Vivian got the glasses of water and approached Scott McCall for the second time that night. She tried to put herself in check, but it was difficult not to react to him on so many different levels. The man had an imposing presence.

Obviously, the years had not just been kind to him, they had treated him with the deference usually only given to the chosen few. He was incredibly handsome and good looking, and judging by how confident he was,he knew it too. His body was lean and lithe, his skin kissed with the faintest tan. His wavy hair was black and thick and his dark eyes were narrowed and watchful. He looked—not exactly unfriendly, but he didn't look like someone who played a lot either. His eyes were the blackest she had ever seen, and his lips looked hardened as if he pissed just by being in the ballroom.

Vivian tried not to focus on his hard, muscular body or finely shaped jaw. He had a certain cool distance and carried about him the unmistakable aura of a man with power radiating from every part of his body. Her heart thundered beneath the silk of her shirt as she approached him, but the voice of reason began to clamor in her head. None of that stuff she was thinking about mattered, she told herself.

"Hello, sir. Here is your water, sir," she said when she got to him. She tried to smile at him… just a friendly smile, she thought. And maybe it wouldn't be so hard to say what she wanted to say. She stood there, silently praying that he would return the smile, but he didn't.

She had this issue whenever she was nervous. She would end up saying more than necessary and over explaining, and it was happening now. "I…I ermmm… I decided to bring you both still and sparkling, sir" she explained, unable to stop herself.

Scott McCall lifted an eyebrow as he stared at her, making her wonder what he was thinking, before he took one of the glasses from the tray. She couldn't blame him. Even she suspected that she was beginning to look crazy with all her rambling and lingering.

"Thank you" He said as he nodded, and then turned his back on her and walked away. Vivian stood there, staring at him as he walked away with her heart full of frustration and regret. She had failed and lost her chance to speak to him. But what had she expected? She asked herself. That he would engage her in some kind of small-talk which would provide the perfect opportunity for her to tell him that she wanted a position in his company? Did she really think that in this room, filled with so many sophisticated and important people, he'd stop just to have a conversation with a waitress? Clearly she had not thought this through at all.

Vivian bit her lower lip. This was a fairytale, and fairy tales never worked out the way you wanted them to, and all you'd end up doing was hurting yourself.

Should she just give up, Vivian wondered. The stubborn part of her didn't want to. She had to try again even if she knew that it'd make her look a bit creepy. At this point, she didn't care anymore. She was just going to have to choose her moment carefully—because she wasn’t leaving this building without Scott McCall hearing what she had to say.

—-------------------

“You are drunk, Elizabeth” Scott said as he and Elizabeth stumbled up to his hotel room. Well, Elizabeth was the one stumbling while he helped her up the stairs. "Let me take you to your room"

"Ohhh…. No, I don't want that" Elizabeth protested. "Why don't we go to your room instead. I don't want to be alone tonight, Scott. And why did we even book two rooms? It sucks that we are not staying together."

They stopped in front of Scott's room and Scott cupped her cheek so she'd look at him. "I told you I need to attend to some work stuff. I just need some time alone so I can concentrate."

Scott hoped Elizabeth would just listen and leave. He did have some work to attend to, but he also wasn't in the mood to spend the night with her. The hours with her at the ball were already enough for him.

"Okay, let me just come in so we can have a glass of wine or two before I leave" Elizabeth said. "It's the least you can do since you're chasing me away tonight."

Scott was about to ask her if she didn't have enough to drink at the bar, but he decided to keep his thoughts to himself. If a glass of wine was all he needed to get rid of her for the night, then so be it.

He slipped his key card in the lock and flung the door open. They both walked inside, but neither of them expected to see a waitress standing in the middle of the room. Elizabeth gasped as she stared from Scott to the waitress and then back to Scott.

If Scott McCall was surprised to see her in his room, he barely showed it, Vivian thought as she watched him slip his hands in his pockets and stared at her with little or no expression on his face.

His date on the other hand, looked as if she wanted to murder someone, and Vivian thought that the lady looked like someone who would actually kill her if she got the chance.

"Who the hell is this and what is going on here?" she asked Scott, who didn't even look in her direction or make any effort to answer her question. His eyes seemed glued on Vivian and he seemed to recognize her from the ballroom. That was a good thing, right? Vivian thought.

"What do you want?" he asked simply.

Vivian looked up at him, her voice low and trembling. "I'm…I'm sorry I came up to your room like this, but I just… I needed to talk to you." She stammered. She glanced over at the woman who still had hand wrapped around his arm. She was still glaring at her. "Alone… I mean… if you'd allow me to"

"Who the hell is this?" the woman snapped again.

Scott didn't reply, because he had absolutely no idea who this lady was or what she was up to. All he knew was that she had served him at the party… and he knew that because he'd noticed her - more than he cared to admit. There had been a few seconds when she came to him where he had very weird thoughts about her but he'd dismissed them almost immediately.

