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Every shade of every colour was laid out in front of me. From skirts to underwear, my clothes were folded into individual piles, each one as tidy as the other. I was lying comfortably on my bed as Ella held out my clothes in front of me, asking whether I wanted to take them to Reading or not.
“What about this?” Ella smiled at me, holding up a floral skirt.
I raised my eyebrows for a few seconds, thinking if I had anything that would go with it.
“No thanks,” I shrugged, glancing up at the purple clock that hung on my cream wall.
It was almost half past ten now and Richard would be here in fifteen minutes or so. Thankfully, he’d agreed to come with me to Reading. My father was more than glad.
Once I’d picked a few different outfits, Ella began carefully placing them into my small suitcase on the end of my bed. I wasn’t sure how she did it, but she managed to fit every single piece of clothing into the compact suitcase.
“There we go,” she smiled, tapping the suitcase before looking back up at me. “So you like this Richard fella then?”
I couldn’t help but imitate the smile that was placed on Ella’s lips. She was right; I very much liked Richard Brooks. I couldn’t wait to spend some time with him and get to know him better.
The past three weeks had passed by so quickly, it seemed impossible. To my delight, practically every moment of it was spent either talking to Richard, or texting him. There was a part of me, a part deep down, that thought I was maybe acting blind about the whole thing. I'd only know Richard for just under a month and I was already falling hard for him. I might not have even been falling for him. The knowledge of having to marry soon for my family's sake may have overshadowed my other priorities, but I didn't mind. I hadn't fought with Richard once so far.
I looked at Ella and nodded, giggling slightly. She laughed before picking up the suitcase from my bed and dropping it onto my carpeted floor. As she did so, the memories of weeks ago entered my head. Maybe she’d tell me now...?
“Ella?” I asked, sitting up in my bed. “Why did Oliver pass out a while ago?” I tried sounding as casual as I possibly could.
“Um, not sure really. Just one of those things, I guess,” she replied, lying.
I sighed and rolled my eyes as Ella smiled at me and left my bedroom. It was hard for me to understand why she wouldn’t tell me. I knew Ella too well for her to lie to me. After spending most of my childhood with her, it was easy to notice the way that the tone of her voice rose slightly when she lied.
Taking one of the mints from the bowl on my bedside table, I popped it into my mouth and stood up. Glancing at my phone, I was disappointed at my empty inbox. I suddenly looked back up, hearing a knock on the door.
“Come in,” I said.
My bedroom door opened to reveal a dark haired man, dressed in a tidy black shirt and a pair of matching trousers. On his face was a soft smile.
I looked at Richard standing in my doorway. His hair was brushed back, making his smouldering chestnut coloured eyes appear brighter than ever.
“Hello!” I yelped a bit too eagerly. “How are you doing?”
“Hey,” Richard laughed, “I’m very well, thank you. What about you?”
“Good.” I giggled.
I could feel my cheeks reddening up as I spoke. I’d only said hello to Richard and I’d already made myself come across as a silly little girl. I didn’t need Oliver to embarrass me; I could do that myself.
*****
We’d been in the car for around forty minutes and I couldn’t wait to arrive at Reading. I’d been laughing all of the way there because of Richard. He’d been telling me some extremely amusing stories about some of his experiences.
“You should have seen him,” Richard laughed, “he must have spent at least ten minutes trying to turn the blender on. It took him another ten minutes to finally realise that he needed to plug the machine into a power socket!”
Richard and I started laughing. My hands covered my mouth, trying to hide the strange squeaking sound that came out of it.
“Wow, hysterical.” I turned to see Oliver with his head leaning against the car’s tinted window, his eyes following the raindrops that fell down it.
I nudged him hard on his side, automatically making him flinch. He gave me a dirty look before muttering something under his breath and pulling the hood on his jacket over his head.
Oliver was in a sour mood since I had made him go to Reading with me. I didn’t make him go. I just told him that he had to go if he wanted to keep his job. To be honest, I was hoping that he wouldn’t turn up. That uncomfortable guilty feeling was still in my stomach, for some reason, so I felt the need to give him one more chance. I was beginning to regret it already.
I continued speaking to Richard for a couple of minutes until I heard the crunching sound of gravel underneath the car wheels. Leaning over Oliver, I peered out the window to see a tall Marricot hotel a few hundred yards into the distance.
I bit my lip as the car neared the building. It certainly wasn't the grandest hotel we've ever stayed in, but I only needed to look at it once to realise that it was blowing a big hole in my father's wallet. Stupid pride.
“It looks like we’re here,” Richard said, peering out of the window.
The car stopped in front of the large main entrance and shortly later, the car door beside Richard was opened by the chauffeur. Richard and I exited the car through that door, while Oliver opened the door on his side and stepped out of the car.
Come on, Victoria, I thought to myself, Stop worrying and just enjoy it. Letting out a long breath, I relaxed my entire body. My dad wasn't stupid enough to waste his money on something like this. He'd probably gotten some deal or something. Maybe the money issues weren't even as bad as I thought. Yeah, things couldn't have been that bad.
I more or less ran into the pure white building and I could hear Richard laughing behind me, his hands in his pockets as he jogged up the steps that led to the main entrance. After we were inside, Oliver shortly followed, wheeling my suitcase behind him, along with my parents and Ella who had come in another clean, black car.
