if I had gone back to work, it is safe to assume I would have never reached here on time. However, now I was early and was half expecting Adrian to not have reached yet.

Once I reached my floor, I fished for the keys in my bag to unlock the door to the duplex condo Adrian and I had purchased last year after months of house hunting.

After the house was fully furnished and decorated, something which took much longer than I had expected, we finally moved in together last december.

I smiled as I remembered how furiously Adrian was blushing when he had first asked me to move in with him.

I went inside and to my relief, he was already here. It would have been disappointing if I had arrived early for once only to have to wait for him to show up.

I put my handbag on the black seven seater sofa in the middle of the room and walked over to Adrian, who was wearing a dark blue shirt rolled up to his elbows and black pants.

He was busy talking to someone on the phone, standing by the floor length window overlooking Central park and the building surrounding it, which lit up at night like starts. One of the reasons why we chose this house...well, actually the one reason that had Adrian's eyes glued to this property ever since we first saw it.

I tapped on his back and waved with a smile as he turned back.

He frowned at me and then looked at his watch,"How are you early?"

"Not the reaction I was expecting. Am I interrupting something?", I asked.

"I just need to make a few important phone calls. You go freshen up. I'll meet you upstairs in ten minutes. Okay?", he said, pressing a kiss to my forehead.

"Okay.",I smiled and went straight up to the bedroom.

This room had a tale behind how its interior came to be.

Adrian and me, both sleep on the left side of the bed so whenever we used to sleep over at each other's place, the person who owned the house got the side they preferred. Now that we had both bought this house, we had to come up with a new rule for bed sharing.

After a lot and I mean a lot of arguments over it, I got the side of the bed I wanted.

For free?

As if Mr.I-do-business-not-charity would let me have it just like that.

He traded his side of the bed for being able to get the room designed as per him, with black wallpapers, a king sized bed, two bean bags, a tv, our pictures and a cabinet with trophies but no decorations whatsoever so my dreamcatcher and decorative flower pots had to be tucked away in the storeroom.

I don't know about him but I still feel like I got the better deal.

I decided to take a quick shower while I was waiting for Adrian which turned into a not so quick one but when I got out, he still wasn't here.

I dried my hair and went to my closet to look for something to wear but it didn't budge. I tugged at the door once more but to no avail. It didn't take long to figure out that it was locked.

I slipped back into my undergarments from before and put on an oversized black t-shirt from Adrian's closet to go downstairs.

"Dude, why is my closet locked?", I asked Adrian who was still on his phone, despite my taking well over ten minutes to get ready.

He pointed at his phone with his free hand and raised two figures mouthing,"Two minutes."

I shook my head in disapproval but went to the sofa to sit down to wait but the call outlasted my patience.

I picked up a throw pillow and launched it at him, followed by another.

As they hit him, he looked back at me, mouthing,"Stop!"

"Put the phone down and I'll stop."

"Two minutes",he mouthed again.

"I am pretty sure your two minutes were up fifteen minutes ago.", I rolled my eyes.

"Fine, just one minute.",he said and turned around.

I launched another pillow at him but he caught it mid-air and smirked.

Bloody Ninja!

I grabbed onto three more but he cut the call and I let go of them, sighing with relief,"Finally!"

Adrian walked over to me and gave me a sheepish smile,"Not quite actually."

"What?"

"I just realized that there is one more thing I need to take care of."

"Oh come on!",I yelled, throwing the rest of the pillows at him.

Adrian caught the one that flew to his face and tossed it away. He arched his eyebrow,"Will you stop? What are you even trying to do?"

"These are called throw pillows so I am throwing them. At you!",I said and aimed the last one left on the sofa.

He dodged it and sat beside me,"They are called that to throw onto the sofa and not at your boyfriend."

I complained,"You called me home in the middle of a working day so that I can watch you talking over your phone? And why is my closet locked?"

"I will answer all of that. Just let me make this one final call."

I opened my mouth to protest but he smiled,"I promise."

Now, that I had told him I trusted him to follow through with any promise he made, he had been making more and more promises to me, anytime he wanted to get me to stop arguing.

I groaned and got up from the sofa to pick up the pillows and put them back in place. While I was doing that, an idea popped into my head.

He may have a few tricks up his sleeve, but he was dealing with someone who had an arsenal .

I walked back to Adrian who kept talking to the guy on the phone,"Yes, receive them and get them to the venue within an hour..."

He looked up at me in surprise as I sat on top of him to straddle him, my hands locked behind his neck.

"What are you doing?", he covered his phone with his hand and whispered.

"Getting you away from that damned phone."

"And how do you plan to do that?"

"You'll see.", I passed him a lopsided grin.

"Is that a challenge, sweetheart?"

My lips brushed against his ear as I whispered,"It's not a challenge if I know I'll win."

"Let's test that theory, shall we?", he mocked and then returned to the person on the phone,"What was I saying? Yes, the previous route was..."

My lips softly grazed his ear as my hands slipped down to his chest, over his steady heartbeats.

"...was fine. No, no need. I don't want any..."

