***Emily's POV.***

"Welcome to hotel Mascot how may I be of help to you?"

"Hello! I am Emily Gray, I made a reservation here. I'm here to check-in if you don't mind."

I answered as pleasantly as I can considering how tired I was from the flight.

"Please spare me a minute while I check your details."

"Here you go ma'am your room number is 201. Just use the elevator on your right. It's on the third floor. I will let someone bring the rest of your bags."

"Thank you."

"You are welcome. Hope you enjoy your stay here."

"I hope so too."

I followed the direction she gave me and in no time I found my room. I swiped the key card over the lock side of the door giving me access to the room. I entered finding the need to rest. I wasn't able to sleep on the flight due to my anxiety. I am not fond of flights and I tend to shake when I am on one. To me, it feels like we will crash when I close my eyes so I keep them open.

I removed my shoes deciding against changing my outfit. I was about hitting the bed when I heard a knock on the door.

Oooh, what is it? Opening the door, a young man in about his mid-twenties stood with the rest of my luggage I left at the reception

"Here ma'am, Casey asked me to bring these bags to your room."

"Please bring them in."

"Thank you. Please take this."

I said handing him a ten-dollar note

"Don't mention it, madam. I am Caleb. You can call on me if you ever need anything and thank you for this." He said taking the dollar note from me.

"Okay, I will keep that in mind Caleb. Thanks once again."

I closed the door after him, glad that I can have some rest without any interruption.

*******

I woke up to a dark room. How long have I slept? I checked the time on my phone and it read six forty-five Pm. Jeez, I have slept for over seven hours. Getting into my washroom,I brushed my teeth before walking to my luggage to pick up a clean dress. After putting on light makeup I went for the door deciding against calling room service.

Halfway down the hallway I picked my Phone up just when it started ringing.

Great! just who I wanted to call

"Hi babe!"

"Don't babe me. You forgot to call me. Do you know how worried I was?"

"Calm down Eddy, I was about calling you when you called."

"Don't tell me to come down. It's been hours since your plane landed. I know how scared you are of flights and I thought something had happened to you. If anything had happened to you what would I do?"

She said and I could hear from her voice that she was crying. Ahhh! this her pregnancy hormones is something else.

"Please don't cry. I am okay. I am sorry I didn't call you but that was because I was extremely tired and was at breaking point. I am so sorry Eddy."

"You are not forgiven. You will have to earn it." She joked.

"Okay ma, what do I have to do to gain it?"

"That's your assignment young lady."

"Anyway, have you had anything to eat?"

"Not yet. I am on my way to the Restaurant."

"I don't even know..."

I was interrupted by a hard body striking mine.

I raised my head to find before me a handsome man who looked amused at me checking him out.

"I am sorry Sir, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

"Ooops Emmy it seems like you have gotten yourself a man." Edna teased reminding me that I am on the phone with her.

"Let me call you back Eddy," I said hanging up before she could reply.

"I am so sorry. Are you alright?"

"I'm cool dear don't worry."

"Thank you."

"You are welcome. Just be careful around here."

"I will Sir."

"Quit calling me sir. My name is Michael Scribner. And you, my pretty lady, are?"

"I am..."

"Oh, there you are! What took you so long? I have been waiting forever."

A lady who oddly looked familiar exclaimed, ignoring me totally.

"Sorry babe, I got into a little accident with this lady." Mr. Scribner said amused.

"Aaliyah this is mmmm..."

"Omg shut up! Emily is that you?" Aaliyah asked in excitement making me remember where I knew her from.

"Aaliyah Madison!"

"Emily Gray!" She called taking me into a tight embrace.

"I have missed you girl. I haven't seen you since the day we went to try out the bridal dresses. Where have you been?"

"You two know each other?"

"Yes baby, Emily here was one of my best friends."

"Emily, meet my fiancé Mike, Mike Emily."

I shook his hand as Ally introduced us.

"You living here?"

"Yeah. Well in the meantime. I won't spend much time here anyway. I will have to go back to New York."

"Oh so that's where you have been hiding from your problems all this while." She asked out of the obvious.

"You know?"

"Damn everyone in this town knows about what they did to you. But you could have at least let us your best friends and bridesmaids know that the wedding was not coming on but you just took off."

"Ladies I think you might want to move away from the way," Mike said, reminding us of his presence.

"Where are you off to right now." Ally asked Ignoring Mike

"I am going to the restaurant downstairs.I have not eaten since I arrived and believe me I am starving right now."

"Cool! I am coming with you. Baby, you can take the lead home. I will join you later."

"Sure no problem. I am going out with the boys ."

I watched on as they shared a kiss before we taking off to the restaurant.

Taking one of the many seats in the five-star restaurant, a waiter attended to us bringing a glass of water for each of us before taking our orders. He walked away with Ally watching his ass.

"What?!"She questioned referring to the kick I gave her with my legs.

"You are taken so stop watching his poor ass."

"Oh poor me. His ass is so fine."

