"And you,
You scare people
Because you are whole
All by yourself."

--Lauren Alex Hooper

~~~~

Saturday had gone dazedly. Everything was progressing smoothly as she had anticipated. Only two days were left for the presentation.

Vivienne was working very hard, spending days and nights engrossed in her presentation. Her hard work was paying off. She saw her presentation unfold before her eyes in an impressive form. Still there was a 'what if' lurking at the back of her mind. She had included every minute details she could gather, from sales to investments to profits and losses.

She had heard about Mr. Rodriguez from many of her business partners, everyone said that he was a cool and efficient businessman.

She had Googled him up to know more about him. Well, she didn't have much luck on it though. It seemed that this Mr Rodriguez led a very private life. She had learned that he had started his business at the age of seventeen, family business though. From what little information she had gathered about him she interpreted that he must be one of those rich boys who got everything handed over to them on a silver platter.

In some blogs and websites he was even featured as the hottest billionaire playboy to ever live. A typical male specimen she thought to herself and her lips curled up in disgust. A little more reaserch led her to the information that he was one of the youngest businessman to receive the Enterpreneur Of The Year Award. Must be good at what he does. Some of the trashy magazines said that he shied away from commitment.

He did not have a history of broken engagements, jilted brides or angry girlfriends though. He was a ladies man. Some women had opened up and had shared their experience with him to the writers of the magazines. They had said that he was really good in bed and sexy as hell and his di*k was huge. What the... Some had said that he was a little kinky in bed, that they would go to any measures just to get their butt spanked. God! Women these days.

Vivienne thumped on the close button and shut off her computer. It was midnight and she had again stayed up in her office. Marissa had already left.

She settled on the couch and started working on some paperworks. Once again she engrossed herself completely in work. Time passed away and when she was finally done, it was already 5 in the morning. So there was no time to take a nap.

She hadn't brought spare clothes to change into so she would have to drive back to her house.

***

It was an exact half an hour drive to her house from her office. On reaching, she had quickly undressed and jumped into the shower. She set the temperature at 80°F and let the shower spray beat against her body. It felt good to stand under the hot spray after a long and tiring day.

Wrapping herself in a bath towel she padded barefooted to her bedroom, stood in front of the full length mirror and let the towel slip from under her arms and it fell to the soft carpeted floor.

Standing there naked she observed herself. She peeked down at her image in the mirror. Concentrating on the long dark scar running along her cheekbone that marred her face, she ran a finger along it noticing the jagged upraised skin.

Her eyes deep set seemed hollow and shadows graced beneath them. It was visible that she didn't get the 8 hours sleep. She looked further down and traced the red angry looking scar that ran across her midriff. She had a dozens of scars gracing her body.

No one had ever taken a look at her naked self except herself. I look like a monster, a horrible monster. No one is ever going to love me, no one had. Not that I want anyone to she thought annoyed at her direction of thoughts.

It was Sunday. She had almost forgotten about her visit to Marissa's house. It would be 3 years now that she would be visiting them again. She would take presents for the kids, they would be delighted to see her after a long time. She picked up her phone and called Marissa.

"Vivi. Are you okay? I had to rush last night because Jason had come up with a stomach bug. I am sorry Vivi I couldn't stay up late yesterday. Tell me you are not angry with me," Marissa said in a pleading voice.

"God! Marissa do you ever stop? Why would I be angry with you? I was the one who asked you to leave remember? No need to apologize, I was fine. How is Jason? I was thinking of coming up to your house today. Would it be better if I come some other day?" Vivienne said thoughtfully.

"No, don't you dare think of cancelling your visit! Jason is quite stable now. Did you eat yesterday or did you skip your meals again?" Marissa inquired.

"Don't worry, I took my meals." She lied through her teeth, it was a white lie. She didn't want Marissa to worry about her. She already had too much on her shoulders. Vivienne could not add another baggage upon her shoulders. "You can feed me all you want today. Don't forget to make that delicious apple pie of yours," she said laughingly.

"Ok you come up soon. I'll make every one of your favourites."

"I'll come up in the afternoon. Is it okay with you?"

"Why wouldn't it be okay? Just get your pretty little ass in here and everything would be okay!"

"Ugh! Marissa. What's gotten into you?"

"Nothing, nothing. I am just excited it's been a long time since you have been here. I miss you Vivi . I know we see each other every day at the office but we don't really talk about anything except work. Sometimes I miss those days when you used to put your head on my lap and you would talk for hours till you slept. Though you never slept," Marissa sighed down the receiver.

"I know. I miss you too Marissa. But everything's good now. You don't need to worry much about me."

"You come up and you are going to stay tonight and don't you bring your laptop or else I will smash it! No arguments."

"Okay, okay I'll stay the night and I won't bring my laptop. Work will have to wait, I guess."

Marissa hummed her approval and Vivienne ended the call.

It was going to be a long night.

♡♡♡♡

Hella fellas!

What did you think of the chapter? Post your comments below and don't forget to vote. Surprise! I remember I said that there would be no more updates this month but I took some time out of my busy schedule and wrote a new chapter. You can comment down your thoughts or you can PM them to me. I would be very pleased to hear from you guys and don't forget to recommend it to your friends if you enjoyed reading the story. Happy reading! Love you all.