Like a Romance Novel

Across town from where Richard was enjoying his lazy Sunday morning, Juliet was sitting with her friend Maria in one of her favorite cafés ranting about the current situation that she found herself in.

"Are you sure that he isn't the owner of that club. It kind of sounds like this guy has a lot of power." Maria watched as the other smeared cream cheese on her bagel in a manner that was far more aggressive than necessary.

"He's a VIP for sure, but the club owner was listed as some Daniel other unless he's supposed to be a dummy owner. But I couldn't even find someone like this guy who appears to own any shares or part of the club." Juliet replied, setting down the knife as she picked up the blueberry bagel and took a rather large bite out of it.

"Maybe he's just messing you then. If you were acting out of place or uncomfortable, he might've just gotten lucky with his guess and trying to use that as leverage against you. With such sharp attention to detail, maybe he's the guy you should be looking to arrest." Maria offered as she sipped her peach tea.

"I thought about that already, but whether he is or isn't, this is not something that I can tell my boss because I'll get sacked for sure. I have to at least go this dinner to try and determine what his plan is." Juliet mumbled, starting to feel defeated again she put her straw of her express against her lips, getting ready to take a drink.

"If you're going to go, then at least let me do your makeup and pick your outfit. Friend or Foe, you need to make sure that you have your game face on to make sure he understood that you should be taken seriously." Juliet gave her a skeptical look as the other smiled at her innocently.

"You're just trying to use this an excuse to dress me up again. This isn't some date, this is purely for business only and hopefully once I talk to him, he'll just decide to leave me alone and find someone else to bother."

"While I won't deny I love dressing you up, especially with that hair of yours. There's so many outfits and styles that so much better on you than they would ever look on me." Maria sighed wistfully. Maria was a librarian, but one who preferred to maintain a more fashionable appearance compared to how people usually think of a librarian's appearance. She had mousy brown hair and big doe eyes that she refused to put glasses over and instead stuck with contacts or reading glasses when she was with friends or at home reading for pleasure. Her makeup was always professionally on-point but in a low-key manner that didn't make her look out of place in her job.

"Even if that is the case, I am still not here just be your dress up doll. I need you think seriously about this with me and tell me if I am being paranoid before tomorrow so I can figure out a game plan."

"First let me contact my network of friends, many of them are constant or infrequent visitors of that club, I am sure someone has to know who the guy is even if you didn't manage to get a picture of him. If he really is a VIP, then someone is bound to have noticed him or tried to attract his attention. It's the weekend so most of them will be free and I should have something for you by tomorrow. If not, then I'd recommend being honest, but omitting any important details that he could use against you." Maria offered.

"I guess so, but something about this still doesn't feel right to me and I need to figure out what exactly that is. If I do take you up on your offer tomorrow depending on what you find out about this guy, when should I plan on being at your house." Maria's face lit up like her whole day, if not week had been made by her friend's question.

"At least two hours before you would be needing to leave for this restaurant." The reply made Juliet's face drop several inches.

"Two hours?! Are intending to torture me?" She asked exasperated. She wasn't sure that she would be able to sit still for that long.

"If I am going to be given this once in a lifetime chance, then I am going to do it right and that means I am going to be doing you up from head to toe in order to make sure you are the most irresistible creature in that restaurant." Maria answered gleeful, the other could already see the gears were moving quickly in head as to what she was planning on doing. Juliet was beginning to regret the fact that she had even give her friend this much hope that she would actually show up and go along with whatever it was her friend had planned for her.

"I told you, this isn't a date though. It's a dinner I am being forced to go to in order to stop my cover from being blown. It's not going to end up like one of those romantic movies or novels that you and your friends love so much where the girl captures the guy's heart, and they end up at some hotel or other to spend a night of passion together while the main plot gets shoved to the side until the next day when the girl realizes she made a grave mistake." Juliet huffed. "I am going to endure his presence for as long as I have to, explain things, hope everything goes well so that I can get back home to sleep in order to be prepared for work the next day."

"You never know." Maria replied in a sing-songy tone as she got up to go and fetch them refills for their drinks and some coffee cake. Maria could think what she wanted, but Juliet knew exactly how she intended to try and handle tomorrow in order to spend the least amount of time with this mysterious guy she wasn't feeling very kindly towards.