Chapter-6

Mornings usually bring freshness. A feeling of starting everything in a new way. Mornings bring optimism. Even for Elise, mornings were important. Her beauty sleep was how she started her mornings. Sleeping at 4 in the morning and waking up at 9 am.

But today, it was different. Everything was different. She slowly opened her eyes, and she could sense the difference. Very literally. The wall colours were different, the fan was also not the same and the design on the roof was new. Rubbing her eyes slowly she finally got up and wrapped herself in the sheets a little, still feeling sleepy. The sheet smelled weird. It didn't smell like leftover pizza. The smell of the unread chapter of her new books was gone. The room didn't smell like the coffee she had in the morning; the room smelled like lemon tea. The sheets smelled like an expensive cologne. Everything in the room screamed money!

She frantically looked around to see, the room was beautiful. Her dream room. Was she dreaming? The whole room was a black and grey contrast and the built-in wardrobe with glass doors made her stare at that area for a minute longer. She loved expensive homes. Isn't that the reason she works so hard? To buy her dream house one day.

"I see you are up!", a voice interrupted her drooling session.

"Clayton?", she looked at the man standing with his back towards her. He was pouring tea into a cup, and she could see his back muscles pop out.

"Hmm", the man said absentmindedly.

"Where are we?", she finally asked.

"At my place!", he answered keeping cookies on a plate now. She watched him place every cookie with patience and form a beautiful symmetrical pattern.

"Done!", he exclaimed and placed the plate and the cup of tea in a tray. Slowly he carried it to the bed and placed it in front of Elise.

"Why are we here?", she asked trying her best not to get distracted by the carefully designed plate of cookies.

"I guess we got drunk and because my driver had no idea where you live, he brought us here.", he answered as he sat on the other side of the bed.

"I don't remember anything from last night. I hope we didn't do anything stupid.", Elise laughed finally picking up a cookie and instantly feeling bad for spoiling the symmetry.

"I will ask Ben to drop you home.", Clayton said and left the room.

Home! Elise realized she was away from the dorm for one whole night. She searched for her handbag and found it lying on the side table. Picking up her bag she took out her phone. There were no missed calls from her friends, just a text from Abrams.

'Enjoy your night!', with a wink face.

"You are so dead!", Elise muttered in anger. She kept her phone aside and finally got out of bed. Her back was feeling itchy. It was unusual for her, as she never felt this way.

she looked down and found herself in a long T-shirt and a pair of shorts. Who changed her clothes? Was it Clayton? But he said he was drunk last night! Then who? She was thinking hard about the events that occurred the previous night, but nothing came back to her. Suddenly she stepped on something. It was a dress. A white wedding dress!

"What is this!", Elise said in a low voice and picked up the dress.

"Is that yours?", Clayton asked walking back into the room.

"No! Are you married?", she asked him.

"NO!", he almost yelled at her.

"Then whose dress is this?", she asked throwing the dress in his direction.

"I don't know!", Clayton replied throwing the dress back at her.

"It is your house, you should know about it!", she said and threw the dress back at him. Clayton ducked and the dress went flying landing on someone's face. Ben!

"What are you two doing?", Ben aka the guy in the suit from the café asked. Elise knew he was Ben. But she didn't remember when all the introduction happened.

"Sorry! But we don't know whose dress is this!", Clayton apologized as Ben removed the dress from his face.

"What do you mean by you don't remember?", Ben was scared as he looked at the two people standing in front of him.

"We basically don't remember anything from last night!", Elise spoke up. Ben gasped. Very dramatically.

"Both of you?", he asked and they nodded.

"First, this dress is yours.", Ben said as he threw the dress towards Elise.

"See, I told you!" Clayton exclaimed happily.

"This dress, Mr Cameron bought for you!", Ben intervened in Clayton's victory dance.

"So, it is basically yours!", Elise said but decided to keep the dress on the bed. It was too beautiful to go from one hand to the other.

"Why will I buy a wedding dress for her?", Clayton asked with a nervous laugh.

"Why does one buy a wedding dress?", Ben gave him time to remember everything.

"To get married?", Elise was unsure.

"Obviously!", Ben said exasperated.

"But no one got married here!", Clayton said as he looked at Elise, and she shook her head confirming she was not the one who got married.

"Well, out of three people in this room, two people definitely got married last night!", Ben smirked. He wanted to see what comes next!

"No!", Elise almost half screamed.

"You definitely are one of the two!", Clayton said looking at Elise.

"It could be you two!", Elise was screaming now.

"The article right here, tells a different story!", Ben said as he opened his phone.

Clayton snatched the phone from Ben's hand and Elise came closer to him to peek at the screen. There it was, a picture of Clayton and Elise sharing a kiss in a church while Elise was in a white dress. And the headline said- "We hope they know, this is not Vegas!".