Monday morning
"Nessaaa!" Rebecca's cheery voice echoed in the kitchen and perhaps in the entire house.
Vanessa, sitting on the kitchen countertop, drinking her coffee, came down and hugged her. "Becks! You are back! I didn't know that you'll be home so early."
"I wanted to surprise you! I missed you so much!"
"I missed you too."
"I have so much to tell you!" Rebecca jumped up enthusiastically and clapped her hands several times. "The interview went amazing! I'm so close to debuting the magazine! But you go first! How was your time at the charity ball?"
Before Vanessa could begin to speak, Jackson walked into the kitchen. "How are my two favorite girls?"
The moment Rebecca saw her brother, she threw herself at his neck. "Jacks! I missed you so much!"
Vanessa smiled, watching the scene.
"I missed you too, sis," Jackson replied to his sister. "How was the flight?"
"It was fine. Cole picked me up from the airport but just dropped me off here and went to work. He wasn't particularly chatty as usual. So, tell me! How was the ball?"
"It wasn't bad," Jackson answered, then turned to Vanessa. "Speaking of which, how are you feeling, Nessa?"
"I'm fine now, thanks."
"What happened?" Rebecca asked.
"Nothing, Becks. Gossip later. I have to go to work now," Vanessa replied as she put on her shoes that she had thrown on the floor earlier.
"Wait for me. I'm coming too. I'm going back to work starting today."
"That's great, Becks!"
Rebecca caught Vanessa's arm, and they both left, saying goodbye to Jackson simultaneously.
"I guess I should probably start work too... at some point..." he muttered to himself after the girls had already left.
On the way, Vanessa briefly told Rebecca about the ball, skipping the ending. It was as if she was ashamed of what had happened.
When they arrived at work, however, the two girls parted ways. Rebecca walked into her office, and Vanessa headed to hers.
Emma, the new secretary, was waiting for Vanessa out front as that was her first working day.
"Good morning, Miss Blake," the girl greeted kindly.
"Good morning, Emma." Vanessa opened the door. "Come in."
The two went inside. Vanessa sat down at her desk and gestured for the girl to sit in the chair across from her.
"How are you, Emma? You seem a little stressed." Meanwhile, Vanessa turned on her laptop. "And please, call me Nessa."
"I'm very well, thank you. But I'm also a little nervous, yeah."
"I'm sure you'll do just fine. Don't worry."
"I will do my best to live up to your expectations. Where do I begin? Oh, I forgot. Do you want me to make you some coffee?"
"No, thank you. You don't need to make me coffee at all. Well, for Cole, you probably will have to. Come on, let me introduce you to him."
At that exact moment, there was a knock at the door.
"Come in."
"Good morning, Miss Blake."
"Oh, come on, Liz. Enough of this 'Miss.'" Vanessa slapped her head.
Emma giggled but tried to cover herself with her hand.
"Yes, of course, Miss."
Vanessa shook her head, but Liz didn't notice why and continued. "If you're looking for the boss, he's not here. He came earlier to get some documents and left."
"Typical." Vanessa rolled her eyes. "Thank you, Liz. May I ask you to introduce Emma to work?"
"Sure, Miss, ahm, I meant Nessa." All three girls laughed again. After that, Liz turned to Emma, "Please, come with me."
After the two girls left Vanessa's office, she got to work. Contrary to her expectations initially, she liked her work in the company quite a lot and enjoyed doing it, which contributed to the fact that the working hours passed quickly.
At lunch, Vanessa and Rebecca met at the restaurant as before.
"Well, it's your turn now, Becks. Tell me everything!"
"I don't even know where to start, Nessa. Carl is an amazing person. In the interview, he revealed exclusive details about his personal life that he has never revealed to anyone."
"So he liked you."
"I think so. But wait, I haven't gotten to the best part yet!"
"Come on, say it!"
"We reached the agreement that his next two collections will be presented first in my magazine. If everything goes smoothly, we will sign a five-year contract."
Vanessa was genuinely happy to hear the news. "Becks, that's a great start! We should celebrate!"
"Tonight! I have an idea. How about we cook ourselves something for dinner? We only eat home-cooked meals when Mom is here. I'm honestly sick of ordering takeout."
