Chapter 26

"Hey, I'm surprised you're still alive" Trent cheers as we made our way towards him and Jarnie's table making me roll my eyes and chuckle at him. I placed my arms around Elizabeth as we settle down before asking,

"Where are the twins?" Trent points at their direction who are talking to Kendall and Gigi and it looks like they are instructing them. Well, what do I know. Maybe they're gonna walk down the runway later on.

"They're going to introduce the first batch of Spring Collection for 2021."Trent says, so that's what the runway is for. Well, everything is about fashion when you're with Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen.

"Was that the one I shot last week?" Elizabeth nods and smiles so sweetly as if she knows something I don't and that made me so suspicious and intrigued on what is going to happen later on. Suddenly, the lights stop dancing and moves to the stage while the twins goes to the podium and everyone cheers. I join in as Elizabeth smiles at me so I winked at her.

"Okay, so thank you all for coming and we hope you're enjoying so far." The crowd cheers and that made me smile, I'm kind of in a proud sister moment watching them. Well, I'm really proud of them so much. "So since the whole team is here and mostly friends and families, we decided to introduce the first batch of our Spring Collection for this upcoming 2022." Another round of applause and whistles fills the room at the same time Elizabeth pulled my arms tighter around her waist resting her back against my chest so I kissed the top of her head before letting out a satisfied sigh.

"So we're going to stop talking and let the outfits speak for themselves. Enjoy!" They finished and backs off the stage disappearing into the dim light as the lights moves to the center stage and through the runway. Music starts blaring my heart beat matching it like rolling drums in my chest.

"Sweetie can I take pictures?" I whispered in her ear so she would clearly hear me through the loud music. She nods and releases my arms. I took my camera out of my bag and quickly set it up. Its a good thing we have the perfect spot that I could use to take a perfect and clear shot of the models when they come in. I don't know why I suddenly felt nervous, excited and thrilled at the same time, but more in a good way. I took a sample shot of my love which made her look at me and smiles scrunching her nose so I quickly snap one again and that earned me a soft slap in the arm.

Models starts coming out and I work my way on it to capture every angle of the outfits and also the models itself to create the perfect shots. Maybe the twins can use this for future projects, only if they want to, that is. Elizabeth was right though, these were the outfits I shot last week and they still look incredible even on different models this time. For the last bit Kendall and Gigi came out creating cheers and whistles as they stride on the runway so I snap away. God, how could my life get any better than this.

As soon as they faded into dim lights, Mary Kate and Ashley walks out to the stage creating cheers and howls and a series of whistles erupting in the room. Well, I can't blame them, that was so amazing. I snap a photo of them before joining the crowd cheering for them.

"Alright, we have another bonus collection for all of you." They say as I felt Elizabeth grabs my arm pulling me closer to her so I wrapped an arm around her waist resting my hand on her hip but still I'm quite intrigued with this collection they are talking about because neither Elizabeth or the twins have mentioned anything besides the Spring Collection that they are working on.

"Okay, this collection has been sitting around on hold for years so we are really excited for it to be finally release by the end of the month." Mary Kate says in the most enthusiastic way I have ever seen her which makes me smile widely. Elizabeth squeezes my hand taking hold of it tight as she leans back in my arms resting her back against my chest.

"This collection has three outfits in it and is suppose to be suits for women."Mary Kate says. Wait, I have a feeling I know this. My heart starts to race with that feeling. "Who loves women" Ashley added. Oh no, Oh God no. I hear Elizabeth giggles and that's when I knew. She's into this.

"Why?" I whined dropping my head on her shoulder earning a chuckle and a nudge from Trent who is laughing at the moment and Jarnie scrunching her nose at me with a sweet smile on her face.

"Well, honey you're not suppose to see this bit but you're here so you have to see it and be in it."

"What!"I snap my head up upon hearing that. She giggles as I look up the stage with Kendall, Gigi and Rosie Huntington wearing the three suits I wore on the shoot walking towards the runway. I was stunned that I couldn't move, I didn't even felt Elizabeth take the camera off my hand and starts snapping photos of them. What the fuck is happening, this is just unbelievable. I glanced at the twins from the corner of the stage and they had the huge smiles on their face as they waggle their brows at me making me shake my head.

The three models lined up on stage as the twins reveal themselves again, the same time my photos flashed on the huge LED screens behind them and fuck I felt my face heat up hiding my face on Elizabeth's shoulders who is chuckling at how embarrassed this is making me feel. I can also hear Trent laughing and a hand that I think belongs to him on my back then he cheers loudly and whistles so I held Elizabeth tighter in my arms hiding behind her.

