As soon as the door had closed behind Douglas, I knew instantly I should've said something. Something in reply to what he had said, something to at least acknowledge the fact that he worried for me. Anything really.

It took another second or two to work up enough courage to reach out and grab the door handle before I pulled it open and followed after Douglas.

Douglas was already walking down the hallway, his intimidating figure almost to the elevator that led down to the lobby.

"Wait," I called out before I could even began to second-guess myself or even hesitate. It seemed I was doing that a lot lately. Especially when it came to Douglas Burns, I did a lot of second-guessing.

Douglas stopped in his step, pausing, from where I stood I could see he was tensed and a little bit shocked. In his shoes, I would be too, granted I had never given him any notions of having any intentions of running after him.

After a full minute of him standing with his back still towards me, and me running through the countless reasons why I should've just stayed in my room, Douglas turned his head to meet my gaze. "Yes?" His voice was devoid of any emotion, almost as if the couple of minutes in my apartment hadn't just happened. As if he hadn't just told me that he was worried about me.

I opened my mouth to say something, but found myself hesitating. What was I to say?

I hesitated, and in that time, Douglas had turned around fully to face me. "Krys?"

"Uh..." My eyes found themselves staring at my bare feet. In my rush to follow after him, I hadn't put on any shoes. "Uh... thank you." I should've said more but I just couldn't bring myself to muster up any words.

Douglas gave me a small smile as if he knew what I wanted to say, although I myself was lost to it. Surprisingly his smile made it feel like what I said, or failed to say was alright.

"I'll see you later Krys," Douglas said before he turned around and left, leaving me standing there, watching him in my bare feet.

•••

It was three days later that Nancy talked me into letting her go into work.

That, of course, included her sitting me down and saying that her work helped her de-stress in some sort of way the doctor and I wouldn't understand. She also somewhat bribed me by saying that she'd be bringing home some macaroons and croissants. Who can say no to macaroons?

I had called into the Burns residence after getting no answer from either Douglas, Will or even Georgia.

Quincy answered the phone with his usual formal tone that spoke volumes on which decade he'd been born in.

"Hey Quincy," I greeted in my usual mordern talk. "I tried to reach Douglas and everyone, they didn't answer."

"Mr Davis is meeting up with some acquaintances of his today at the club while Ms Frost didn't say where she was headed before leaving."

"And Douglas?" I felt my breath caught as I said his name.

I heard silence from the other end and could picture Quincy hesitating on the other end. Before I could push for an answer, he gave me one, "Mr Burns is currently quite tied-up in a personal matter and indisposed at the moment."

The reply was to the point yet not to the point. In fact Quincy was curt. He didn't sound this curt even when I was insinuating Douglas was spending his free time reading Playboy. His tone allowed for no further prying.

Whatever it was that was happening with Douglas, he didn't want anyone to know or interfere. I clearly got the message that it was a 'Burns only' problem.

But me being me, I just had to continue poking at the sleeping lion, or dragon in this case.

"What do you mean 'indisposed'? Is Douglas sick?" I started worrying that Douglas was feeling sick after having come over the other day to check in on Nancy. Only after he left did I realize it had been raining and that his Henley had been wet from the rain, and he'd really been spending some quality time with it.

I chuckled dryly at the irony of it all. Three days ago Douglas had come over to visit because he was worried about me, but now here I am worried about him where there is a high probability of him being sick because of his visit that day.

"I did mention that it was a personal matter, Ms Sanders. Unless Mr Burns gives his expressed permission for me to disclose his personal business, I don't think you are entitled to it."

I felt a little taken aback by both his tone and his words, but then I realized that I shouldn't have even tried to be a busybody, wanting to know everyone's business.

I took a deep breath, composing myself in the hopes that I wouldn't sound hurt. "I understand, Quincy. But all I want to know, is Douglas going to be okay?"

I heard Quincy sigh into the phone as if he was defeated. Whatever was happening with Douglas affected him hard. Especially given that he had been with the Burns family for more than twenty years. He must've thought of Douglas as family.

"Eventually," he replied. "With time. I'll speak with you later then, Ms Sanders."

And before I could even conjure up a response, he hung up, the dial tone resounding from the other end.

I placed my phone on the couch next to me before slouching on the couch and planning to rest.

My thoughts were filled with worry about Douglas. What was wrong with him? Did he really get sick from the rain that day? Or was it something else?

I couldn't help but let my thoughts go wild with the endless possibilities of shatter could've happened with Douglas and soon enough I had even started to wander about how his death (yeah, my thoughts really went to some dark places) would impact me.

Just as I started to ponder on that, I heard the doorbell ring.

Confused as to who would be at the door at this time, I headed to the door and answered it.

"Georgia?" the name of the leggy blonde standing on my doorstep with a basket of goodies escaped my lips before she pulled me into a lax hug.

"Nice apartment!" Georgia exclaimed after releasing me and walking in, before plopping down onto the couch.

"Uhm...welcome...?" my tone held a hint of awe as I stared at Georgia a fraction of a moment before closing the door and sitting down next to her. "What brings you here?"

