CHAPTER ONE

"You have no idea how much I love you, my soul. You don't know the pain I went through in your absence."

"As if I was in any better condition my darling. I missed the warmth of your arms every day. The memories of the time we spent together in each other's arms were the only thing which kept me alive in those long winter nights." 

Aurora looked at the person sitting beside her and stood up with lightning speed. Eww! I am not going to mimic their s*x scene with you, Em!"

She scrunched her lips to one side and glanced at Aurora's body. "If only you had been a man. Lucky you, I am straight," Emily said, waving her hand evasively and switching the television off with the remote. 

"And who said I would have been interested in you if I were a man?" Aurora asked. Emily gave her an unimpressed look. 

"Fudge you!" Emily said as nowadays she was trying not to use curse words because when she went to meet her parents in the town her mother hated her colourful language. 

"Not interested!" Aurora sang and licked her blueberry ice cream from the spoon.

"This is the second tub of ice cream you finished, Aurora.  I don't understand how you could still have this model-like figure after eating like this? I feel ashamed of taking all those aerobics classes to look like you."

Aurora licked the ice cream spoon one last time before raising her brows to her friend. She eyed Emily's alluring body and rolled her eyes.  

"Really, girl! You look like a model, yourself but of course, I know how hot I am, so thank you," Aurora said with a smirk. Emily poked her tongue out and gave her a middle finger and both friends burst out laughing together. 

Aurora king was the perfect beauty with her blonde hair, blue eyes and sharp facial features. She was not less than a goddess and not to mention the perfect height and figure even being a foodie. 

"Girl, I was thinking about trying that new Italian restaurant you ordered the take out last week," Emily suggested and Aurora's mouth watered at the mention. 

 "That was…" she moaned, rubbing her hands together in response and agreeing to check out the restaurant again.

"Let's call miss etiquette and then off to that restaurant," Emily said but not before rolling her eyes.  Both Susan and Emily are friends with Aurora. They both live in Aurora's house and love her but when it comes to them both personally, they loved each other just like fire and water! 

"Wait, let me call her," Aurora said.

"Hey Susan, Let's go to that Italian restaurant, I'm craving some Italian food."

Aurora could still taste the deliciousness of the risotto she tasted. It blasted all her taste buds and left an ecstasy in her mouth.  

Exactly after twenty minutes, Susan was still in her room while both Aurora and Emily were waiting for her. 

"Are we stupid waiting for her for twenty minutes?  What the hell is she still doing upstairs?" Emily barked.

'Susan!'' She yelled her name in the thigh octave voice that Aurora closed her eyes.

 "You will make me deaf with your shriek, Em!" 

"I want her to become deaf instead of you but nothing works on her." 

Aurora kept her mouth shut after that, she didn't want to be involved in world war three.

 Been there, done that.

And after that one experience, she promised herself not to get involved in their fights anymore. 

"Stop screaming will you. Unlike you, I was working." She snapped at Emily who looked on the verge of attacking her. 

"Oh yeah! Working with your ONS. How was work, Susan? Have you met our dream man, finally? Emily mocked and in return received a death glare from Susan. 

Aurora could hear the dramatic music in the background while they both started their unending arguments. 

"Alright, no need to start your fights again. I am hungry and want to eat. So shall we leave?" Aurora tried to be the peacemaker again because if she had not done that, their argument would have hit the roof. 

I can't have a day of peace without their fights. 

"Drive," Susan ordered Emily, who snatched the keys from her without a word. 

"Wait, I should be the one driving," Aurora said and both her friends glared at her as if she had grown two heads.

Aurora gulped, her cheeks turned red remembering the dramatic incident that happened two months ago when they were coming back from the pub night. 

"I was drunk!" She tried to reason with them and they both raised their brows, reminding her about the mess which followed the incident.

"And I ended up hitting the traffic officer. That fudger! Still, gave me a ticket." Emily seethed, thumping her foot on the road in anger like a teenager.

"You tried hitting on him with his wife present there, we got lucky that Ethan saved us that day or we would be facing a trial in the court." Susan reminded Emily who pinched her lips in a thin line.

 "I tried to help at least."

Aurora shook her head in shame. She still recalled how angry her father was with her the next day. She was the daughter of Ethan King, a billionaire and philanthropist who was helping people around the world and here, his daughter was drunk driving and banged the traffic officer's car. 

Just the thought of spending her time in a jail cell gave her goosebumps.  Aurora King could live without anything except for her dad, good food. Someone to talk with because she was a chatterbox. Not to mention these two girls who both had made her life colourful with their presence. 

"Alright, let's go already, I am hungry."

"You are always hungry, Aurora!" They both said at the same time and then gave each other an unimpressed look before settling inside the car.

Aurora knew should keep herself out of reach for these high-calorie foods but she was lucky to have a body that never gained weight no matter how much she ate.  She was not size zero exactly, her body had curves in the right places which made her look sexy. Most importantly, She was confident about her body. 

"Girls, I have to share something with you both," Susan said while Emily was driving. "I think I found someone who can represent our brand."

"Who?" Aurora asked as the atmosphere inside the car changed from jovial to serious.

"Kevin Rawls, that designer of the year. We need to contact him and ask him to join our brand."

"Hm, I can see what I can do, after all, I am famous on social media so it won't be difficult for me to be in contact with him," Aurora told them. Being Ethan King's daughter came with a lot of perks and one of them was her followers on social media.

