21 Happy 17th Birthday

Olivia was finally feeling better and was excited to go to work on Saturday. She spent all of Friday trying to convince her dad that she didn't need an over the top birthday party but he wouldn't budge. Thank goodness Ms. Masama was there and was able to mediate between the two.

Olivia couldn't believe how fast her day went as she scrubbed the bathrooms clean. "Alegria, please don't do too much you just recovered from pneumonia." her manager urged. Olivia just giggled as she answered "I won't." Her manager looked at her in awe as she was able to complete a double workload as if it was nothing.

Now done for the day Olivia rushed out of the office building and ran around the block so she could meet up with her driver. Her father wanted her back in time for her party, which was scheduled to start at 5:00 p.m. and that meant she needed to rush home to change before the guest started arriving. So today was an exception to the rules.

When Olivia walked through the door she was pleasantly surprised to see the Masama twins. "Loreley! Laila! It' so good to see you!" Olivia tried to give the girls a hug but stopped herself mid way. She dropped her arms and slightly blushed. "I need to shower be right back" and with that she ran up the stairs to get ready.

It was finally time for the party and Olivia barely made it in time to greet her guest as they made their way in. Olivia beamed as she stood next to her father, the people that were invited tonight were good friends, family and some long time business partners, so Olivia didn't need to worry to much about today but a very important group was coming and she wanted to look her best.

Today she decided to wear a beautiful lavender colored strapless dress. The top half was decorated tiny little flowers all ranging in different shades or purple, while the bottom half was a beautiful tutu that went down to her knees. To finish off the look a thick burgundy sash tied around her waist and into a cute bow in the back.

She decided to wear her hair down and wore a head band that was decorated with light purple carnations and babies breath on the right side of it. The overall look gave Olivia's auburn hair a rich red wine appearance while her light skin glowed with pink undertones and causing her hazel eyes to look more green then brown.

Avery took a look at his daughter and asked "No heels?" Olivia shook her head no "Wanted to wear my flats instead, we are having the party in the backyard aren't we?" Avery nodded his head. He looked absolutely annoyed and anxious as they waited by the door. Olivia of course knew why he felt that way as she was also anxiously awaiting for the same group of people.

The Dokmai's were the first to arrive from Olivia's group. Autumn lead her family of 10, yes ten, mother Cynthia, father Graham, her 3 older sisters, 3 older brother, one younger brother and her eldest sister's 3 year old son. "Good evening everyone! Oh my goodness is this baby Ryan! He's gotten so big!" Avery took scanned the group of people ad then ask " May couldn't make it today?"

It was Mrs. Dokmai who answered "No she couldn't make it today. Her and Danny had to go inspect their crops out in the North." May and Danny were successful entrepreneurs and husband and wife. They wanted to make their own brand of bathing products from organic ingrediants and grew their own crops. Avery gave them all hugs, kisses and shook baby Ryan's tiny chubby hand WHILE commenting on how Graham was so luck that he's wife never looked over the age of 25.

Suddenly they could hear shouting coming in from behind the Dokamis. Mrs Dokmai gave Olivia a quick kiss and made her excuse so she could run off with baby Ryan in her arms. The Dokmais all sighed simultaneously before chasing after Mrs. Dokmai.

"Cynthia come back here!" shouted Cheryl-Lynn Sentis. Blair and her mom made it to the front door. "Cheryl-lynn welcome!" Avery said as he brought her in for a tight hug but he held her a little too long "Avery get the f*ck off me already! You are stopping me from getting to my grandson!" Avery gave a heart felt laugh "Maybe... but I haven't seen you in a while either you know."

Mrs. Sentis completely diffused at Avery's words, so she decided to give him a hug in return. "It has been too long... we should catch up tonight." Mrs. Sentis suggested "Too bad Brian is home sick with a cold or else he would be here too." Avery gave her a nod and let go of their embrace. Mrs. Sentis gave Avery and Olivia a warm smile before she bolted away following Cynthia Dokmai's trail.

Blair shrugged at Olivia "My brother and Autumn's sister made such a cute baby that they fight every time they see each other just to see who can hold him!" Olivia giggled and watched her friend go after her mother.