We waited in the seating area at the front of the hotel while the rooms were getting sorted. As I sat down on the chocolate brown leather sofa, I noticed that Oliver actually had a somewhat happy expression on his face.
“This isn’t very nice, is it?” I said slowly, observing the room around me.
It wasn’t that the hotel was dirty or anything, it was just that I’d been in much nicer ones. The brown sofas didn’t match the floral decorations at all and the room itself was a bit too crowded for my liking. It was as if they had tried to stuff as many chairs, sofas, and tables into the room as possible. What did I expect though? We were rather tight on money.
“Dude, are you kidding?” Oliver said in awe. “This place is fricking amazing!”
His eyes scanned every corner of the room as a pleasured grin grew on his face.
Ella laughed at Oliver’s reaction as he began staring at the photography that hung on the dark coloured walls. I’d actually been enjoying his company a lot more when he was in a mood with me; he didn’t talk half as much as he normally did.
“Victoria,” my mother said, walking over to me. “You’ll be sharing a room with Ella. Your room number is...” she glanced at the piece of paper in her hands, “573 and Mr. Brooks, you’ll be in the next room, 574. As for you, Oliver, you'll be sharing a room with the chauffeurs.”
Richard nodded and smiled politely while Oliver put his thumb up and winked at my mother. I felt sorry for the chauffeurs, that was for sure. My mother folded up the piece of paper and placed it neatly into her pocket.
*****
A small grin grew on my face as my eyes stared into the long mirror before me. I was wearing a scarlet red dress that fell to the top of my knees. On my feet were polished, black heels that shaped my legs so perfectly, they almost looked airbrushed. My dark hair was tied back, leaving a few curls to fall loosely down my neck.
The smell of expensive perfumes circled the air around me, broadening my smile even more. The soft breeze wafted in from the open window along with the sound of a peaceful silence. Once more, I looked into the mirror. I felt incredible. Within the matter of days, things had finally started looking better.
Humming quietly to myself, I skipped over to the double bed at the back of the hotel room, fondling my dress. I jumped onto the perfectly made bed and shut my eyes, completely relaxed. Lying on my bed, I twirled my fingers in my hair.
“What do you think you’re doing?” a voice interrupted my relaxation.
Opening my eyes, I sat up on the bed, still in a world of my own. Standing at the end of the bed was Richard. I smiled at him but he didn’t smile back. Instead, he glowered at me as though he was sucking on a lemon.
Standing up, I laughed. Richard was wearing one of his usual chic black suit and his hair was done perfectly, of course. There wasn’t a strand out of place. Everything about him looked amazing. Everything besides his facial expression.
“You’re not going out like that,” Richard said blankly.
I began laughing again until I noticed the stern look in Richard’s eyes. “It’s not funny, Victoria. You look terrible. That dress is too short.”
As the harsh words slid out of his mouth, a huge lump formed in my throat. I didn’t understand. What was he saying? Richard wasn’t like this. He didn’t say things like this.
I gaped at him as my heart paused for a few brief seconds. No words left my mouth; my eyes were the only things doing anything right now.
“Pardon...?” I asked him, still in disbelief.
This was a joke. This must have been a joke. I’d made an effort to look exquisite for Richard and he said that to me? No way. That wasn’t Richard.
“I can see your knickers in that dress,” he shook his head, “put something suitable on. We’re going to dinner, not a brothel.”
At this point, I was gawking at Richard, my eyes wide. My entire body was frozen in its place and my head was spinning as I tried to take everything in.
Swallowing hard, my eyes began stinging as pools of water began forming in them. Wiping them, I realised how stupid I was being. My dress was pretty short and there was a lot of make-up on my face. Maybe Richard was just in a bad mood or something? I was sure that he didn’t mean what he said. He was making sure that I didn’t go out and embarrass myself. Yeah, that was right.
“Sorry, you’re right.” I apologised, my cheeks reddening.
Richard nodded his head and sat down by the wooden dressing table, still looking at me. Running around like a heedless chicken, I rummaged through the wardrobe until I found something suitable to wear. In the end, I found a long, black dress. It was rather plain, but at least it was better than what I had on before.
Richard was still sitting at the dressing table when I scurried into the bathroom and grabbed a wet wipe. Carefully, I looked into the mirror and rubbed off some of the make-up I had on. I was surprised when I held the wipe in front of my face to see it covered in an explosion of colours. I did wear too much make-up, didn’t I?
Dropping the stained wet wipe into the metal bin, I left the bathroom, closing the door behind me. As I neared him, Richard turned to me and smiled.
“That’s better.” He smiled, taking my hand as he stood up.
Not taking the smile off his face, his glimmering eyes stared into mine. That was the moment my entire body felt numb. It was perfect. As cliché as it may have sounded, it was as though it were only him and me in the world. It felt like I could do anything right now as long as he did it with me.
My eyes smiled back at his as I pushed my head forward slightly. Moments later, his warm lips pressed softly against mine. Three seconds too soon, my lips were released and I was once again staring into his eyes.
“You look gorgeous, Victoria.” He swooned, stroking my face.
That was better. That was the Richard I'd gotten to know.
So, I was just seeing the Romantic Novels Section and I saw that you've posted this. Hence I came to review, ain't I great? 
What to do, I am getting too lame at writing, as if I were good ever. 
Nice job. I enjoyed this story and will be following it through to its completion. If you need any help, feel free to PM me. Now I 
Practice makes perfect, I guess.
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