The Love Clause | ✓

14. on the runway

5 MONTHS LATER

Alia twisted her mouth corners to the fashion sketch, taking another color pencil from the kitchen counter. Sitting on a stool, she let the blue traces fill the light summer dress she was drawing. Once finished, Alia leaned her head, observing the sketch with sharp eyes.

Everything should be perfect for the next season. And for tomorrow. Especially for tomorrow.

Suddenly, contradicting the nervous itch in her stomach, she smiled. On the phonograph, The Andrews Sisters were singing a happy melody, and the smell of mint made her close her eyes for a second. On the counter, her cellphone vibrated with a message from Jen — are you really gonna leave your roommate for mr. sexy tonight? — that she replied with a chuckle.

"Don't work too much, darling," he whispered behind her, kissing her head and laying a cup of mint tea on the counter. "You've got this."

"Can't help it." Alia took the cup and chuckled when he came closer, observing her colorful sketches. "You know I won't relax until tomorrow night, Colin."

After five months of dates, dinners and occasional sleepovers at his apartment, it had became barely impossible to keep calling him Mr. Henderson. Wearing sweatpants and no shirt, Colin chuckled, taking a sip of tea.

"Don't worry, Alia." He smiled and leaned down a bit. "And if you need help, Sag and Zelda will be there."

Almost without thinking, she looked at the fashion drawings in front of her. The dream was coming true. After using cheap colored pencils, drawing at lunch time and between her boss' appointments, the dream was finally coming true.

Tomorrow night, with the blessing and help of her idols, Alia would be ready for her first runway. It would be just a small collection of five summer dresses – made by her! – at the end of William Sagger and Zelda Miller's runway, but it would be something. A brand new start for what had seemed an impossible dream.

You deserve this, a little voice whispered inside her head, and for the first time, Alia agreed. Taking another sip of tea, she raised her eyes to Colin, who simply chuckled, making his cute dimples show.

"What?"

"You were looking away and smiling," he pointed out, and Alia lowered her face, chuckling when Marie Antoinette rubbed against her feet, meowning. "I didn't want to interrupt your thoughts."

"I was just thinking about everything," she confessed, shrugging with a weary smirk to the drawings. "I'm afraid of waking up and realizing... realizing everything was a dream. That I'm not here listening to The Andrews Sisters with you, that Sagger and Zelda don't have the slightest idea of who I am, and that I won't have my dresses on a runway. I'm sorry. I'm being childish."

Alia lowered her face again. Colin knitted his eyebrows and chuckled, placing his hand above hers. "No, you're not. It's normal to be nervous," he said. Alia got up, crossed arms behind Colin's nape and sighed. He raised an eyebrow. "And don't worry. This isn't a dream. I mean, yes, last night seemed like a dream, but..."

She laughed, hiding her face on the crook of his neck.

"And tomorrow," Colin went on, holding her close, "after everyone sees Jane Vincent modelling for the new protégé of William Sagger and Zelda Miller, you'll have to greet hundreds of boring people in a party and answer a lot of questions. Isn't this great?"

Jane had insisted on wearing one of Alia's dresses and had kept her promise. After all tabloids announced that the it couple had given up on the wedding hours before the ceremony to run away to a super secret and ultra romantic destination!, everyone was gossiping about a breakup that didn't happen. Actually, Jane and Edward decided it'd be nice to ditch the wedding and spend some time in Bali, their honeymoon destination, swimming with dolphins and having sex on the beach without all the wedding pressure.

And when Jane heard Sagger and Zelda wanted to introduce a new fashion designer on their runway, she had called Alia and refused to take a no as an answer.

Like Alia had always suspected, Jane was a good person after all.

"Yeah, Jane was awesome." She chuckled, "but I think I'll let Nat deal with the... party thing, though."

"Unlike us, Ms. Jensen always knew how to have fun in parties," he laughed. "But after all this, we can... celebrate. Here."

She found it funny the way his cheeks blushed just a little, just enough to make her chuckle. Marie Antoinette meowed again and Alia raised her eyebrows. "And how do you plan to celebrate, if I might ask?"

"Oh, the usual. We can hold hands, kiss and share a bedroom." He smiled, then whispered, "But this time we can... share the bed and not so innocent kisses. What do you say?"

"I say we should... celebrate now," Alia whispered back, kissing his well shaved chin. "And keep celebrating tomorrow, and tomorrow after, and the day after that, and..."

"Sounds great to me." Colin chuckled. She smiled against his lips and pulled him by the hand towards the bedroom. Colin didn't move. Instead, he gazed at her. Alia frowned, a bemused look on her face. After a small silence, Colin smiled. "You were the best clause of all the contracts I've ever sealed, Alia. Just so you know."

She blinked a few times, still holding his hand. The Andrews Sisters were singing a romantic song, the vinyl scratches filling the living room. Colin's ears were pink, and Alia chuckled. "Sometimes I wonder if you're... real."

"I am." He laughed, squeezing her hand. Colin pulled her to another hug and shrugged. "I mean, I'm no Mr. Darcy, but..."

"You're way better than Mr. Darcy."

"From one to ten..."

Alia laughed and shook her head. She pecked him on the lips. "I'd say you're an... eight and a half."

"Jesus, will I ever get a ten?" Colin chuckled.

"I don't want you to be cocky and all, you know? It's—"

"Science," he interrupted, sighing in a funny way. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Because you know it's true," she laughed and pulled him by the hand. "Come on, let's... celebrate."

"Look who's making the interesting proposals right now."

Alia Nazario laughed when Colin Henderson followed her to the bedroom, his arms wrapping up her body in a bear hug. The Andrews Sisters became a soft background noise and Marie Antoinette meowed in the kitchen just before Colin close the door. The mint tea scent of the sheets filled the bedroom when they fell on the bed, laughing.

Then, gazing at his incredibly brown eyes, she realized life wasn't a Jane Austen's novel, but had its moments. And being honest, she wouldn't trade a single bit of her reality to live in Pemberley, not even for a chance to see Mr. Darcy and dance with him in a crowded ball.

For a certain Mr. Henderson, however, she would've signed the dotted line without hesitation.