To my OG readers,

This chapter might make you say, "Wth? When
did that happen?" Well, I decided to do some editing over my 4 month break. Things you remember from the earlier chapters might have been edited off and replaced with MUCH better writing, so you might have to reread chapter 9 to get a jist of what Hunter is talking about. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Chapter 34 - KMCF

"Borrow what?"

"Models. Male models," I said, feeling less confident of my answer.

If I couldn't get models for Grace's bachelorette party, I might as well dig a grave for myself. Everything had to be perfect and adding models would tie the whole party together. I just needed Marcos's help.

He started off with a small grin and then it became a deep chuckle. "Jennifer, it doesn't work that way. Models aren't venues, I can't just rent them to you."

"We know that, but can't you just pull some strings?" Miranda spoke up from behind the counter. She gave Marcos a childish pout. "Look at the amazing display we made just for you."

He groaned loudly until I stepped in again. "Plus, you owe me one for saving your company."

He groaned again, making sure everyone in the store heard him. "Because Manning was losing his mind for a date. And speaking of which," Macros looked directly at Miranda. "Can you believe Jennifer hated her date with Hunter freakin' Manning?"

I sighed while Miranda tried to stifle a laugh, "actually, I can."

"Actually Marcos, I need to tell you something about Manning and myself," I found it difficult to look at his eyes.

If I didn't tell Marcos, I'd always be the crazy woman who missed out on a golden opportunity. Besides that, he could find out about Hunter and I some other way and feel offended. I wasn't looking to be offensive. He was one of my closest friends.

"What is it?" He sounded eager possibly from my suspenseful way of speaking.

"But, first, the models." I tried hard to conceal my smirk.

Marcos looked to Miranda for guidance, only she was just enjoying how things were playing out. He went back to staring at me, hoping I would crack.

"Fine! Usted niñas conducen un negocio difícil!" He exclaimed in Spanish before sighing. "I'll see what I can do. Now, spill the beans."

I stole a quick glance at Miranda and back at Marcos, I then took a deep breath. "Hunter Manning is my childhood friend."

His caramel eyes widened, his chiselled jaw dropped, he almost looked like a fish out of water. "Are you serious?"

I nodded my head, "yeah."

"But, you shook hands and introduced yourself to him. You both acted like you never met one another. And when he-" He paused from his ranting to think. "It all makes sense now! It's no wonder why you weren't fond to meet him and why you knew so much about him."

Marcos looked up from his light murmuring. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you sooner."

"Jennifer, it's okay. At least you told me, right?" He said and right after Miranda nodded and soon I did too. "Any more secrets I should know?"

Miranda and I caught each other's eyes before we gave him a reply. "Nope."

"None, zero, zip, nada." Added, Miranda.

"I get the feeling you're both lying." A smirk smudged across his lips.

"What about you Marcos? Don't you have secrets?" From what Miranda said, a grin appeared on his face.

"Not at a-"

"Mr. Martinez!" The loud shriek originated from Rocxy, who was walking towards us in a quick pace. "It's so nice to see you again, remember me?"

If I had a dollar for every time I rolled my eyes at Rocxy, I could buy a new car. Miranda and I sighed, not just because she interrupted us, but because she was acting completely different from herself.

"Yeah," Marcos looked in our direction with desperation. Even though we didn't want to, we mouthed Rocxy's name, hoping he'd understand. "Rocky, right?"

There was a few seconds of silence, I wasn't sure if Rocxy was going to snap, her name was a priceless jewel to her. "Yes, you do remember!" She filled in the remaining space between her and Marcos and smiled brightly as ever.

I couldn't help but laugh in disbelief. She was willing to disregard her own name for Marcos. "This is too much for one person to handle. Rocxy, go unpack the boxes in the back, we have a lot to do today." Miranda said.

She couldn't break character in front of her dashing prince, even though we could see her brows furrow just a bit. "Of course." Her hands rubbed against Marcos's jacket, one last time before she departed.

"I think she likes you," I teased.

"Oh, really?" Marcos sent a light glare my way. "What could've possibly given that away?"

"Jen, it's twelve." Miranda said, looking down at her phone.

"Oh, then, I have to go." I grabbed my bag and my cell phone. I headed towards the door before waving goodbye to Miranda and Marcos.

"Wait, where are you going?" Marcos tilted his head in perplexity.

"I'm going to see Hunter."

