Lena Pov

Scarlett and I say goodbye to Chris and Selena after spending four hours with them. We ate, talked and just had some fun. It was time for Scarlett and I to explore London. We went up to get changed so we could plan out the rest of the day. I want to look nice today so I wore some light brown trousers with a turtleneck. Since it's October I find my brown coat to go with my trousers. I find a belt, I lost weight again and everything is falling off and a bit baggy on me. Ugh, I hate it. I put on some jewelry and look into the mirror.

I look very slim. I raise up my shirt to check if I still have abs. I in fact still do. I just have some ribs poking out.

"Are you ready Lena?" Scarlett shouts from the hallway.

"Yeaah! I'm coming." I yell back tucking my turtleneck into my trousers and take a deep breath.

"you got this Lena. You can do this." I whisper to myself and walk out my room. I find Scarlett sitting in the living room.

"Hey, are you ready to go?" I ask with my keys in hand.

"Yeah, oh wow you look... you look great." She mutters looking at me up and down.

"Thank you, come let's head out. I chose the Range Rover for today. It had tinted windows and I figured you'd want that more." I explain as we walk down to the garage.

"Thank you, I actually appreciate you thought of that." She says surprised.

The two of us drive to my infamous café, my safe place. I've shown this place to Selena but not to her. She said she would give me a choice on where to go first and I immediately knew this was it.

I find a good parking space and we step out of the car.

"Where are we headed?" She asks

"To my favourite café around here." I say and grab her hand. She intervenes her fingers with mine and we walk into the quiet little street.

As we step into the café the smell of coffee brewing makes me calm down and soon enough we find a spot near the window. What's great about this place is that they have tinted windows, so when you want to look outside, you don't have to worry about someone looking at you from the street. Perfect place in my case.

"This place is magical." She says as she observes fairy lights sprawled all across the ceiling. I can tell she likes this place just by the way she's looking at it.

"I'm glad I chose good."

"Good afternoon! What would you like to order?" A waiter asks us all of a sudden.

"I'll have a panna cotta and a glass of water" I say

"And for you?" He asks Scarlett

"I'll have just regular black coffee and I don't know what kind of desserts you offer." She says looking at me

"You can follow me and I'll show you what we have in store for today?" He offers with a weak smile.

"Sure, I'd like that." She says standing up and walking beside him to the counter.

I've been to this place so many times that I know they have panna cotta's always. I don't usually like them, but here they just taste right. They make them in a way that isn't too sweet or too sour. Scarlett returns and sits down opposite of me, in her previous spot.

"I never expected them to have such a range of sweets and pastries." She says

"This was my favourite place to go to when I was studying at Oxford." I say

"Really? What's your favourite order then?" She asks

"That's a weird question to ask." I laugh

"Come on, you must have a favourite order." She pushes.

"Fine, english tea and a panna cotta." I say smiling.

"Here is your order. Panna cotta for you and cherry pie for the lady. I'll be back with your coffee in a minute." The waiter says and leaves.

"Do they always have such young staff?" She asks looking back at the waiter.

"They mostly employ university students, since the dorms are close by."

"Oh really? Thats nice. Did you ever work here?" She asks

Oh, she really doesn't know my financial status at all huh?

"No, I never needed to." I say as I take a bite od my dessert.

The waiter comes and gives us the rest of our order so the topic thankfully changes.

"Did you plan on going to do that project in Yemen?" She asks

I think it through.

"I.. wanted to, but I don't know anymore. I still have a shit ton of clean up to do after my father." I say

"Couldn't you give it to someone else? Is it that important?" She asks curiously.

"I don't trust anyone with my fathers file's, not because they're not trustworthy. Rather, I want to maintain the authority I have. You see, my poor excuse of a father had too many secrets. I don't know what's in these files unless I am the one who reads them and eventually sorts them out." I say.

"Oh, okay. I didn't see it that way." She says.

"It's alright, he's not worth mentioning anyway." I say smiling at her.

"Can I ask you something?" She asks

"Whatever you want darling."

"Do you ever miss them? Your parents." She asks with caution.

"Well to be honest.. I don't really think of them outside of work. I never considered them my parents or someone who took care of me. Sure, their money helped me lots when I needed it. But, over the time, the money became pointless and after their death it was all that was left." I say with a sting in my eyes.

"Oh Lena..I'm incredibly sorry to hear that. No child should ever feel that way." She says with sympathy.

"You're right, that's not wished upon on anyone."

"I still don't understand how you remained so kind. When all you ever saw was your mom and dad." She says

"That's because Miriam was my real mum. She took care of me. She was the one that made sure I ate enough, that I always had clean clothes and she.. she was the only person who would talk to me in the house, apart from Richard obviously."

"I can see how much Richard cares for you. It's astounding really."

"He considers me his family. Which I have to agree with, he's all I've ever known. He understands me in a strange way, he's the only one who truly and fully knows me." I say

"I'd like to hop on that list too, one day. Only if you let me." She says with a smile on her face.

"Of course, good luck though. There is much more of me that goes without grace or kindness."

"You're not a saint Lena. We're not all good and we're certainly not all bad. I won't be shocked to find skeletons in your closet. Though I have to admit, I am terribly curious to hear about your bad side."

"Oh really?" I ask

"Yes, I want to see Lena when she's mean and impolite." She says

"Mean, sure come by the office any time you'd like, but impolite? That's extremely rare." She laughs.