"Okay, I'm in. Can you cook?"
"No. You?"
"No."
"Hmm," Rebecca exclaimed. "Well, we'll learn. I doubt it's anything complicated."
After making their plan and finishing their lunch, Vanessa and Rebecca returned to work. The rest of the day passed quickly as well. And after work, the two went shopping for dinner.
Unlike going around malls and shopping for clothes, bags, and shoes, Rebecca had rarely shopped in supermarkets. In this regard, Vanessa had a little more experience, although her choosing raw meats and cooking products was also unfamiliar.
But when the credit card has no limit, sellers are always happy to help with the selection and recommend the most expensive products.
After filling the shopping cart to the top, they paid for the purchases, loaded them into the car, and went home.
Jackson met them at the door.
"Hey, girls. What are you carrying? Let me help you."
"Hereл" Rebecca handed гся фидшгеи two of the shopping bags. "Don't look inside. It's a surprise. We will cook!"
"Should I be scared?"
"Of course not! Where are you headed?" she asked him as they walked together from the garage to the kitchen.
"I'm going out."
"I don't know your plans, but you must be home by eight."
"Are you setting me an evening time?"
"Just for tonight. We have a reason to celebrate. I'll call Cole too."
"Sounds great." Jackson placed the bag on the kitchen island. "I'm out now. See you at eight. Bye, girls!"
Rebecca and Vanessa said goodbye to him and also left their shopping bags.
"A quick shower, and let's get started," Vanessa suggested.
"Okay," Rebecca agreed.
The two went to their rooms to shower, and about fifteen minutes later, they met again in the kitchen.
"I see you're still wearing that shirt?" Rebecca asked Vanessa.
"Yes, it turned out to be very comfortable, and I never gave it back to Cole," she replied as nonchalantly as possible.
"Hmm," Rebecca narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "If you say so..."
"Well, shall we begin?"
"Yes! Let's roll up our sleeves!"
Neither of them had thought to put the products in the fridge before, so the two began taking them out of the bags.
Rebecca tackled the meat. First, she cut it and then started to flavor it.
Vanessa, meanwhile, started preparing the vegetables. They had planned to garnish the roast beef with mashed potatoes, carrots, and broccoli. After she peeled and cut the potatoes and carrots, she put them in a pot with broccoli and covered them with a bit of water. Then she put them on the stove and turned it on.
Rebecca also finished preparing the meat, put it on a tray, then put it in the oven and turned it on.
The two girls looked at each other.
"See, I told you it wasn't complicated," Rebecca stated proudly.
"You're right," Vanessa replied with a smile.
"Well, while the meal is cooking..."Rebecca took a bottle of rosé from the fridge while talking. Unlike the food products, she hadn't forgotten to chill the wine. "Let's have a glass each, shall we?"
Vanessa hesitated. Her last drink of alcohol, which was her first, was not very successful.
"Oh, come on, Nessa! You were drunk—big deal."
"How did you find out?"
"Jackson told me. I sensed you were hiding something this morning, and I called him on the phone to question him." Meanwhile, she had already poured two glasses and handed one to Vanessa. "Cheers."
"Okay, but only one glass. Cheers."
They left the kitchen and sat on the couch in the living room.
"How long should this meat be roasted?" Vanessa asked.
"The recipe said two hours."
"Great, it will be ready just in time. The vegetables will probably be cooked also by then."
The two got carried away in sweet talks. More than an hour and a half passed when suddenly, they both caught a strange smell.
"Becks?" Vanessa asked her doubtfully. "How many degrees did you set the oven to?"
"Well, it was said that the meat should be cooked at about 330 degrees. But there was no 330, so I set it to its maximum - 275. We had to change that oven!"
"Becks, 330 degrees by what scale?"
"Um... Fahrenheit?" Rebecca replied timidly.
"Your oven degrees are Celsius!"
"Shit!" they both shouted in unison and ran to the kitchen.
As soon as they got inside, they both started coughing from the smoke from the oven. The moment Rebecca opened its door, the smoke doubled over. The fire alarm went on.
Vanessa quickly opened the kitchen's back door, grabbed a towel, and began to fan it to disperse the smoke.
