"How about this?" I asked Whitney, holding up a wine dress. An off-the-shoulder, velvet evening gown with a heart-shaped neckline.

"Nah, I mean it would be nice with your skin but it's too simple, you know," she said, after giving the dress a mere glance.

"Then it's perfect, I want to blend in not stand out" I stated as I held the dress against my body.

"No, no, no" she wagged her fingers at me. "You're looking at this the wrong way. You are going to a fundraiser with that hunk of a man and a lot of rich people are going to be there. The last thing you want to look is beneath them."

It was a big event and the paparazzi were going to be there. Too much fuss, too much attention. I was beginning to reconsider this whole thing and why I even agreed to go to it. On another hand, who knows what important person I could charm into funding my future hospital? I shook my head with silent laughter.

"Okay, how about this one?" Whitney brought me out of my thoughts, holding up another gown. A short white shiny gown, with a three centimetres wide, one hand strap. It looked nice but covered less on the bottom.

"Did you forget I'm pregnant? Or are you getting that for yourself?" I moved unto another rack of evening gowns.

She placed the dress against her body. "This is actually a size large but now that I think about it, I should probably get one my size"

I snickered as I shook my head, browsing through the rack. I pulled out a black dress and at one quick glance, I sent it back to where it belonged. It was short and still spotted a high slit.

"You do realize that for him to invite you to be his plus one, it means he's not seeing anyone" Whitney piped up from three racks away.

I raised my eyes to her for a second then returned to breezing through hangers of dresses. "And you think that piece of information would somehow interest me, why?"

She scoffed. "Don't you see? There's a chance for you two to be something . . . once you drop the co-parenting façade, that is"

I shook my head and clicked my tongue as I moved unto another rack. "It's at times like this that I wonder how we're still friends"

She crossed over to my side. "I'm serious. He's making out time to spend with you, helping you cook –"she looked around the boutique for any eavesdropper and lowered her voice. "—he left you with his black card and doesn't mind if you make a dent on his account. Sweetie, that's a wet dream for some girls."

I rolled my eyes to the high ceilings. "I'm carrying the man's child. It's only appropriate for him to make an effort"

"Right" she nodded her head, her tone soaked with sarcasm.

"See, let's just take the wine dress and call it a day. I don't care about any rich people anymore. My feet are killing me" I whined and pointed back in the direction of the wine dress.

"No, we are not giving up." She said and glanced around for something. "Excuse me," she lifted her hand and beckoned over a shop attendant to us.

"Can you find something for my friend? The dresses were seeing just won't do" she said, putting on a sugary sweet smile.

The girl ran her eyes over my frame, her lips pursed in thought. After a few seconds, her face lit up, as if the typical light bulb had come on above her head.

"I think I have just the right thing for her. It was just brought in yesterday, one second" she excused herself and walked away.

"See, all we had to do was ask" Whitney popped up one shoulder, her face glowing with pride.

The girl returned with a gown, draped over her forearm in almost a second. The gown was beautiful, and stylish yet not over the top with frivolous ribbons and frills. The gown filled me with excitement just with one glance and from the look on Whitney's face, she was too.

"Okay, go try it" Whitney dumped the dress into my hands and ushered me towards the changing room.

It took me some minutes to get out of my white tee and black leggings, and into the gown. I tugged the deep neckline closer as I stepped out. A loud gasp escaped Whitney's mouth as she slapped her hands over her mouth and nose, whilst the shop attendant had on a wide grin.

The shimmering cinnamon brown gown hugged my protruding belly with a flattering snug. It had a deep V neckline, and the skirt was cinched to one side and opened up in a slit just above my knee. Whitney rushed over to my side and slid the left side of the dress, down my shoulder. The elastic around the slightly puffed-up sleeve stayed in place after being altered by Whitney.

"Oh my God, we are so taking this dress" Whitney gushed and I chuckled.

This dress was no better than the other dresses I shoved back because of long slits or exposing necklines but I still wanted to go for it. I think I'm just biased towards the colour of the dress. It also felt so soft and smooth against my skin, despite the outer, shimmery layer.

"I agree"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I put my gelled hair into a bun and wrapped a mid-back long ponytail hair extension around it. I allowed Whitney to bathe my face with her makeup powers, just for tonight. I warned her to not go too heavy on the makeup, seeing as she was more excited than I was. Once I got the chance to look in the mirror, I was pleasantly surprised. She transformed me from being pretty to a goddess.

There was a knock on the front door and Whitney skipped out of my room. I giggled as I picked up my purse and low heels, and headed out to the living room. Her silly giddy energy was rubbing off on me. Nicholas lifted his eyes to me, mid-conversation with Whitney and didn't break contact for a second. I bit the insides of my cheeks and averted my eyes as I neared the duo. I tugged on the part of the neckline that rested on the arch of my shoulder. Whitney made sure I wore it, past my shoulder as she had done in the boutique.

"Hi" I whispered once I reached him.

"Hey," he lowered his eyes to the dress and back to my face. He swallowed, his Adam's apple visibly bobbed in his throat. "You – You are beautiful"

"Thank you," I ran my eyes over his appearance. A fitted black tuxedo. He had his hair parted on its side and swept back, exposing a low undercut. "You look handsome, too"

I raised my low heels and dangled them in the air. "I just need to put these on and we'll be on our way." I moved to sit down on the chair but Nicholas held me back, by the arm.

"Let me," he took the heels from my hands and led me to the sofa.

