Chapter 3 Two

Later that evening, Stella, and the twins were dressed and ready for the party. It turned out to be a dinner party and an auction event all in one place. The hostess was Barbara Oliver, a friend of Ellie's. She welcomed them warmly and ushered them in. After the dinner had been served and everyone had enjoyed themselves, Stella sat alone while the twins chatted away with old friends of theirs.

She decided to walk around, and that was when she spotted an old colleague of hers, in a group of good-looking young men. Her face lit up, "Coleman", she called out and walked up to him, at least she knew someone other than the twins, "Coleman, hey, it's me Stella, Stella Marco, we used to work together back in San Francisco". But the look he gave her was discouraging, it was like he didn't recognize her, or was pretending not to. Her smile was turning into a nervous laugh, the men in the group were staring at her now.

"I'm sorry, I don't remember you", Coleman said, "are you sure we've met before?".

"Yeah of course", she continued, "Leo's pizza hut, remember, we used to work there before you went and got that big 'ol career ". She said edging him further, trying to make him remember.

"Don't you think you're trying too hard?", came a deep husky voice.

She turned to whom the voice was coming from. She was slightly taken aback, she knew the men chatting with Coleman were good-looking, but this one, he was made by the god Adonis himself. He had the most beautiful set of piercing dark green eyes, with lips that she wanted to imagine what it would be like to kiss them. She was staring, and he noticed. She brought herself back to reality. "Excuse me?".

"He obviously doesn't know who you are, why are you women always after the ones who made it big, have some self-respect, am I right fellas?", he said and the men around started laughing.

Burning with shame and embarrassment and realizing they thought of her as a gold digger, she walked up to him, grabbed a glass of wine on the table next to her, and splashed it on his face, ruining his pearly white suit, "I don't fucking need any man's money you fucking bastard", she said and walked out on them.

She was boiling with rage inside, how could Coleman not recognize her, they literally worked together at a pizza restaurant back home, she couldn't be mistaken. And that man, that aggravating yet devilishly handsome young man, had the guts to call her a gold digger, who the hell did he think he was?

The auction event began, Barbara Oliver took to the stage, "thank you all so much for coming, now I'm going to introduce to you, someone who donated 10 million dollars to my charity foundation, a man you all know quite well, my very good friend, Grayson Stone".

Stella watched in shock as the man climbing the stage, was the same man she had emptied a glass of wine on just moments ago, except that this time, he changed his white suit to a navy blue one, which seemed to heavily complement the color of his eyes.

"Hello and good evening everyone, as you all know, I am Grayson Stone, entrepreneur, and CEO of Stone Jewelry".

Stella nearly choked on her drink.

"And tonight", he continued, "I'm going to be auctioning one of the company's most prized possession", he said as he brought out a small box, people in the crowd began murmuring, "this is a very valuable jade necklace, it belonged to the crowned princess of Spain, we will be giving it out to the highest bidder and all proceeds would be given to charity". He said and handed the box to the auctioneers and went back to his seat.

"So let's begin, we'll start with the jade necklace of the crowned princess of Spain, do we have any bidders?".

Almost immediately, someone said, "5 million bucks",

"10 million", the crowd gasped and turned to look at who was affluent enough to afford that, and to their surprise, it was Grayson Stone.

"15 million", someone said from the crowd,

"30 million", Grayson countered.

"35 million", another said,

"42 million", Grayson countered. Silence.

"42 million dollars, do I hear 50 million? no? going once, going twi-",

"70 million", a woman shouted from the crowd.

"100 million dollars", Grayson said and smiled a mischievous little smile, he was sure no one would top that. The whole room went quiet.

"A 100 million dollars, going once, going twice, and...... gone, to Mr. Grayson Stone".

Everyone clapped as the box was given to Grayson, everyone except Stella. A lot was running through her head, especially the fact that she had just assaulted the richest man in Manhattan .

Back at her apartment, Stella tried to push the events of the night to the back of her head. Her dumb luck had struck again, she thought, first it was a creepy email, now this, she hoped he wouldn't file anything against her.

After Grayson was handed the necklace, she decided she wanted to leave, she told Ellie and Eloise she was feeling unwell and that she had to go. She left the party and went straight to her apartment. Her head was pounding. She took some painkillers and went to bed.

As she fell asleep that night, for the first time in two years, she didn't dream about being stalked or chased down by her psychotic ex boyfriend. No, she dreamt about a certain billionaire, with his dark green eyes and irresistibly handsome face.

"It was really weird the stunt you pulled last night", Eloise said the next morning. She and Ellie were on the phone with Stella, they called to see if she really was sick.

"What do you mean?", she asked, "wait did you hear about what happened between Grayson Stone and I?", she asked hoping they would say no.

"Um.. no, we were talking about you faking an illness just to avoid partying", they said.

"Phew", Stella said in relief.

"Woah hold on, hold on now, what's this about you and that hottie?", Eloise asked.

Stella opened her laptop and sat on her bed, "nothing", she muttered.

"You know we don't believe you right? So spill" , they said.

"Ughhhhh, okay fine!. He embarrassed me in front of his friends and I... maybe... splashed some wine in his face".

"What?!", thundered the twins.

"Okay, maybe a whole glass".

"A whole glass?!, Stells, I can't believe you right now", Ellie said surprised.

Stella put her hands in her face in embarrassment.

Ding!

An email came in. She looked up, secretly hoping it wasn't another email from M.

She opened it, and screamed with joy, "oh my God guys!", she yelled.

"What, what is it?", they were confused, "what happened Stella?",

"Remember that job application we talked about?",

"Yeah",

"Well, you're talking to the newest writer for Manhattan 's Moments !", she said, giddy with excitement.

They all screamed with joy, "that's good news Stells, we're so happy for you".

"Thank you so much, guys".