"I'm serious. I can get pretty mean while I'm at work. If I wasn't so mean do you think we would get anything done?"

"Fair enough. Although I can't imagine you being even remotely close to what I imagine."

"What do you imagine?"

"Someone like Miranda Priestly from Devil Wears Parada." She says shrugging her shoulders.

"Miranda is an icon, but no. I am not THAT mean."

"We'll see tomorrow?" She says

"Wait you're staying one more day?" I ask hopeful.

"Honey, I'm staying the entire week. I cleared my schedule to be here with you." She says

The two of us continued to chat carelessly in the small cafe. I paid for our desserts and we started walking down the streets. I told her about the art studio, just like I did Selena. She was so excited to go so I couldn't say no. We ended up staying there for hours. We were cleaning up our station when I got a call from Robert.

"Hey, sweet pea."

"Hey Robert, what's up?" I answer

"Susan and I just landed and I wondered if you wanted to have dinner with us?" He asks

"Sure, can I bring Scarlett?" I ask

"You're finally owning up to your feelings? Good for you. And yes, of course she can come."

"When did you plan on going?" I ask him.

"How about 7?"

I check my watch and see that we have about an hour and a half to get changed for dinner.

"Sure thing. I'll notify Scar. Can't wait to see you!"

"You too. I missed you like crazy!" He says and we say our goodbyes

We finish cleaning and end up taking our art pieces with us. We put them into the trunk and I tell Scarlett all about the phone call.

"I didn't bring any fancy attire." she says embarrassed.

"You're saying that like I don't have anything for you at home." I say starting the car.

"I don't want to ruin any of your designers." She says looking away

"Hey, look at me. How would you ruin them?" I ask her

"You and I are not the same size, you're slim and I'm.. me."

"And whats so wrong about you?"

"I'm overweight. I always was." She says looking down at her lap.

"You're perfect to me. Always were. Besides, numbers on the scale don't mean shit. You look phenomenal in anything you wear." I say

"You really think so?" She asks

"I know so, it's a fact really. You are beautiful just the way you are."

"okay, thank you. I really needed to hear that." She says

"Anytime. Now let's hurry home. We can't show up to dinner with clothes stained with paint." I say and we hurry to my place.

When we arrive I already know what to give her. I have this one black dress that has tiny blue flowers on it. I love it but I never got to wear it. It's been in my wardrobe for at least a year by now. I bet Scarlett will look amazing in it.

"Here." I say as I walk into my room with the dress in hand.

"Oh my god. It's beautiful." She says taking it from my hands.

"Wait where did you get this?" She asks confused now.

"Oh, it was in the other wardrobe. The family one with gowns and suits and things we wore on events. Don't worry this dress was never worn." I say

"Yeah I can see that, it still has a tag on it." She says

"30k for a Channel dress?!" She yells surprised.

"What? You never spent that much on a dress?" I ask

"No!"

"You're going to wear one. Start getting ready. We'll be leaving soon." I say and walk to my wardrobe.

"I couldn't possibly wear something as expensive as this" She says following me.

"And why is that?" I ask

"I..I could stain it or rip it."

"Then you'll stain it or rip it. No big deal. Happens to all of us."

"You're not listening, this dress is worth someone's annual earnings." she says

"Scarlett.. You've gotten millions for one film and a 30 000£ dress is where you cut the line?"

"No, I'm just saying you could have given me something cheaper."

"Can you at least put it on before you bash the dress?" I ask she nods her head and walks into the bathroom to change. While she's in there I find myself a pair of nice trousers to go with her dress. I put them on and walk out to see Scarlett with her hair down, looking at herself in the full length mirror.

She looks like an absolute goddess. Her blonde short hair compliments the dress in ways that only makes me want to take if off her. Her skin tone goes perfectly with the colour, I just love it.

"What do you think?" she asks looking at me now

"You look.. gorgeous. Just wow." I mutter with only awe in me.

"You really think so?" She asks

"I really really do. You'll have everyone's attention as soon as you step into the room."

"Then it's settled. What do you plan on wearing" She asks looking at my trousers.

"Well I wanted to wear some nice trousers and my white shirt with a pullover over it.I sort of matched the colours with your dress" I say as I put everything down onto my bed.

"That's sweet and very thoughtful of you." She says

"Thank you, I'll go and start getting ready." I say and we separate. I go into the bathroom to do my makeup while she does her hair in my room.

"Are you ready?" She asks me.

"Just have to put on some jewelry and perfume and we'll be good to go." I say as I walk into my wardrobe. Hmm what perfume..you can never go wrong with Dior. I put on my favourite rolex and a small necklace. Nothing too flashy for today. I find a nice pearl necklace and bring it into the room for Scarlett.

"And for you." I say as I offer it to her.

"You're spoiling me here." she says as she takes it out of my hands.

"Thats my job."

"Can you put it on me please?" She asks

"Of course." I take her hair and move it to the side. Her skin is glowing and oh my god I feel like I might just faint. I clasp the necklace into place.

"I really like your perfume. Whats the name?" She asks

"Huh?"

"The name of your perfume." She repeats as she returns her hair to where it was earlier, on her shoulders.

"Dior, hypnotic poison." I say

"Of course it is." She says chuckling

"Come on, we'll be late." I say grabbing my bag.