We both laughed at her comment.

"You have not changed. You are still the same flirty bitch."

"Whatever. After all, there is a saying that says once a slut always a slut." She voiced out defending herself.

I shook my head at my long lost friend. Ally was one of my bridesmaids when I thought I was going to get married.

"So what have you been up to all these years Emmy? After we learned of what had happened I tried contacting you but your phone was off. I went to your apartment but I didn't find you there so I later went to your parent's house but they refused to talk to me. More disturbingly I saw Andrea sitting on Martin's lap confirming what I had heard earlier."

The waiter brought our steamy food and I wasted no time to dig in.

"I am sorry Ally that I didn't let you nor the girls know what was happening. The truth is I was embarrassed because you know how I defended and loved him. I felt hurt and angry that he would play with me and more annoyingly disgrace me just a week to our fucking wedding."

"I knew Andrea could do anything but I didn't know she would go so low as to steal your fiancé"

"No, she didn't steal him. He didn't love me. If he did he wouldn't have committed such a grave sin by sleeping with two direct sisters."

She stretched forth her hands handing me a tissue.

I hadn't realized that I was crying, more importantly, I had not noticed that I had stopped eating.

"I am sorry Emmy for bringing this up. I know you might want to bury this somewhere and I made you remember it."

"No Ally. All these years that I have been away I tried to forget it and pretend nothing happened so I never spoke about it. Yet I was never successful. I woke up each and every day to the nightmare. I never admitted it but it still hurts like the first day. It seems like just yesterday that my heart was torn into pieces."

"I am so glad they got what they deserved." She said looking at me with that awful pity look.

"What do you mean?"

"Andrea can't conceive and you know that stupid jerk loves kids so you can imagine the chaos in their home. I have even heard from a direct source that Andrea has been cheating on him and he doesn't sleep home because of her constant nagging. I am sure that he doesn't remember what good home-cooked food looks like much more tastes like because he is always eating take-outs."

"That's bad," I said absentmindedly, still trying to digest what I just heard.

"And who said we want it to be good. They better dance to the music they played." She said angrily.

"Hey so someone is getting married?"

I asked, trying to divert the subject.

"Yep. In fact in a month's time and you are just in time to attend our engagement masquerade ball."

"Engagement masquerade ball? this is the first time I am hearing of this."

"Yep, that's because we are special and we want to be different. The ball serves as a medium to raise funds to help the kids in the cancer unit at the hospital."

"That's so thoughtful of you guys Aaliyah."

"I know, I know that we are geniuses." She proudly said.

"Whatever." I rolled my eyes at her earning a chuckle from her.

"Since you are here I would love for you to be one of my bridesmaids."

"I don't know. I don't think I will last here that long."

"Oh ok. But that position still remains open if you ever decide to stand by a friend when she is moving into another level in her life."

"I won't forget that."

"Good, now let's finish this food." She said gesturing to our now cold meal.

We took our dessert and after exchanging contacts, Ally left for home while I went back to my hotel room to settle down.

After placing my clothes into the wardrobe and filling the washroom with my face scrubs, I called Eddy.

"Hello, pretty ass how did it go with mister bumpy."

Oh God, how come I have this fool as a friend? I questioned for the hundredth time.

"My God Eddy quit teasing me. I just accidentally ran into him"

"And yeah you hanged up on me for him."

"That's because I wanted to apologize to him."

"You could have just said sorry and that would do rather than hanging up on me and that's a first. You definitely like this guy."

"No, I don't. For jeez sake he is engaged to Aaliyah"

"Wait! Aaliyah Madison?"

"You heard me."

"She is getting married?"

"You sure aren't deaf are you? and she wants me to be her bridesmaid."

"That is cool. I never imagined she would settle down so soon. So did you agree to be her maid?"

"I told her my stay might not last that long."

"Oh Emmy I think you should do it. Remember she agreed to stand by you five years ago. There is no harm in returning the gesture dear."

"I am not sure Eddy. I just got here but I want to leave. How can I stay for a whole month? And I also want to be there when my niece or nephew arrives."

"Emmy I am not due any moment from now. If you stay a month you can still make it to meet my baby."

"You don't get it do you? We are not done with the nursery and I want us to finish it. There is no time before that baby gets out of you so I will get back as soon as I meet dad."

"You don't have to. I have my husband here remember? He will help complete the nursery. So please let yourself lose and enjoy your vacation."

"You know this is far from a vacation. This is hell."

"I gotta go. I have some companies I have to send my CVs to before I get to bed. Ally and I have agreed to go shopping for a gown for the ball after I told her that I had none as an excuse to escape going so I have to retire to bed early."

"Sleeptight baby girl."

"Sleep tight ma," I said yawning.

I hurriedly booted my laptop and set to sending my CVs to a few companies before finally drifting to sleep. It had been such a long day. Probably the second-longest day of my life. The first being the day I was waiting so eagerly for Martin to tell me that he was pranking me and that he loves me. But I waited in vain.