"Okay, so maybe you've figured out the inspiration behind these outfits." Another applause and cheers and a teasing nudge from Trent but I still tell myself to not look up and stay hidden behind Elizabeth even though, I'm clearly taller than her. The twins continued with their speech and I raised my head when I felt Elizabeth starts tapping my arms making me let go of her.

"Let's go" Says Trent before jogging towards the door leading backstage with Elizabeth dragging me along with her. When we finally got there, I saw them prepping up the cake. Its a two tier elegant cake with black and white intricate design and it fucking looks expensive even though its just a small one.

"You hold the cake" Trent says handing me the cake immediately, giving me no choice but to take it and handle it with so much care. God, this cake is heavy are there crystals inside of this. Trent gestured us to follow him on the side of the stage while Elizabeth grips on my blazer keeping close like a little girl afraid to get lost. She keeps my camera on her other hand, filming I guess. She keeps on giggling while pointing the camera around us then directs it to me. I smiled and raised my brows as she giggles again.

"Alright hit it." All lights have shut down as soon as Trent says that and it caused a series of gasps. It was too dark and I can't fucking see anything. Elizabeth's grip on my blazer tightens pulling herself closer to me. Then suddenly, I hear Trent counts down to three before lighting up the cake and started singing the Happy Birthday song with the backstage crew joining in. I still can't see a fucking thing so I whispered to Trent.

"Can we put on a little light I can't see anything." He nods and signals a crew giving a little spotlight towards the twins. I smile at the gesture, this is better. The crowd joins in singing them a happy birthday while we move closer and closer to them until we are center stage in front of the twins.

"Go ahead make a wish." I curse under my breath as the twins took too long to wish for anything. My arms are getting all limp with this heavy cake and I fucking wish someone could get this off me. Seconds later they open their eyes and blew out the candle putting off the flame and with that I immediately handed the cake to Trent and fortunately, he took it immediately.

"God, that was heavy, my biceps were not ready for that." I breathe as I shake my arms causing them to giggle and give me a hug as well as Elizabeth and Trent. It feels weird standing on stage in front of a crowd but as I look around something snaps into my head.

"Ms. Shannon, here's your mic and just so you know there is a 1-2 seconds delay between your voice and you hearing your voice on the speakers and it could get a little bit disorienting."—"So this is a topic that I'm really comfortable talking about but uh- I usually do it at the comfort of my own house, in my bedroom, alone and this is very not alone, there's a lot of you and its amazing but I'm a little bit nervous so bear with me."— "Someone special said to me, that its so much better to have one person know you and love you for who you really are than have thousands of people love you and never really know you. "

An arm slipping around my waist snaps me out of it, at the same time I felt a slight pain growing from the back of my head. My hand travels to the back of my neck as I looked at a worried looking Elizabeth staring back at me, so I pulled her closer to me mouthing the words 'I'm okay' to her before listening to what the twins might have to say leaving me feeling a little bit weirded out.——————————Lizzie's P.O.V."You guys going to stay up still?" Trent asks as he stood up from the kitchen island after we had a couple of martinis that Shannon made after we got home from the headquarters. I hum in response nodding at him, I really want some alone time with her. She's been amazing all throughout the night and I just want to talk to her. We haven't properly talked since we are both occupied during the party.

"Alright then, I'm heading to bed." He comes to me first giving me a kiss on top of my head while mumbling in his sleepy voice 'Goodnight' before giving Shannon a big hug too and how it feels amazing seeing them like this. As I say, Trent never really liked the people I dated before and that made our relationship drift off but seeing this in front of me is just comforting.

"Don't get too much drunk Beveridge." Shannon chuckles rolling her eyes as Trent pulls away. He gives her a soft nudge on the shoulder saying,

"I'm really glad you're here. Now, the family's complete." He winks before walking away disappearing from our view. Hearing that just made my heart feel so warm. She really is a part of our family, even before everything had started. I let out a sigh as I got off my stool and walked towards Shannon who is making herself another glass of martini and I think she's a little bit tipsy already. She smiles as soon as she saw me her pearly white teeth on full show.

"Hi" She whispers taking me in her arms with a sweet smile playing on her lips before taking mine on hers causing my heart to explode inside my chest. She still has that same effect on me as she did the first time we ever kissed. A drunken night after just two weeks of not seeing each other and that's where everything started.

"Hi" I giggled softly against her lips. She smiles.

"You are one stunning lady tonight aren't you baby." The tone in her voice sends shivers down to my spine making the tiny hairs at the back of my neck rise up. She's obviously very tipsy right now.