** **

After getting my pass from the snotty receptionist, I stood in front of the elevator and watched the numbers count down.

I thought of everything Hunter had told me yesterday. Silent sighs come out once I remembered the various expressions Hunter had shown. I tried imagining what today's would be like, hoping it'd soak up the dampened mood it placed me in.

Finally, the elevator had landed. The doors gradually pulled apart.

Hunter.

Hunter stood inside the elevator gripping his phone and sharing the same surprised visage as mine. On his left and right side, there stood the two men from a few days ago, the bodyguards. "Hey," he said casually.

My eyes examined the large and muscular men besides Hunter before landing back on him. "Hi, I was just about to see yo-"

The elevator doors suddenly began to close, but with the push of Hunter's hand, they retracted. That was when he and his men all got off the conveyor. He positioned me in front of him and the bodyguards positioned themselves behind Hunter. I couldn't see anything except three men ahead of me.

"I don't want the papas seeing us." Hunter said with a reassuring smile.
I had forgotten that there were a couple photographers standing outside, patiently waiting for Hunter. They could see inside the building as well, only the lobby and we were in the lobby.

"Are you going somewhere?" I asked after observing what he was wearing. Navy blue dress pants and a white dress shirt.

"Well, I was just about to go get something really quick. Instead, do you want finish our talk while we take a drive?" A small grin showed up once I shook my head in agreement.

We used the back exit, since the main one was temporarily being rented out by photographers. Hunter and I sat in the back of a black car and judging by the interior and the shine it struted, it must've cost a fortune. Hunter's bodyguards went into a separate car behind us.

**Third Person POV**

He stared absent-mindedly at the scenery until it steadily began to change. "I can't tell you how much I miss driving myself." His head turned to face Jennifer and gave her a little smile.

She didn't know how to reply, instead she copied the size of his grin. His eyes left her face and trailed down to what she was wearing, a navy blue playsuit that went well with her slight olive skin tone. Why was it that everything looked amazing on her? A question that pounded relentlessly in his head until she began moving uncomfortably under his gaze.

Hunter smirked, "where did we leave off?"

"Uhm," Jennifer took a minute to herself, trying to retrace her memories. "You were breaking into my condo."

He chuckled small, "call it whatever you want." Jennifer playfully rolled her eyes before he continued. "Before you came home, I was extremely anxious about what you'd do and say. I left you for almost ten years, anybody would kick me out of their home or even call the cops. Only, you didn't do anything, you treated me like a regular guest though you were a bit surprised to see me."

He was right, any sane person would've dragged him out. Jen began feeling stupid by her past choices, she wondered why in hell she acted calm and even treated him to cake on that day. She couldn't finish her search for answers, Hunter was starting to speak.

"When I first saw you, I really couldn't believe it was you. I thought my heart would burst out of my chest if I stared at you for too long. You had grown to be such a beautiful woman. The unique features you had as a kid had turned into things that made me lose all of the restraint I had in me. From your bright blue eyes to your secret dimple." His eyes accidentally met Jennifer's, whose cheeks were wearing a pale shade of red. She quickly looked elsewhere in hopes that Hunter would do the same. He didn't for he enjoyed making her blush. "That night I knew if I let you ask any questions, it could've ruined your entire night and maybe even make you feel suspicious too soon. I just couldn't take the risk, so I figured I'd let you question me when you weren't overwhelmed with emotions."

"In less than a day, I started to notice the iron wall you were putting between your emotions. You were keeping everything in and to help you let it all out, we played hide-and-go-seek. Do you remember when I took you to that secluded field?" Once Jennifer nodded, he continued. "It was secretly supposed to partly make up for leaving you and I knew I couldn't bring you there casually if I didn't use the game as a bet. My goal wasn't to use a kiss to break up the bet, but I had been staring at your lips as I was making up that rule. My goal also wasn't to make out with you and when I caught sight of the choices I was making that day, I could only resort to giving you the cold shoulder. I needed time to rethink everything. But, during those six days, I wasn't just thinking, I was also overworked with work. I'm sorry if it seemed like I wasn't caring about you. I didn't think for a second that my actions hurt you badly. I'm sorry for making you cry, I'm really sorry." Hunter was biting down on his teeth while his eyebrows began to twitch.

Noticing his behaviour, Jennifer overlapped his hand with hers. "In all honesty, I made you cry as well and I even slapped you," she felt sick from the memory, but smiled for Hunter's sake.

