Siana

- Baloren bar, Veturia -

"Aghh, how can you make me babysit her!?" a man in his late 20s asked with an unmasked irritation.

From the other side of the call came an older's man's calm voice;

"It's not babysitting and you know that. You are the one acting like a child right now. Anyways, your cousin will be arriving tomorrow evening. Make sure to meet her PERSONALLY." The man's imposing and demanding manner left no room for arguments.

"Dad! You know I am attending the corporate ball tomorrow! How am I supposed to take care of her?"

This time the younger man sounded much more helpless. It felt more like him pleading for a way out than negotiating with his old man.

"I don't care how you do it. But you better not disappoint me. I have sent her number to you. Take care."

"F*ck!" in his fit of anger he was about to smash his phone when someone next to him stopped him.

"Alex, stop it. It shouldn't be as bad as you think. You haven't met this cousin of yours, she might be a good girl. Don't jump to conclusions so early on."

"It's easy for you to say that Ren, coz you are not the one to be at her neck and call as my dad wants me to," Alex answered still irritated.

"Okay, chill dude. So, what's the plan? What are you really gonna do? Are you planning to bring her with you?" Ren inquired evidently enjoying his usually calm friend acting so crazy.

"I don't know. You know that I am one of the partners in the collaboration and have ling had a date. Basically, I can't take her as my date, and the entrance is couples only so I honestly have no idea what to do with her."

Annoyed, Alex started running his fingers in his hair.

"Well, Will doesn't have a partner yet, right?" Ren mused and then turned sharply to their friend who was sitting across the table and hadn't said a single word since the beginning.

"How about you take her as your date Will? Just do this so that uncle Alfred is not any more pissed at Alex than he is already. You can just leave her to Alex later. Right, Al?"

"Exactly! Ren, sometimes you can actually be such a genius," turning to Will, Alex continued, "Anyways, you needed a date right? Please do this for me."

"Okay," was Will's reply who seemed to be thinking of something as he swirled his wine glass.

"Will, you are the best! Okay, I am gonna call her and make the arrangements with her." Alex almost jumped from his sit in his excitement. He couldn't help it. After all, he now had one less reason to fight with his dad. Though, depending on what kind of a girl his cousin would turn out to be he might get a bigger problem than he currently faced.

He took his phone and checking the number his dad sent him, he was about to call his cousin when Ren once again stopped him.

"Wait. You have never seen this cousin sister of yours and never talked to her before, right? What do you know of her so far?"

"That's right. This would be my first time talking to her. Dad is of high opinion of her but he was also of good opinion when it came to Riccarda, my other cousin. I just hope she doesn't turn out to be as annoying as Riccarda. I won't live past the night if she is," Alex sighed and shrugged his shoulders in helplessness.

"Do you even know her name?"

"As if I could forget her name. She has been the only topic of conversation between dad and I for the past week. It's Siana, quite a beautiful name I should admit."

"Yeah, agreed. Anyways, call her but be nice and don't show any irritation in your voice. You don't know her as a person."

"Ok, Ok got it."

"Put it on loudspeaker, I wanna know how she reacts when she knows who her date is," said Ren with a mischievous smile.

Alex who was already calling Siana just rolled his eyes at his friend. Nevertheless, he still did what his friend told him. Why not? They were best of the friends and usually, he didn't even hide much from his friends.

The only thing was that he just could not understand why his dad was forcing him to take care of this girl. It was not like there were no hotels or other properties that they owned in the city. Additionally, his dad knew that he didn't like having girls around him. Yet, he insisted that he took care of her personally, making sure to fulfil all her wishes.

However, even if she turned out to be a nice person what was forced was forced. He wanted to talk to the girl and make sure she understood the situation. He wanted to make sure that she wouldn't jump at any of his friends the moment she saw them just because they were rich, handsome and extremely famous.

His call went through and seconds later a bit raspy but at the same time indescribably sexy voice could be heard from the phone.

It was just a word but it was enough to make one's heart skip a small uncontrollable beat.

"Hello?..."

After there was no response for a few seconds, the girl talked once again, this time with a much clearer voice,

"Hello? Who is it?"

Her voice sounded melodious and somehow had a strangely soothing effect. From the voice fluctuations one could easily tell that the person just woke up.

"Umm, oh sorry. Hi! I am Alex, your cousin, the one you are going to stay with. Did I wake you up by any chance?"

A low chuckle could be heard from the other side of the phone.

"Hi Alex, Siana here. Don't worry its's fine. Though, being the good cousin I am, do let me give you an advice. Next time, not to pissanyone else off who is not as kind and as forgiving as me, check the time zone differences before calling," came Siana's reply in an amused tone followed with a low chuckle.

For a moment Alex just stared dumbfounded at his phone. It seemed that Siana was another case of Riccarda: a girl of high society that was self-centered and too full of herself. He had met too many of these kinds of girls not to recognize one from afar and she seemed to fill the criteria.

Feeling slightly disappointed, he continued with his usual cold tone,

"Sure, will take into account. So, anyways wanted to check with you what time are you arriving?"

Siana continued talking with amusement still apparent in her tone,

"Oh, I feel neglected here." She said deliberately adding a feeling of hurt to her voice.

She could feel the contempt in his voice and could pretty much guess that he didn't get her joke of just imitating a 'haughty' attitude. Frankly speaking, she was truly amused at how fast her cousin jumped to judge her character. Afterall, he was a businessman so how could he judge someone based on a single sentence that was meant to be a joke?

Well, it was not like she minded it, since she was partially at fault too. And anyways, even if he misunderstood her, he wouldn't be the first or the last case. It was actually one of her weird habits to probe people differently, so in his case if he thought of her as a pampered princess she didn't mind playing along and observing his reaction.

All these thoughts passed through her mind in a matter of seconds and she soon added in her hurt tone,

"I thought you would have asked uncle to make sure everything is ready for my arrival. Seems like I am the only one excited to meet my dearest cousin. Anyways, I will arrive at the central airport of Veturia at six in the evening."

"Well, sorry I didn't do that. I will take that into account next time," Alex said and there was a momentary pause as he was contemplating his next words. He could hear Ren on his side letting a low sigh. Seemed like Ren was of similar opinion of her as him.

However, he completely failed to notice Will, who had been quiet all this time, now fully concentrated all his attention to the voice on the other side of the phone.

'Interesting...' he thought.

"Well you see Siana, tomorrow there is this huge corporate ball that celebrates the collaboration between my company Avalta and my business partner Almona. It starts at 8:30 and is held in the Royal Hotel of Veturia. The entrance is couples only as we wanted the amount of men and women to be equal. Well, anyways. I asked one of my friends to be your date and he agreed. So just get a dress and it should be fine."

Siana's next words, however, were completely unexpected to Alex. They caught Ren's interest and even made an unnoticeable arc form on Will's lips.