She shined her pearly whites at me before she continued, "I missed you, so I thought I should come for a visit. Besides I brought you house-warming presents," she placed the baskets filled with goodies on the coffee table. It was filled with an array of stuff you usually took to a house-warming party.

"But Quincy said you-"

"Yeah," she shot me a look of guilt. "I forgot to tell him I was coming to take you shopping."

"Shopping?"

"Yeah. Didn't Douglas tell you the other day I would be taking you out?" She picked a giant, chocolate chip cookie out of the gift basket and handed it to me before she took one for herself.

"He did, but he didn't exactly mention a day..." I let the words linger, trying to think up if he ever did mention it, before coming up short.

"Yeah, I didn't give him one. But since we need to get outfits for tonight, we might as well go today."

"What happens tonight?"

"We're going to a party."

It took some convincing for Georgia to get me to go with her to both the shopping and the party, and even more to get me to try on something that wasn't a pair of jeans or shorts.

In the end, I picked a black floral print maxi dress, something that suited the weather.

"Who exactly is coming to this party?"

"Will, Evan, Dylan and obviously wherever Dylan is, Alex will be," Georgia replied as she parked outside a huge mansion that was nearly as big in size compared to the Burns mansion but not quite as extravagant. There were many cars parked outside and they were all in the same price range as a three bedroom house, or a condo in New York.

"Won't that cause some unwanted publicity?" I asked remembering the incident at the beach that day where the crowd of people had been all over Dylan and Alex.

Georgia applied a new coat of lipstick quickly before she replied, "No. Everyone here is used to hanging around both of them. Besides, the party is exclusive and they like their privacy."

I nodded, realizing that most probably everyone attending this party was high up in the society and weren't really that surprised to see a top celebrity couple walking among them. Just as I was about to ask her something else, I realized that she hadn't mentioned someone.

"How about Douglas?" I knew he was sick, but I hoped she would be more forthcoming with information compared to Quincy.

"He can't make it tonight. He-" Just before she could continue whatever it was she was going to say, the door to her BMW M3 was thrown open and Will was standing me.

"I thought I recognized the car," he said as he smiled widely at me. He was wearing a pair of black and blue boardshorts and a white polo shirt. "Krystal!" He leaned into the car and hugged me before I could properly muster up a response.

"Hey Will. Nice to see you," I said as the scent of sea and salt hit me. His hair was wet and his shirt stuck on him. The smell of sea permeated from his entire body. "Have you been swimming?"

He nodded. "I love the sea," he replied as he pulled back. "Besides what's a good party without some hot girls pulling out their sexy swimwear, right?"

I smiled, nodding along as I got out of the car. Georgia followed soon after and hurried to my side before she started telling Will off for opening the door like that and possibly damaging her car.

I excused myself from their bickering and went to join Dylan and Alex who were standing and talking with a guy in only boardshorts. Alex broke away when she saw me heading towards them and came towards me.

She looked stunning in a red mini floral patterned dress with a pair of sneakers. I smiled at the combo she was undeniably pulling off. The red dress made her red hair even more attention grabbing.

"Krystal," she said and pulled me into a hug before I could even say anything. Apparently she was a hug person.

"Hey Alex."

"I didn't know you were coming," she said. "Dylan said that you were busy with some family problems."

I nodded. "Yeah, but everything's okay now."

"Great to hear," she started walking towards the house. I started following after her. "I was worried. But I'm glad everything's okay now."

We entered the huge mansion and it was blasting with music and the place was filled with people in summer wear, the girls were either wearing swimwear showing off their stunning, tanned bodies or wearing summer dresses just like me.

Some were dancing along to the music while others were talking or downing drinks.

"Let's get some refreshments, okay?" Alex asked and before I could even say anything else, she was dragging me towards what I could only guess to be the kitchen where the refreshments were stored.

She grabbed us a can of soda each once we reached there before nodding towards the far right of the house. "Let's go to the beach. It's usually the best place to hang out at at this shindigs."

I chuckled as I followed after her, navigating the crowd before we reach the glass doors that led to the large expanse of the beach.

The path from the balcony down to the beach was decorated with tiko Los lighting the way, and lights were decorating the palm trees.

A tiny hut-like structure had speakers blasting out music out of it and refreshments were in several eskeys. People were lounging around the sand or grooving along drunkedly to the music.

"So I guess you don't really like coming to this parties?" I asked Alex as we took a seat on the beach chairs just near the path.

She took a swig of her soda before she faced me. "I do, but sometimes from the filming and the promotions, I just feel like going home, grabbing a tub of Ben & Jerry's and just having a Harry Potter marathon or a Supernatural marathon (#)."

I nodded along. "I may not have the same exciting life as you, but I understand."

We got to talking about several things, some things I was curious about like movie stuff and some about her funny anecdotes about how she met Dylan and how they had hated each other at first before she finally, in her words, "I fell for the idiot."

Just as she was talking about how their first kiss had happened, I heard a familiar voice say from somewhere near us, "Let's go somewhere private, baby."

I turned away from Alex, looking towards the direction of the voice.

Douglas stood about ten feet away, wearing only a pair of boardshorts and beside him was a raven haired petite girl.

"Douglas?" The words escaped my lips and suddenly Douglas' eyes were fixated on me.