He nudged his head back and started to laugh. "It was a very painful slap." He looked to see if she was on the verge of laughing, but instead saw a frown growing.

"I'm sorry," Jennifer unawaringly began to trace the hand she had slapped him with.

"Don't apologize, I deserved it." He moved aside the locks of hair obscuring her icy blue eyes.

She lightly blushed from the slight skin to skin contact.

"I deserved it because I said things I didn't truly mean and not only did I get slapped by you, I got severely scolded by Miranda. I wasn't sure how I was going to fix things this time, and when I caught sight of you bursting into tears, all I could do was apologize. Things weren't going the way I thought it would. In fact, they were going the opposite. At that point I couldn't think of a way to change things and to keep moving forward and that's when you came up with that idea. Your idea was one that could get messy and potentially cause damage, but once again, I let my desires blind my judgement. I could've broken it off with you the next day, but I knew it was too late to turn back. You would've been heartbroken."

"The first few days were better than I thought. Even if it was short, it was short and sweet. I was genuinely happy, though I was feeling a bit unsure about it, but my worries quickly disappeared. Because in those days, I saw drunk Jen, sexy Jen, and funny Jen. Sides of you that I probably wouldn't have gotten the chance to see if it weren't for the idea." He smiled to himself, recalling her drunk state. Her slurred speech, moodiness, and wobbly legs were enough to make anyone want to laugh. Hunter was lucky enough to contain himself, otherwise he'd have to explain what exactly she did. "It was all going smoothly, until you came over and found out about the magazines Laura brought over. We were both angry and upset. I said things and you said things, things I didn't a hundred percent mean. It was just in the heat of the moment, and I think my mindset at that point was what can I say to make you stay, what can I do to reassure her. And just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, the entire building was surrounded by reporters. I spent the entire day working out security measures and stuck in my apartment, instead of chasing after you."

Hunter fixated himself a bit, so he could get a better look of her. Prior, Hunter had thought of many ways he could bring his story to a conclusion, but he could never get it right. It varied from being choppy to being too long and complex. He had winged most of his story, in the split second he had, Hunter decided to wing the ending of his story. He decided to go as natural as possible, saying whatever he felt in his heart.

"I love you," he confessed. He paused just for a bit, only to try to steady his heart before he went further and only to savour the look on Jennifer's face. Her cheeks were as red as ever, a shade he had never seen. Her ice-inspired, blue eyes were glowing and widening. Her lips were moving, yet no words were spoken. Jennifer was still in shock, she couldn't believe her own ears.

"H-Hunter," she managed, but in a squeal. Nothing else could escape her mouth for she couldn't properly word them.

He took her hand and placed it directly on his chest. She was feeling his heartbeat. His rapid heartbeat. It pumped so hard and fast that she could feel it all over her body. "That's how fast my heart beats when I'm with you. It happens so often that it just feels like a daily routine. Jennifer Lynette Anderson, I'm in with love you."

Though her hand was still on his chest, she couldn't tell whose heart was beating faster anymore. He said her full name. Not just Jennifer, but her middle name too. Not once had Hunter ever used her full full name, he was serious. She DID hear him correctly after all, he's in love with her and he loves her.

He took her other hand and began to caress it with his thumb. "I didn't know I did until we fought. I realized that it wasn't fair to ask you to stay by my side without giving you a proper relationship. I needed to tell you everything if I wanted you. And now that I have, what do you think? I've changed from before, I'm not the same childhood friend anymore. I've done some really terrible things that still has an affect on me and I'm not sure what will happen in the future because my past might cause some problems. And I can't promise to keep you from being involved in my mess of a life, but I can promise that I'll never stop loving you and I'll try my best to never hurt you again."

Jennifer was listening to words she never imagined would one day come to reality. She had always pictured what Hunter would say, but she never quite knew what to say in response.

"So, what do you think? Will you go out with me, Jen?" Hunter stared at her, the most nervous he'd ever been. Jennifer knew what her answer was, but she didn't know how to say it.

** **

Well, that was unexpected. Will Jennifer say no or yes?

Thanks for waiting so long for this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it. I'm sorry for any punctuation mistakes or grammatical errors. I'll be updating regularly from now on, so don't worry.

VOTE & COMMENT if you enjoyed the story, it'll really mean a lot!