Adrian drew a sharp breath when my lips made contact with his jaw and I could feel his heartbeats quicken. I traced his jawline with my lips as my hands unbuttoned his shirt.

"...a-any last...last moment..."

I pulled his shirt off him and leaned in to steal a quick kiss. Adrian parted his lips but I backed out when I was close enough, smirking at the frustration evident in his dark eyes.

"...distractions."

I cupped his face and tilted it to get better access to his neck. I lowered my face and his strong deodorant invaded my senses making me stop to breathe it in.

I pressed lingering kisses along his neck and Adrian put his hand on my back to draw me closer to him but he did not stop fighting to find words to continue talking on his phone.

"I...um...I...yes..."

I kissed his neck again, this time with urgency as my impatience grew, each breath laboured. I heard Adrian curse under his breath as I worked my way back to his jaw.

He gently pushed me away from him with one hand and I looked up into his tempest eyes. He held my gaze for a moment before shutting his eyes and sighing,"Julius? Speak to Bryan about the rest. Something urgent came up."

I pressed my lips together to suppress the smug smile forming on my face.

He cut the call and placed his phone on the centre table and looked at me with disapproval.

"Told you I'll win.", I stuck my nose up in the air.

"But you didn't."

"You put down the phone. I won.",I frowned, ready to fight him for an honour no one cared about...except maybe a bazillion girls who were heartbroken when Adrian and I lasted past the "one week mark" and because of whom my instagram page had to be made private.

"So?"

"What do you mean by so? I won fair and square."

Adrian brought his hands upto my waist and grinned,"Did you really win if I get the prize?"

I raked my fingers through his hair,"Debatable."

"Then let's debate some other time. Right now, I just want to kiss my girlfriend.", he said as he turned me around to pin me to the sofa.

Adrian tilted my face towards him and heat rose from my stomach to my chest as his lips closed in on mine, locking me in an urgent, needy kiss. My toes curled as his hand slid up my t-shirt which then joined his on the floor.

His mouth left mine to kiss my neck and then hovered over my collar bone, making a shiver crawl down my searing body. He looked back at me with the same smirk that I had when he was the one getting frustrated before claiming my lips for a second time but this kiss was short lived and ended abruptly once Adrian's phone started ringing.

"Do you need to pick it up?",I asked.

"Definitely not.", he replied, between breaths.

Adrian stretched out his arm to cut the call but due the his awkward position, propped over me on the not-so-broad sofa, he fell down taking me with him.

"Oww!", we both groaned as my head hit his.

I climbed off him, rubbing my forehead and picked up the phone which was still ringing. It was not a call but an alarm for three-fifteen labeled "CHECK ON NESSA".

"Why would you have to check on me when we are here?", I asked, picking up my t-shirt and slipping back into it.

Adrian got up from the floor and answered,"Because my original plan was to get out of here before you reached home."

"And why would you do that?",I frowned.

"You didn't think I called you all the way from your office for a make out session, did you?",he grinned.

My face flushed but I recovered quickly,"No but whatever you had in mind would not match up to this, would it?"

"Actually what I have in mind is much better.", he said, buttoning his shirt.

"Now I am curious. What are we doing today?"

"It's a surprise. You need to get dressed first.",Adrian told me.

"I would if my closet wasn't locked."

"Oh right! That's exactly why I had to check on you, incase you didn't call me first. Anyways, the key is on the fridge."

"Fri...why?", I frowned.

"You'll find out. As for me, I have to leave now. A few final preparation for the surprise need to be made, the ones that you interrupted.", he looked at me accusingly before winking,"Worth it!"

I giggled.

He swooped in for a goodbye kiss and left. I locked the door behind him and went straight to the kitchen.

On the fridge was the closet key attached to a fridge magnet holding a photograph. The picture was of the cover of Eccentric from four years ago, with me and Adrian dancing at the ball, back in Cairo, after we had had a huge fight, yelling horrible things at each other.

Next to it was note saying :

"We may not have been in the best place that day but it was our first official picture together."

If someone had dared to tell us back then that we'd get together later, I think we would have strangled the messenger and then each other.

I went upstairs and found a huge, black dress cover in my closet, which wasn't there before. I opened it to reveal a beautiful tea lenght dress with a burgundy bodice having spaghetti straps and a darker ombre bottom.

As I looked at the label with "Greys-Conner" scrawled across it, my eyes widened. This dress must be from Charlotte's yet to be released winter collection.

I picked up the dress and found another photograph attached to the back of the dress cover.

It was a picture of me trying to get away from Adrian who was chasing me with a snowball, from the time me, Charlotte, Cassandra and Kevin had a snowball fight and I, being the least annoying human in the world, threw a snowball at an angry Adrian who had just had a fight with his father.

I read the note stuck beside it: "Snowball fights could be an initiation ritual because that's the day you became a part of our family.

Get dressed and go down by four, a car will be waiting for you.

P.S: For the love of god and fashion, wear red sandals."

It was from Charlotte, who I hadn't seen since she left for her extravagant honeymoon with Bryan on an all-expenses-paid trip to Europe that Adrian got them as a wedding present.

When did she come back?

How long had Adrian been planning this surprise for?

