CHAPTER 3

'Should I just throw you out of my house?' Emerald asked the woman who was standing right in front of her; she had ways to get on her nerves all the time and that bothered.

'Come on, it hasn't gotten to that yet. I just want to know when you will start your next project. The clock is ticking,' the woman said and Emmie sat down on her couch and sighed.

'Very soon, I am looking for inspiration at the moment and once I am done I promise you that the whole book will be in front of you within a month,' Emmie said but the woman didn't believe her at all.

'I have known you for ages Emmie. What's wrong with you?'

'Fine, I will be honest with you. Lately I haven't been feeling very well so I couldn't even come up with one story but I think that will change now,' Emmie said with a smile.

'Explain in details.'

'I think I have found my muse. Someone inspired me and I think I will have a story for you by next week. Trust me this once Eve,' Emmie said looking at the woman she had known for as long as she could remember.

'If that's it then I will wait. There is only four months left till your book should be in stores. You know your fans are always waiting and anticipating for your next book,' Eve her editor reminded her.

'I know and I will never disappoint them. Just give me some more time and you will be shocked,' Emmie said.

'Fine, since I talked with you now I will return to the office. Get inspired quickly and write down that book.'

'Yes, Ma'am, I will certainly do so,' Emmie said with a smile and picked her glass of juice and directed it to her lips and took a sip. Her throat was all dry from all that talking.

Portia came into the lounge where she and Eve where seated.

'Emmie, you have a guest,' Portia said and Emmie looked at he old woman.

'Who is it?' she asked since she didn't know that anyone was coming and no one even called.

'He said his name is Jasper. He just looks like that famous actor on TV,' Portia said and Emmie choked.

'He is here?' she asked.

'Yes, just at the gate,' Portia replied.

'Okay, send him in. I will meet him outside,' Emmie instructed Portia who immediately left the lounge.

'Why is Jasper at your house?' Eve asked full of curiosity.

'Let's just say, we became quick friends yesterday,' Emmie said.

'He is just a kid, remember that,' Eve said it as a warning and she smiled fully knowing what Eve was implying.

'I know which is why I will not do anything to him. He is here to get something and to give me something, that is all,' Emmie explained to her friend who bought it which was a huge relief.

'Okay, since you have a visitor I will take my leave. I have so much to do and fans to address to,' Eve said as she stood up.

Emerald stood up with her, and she escorted her friend out of the house where her car was parked. When she went outside, a black Porsche stopped right in front of her and inside was Jasper. Now that she was seeing him in broad day light and in person, she could tell he was one hell of a hot young man and he was a disaster. He got out of his car with a smile on his face; he went to the passenger seat where he took out a bouquet of lavender flowers and a gift bag. She was wandering what was inside before they even spoke to each other.

'I'm sorry to come without calling first,' he said apologetically with a shy smile on his face.

'I'm glad that you came. I was thinking that maybe you backed out on your promise,' Emmie said with a sense of humor.

'I would never back out on you Emmie,' he said and she looked at him.

Something had changed about Jasper, yesterday he couldn't even look at her but today he was very confident and she liked it.

'I believe you two know each other,' Emmie said turning to her friend Eve who was staring at Jasper.

'Yes we do. How are you Director Eve?' Jasper extended his greetings and Eve smiled at him.

'I am fine and you?'

'I am okay, thank you for asking,' he answered her.

'I didn't know you knew my friend here,' Eve said trying to pry out some information from Jasper and Emmie shook her head. How can she be so shameless?

'We recently met yesterday,' he answered her.

'Okay, I will leave you two. I have some business to attend to,' Eve said and turned to her.

Emmie kissed her friend on both cheeks before she got into her car and drove away.

'Are those for me?' Emmie asked as soon as Eve left.

'Yes. Sorry, I nearly forgot to give them to you,' he said shyly and she smiled.

'It's okay,' she said as she stretched her hands. Jasper handed over the flowers which she smelled and they were just great. They were fresh and their scent was just relaxing and comforting. She peeped through the gift box and gasped.

'I think we should go inside,' Emmie said and led the way.

Jasper followed Emerald inside her house and he was amazed by what he saw. She was one affluent woman; she was really a business woman and a woman who had done it for herself. He slept late searching her on the internet and he found out that she was quite popular. She was mostly seen with these high end businessmen and that got him worried since he wasn't sure where she will place him in her own heart.

She gave him a seat and he got comfortable while she disappeared for a few minutes before coming back to join him in the lounge. The housekeeper brought some juice and snacks for them to munch on while they talked.