Both her friends nodded and the rest of the drive ended up in silence.

Opening a Jewelry business was the dream of Aurora and her friends. All of them were trying hard to achieve that goal.  It was not difficult for Aurora to open a brand with her father's money and power; she could have done that easily. But it was not only her in the team, Emily might be Aurora's friend and she would have done anything to help her but Emily was prideful. 

She joined their team on the condition that they would not take any help from Aurora or Susan's father. Susan agreed immediately because she would rather eat poison than take help from her father. They are not on good terms due to some reasons. And Emily, unlike Aurora and Susan, didn't come from a rich background. Her parents owned a little farm in a village and they loved their farm life. Emily on the other hand had big dreams so she came to the big city of Churchill.

Once they reached, Aurora eyed the beautiful entrance of that restaurant.  She didn't know why but this place gives her a kind of solace. The beautiful wooden furniture on the top of the roof with exotic plants and the cool breeze of air that passes through her hair.

She felt like her mother was caressing her hair.  Alas! The beautiful memories of her mother. She used to be the centre of her universe but after her death, it was just her father and her. Shaking her head to clear the memories away she looked around for the place to sit but luck was not on her side.

There is no place to sit inside. That's the problem with those small and famous restaurants. They pack up immediately after opening up. "Here goes our lunch plan!" Aurora said, her stomach crumbled in hunger. 

"Are we going to eat lunch standing on our legs, Aurora?" Susan asked in her high octave voice, raising her brows dramatically. 

Aurora rolled her eyes. "No. A server will come here to invite us inside and give us the best table here," she imitated her but as if God just granted her a moment of luck. A man did come to them and invited them inside.

"Wow! That was quick," Emily perked.

 The delicious aroma of Italian food, the smell of garlic and herbs made Aurora's mouth drool over the food. 

The man took them to a small table for three in the corner. It was a little away from the other tables and near the manager's office. 

"Here is the menu madam." The server said, handing them the menu card. 

Unlike the five star restaurants, Aurora 

usually goes with her father, the menu there was not fixed on the leather cover. 

It was a thick red and green paper which was laminated to protect it from getting damaged with continuous touching from numerous people. 

"The place is small but the aroma of food is mouth-watering," Susan whispered. The man left, leaving them to decide their order.

Emily opened it and started reading it:

"Caprese Salad with Pesto Sauce.

Panzanella.

Bruschetta.

Focaccia Bread.

Pasta Carbonara.

Margherita Pizza.

Mushroom Risotto.

Pasta Con Pomodoro E Basilico. Blah! Blah!Blah!"

"There is a lot to decide, Aurora. Hmm! I am confused?" Emily said, reading the menu. 

"Try Mushroom Risotto. It's delicious." She told her, deciding she would be having the same with Focaccia Bread and Pasta Carbonara. 

"Drinks?" Susan asked again. "You know what, let's order the classic Italian red wine for us. Aurora will be having a lemonade," she said, deciding for her which Aurora didn't like but one glare from her was enough for her to know her 'I can make my own decisions' slang was not going to work here. 

In Susan's words, Aurora should wear a signboard saying, 'Don't give me liquor. I am Alcohol sensitive.' A single glass of liquor was enough for her to lose her mind. 

Almost twenty minutes passed but no one came to take their order. They looked for the server but as if he had disappeared in the air. 

"Let me find a server, I can't wait for anyone to notice us and come to take our order," Aurora told her friends and stood up to find a server. She was about to walk over to a waiter she saw taking orders from an old couple but suddenly a man bumped into her and she gasped in pain. 

"Can't you see?" She complained, rubbing her hand to soothe the pain. 

"I apologize, but it was you who bumped into me." He said and that made Aurora raise her head to see the man who dared to blame her for his mistake. 

"Excuse me!" She snapped at him but when she saw his face she was lost.  

The man standing in front of her was handsome, she had never seen someone like him. Aurora King was dumbstruck! 

She kept staring at him. Brown hair, blue eyes, Sharp cheekbones. He was in her late twenties or early thirties.  His height was a perfect six inches. Aurora felt something fluttering in her belly.  The man was too beautiful to look at.

Am I having a crush moment? The man looked delicious...

But then she came out of her dreamland when she heard his sharp voice. "Yes, it was your mistake…" he said as if he owned the world. 

My mistake, That hypocrite!  To hell with him being Mr Too beautiful to look at! If he can be rude so can I. He didn't know who Aurora King is. Only a nice face, not nice manners. Bloody arrogant!!

 "Look Mr…"

"Gabriel," the man told Aurora his name like he was the king of the world and she was one of his subjects. 

"Ya! Mr Gabriel. It was you who bumped into me…" she told him. 

He sighed, scratched the side of his head with his forefinger. "Alright, it was my mistake. I accept it."

Aurora smirked. "I know it was your mistake. You should stop behaving like some demi-god and accept your mistake…" she was telling him about his attitude when he cut her off.

"Look miss, I apologized to you not because it was my mistake but because there are people around us who are watching us and I don't want any kind of unwanted attention and second, my uncle once told me to avoid fools because there is no good in talking to them," he told her and simply walked away.

It took her a moment to understand that he just called her a fool.  Aurora's  mouth hangs open, "did he just call me a fool?" She whispered to herself. 

"Arh!" She screeched in anger and looked around to find that man but he was nowhere to be found and that made Aurora even more aggravated.

Now she craves to teach that man the lesson he would never forget.