"Well, you're not so bad yourself too honey." I bit my lip as my arms travel around her neck. She smiles again and I swore I saw a hint of spark in her eye before she takes my lips in hers again softly latching on to my bottom lip. Her lips feels soft against mine and it taste sweet and bitter from the martini she just drank a while ago.

"Thank you for being here, really. I was surprised but you got me so worried and so mad at you all at the same time. Like who works on a shoot for eight fucking hours straight with no breaks to answer a fucking call let alone a text message. Tha-" Cuts me off again kissing me.

"You're rambling." She giggles pulling me closer in her arms. If that's even possible to how close we are right now. "I'm sorry sweetheart. I was suppose to contact you but I was preoccupied of rushing everything just because my flight was delayed this morning, but you're right. I should've called you back. I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted. You really know how to use that charming face of yours now baby." She giggles and sighs before pulling away from me and drinking the contents of her martini glass leaving it empty. She then goes around then goes to the sink washing it down on the sink while I sat back to my stool by the kitchen island waiting for her to finish up.

"So what time is our flight tomorrow?" She asks

"Around, eight in the evening. Trent has some last meet ups with his friends in the morning and I heard the twins wants to have lunch now that you're here." I say and she nods. "Do you have work tomorrow?"

"Nope." She smiles walking towards me. "I don't have work until Wednesday, then I think I have a virtual interview with Storyblocks on Thursday and I think Marla is in talks with Alyssa for an interview for the both of us. I'm not quite sure sweetheart. I was distracted these past couple of days trying to plan this whole thing out." She falls into my arms inhaling deeply while I place soft kisses on her shoulders.

"Well, you really did came prepared. The flowers you gave us are all gorgeous honey. Thank you." She stands up straight looking around and smiles as her eyes landed on the flowers already arranged at the kitchen counter near the window.

"You noticed that I had a thing for tulips now."

"Yea, what is up with that? Not that I don't like them or anything. No, absolutely not, I really love them, I'm just curious."

"Haven't I given you flowers before?" She asks tilting her head to the side really intrigued of what I'm going to say.

"Yes you have baby, but its always comes with different varieties of flowers that will form a bouquet." She pauses then smiles back at me staring at me with those bright ocean eyes and it makes me want to kiss her again. I rest my arms around her neck pulling her closer to me. "So what's this thing about you and tulips."

"Its kind of like, a bit uhm." She pauses again making me smile.

"Yea, go on."

"It's a bit cheesy I think." I giggled at how nervous she is right now and its quite attractive to be honest and I'm not quite sure if that's the alcohol's fault. "Stop laughing" She whines and pouts like a little girl.

"I'm not, I'm sorry." I couldn't resist so I kissed her and I felt her smile against my lips as I pull away. "So what?"

"I learned from a friend who is a florist. She's the one who made the flowers for you guys. Anyway, she told me that tulips symbolizes deep and unconditional love." My heart flutters as a smile grew in my lips. I stare into her eyes, her strong eyes of blue glistens under the dim light of my kitchen, something I haven't seen for quite sometime now and now she's making me nervous. She sighs as she rests her hands on my waist stroking back and forth until it settles down just above my hips.

"I'm sorry." She chuckles softly even though nothing is quite funny at this moment. "I know its a bit too soon to tell, but in our case I think maybe it isn't?" I can feel the my heart starts to race beating louder in my chest that I can almost hear it through my ears. I opened my mouth to say something, anything. But my voice isn't working with me right now so I just nod slowly for her to continue.

"I've talked to people who knew us before. Basically all the celebrities I've met during my stay at Marvel." She chuckles nervously again making me smile. "And they kept saying the same thing. That we were the definition of a perfect couple, and for some reason I wanted to believe them but I also kept asking myself if we were, why did it have to end so soon. Then I realized something these past few days. My family and your family and you told me that I left because I wanted to be better, to fix myself up for the both of us and I can imagine that that was the hardest thing to do." I felt a lump in my throat as it takes me back to that moment. It was the hardest thing to take, because I never wanted her to leave neither did she, but we had to because if we don't, we'll end up hurting each other even more. But I guess, its still the same since that two years of not hearing from her and being away from nearly killed me already.

"Then the accident happened that led me to forget the best thing that had happened to me in my whole life but still here I am staring at her right in front of me." She smiles and sighs. She suddenly took my hand from the side of her face and placed a kiss on my palm before placing it on her chest where I can feel the fast pace of her heart matching my own.

"Its strange how the mind forget things but the heart doesn't." She smiles before leaning closer, so close I can feel her hot breath against my lips as she stares right into my eyes.

"and right now my heart is screaming at me right now." a little bit closer. God this is escalating too quickly, I can't keep up.

"I love you Elizabeth Chase Olsen."