The real her (updated)

Completely different from her previous 'spoilt princess' tone, Siana now talked with sternness and poise in her voice,

"That sounds like a plan. But there is no need for that. I am grateful to you and your friend for going to such lengths to take care of me but I don't want to force myself on anyone. I can just stay in a hotel for the night and move to yours on the next day so that our parents are ok with it."

After taking a moment to process her words Alex said with impatience,

"It won't do. Even though there will be no media in the ball dad has his ways of checking whether you are with me or not. He and your dad made clear that I should take care of you personally and I cannot refute their request.

Moreover, I am sure you will be more than happy to attend with my friend, as it is none other than the CEO of Harding corps, William Harding."

Every word was said deliberately and his last words were filled with unmasked contempt, followed by a smirk. He wanted to make it clear that it was because of his dad and uncle that he was taking care of her. After saying Will's name he was expecting to hear screams of excitement from her, afterall, Will was one of the most handsome men in the world and one of the richest too. But, once again, he was in for surprise, as his cousin started dropping the act and acted just the way she was.

"Alex, you seem to be completely misunderstanding me as a person. I was fine with you assuming that I am some sort of ignorant princess but I don't like being perceived as a clingy woman who screams and shouts of excitement because of some guy.

I know that you were forced into this and I am sincerely sorry for taking your time for the upcoming week. The conference I am attending is very important to me and I cannot miss it. But due to some events that happened recently my dad doesn't want me to stay alone." She stopped for a moment and after taking a breath continued in her apathetic tone,

"As for William Harding, I am grateful for his magnanimity. I accept that he is the eye candy and the dream guy for many. But, not me. I know close to nothing about him which makes nothing more than a stranger to me.

As for tomorrow, just send your driver to take me to your place. I will explain it to our parents personally, afterall, I have a 14-hour flight so I can act the pampered princess you imagined me to be and just take a break.

Sorry for taking your time with the long talk. I am hanging up. Will see you later."

It took Alex a few minutes to come back to his senses. He knew that he was biased towards her because of his experience with Riccarda and because of another person who he hid in the back of his mind. This particular experience made him rash his decisions whenever it came to socialites. He was in the process of recollecting the whole conversation when his thoughts were interrupted by Ren:

"What the heck just happened?"

Before Alex could answer or voice his own confusion Will spoke;

"She seemed to be joking initially and then you pissed her off."

His monotonous, calm voice sounded like cold water pouring on Alex. He turned to his friend and said defensively;

"Yeah, well, seems like I did. But how do you expect me to know that she was joking? I mean even if she was, it's not like I said anything wrong: I was just restating the facts."

"Waa, stop there Alex. I guess she was at fault too, but what she said was nevertheless the truth: you did take her for a clingy woman. Anybody who had principles, which, it seems, she did, would get angry after the way you talked," Ren quickly tried to calm Alex down. It seemed like that was his newfound role.

"Aghhh, what am I supposed to do now? Now, because of her dad is gonna kill me."

To his friends, this helpless sight of Alex was actually both amusing and bitter. It seemed that time didn't do much to help him move on and be more tolerant towards socialite girls. For a while now he had developed a biased view on women of high society. He was relatively fine with women who came from not prominent families, but he was having difficulties with women from better backgrounds. For this, his father had repeatedly arranged him to spend more time with the daughters of his friends or siblings. But alas, it had a backfired as all the white lotuses he had chosen turned out to be fake and pretentious ones.

All of this started with that failed relationship that left a deep scar in Alex and had even threatened the childhood friendship between the three of them. Thankfully, their friendship emerged stronger in the end making it no secret to anyone that the three famous CEOs were best friends and sworn brothers to each other.

What remained was for Alex to heal, as he stubbornly refused to make any commitments or friendships whenever it came to girls. They tried to do something, but to no avail...

It was probably only his father that did not give up and was dead set on 'curing' his bias.

This time it was Siana.

All along Will was swirling his wine glass quietly contemplating about something.

It was the sound of a phone ringing that snapped everyone back to their senses.

"Sh*t. Speak of the devil. It's dad."

He reluctantly picked up his phone and answered with uncertainty apparent in his tone;

"Is something the matter, dad?"

"Son, I wouldn't expect anything less from you. Sia just told me about everything. Just make sure that she safely reaches your place and let her take a break for the night."

The old man's voice was filled with happiness and pride. This was his son, and it seemed that he had learned how to deal with his problem. He was truly looking forward to these two cousins getting close to each other, just as he and Siana's father were.

"Umm, sure?" Alex raised his eyebrows and looked at his friends with bewildered expression.

"Oh, yeah, forgot to remind you. Don't forget to appoint a group of trained bodyguards to her. But make sure she doesn't know about this. I got to go to a meeting now. Keep me updated on the situation."

Alfred Illes was the one to promptly wrap up their conversation that he himself had started, without giving Alex time to inquire what exactly had happened.

"Okay dad, will do."

Alex disconnected the call in complete confusion and turning to Ren repeated the latter's question from earlier;

"What the heck just happened?"

—

- A few minutes ago, Ribekia -

"Damn it, I did it again."

Siana laid back on her bed as it was still early in the morning there. She was not a temperamental person or anything: her job would not allow her that. Though she was young, from an early age she learned to be tolerant and understanding of others. However, she didn't like it when people looked down at her or accredited her success to her connections.

She would usually just let it slide, but, for god's sake, it was her own cousin who crossed the line. Being an only child she was really looking forward to meeting this cousin of hers who was a renowned designer and a philanthropist.

But, alas. She just had to ruin everything. She was no different from him as the damned hot-bloodedness of Illes' just took reign of all her actions.

Yes, he pissed her off. But she was the one who started the whole cycle of misunderstandings. Moreover, it wasn't exactly polite of her to hung up after her statement. What if the William guy didn't have a date and she cancelled on him last minute?

'Actually, it's not like the girls aren't lining up for him. Should't be a problem,' she tried to console herself.

Remembering what she promised to do she abruptly sat up, picked up her phone and after some deliberation called someone.

The call was quickly picked up from the second ring:

"My dearest little princess. You have finally called me. And here I thought that you have already forgotten about me," came the voice from the other side of the line that sounded quite heartbroken and sad.

"Hello, my dearest, loveliest and bestest uncle. How are you?..."