'I'm glad that you came and thank you for the gift,' Emerald said as she sipped her juice.

'It's nothing. I just picked something, didn't know if you were going to like it or not,' he said and she smiled at him.

'I really like it; I will wear the watch all the time. It's the first present I got from such a young and famous person,' she told him and he nearly blushed upon hearing that.

'I'm glad that you like it.'

'I almost forgot, follow me and I will show you what I promised you,' she said as she stood up and he followed suit.

Jasper followed Emmie as she led him through the corridor until she stopped at this huge door and opened it. He followed her inside and he gasped upon seeing what was in the room. At one glance he could tell this was a private library. The room was filled with books from the top to the bottom. They were all kinds of books filled in there.

'These are my collections over the years but what you are interested in, is this side,' she said as she walked to the other side of the room.

He saw many famous names of authors, some were still alive and some were gone. He stopped when he saw that name, the name that had made him to be alive all these years.

'You have all these books?' he asked as he saw the Black Rose novels collection filling two shelves.

'Yes, I have every copy ever published,' she told him with a smile.

'I'm shocked. Some of these books I couldn't even find them. They are like relics now and they sell at high prices now. I can't believe that I get to see hard covers of these books,' he told her happily. He was really overjoyed by this discovery. Seeing books that he never thought he would be able to see was a miracle to him.

'I sold quite a few this year, still wrapped for some top dollar,' Emmie told him and he looked at her.

'Do you have any copies that I can see?' he asked her full of curiosity.

'Why do you want to know? Do you want to buy one?' she asked him and he smiled.

'I would love to. I would want the copy of the tenth novel to come out. You know the one with the title, "Oppressed Love". Do you have it?' he asked her and his hopes were very high.

Emerald looked at him for a while before she answered.

'If you tell me why you are interested in that novel then I might see what I can do,' she told him and he decided to be honest with her.

'To be honest, I began to love these books because of my mother. She never missed any novel that was written by Black Rose. My mother used to tell me that when she read that book, she got courage to face her demons and she was set free. At that time she borrowed the book since she didn't have money to buy one, she was busy taking care of me. But the book was a best seller; by the time she had money she couldn't find any of the books anywhere. If I can get her one copy of that book, I think she will be very happy,' he told her the truth and he saw her not smiling at all.

'It's a very touching story. I am glad to hear that the book had such an effect on someone. In these two shelves, I have every copy of the books you are looking for but they are still not wrapped since I read them. But I think I can find you a copy somewhere, I just have to look around,' she told him and he felt relieved by that.

'Thank you, I will really appreciate it. While we are on that topic, where should put your autograph?' he asked her and she looked around.

He watched as she took a note pad and a pen before coming to him. She handed him the items and he signed his autograph and gave it back to her.

'Thank you, I really appreciate it,' she said as she took back the note pad to her desk.

'You are welcome,' he said.

'How about you take a look around the library, I will go and check up on the novel you spoke about,' she said.

'Okay, I will wait for you.'

Emerald left him standing by the shelves and watched as she disappeared through the book shelf. It seems like the library had a secret room and that was probably the place she kept all her valuable staff. Was she not afraid that he might know her secrets that she was carelessly showing him her secret rooms like that?

He began to go through the list of novels until he found the one his mother loved. They were all still new but he could smell that the paper was now old. He found his mother's favorite book and he pulled it out. He opened the book and smiled, this was probably a book that was part of the first one thousand copies to be sold. Black Rose always signs his or her autograph in the first thousand copies and this was one of them. He had read this book online and it was so touching, depressing and liberating at the end. It wasn't only his mother who was liberated by it but so many people. This was probably why so many people liked the books so much.

Emerald returned after a while and he turned his head to look at him and he was utterly shocked. She came out holding one old book still sealed. He walked towards her and stopped as she was smiling at her.

'I guess you are one lucky guy. I went through my collection and happened to find one sealed book. You can give this to your mother,' she said as she handed over the book.

He didn't waste his time but took it gratefully from her and he looked at the book closely. It was really the book he was holding and still sealed. This was worth a lot of money among people who liked collecting relics such as this book.

'You can't just give it to me like that for nothing; I will feel bad about it. Just name your price and I will give it to you,' he said not wanting to take the book for free. She was a businesswoman after all and it wouldn't be that bad to strike a deal with her.

