I woke up bright and early the next morning. Sophie was staring at me. I guess she was more excited than I was.

"Okay, time to get ready!"

"I haven't even had breakfast yet!" I complained, "Five more minutes."

"I meant after breakfast, silly. I'm starved. Plus we gotta start now if I'm going to do your makeup." If you couldn't tell, she was definitely more excited than me.

"If we must." I was never really big on wearing makeup, but Sophie always seemed fond of putting it on me anyway.

We scrambled down the stairs to get some breakfast, passing my mom on the way down.

"Where are you two girls going? If you go down the stairs any faster you might break your necks." She put her hands on her hips and pretended to be stern.

"Sorry, can't talk now. Em has a date." Sophie always talked fast when she was excited.

"Oh, with who?" Now my mom was curious.

"Some guy named Austin, you don't know him." I tried to shake her off so that Soph could get me ready as fast as humanly possible.

"Who?"

"He's a celebrity who has Em's number and who every other girl in the United States has a crush on so we gotta go if she still wants to have her chance." Soph started to get behind me and proceeded to push me down the rest of the stairs.

"Okay, have fun you two!" My mom called from behind us.

"Thanks mom." I loved it when she didn't ask too many questions. Although, sometimes when my mother asked questions it was a very good sign for me. It meant that she knew who I was. Don't worry about that right now, I'll get into that later.

...

Breakfast was a very fast meal where we ate frozen waffles with peanut butter. Not bad, but not good if you are just grabbing and going. Plus I didn't want to get anything sticky on my apparently perfect dress.

"Okay here's the dress. Get changed. I won't look." She handed me the dress bag which I handled as if it were the most precious thing in the world. I don't know why. Female instinct I guess.

"Okay, but I don't know how perfect a dress can be if I don't even...know...what it looks like." I took it out of the bag. It was the most beautiful dress I had ever seen. It was a peach top with a laced skirt that went a little past the mid thigh. It would have normally been too short for me, but the rest of the dress made up for it. The skirt was slightly ruffled and the peach top had no sparkles; perfect for a girl like me. At the collar there were even diamonds embroidered to make a necklace. "Did I really need to get a necklace too?"

"No, that was for me. Oops. Oh well. Now go try it on!" She spun me around and closed her eyes.

It fit like a glove that was made specially for your hand. It was beautiful. I didn't even recognize myself. Soph was right, I did have legs.

"Are you done yet?" She turned back around anyway. "Emily, you look so...wow! Okay time for hair and makeup."

"Okay, but I have one request."

"Go for it."

"I must wear sneakers."

...

Sophie insisted on driving me to his house even though it was only twenty minutes away. I was glad that she was there to drive me, but I could have taken myself and I didn't want to tell Soph, but my makeup was getting itchy in the warm sun. She spent forty-five minutes on it and I looked like a princess. I just hoped it was good enough. I didn't know why I cared so much. I mean seriously, I hated him, right?

"So what are you going to say? What are you going to do? Do you have plans if he tries to kiss you or anything?" The questions went on longer than the drive.

"I have no idea, I have no idea, and I have no idea." I felt almost like a shell of a being. I had no idea what I was going to do or what was going to happen. I felt completely underprepared.

"Honey, you are so screwed."

"I know! What if he doesn't like me or if I'm not good enough for him? What if I actually really don't care? What if I get lost in his house?" The last one was the most realistic of my questions. I could get lost walking down the street.

We pulled into a long driveway "Em, It's probably not even that big of a ... Holy Hannah that house is huge." There were at least forty rooms that we could see on the one side and it looked to be five stories tall. It looked more like a hotel than a house and if it were a hotel it would be a six star hotel. I felt so tiny in comparison.

She pulled into the driveway which stretched on even longer than Sophie's questions. "Wow..." And guess who was waiting on the porch. Austin was dressed up in a tux with a bouquet of roses in his arms. I felt so underdressed in my sneakers.

"Have fun. Are you sure you don't want me to..."

"No I'm fine." I said blankly as I got out of the car, still inspecting the house. If you called it a mansion it would not be a big enough word to use.

"Welcome to my humble home." He said in a fake British accent as he handed me the roses. I waved off Soph to say that she could go.

"Humble is a bit of an understatement. You look great."

"If you are calling me great then they clearly haven't come up with a grand enough word to say how beautiful you are. I guess your friend picked out the right one for you." I had to admit that he was sweet.

"Yea, she really did." I couldn't help but blush.

"Well come on inside, we wouldn't want you to catch a cold."

If you thought the outside was gorgeous, you would have been correct. The interior looked like it was just a normal person's house. In fact it was, many other people were living there. "Who are these people?" I whispered to him.

"These people are invited guests to stay while they try to find a new home." I raised an eyebrow at him and he chuckled, "See, most of these people are homeless or don't have enough money to get a new home yet, so we let them stay as long as they need to, to get back on their feet. We've even set up a market for them where they can have fresh fruits and vegetables that they can grow in their garden as well as meats, cheeses, and breads that I buy for them to have. Don't worry, we have the upstairs rooms." He gently nudged my arm as we got onto the elevator. "I told you I'm not a horrible human being."

Everything changed when we emerged from the elevator. It was a dream; everything was candle lit and there was a walkway of rose petals leading to one of the living rooms. I walked to the room and opened the grand doors. It was like everything you had ever seen from a romance movie was put into a single space. White velvet couch, chandelier, sofa, and slow music playing. I was unaware that I had dropped the roses.

"Is it to your liking?" he asked as that playful smile was plastered on his face.

"Oh, my gosh, you live in a palace." His laugh was music to my ears. I never wanted to leave.

"I consider myself very lucky. Have a seat on the couch." He ushered me over to the couch where I took a seat. It was the most comfortable thing I had ever sat on in my life.

"You are very lucky."

"I believe I am, saying how I now have you in my house." I gave him a look, "Too creepy, sorry, I'll stop." It was my turn to laugh. He gave a nervous chuckle.

"Why do you seem so hesitant? Haven't you had other girls in your house before?"

"Many downstairs, but not any that I have taken a liking to. I try not to invite too many over in case the word gets out to the public. I find it hard sometimes to trust people. I think that you're one of the first."

"How can you be so sure about that? You've only known me for like three days." I tilted my head slightly to the side. There was something about him, but I couldn't tell if it was good or bad.

He smiled, "There's just something about you. You're different." I guess the feeling is mutual.

"I'll take that as a compliment." I gave him my cutest smile.

"Yeah, you could say that." He chuckled, "How about a movie?" He grabbed the remote and a big screen dropped down from the ceiling. Movie date, nice.

"Sure, what do you want to watch?"