Chapter 14:

Apollo POV

As the night goes on, I've almost done catching up and greeting most of my friends, most of who I haven't seen physically in ages but still keep in contact with. I start looking around for Kat as I want to introduce her to a few people properly and also I felt as though my nerves were through the roof, so I had to do it soon... I excuse myself from the conversation and head over to Chris and Dmitri who are drinking over at the bar.

"Hey! Have any of you seen Kat?" they look at each other for a brief moment and shake their heads no. Chris sees me pat my blazer pocket lightly and smiles "Is it time?" he squeals and Dmitri chuckles at him

"Well, yes...we better do this soon because my heart is about to pop out of my chest from the nerves alone man..." Dmitri laughs and Chris gives him a confused look but he explains that "For as long as I've known Apollo, even in the toughest court battles and literally life or death moments, he wouldn't even break a sweat, but..." he wipes his finger across my forehead "is that a sweat I see?" I scowl at him and they joke around until Chris puts his hand on my shoulder

"Apollo, relax, you'll be fine. We'll go look for Kat, I think she went to the bathroom, and we'll give the signal and do as planned when we find her, chillax darling... oh this is so exciting!" he says while they walk towards the bathrooms and I check my pocket for the hundredth time this evening, going over my little speech in my head and smile as all I could think of at that moment was Kat...

[Flashback]

Today Chris asked if I could meet him at his boutique so that he could take measurements for a client who has the same build as me, but come on, I'm the best at what I do and that includes being able to tell when something is up...so I start using my techniques I would in the courtroom to get questions out of him as everyone was acting strange but clearly thought I wouldn't notice. I start out by asking who it is for and from where is the client but he makes a slip up in answering one of the important questions, the client's surname which they had told me was Smith a couple of days ago and suddenly it changed to Smithson? Sounded like fake news to me...

"Chris, I thought you said the client's surname was Smith?" he looked taken aback and suddenly started measuring and writing things down faster "Oh? Did I not say, Smith, sorry, must be getting them confused with another client of mine..." I frown and turn to him; he looks absolutely stressed at this point

"Chris...come on man, I've seen you in action, you never forget a client's name and always know client information inside out so, what's going on?" he frantically walks towards a closet, suddenly sorting materials and avoiding my questions when I walk towards him, take the materials and turn him towards me "Chris please, I'm going crazy here with everyone acting all strange, especially Kat, she's busy all the time but won't tell me with what and-" I sigh, thinking of the worst situation "-and I want to know if it's to do with our relationship, because if she's not happy or wants to end things I just want to know so that-" Chris puts up his hand and I halt in the middle of my sentence. He rubs in forehead and mumbles to himself

"Kat is going to kill me for telling you..." he looks me dead in the eye and raises the pair of scissors he was holding "I'll tell you but honey I swear if Kat finds out that I told you, I will end you miss thang" I nod and don't say a word as I've seen him and Dmitri go at it and Chris was a feisty one.

"Apollo, it's not that Kat isn't happy, the girl loves you and the reason why she is acting all weird is that... she'sbusyplanningasurprisepartyforyou" if I didn't listen closely I would've missed it he said it so fast but I caught the significant bits and a smile rose on my face "Wait a minute...so you're telling me that everyone has been acting weird all for a surprise party?" he nods. Wow, I've never really had someone do all this for me and at that moment I knew what I wanted to do. Chris was staring at me and I laughed "Don't worry, I won't say a word to anyone" he nods and motioned to the platform we were at moments ago

"Okay, fabulous now that we know the purpose of this, please get yo ass back on that platform so that I can finish my job"

Two days later, I message Chris and Dmitri to meet me at a random coffee shop during the day while Kat was busy so she wouldn't notice. They both sat down and looked at me, waiting for what I had to say. Dmitri obviously also knew that I knew about the surprise party as Chris had put him on me in the office to make sure I don't give anything away to Kat.

After we order coffee, I try and make small talk as the nerves and excitement is building in me and Chris is also restless as he places his coffee down after one sip "Apollo, spill the tea sis, I need to know! The suspense is killing me, why were we called? Did Kat find out? Oh shit, is that what this is? Oh my god Dmitri, I told you to--" he turns to Dmitri who has his hands held up in surrender but I interrupt them before Dmitri loses his head

"No, it's not that! Kat doesn't know so we're safe...the reason why I called the two most important people in our lives, is because..." I reach into my blazer pocket and the moment I pull out the small blue velvet box, Chris' hand flies to his mouth as he lets out a gasp and Dmitri smiles at me while calming Chris down rubbing his back. I open the box and reveal the simple rose gold band with a diamond and two smaller diamonds on the side of the bigger diamond in the middle. "Do you think she'll like it?" they both nod furiously and Chris puts his hand on mine "Apollo, she'll love it as she loves you..."

[End of flashback]

What was taking them so long? I start making my way to the bathroom and I see it looks rather empty, I head towards the female bathroom to knock when Chris and Dmitri, along with Rosa come scrambling out of the bathroom and Chris is visibly shaking and crying, Dmitri holding him up and instantly a knot forms in the pit of my stomach.

"Did you find her? Why is Chris shaking?! Dmitri, what the fuck is going on? Tell me now!" I don't wait any longer and storm into the bathroom only to stop as I see blood on the floor and spots of blood on the basin. I also see...wait weren't those the sequins on Kat's dress? What the fuck happened in here and where is Kat?! I rush outside and go to our booth to check if her bag was still there, which it was. There was one phone call from Penelope not too long ago and so I make my way outside, Chris and Dmitri following after me when I call Penelope and on the third ring the phone is picked up but something is off, usually Pen answers immediately

"Pen, Pen? Have you seen--"

"Looking for your fat-ass girlfriend Apollo?" that voice...

"It's been such a long time Apollo...I've missed you, baby..." wait a fucking second

"Stacey?!!! What the fuck are you doing with my sister's phone and where the hell is Kat?" she has the damn audacity to laugh on the other end, always knew this bitch was a psycho...

"Well, Apollo, I'm going to show that bitch where we fucked for the first time and then maybe even let the bitch sink..." she cuts off the line, fuck! I tell Chris and Dmitri to go back to my place to see if Pen or Kat could maybe be there as I knew they were only at one of two possible places I rush in my car towards the dock, calling the police on the way there. Shit, I just hope Pen and Kat are still okay, lord I didn't even get to ask Kat the question, we haven't even started our lives together yet...

As I feel the box in my pocket, I push my foot on the gas "I'm coming, baby..."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------