'You told me that your mother would be happy if she gets the book. Her happiness is what matters more than anything. If she is happy then I will consider the debt between us paid,' she told him but he was still not at ease. After thinking about the issue for a while he found a solution and that might smooth things between him and her.

'Since you insist on refusing a payment, how about I repay you by buying you dinner tonight?' he asked fully knowing what he was doing.

Emerald looked at him for a while before she put a smile on her face which made him feel very relieved.

'I thought you will never ask,' she replied and he was taken aback by her response.

'You will have dinner with me?' he asked, wanting to clarify if he had heard correctly and if he wasn't hallucinating.

'I will go to dinner with you but I have a condition,' she threw one on him.

'Whatever you want, I will do it,' he told her, ready to face whatever consequences that will come. What he just wanted was to have a meal with a woman who stole his heart.

'Since it is still early, I would like to have a chat with you,' she said and he choked on himself.

'A d.d.d-date?' he asked, shocked with his hearing.

'Yes, I have never gone on a date with a celebrity before and yet such a young and famous actor and model like you. You can just think of it as a way of helping me on my next project. I would like to know what youngsters do on their dates nowadays. You wouldn't mind helping me with that, right?' now that she said it like that, it made complete sense even though he didn't know what her project had to do with going on a date.

'To be honest, I have never gone on a date with a girl but if you really want to know what youngsters do nowadays, I will have that date with you. I will just have it my own way, do things I would like to do with my girlfriend on our first date,' he told her and saw the surprise look on her face.

'I would be honored to experience such a thing. I should mark this day in my diary after all,' she said with a smile.

'If I don't do things to your expectation then please don't hesitate to advice me,' he said.

'I guess I will enjoy whatever will come my way because you will be there with me. I will go and change into something more comfortable and meet you in the lounge in ten minutes,' she said and left him alone in the library.

He was so happy that she had asked him for a date. He was so scared that he couldn't even bring it up. He was seeing her again for the third time and he was afraid that if he asked her then she might rule him out of her life and that wasn't something he wanted.

Since he was a lone he began to look around the library, discovering so many books, some of which he didn't know of. He walked towards her table and he saw pictures of her when she was young until now. There was one with a woman in it and he assumed that was her mother since they had such an impeccable resemblance. He checked his watch and returned to the lounge. Along the corridor he noticed that the walls were filled with paintings. He recognized some of them, some were a mystery, he should probably dig into it; that way he will have something in common to talk about with her. Before he could enter the lounge another painting caught his eye and he went straight to it.

It was a painting of Emerald naked; he stood right in front of the painting and wondered why she would have such a painting. It wasn't that provocative since it didn't show the parts that mattered. She was beautiful and he could see that it was her with just once glance. As he was admiring the painting he noticed that on her shoulder, she had a three black rose tattoo and a single tattoo on her hand. There was something very familiar about these two tattoos. He checked the book he was holding and recognized it immediately. The black rose flower was used as a symbol for Black Rose's books. It wasn't just a name but a trademark.

Was Emmie a huge fan that she had these roses on her like that? He couldn't help but admire her great love for the author.

'I can see that you found this painting,' Emerald said and he turned around to face her. Seeing her standing there knowing he was busy admiring her naked self made him flush with so much embarrassment.

'It's a beautiful painting,' he said facing down.

'I had this painting about a decade ago. It was a gift from my artistic friend. He is quite a famous one,' she said as she stood right next to him.

'I should probably look into him,' he said and she laughed.

'You will be impressed by his work. I am now done, we should leave now,' she said and he looked at her fully. She was looking gorgeous and beautiful. She wasn't even wearing too much make up and he could see that she was a true beauty.

'Since I will be having a youthful date today, I will wear some jeans. I wouldn't want to miss any fun because I wore some dress,' she said blushing because he was staring at her.

'It's a good choice of clothing. You look beautiful,' he finally said it and she blushed more.

'Thank you. I plan on looking beautiful for my date and hope to have some fun. So are we taking your car or mine?' she asked him.

'We will go with mine. I am the man after all and it is my treat,' he said and she smiled at him.

'I will leave myself in your care then,' she said as she stretched her hand towards him.

He knew what to do. He hooked her arm around his and together they left the house. He unlocked the doors, opened the door for her before he helped himself. He had been waiting for this day for a very long time and he was praying to not mess it up. He didn't want to spoil her first impression of him. He was going to make this day a special day that she was never going to forget even when it meant splashing his face all over the tabloids and having a scandal coming out for the first time. He was prepared to face anything if that was going to bring him much closer to her and what other better way than to show her to the rest of the world?