I shot Whitney a backward glance just before I lowered myself into the sofa. She had a wide grin on her face and upon meeting my eyes, she swiped her tongue over her upper lip and wiggled her brows.

Nicholas reduced himself to a squat and lifted the right heel. I clasped my hands on my thighs, in front of my belly, picking at my nails. He lifted his eyes to mine as he raised my leg and slid his palm down to my feet. I inhaled and tucked my lips in as he put on the heel and buckled the ankle strap. My left leg was another ball game, it was the one with the above knee slit. Once he lifted the left foot, I shifted in my seat, my fingers crawled towards the start of the slit and held it in place.

I waited with bated breath till he placed my foot back down against the floor. "Th – Thank you"

He gave me a subtle nod and then held out a hand to me. I looked from his outstretched palm to his face then averted my eyes to the sofa where I'd placed my matching purse. I grabbed the purse and blindly placed my hand in his and let him pull me up to my feet.

"Oh my God" Whitney mouthed as we walked past her to the front door. After we stepped out of the apartment, she attached herself to the door frame. A big smile plastered across her face as she waved her fingers at us. "Bye guys"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wealthy and snotty people, who didn't give a damn about the cause of the event filled up the bright, large hall. Most were here to flaunt how successful they were, but who cares? They were just a means to an end and as long as that goal was met, it didn't matter what they did or said. A few of my superiors at the hospital spotted me and Nick together, and the mask of surprise that took over their faces probably matched mine. The fact that they would attend this event skipped my mind, and to think we host events like this as well. I guess the cat's out of the bag.

Halfway into the event, I was bored out of my mind. I sat in the corner, near a buffet table, watching people move about the hall. I really didn't want to exchange greetings and mingle with anyone at the moment. The donations hadn't even started and I was ready to go home and turn in for the night. The fake smiles had worn me out. The minute we stepped into the hall, It was like everybody wanted a piece of him. They kept coming up and introducing themselves or making small talk. After a while, Nicholas ushered me to this table, to sit down for a while after being on my feet for so long.

I glanced around the room and my eyes landed on Nick's family. His mother's eagle eyes scanned the room in search of someone. I averted my eyes to the table, my heart pumping hard against my chest. Please, Lord, don't let that woman see me. I picked up my glass of water from the table with shaky hands and took a long sip. Why didn't I think they would be here as well?

A figure appeared by my side, casting a dark shadow over me. Oh, God. I took my time to lift my gaze to the intruder of my space and met with the soft smile of Evelyn Wilson. I visibly exhaled and managed a small smile.

"Oh, don't worry. My mom hasn't seen you yet" she said as she pulled me up for a hug. Her eyes ran over my attire and widened. "Wow, you're really stepping out tonight. This is beautiful, I'm so jealous"

"Thank you," I chuckled and gestured to her sparkling champagne-coloured evening down. She had her auburn hair, wrapped into a fancy bun at the base of her head. "You look beautiful, as always"

She shrugged one shoulder, her smile not faltering a second. "Thank you, I try"

"Does Nick know you all are here?" I asked

She glanced around for him. "He should. We always get invitations to these events"

I smiled and nodded. I'm never doing this again.

"So where is my brother, anyways? And why would he leave you by yourself?" Her smile relaxed into a straight line and her brows knitted together.

"I'm right here" Nicholas announced from behind me and placed a hand over my lower back. I looked over my shoulder at him and he dropped his hand to his side.

"Why would you leave her alone like that?" Evelyn pressed on.

"Relax, she wasn't alone for that long. Would you rather I make her walk around with me?" he stuffed his hands into his pocket.

"I see your point," she said and picked a glass of white wine off the tray of a passing waiter.

As the two siblings chattered off about random subjects, I tuned out and focused on the band across the room. They had been playing the instrumentals of popular pop songs all evening. It became a fun game of 'guess the song' for me whenever a new tune started out. I moved my attention to an old couple on the spacious dance floor, they were bopping to a slowed instrumental version to 'love me like you do'. A smile tugged on my lips as I followed their movement and animated chatter, they didn't care for any other person in the room.

Nicholas's hand found and held mine. The pad of his thumb caressed the back of my palm, arching back and forth. He had a glass of wine in his other hand and his focus trained on his sister. He didn't even realize what he was doing. I looked down at our clasped hands then at Evelyn, who was just as invested in their conversation. If I pulled away, it'd distract him and in turn, draw Evelyn's attention to us. That'll just make much out of nothing.

I'd managed to refocus my attention on the dance floor when Nicholas stiffened beside me and tightened his grip on my hand. Evelyn's face fell and her words cut abrupt as she looked off in a distance. I traced their line of sight to the approaching figure of his mother in a forest green gown and a copper red-haired lady in a black evening dress. The duo had on wide sugary smiles but Nicholas's mother's creeped me out the most.

"Nicholas dear. How are you, son?" Rosa said, as soon as she reached us.

"I'm well" Nicholas gritted out, glaring down at his mother.

Her smile widened. "You remember Camille?" She gestured to the lady beside her.

At the mention of her name, the lady subtly jutted out her chest. I wasn't sure what to focus on more, her deep red lips pulled up in a seductive pout or her breast about to spill out of the heart-shaped bodice of her gown.

There was a sharp intake of air on Nicholas's end and he clenched his glass hard. I was eternally grateful he had abandoned my hand before they had neared us because I wouldn't give anything to be in that glass's position. As I looked at each face present in this small circle, the only question that swivelled around in my mind was: How and when was I cast in this Netflix original movie?

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