He had been busy the past few days, was this why?

But for what?

I funny idea crossed my mind but I decided not to pay much head to it.

I put on the dress, a pair of flower shaped diamond earrings, a pair of maroon wedges, brushed my hair and went downstairs.

As soon as I got out of the building, a black Mercedes pulled over.

On some other day, I would have found this really creepy and would have run in the opposite direction but right now, I opened the back door and slipped into the car.

The chauffeur passed me an envelope and I opened it to find yet another photograph. This one had me kissing Adrian on the cheek as we clicked a picture together on our first date.

Adrian had been so nervous to make everything perfect that he had gone overboard. The restaurant he booked was so fancy that we literally got a spoonful of bland food per plate. We ended up ditching the restaurant mid meal, picking up a hot pizzas from a pizza place and going for a long drive.

The note along with it said: "We may not always be on the same page but in dad's words, you compliment my crazy and that makes everything worth the trouble."

I smiled to myself. It was true, Adrian and I argued on a lot of things, but at the end of the day, we were more alike than we are different.

I looked outside the window, trying to figure out where I was being taken but with each passing minute, I became more clueless.

If confusion had a face, it would be the one I was making as I walked out of the car that had stopped at a marina, all the way in Brooklyn, on the other side of the Manhattan bridge.

I walked closer to the edge of the dock as wind blew through my hair. Due to the weight stitched at the bottom of my dress, my skirt stayed in place. Charlotte must have been aware that Adrian was planning to bring me here.

What was so special about this date that she had gifted me a custom dress that wasn't even on the market yet?

The funny thought from before threatened to invade my mind again but I had told Adrian I was not in a hurry and would be patient with him. Plus, I didn't want to end up like the girls from movies who went on a surprise date expecting a ring and ended up with a puppy instead.

"Hey beautiful.",Adrian's voice brought me back to reality.

I spun around to see him, wearing a charcoal grey suit, matching tie and a black shirt.

"Wow! The dress, the pictures and notes, now you...this surprise is beyond amazing. I love you."

"I love you too...and who said this was the surprise?"

"It is not? I am so confused. Why is this date so extravagant? Am I forgetting some important date? What is today?"

"You tell me, what happened on thirtieth November?",he smiled, offering me his arm.

We began walking along the dock while I went over all the birthdays, anniversaries and important dates I could recall.

As we stopped in front of a yacht, I remembered.

I looked up at Adrian and smiled,"Four years ago, today was the day we first met."

"It is. And tomorrow will mark four years from the day you locked me in a sauna. I should stay out of all kinds of baths and spas for a while, just in case you become nostalgic.", he chuckled.

"Hey! How long are you going to hold that over me?",I swatted his arm.

"Forever.", he said, a soft smile playing at his lips, not at all like the mischievous grin I had imagined him to have.

Curious.

What was going on in his head?

Right after we went upto the deck, the yacht undocked. I leaned on the white railings at the back end, looking up at the hues of orange beginning to take over the sky.

I looked back at Adrian and exclaimed,"I can't believe you rented an entire luxury yacht for a date."

"It's not just any date.",he replied with the same subtle smile from before.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Before I could probe him for answers, someone called for me,"Excuse me, ma'am?"

"Yes?", I turned around to face the steward on board, holding out an envelope.

He passed the envelope to me. I looked up at Adrian and he motioned me to open it, the excitement visible on his face.

I pulled out the picture of him and me smiling at each other, from Charlotte's wedding along with a note:

"That day you told me why you could see yourself spending the rest of your life with me.

Today, it's my turn."

I looked up from the note, at a smiling Adrian. My heart began thudding as he held my hand.

Was he...?

His blue eyes filled up with a mixture emotion as he began,"You told me that trust is the most important thing for you in our relationship, for me it is understanding. With you, I always want to improve but never change. You understand my hesitation in making commitments and you accept me not despite but with all my shortcomings. You were right, no one can be a hundred percent sure about forever but there is one thing that I am sure about."

My nose began burning as tears pricked at the corners of my eyes but the moment he knelt down in front of me, my heart leaped into my throat and I forget how to breathe.

"You are worth the risk and if forever is real, there is no one else I'd rather have it with. So, Vanessa Catherine Hudson...", Adrian said, pulling out a black box from his coat pocket.

He opened it to put the ring inside on display but I could barely see anything as my vision blurred with tears.

He beamed,"...You've got a pretty long name as it is but would you like to add Greys to the back of it and marry me?"

This felt surreal.

It wasn't the fact that I was being proposed to but that this meant I was going to spend the rest of my life with him, someone I loved and someone who loved me back just as much.

I was so overwhelmed with emotions that my tears refused to stop. I cupped my face and took a deep breath and then another, trying to steady myself.

I looked at him, holding the box in which lay a soft square-shaped diamond ring with an thin, intricately designed band encrusted with smaller diamonds and I shouted in delight, choking on my tears,"Yes! Yes, I will."

He slipped the ring onto my finger and got back up, still smiling as I kissed him for the first time as my fiancé.

I heard a loud hoot behind us followed by thunderous clapping and I turned to see my families cheering for us.