Not long after, Max, the security guard standing at the house's main gate, came to them, clearly worried after hearing the alarm.
"Girls, what's going on?"
"Nothing, Max. The food burned a bit... Can you help us with this alarm?"
He chuckled slightly. Then he climbed into a chair, turned off the alarm directly from the sensor, and retired to his post.
Gradually the smoke disappeared, and Vanessa remembered to check the pot.
"Damn it! Where's the water gone? It's all burnt to the bottom here too!"
Rebecca burst out laughing. Vanessa glared at her, but a moment later, she started laughing too.
"What time is it?" Rebecca asked.
"Seven fifty."
"How about we make some salad? At least we can't burn that. And order a pizza, huh? Hopefully, no one will know about our failure."
"Yes, I guess it would be best."
The two quickly cut lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers, seasoned them, served the salads on the table and sat down on the chairs.
Jackson came home at precisely 8 o'clock.
"What is going on here?" he asked, smelling the burning smell still wafting through the house.
"Well..." Rebecca wondered what to say.
"We toasted the meal a bit," Vanessa added.
Jackson laughed and sat down with them. "So what did you order?" he asked them.
"Pizza. There was no time for specials. They'll be delivering it any minute," Rebecca replied. "I hope Cole comes home soon too. Wine?"
"I'll get a beer," Jackson said and went to the kitchen while Rebecca poured wine into hers and Vanessa's glasses.
"Relax, it's been two hours since your first drink. You're not going to get drunk," she reassured Vanessa after seeing her negative look.
"If I get drunk, though, it's your fault!"
"Deal."
***
8:20 p.m.
The pizza had arrived, and a few minutes later, Cole was home too.
"I hope you left me some food," he said, looking more or less in a good mood.
"The right question is, is there any food." Jackson corrected him with a chuckle.
"What happened?" Cole asked as he placed his jacket on the back of the chair. At the same time, however, he saw Vanessa's glass of wine, and his calm expression changed. He did not wait for an answer to his question but asked her, "Enjoying the wine, Vanessa?"
"Very funny, Cole," Vanessa said ironically.
"Do you see me laughing? How much have you drunk?"
"That's not your business," Vanessa snapped back at him.
"What's going on, Jacks," Rebecca asked his brother, whispering, but he only shrugged in response.
"You didn't answer my question, Vanessa," Cole's voice became more insistent.
"I answered—I said it's not your business!"
"Don't make me nervous! I don't want you to drink anymore."
Rebecca looked now at Cole, now at Vanessa, more and more curious.
"And I don't care about what you want, Cole!" Vanessa's voice also got louder. "You won't tell me what to do. Didn't you understand that?"
"Give me that glass." Cole reached out to get it, but Vanessa pulled it aside.
She got up with it in her hand and headed toward the stairs.
But Cole went after her. "Give me the fucking glass, Vanessa!" he shouted.
When he said those words, Vanessa turned sharply and poured her wine over him. After that, she placed the empty glass in his hands. "Here you are. I hope you are satisfied now. I will not drink anymore."
While everyone stood stunned by what had just happened, Vanessa had already climbed the stairs to her room.
Cole swallowed like he was ready to explode. He walked over to the table and set the glass on top.
"Excuse me, I'm not hungry anymore," he said to Rebecca and Jackson, who were standing there with their mouths agape, and he started up the stairs too.
Meanwhile, Vanessa was already in her room and headed directly to the bathroom to take a cold shower to cool her nerves possibly.
Once in, she turned on the shower and took a few steps back to undress.
At that moment, the door opened. She felt Cole's presence behind her.
"You need to master the knocking thing," she said, trying to sound as calm as possible even though she was raging inside.
Cole said nothing. Just grabbed both of her hands and turned her to face him. Before she could react, he pressed her against the wall under the running water. He grabbed her hands by the wrists and pulled them up over her head.
"You are driving me crazy, Vanessa. Do you know that? You're making me so mad!"
His voice was low and somehow seductive.
Vanessa closed her eyes. She couldn't say a word. His lips almost touched hers as he spoke.
She just stood frozen. Devouring his breath.
"Don't challenge me, Vanessa! Don't play with me!"