Finally they came! A group of 4 handsome boys walked up to the door. Avery's back became stiff while Olivia held her hands together and gave a small blush. "Daddy these are my new friends, Marek Atleet, Porter Saggio, Eli Delmira and Rodan Yanjing. Rodan is Autumn's boyfriend." Rodan immediately blushed a bright red at the word boyfriend and extended his hand towards Avery. "A pleasure to meet you sir. Autumn has told me so much about you."

Avery relaxed and gave the boy a firm hand shake "Mr. Yanjing the pleasure is mine but I think you have the wrong father. You should be more nervous when introducing yourself to Autumn's father Graham Dokmai. He's right over there." Rodan gave a small awkward smile as he rubbed the back of his head. He obediently followed where Avery was pointing and very robotically moved his way towards Mr. Dokmai.

Avery looked over at Olivia and joked "The way Rodan's moving you think he was trying to ask Graham for his daughter's hand in marriage." Olivia gave a bright smile while she answered "He already proposed to her so why not?"

"Mmmh but to be fair Rodan did proposed to Autumn before he asked her to be his girlfriend and she did said yes to dating but she hasn't given him his answer to becoming his bride." Marek said thoughtfully. Eli and Porter were shocked and took a quick glance towards Avery. Avery's face paled and the boys took it as their que to move on in towards the party. Olivia looked at her dad equally surprised "I was just joking! But who knew he meant it!"

Finally all of the guest had arrived. Olivia was thrilled when she made it to the backyard. A striking white canopy was pitched up and hundreds of tea lights were strung everywhere. There were tables and tables of food and servers. While the other tables for their guest's surrounded a dance floor. The DJ was already playing some mood music as everyone was mingling and taking their seats.

Olivia giggled as she looked around at her guest, she was so happy that everyone was here to celebrate her birthday, well she was really happy that Eli was here to celebrate her birthday. While she searched for Eli her eyes found heart warming scenes surrounding her. Mrs. Dokmai had baby Ryan sitting on her lap while Mrs. Sentis was hand feeding his some fruit. Blair was nagging Marek for stealing food from her plate while he blushed pink as he looked at her.

Mr. Dokmai had foamed in the mouth and fainted onto Rodan. Autumn was busy fanning her dad while her younger brother Romeo was following Laila around like a lost puppy. Porter seemed have found a new game to play and was happily teasing a flustered Loreley. Suddenly a husky voice whispered right into Olivia's ear "Who are you looking for?"

Olivia's hand rushed towards her ear as she took a step back to look at Eli. Eli looked amused as she started to blush. Eli stretched out his hand and slightly tilted his head "Would you like to dance?" he asked. Olivia looked towards the dance floor and shook her head no "We would be the only ones dancing" Eli gave a small chuckle while he answered her "It's your birthday you can do what you want... so dance with me, please?"

Olivia slowly placed her hand into Eli's. He quickly brought her hand to his lips and gave it a gently kiss then lead her to the middle of the dance floor. He gave a nod towards the DJ to signal that he wanted the music to play. The DJ pointed towards the couple, nodded and turned on a beautiful, slow song. Eli placed one arm around her waist while the other held Olivia's hand upwards in the air and they began to waltz around the floor.

Olivia couldn't help but blush as she looked up at Eli's face, she didn't know what she was feeling and started to bite down on her lower lip. Eli looked down at her lips and asked her "What's wrong?" Olivia gathered up her courage before she asked "Why did you listen to my dad and stayed away from me?"

Eli gave her a quick twirl before bring her back towards him. "I wanted something and the only way I could get it was to play by his rules... but i did find some loop holes and fully exploited them." Olivia was confused and hurt, what in the world could Eli have wanted from her father and did that mean he using her the whole time? The question was stuck in her throat and she couldn't stop the tears from pooling in her eyes.

Eli quickly stopped dancing and gently touched her face "Don't make that face please." he pleaded "I wanted to be near you more, but all I could do was watch you from afar, I needed to have his permission..."

Suddenly a round of applause exploded. Olivia and Eli froze in place. The embarrassment was mortifying! They both had forgotten that they were surrounded by friends and family. Now she knew how Autumn felt when she slipped into a world where only her and Rodan belonged to. Eli and Olivia looked at each other and quickly blushed red before turning away from each other.

Eli turned towards Olivia and grabbed her hand from behind, he gave quick bow to her then to their audience and briskly escorted Olivia off the dance floor. Avery witnessed the whole show and was about to walk over to where the two were but Agni Masama placed a gentle hand onto his chest and said "Let me go talk to them"