He narrowed his eyes and let his eyes sweep over her, still wondering what was going on. She didn’t look like the kind of woman capable of any kind of elaborate or evil plan. The expression on her face was pale and sad, and it made him study her more closely. Made him want to hear what she had to say.

Her eyes were wide open, and she looked as if she was scared and fighting the urge to run out of the room. His eyes roamed again to her breasts as they heaved up and down with her rapid breathing and he hated the way his body reacted.

"Who the fuck are you?" he demanded stiffly, clenching his fists together. "And what the hell are you doing in my room."

"I… I needed to talk to you." She stammered, "I was desperate and this was the only way I could think of to see you… and I know how inappropriate it is…. I just… I'm sorry…. I didn't mean to… l…. I…" Her voice trailed off as the words tumbled out of her mouth.

Scott was pissed. She was right when she said that it was really inappropriate, but there was something about her that made him want to listen to this lady and know what she felt was so important that she had to do this. In fact, he couldn't even deny the fact that he was curious.

He turned to Elizabeth, who was glaring at the waitresses and shooting daggers at her with her eyes and prayed that she would be understanding and leave without making a scene.

"Elizabeth, please could you give me some privacy so that I can get to the bottom of this?" he questioned quietly. "You can go to your room and we will have that drink another time"

For a moment, Vivian felt so guilty as she saw the look on the woman's face and she felt so bad. Any woman would be pissed if this happened to her, but in her haste to come up with a plan to see Scott McCall, she had completely forgotten that he had a date and would probably be spending the night with her in his room.

She felt guilty, but a part of her couldn't help but notice that Scott wanted the woman out of the room too. Oh, this was just terrible, she thought and it was all her fault. She had made a fool of herself and ruined Scott McCall's date. Anything she said now would fall on deaf ears. She was sure of that.

She moved her weight from one foot to the other awkwardly. "I'm really sorry. This isn't how it was supposed to… look, you know, I can just leave and come back later…"

She forced her legs to move, but Scott blocked her path with his arm as he glared at her. "The hell you can…" he growled at her. "You are not leaving this room until you and I talk… Elizabeth was just heading out…"

Elizabeth gasped and her face stiffened even more. "You are such an asshole, Scott. No problem… have fun with the help!"

She slammed out of the suite without looking back and there was an awkward silence in the room as neither Scott nor Vivian spoke, but she could see anger in his eyes as he continued to glare at her.

Vivian tried to apologize again. "I'm… I'm… I'm so sorry—"

"You already said that before," Scott snapped at her, as he withdrew both hands from his pockets. "And don't you for a second think that you can fool me with that, 'I'm sorry' shit because I won't fall for it. Do you think you can just come into my hotel room and demand to see me when I have no idea who you are, and then suddenly turn around to act like a concerned and responsible person who cares about the trouble she caused along the way? Do you really think so?"

Vivian averted her eyes from his and bit her lip as she stared at her feet. Her heel shoes weren't too high, but she was suddenly so uncomfortable in them. She couldn't blame him for being angry. In fact, she'd expected him to be, but she'd been too selfish to think about how he'd feel and completely concerned about getting what she wanted no matter how she got it. She supposed she deserved whatever he said to her and she had no choice other than to stand there and take it. Maybe if she kept quiet and let him yell out his anger, then maybe later, he would calm down, and hear what she had to say….or maybe he'd kick her out of his room. That was the worst thing that could happen.

He continued to frown at her. "So are you going to tell who you are now?" he demanded furiously. "And why are you really here ?"

She drew a deep breath. "I'm sorry once again, and you haven't done anything wrong to me or to anyone. I just had to see you and I didn't know when you'd be leaving tomorrow. I just felt like this was the only opportunity I would ever have to see you and that would mean a lot to me…what?"

She stopped talking when she saw him smirk. Was that a smile she could see on his face? She wondered what was funny about their situation. She didn't have to wonder for too long.

"Oh I get it," he said, suddenly.

Vivian shook her head." You do?" she asked.

He shrugged, dismissing her question like the answer was supposed to be obvious. "You saw me at the party…. Probably saw the way I looked at you and figured you could sneak into my room, have a one night stand and get… whatever… I don't know… money I guess… but I'm sorry, that's just not my thing"

It took Vivian a moment to understand what he was really talking about and when she did, she gasped. Taking a step back as if suddenly afraid of him.

"I assure you, sir. That was not my plan at all," she said, her voice shaking with emotion as she got the words out in a rush.

Vivian understood why he would think that, but she never considered or thought in that direction at all, but now that he mentioned it, she realized that that was how it actually looked to him… and how it would look to everyone else.

"Then why are you here if my assumption is wrong?" he asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"I… I wanted to ask you for a job at your company. Vivian blurted out. She had to tell him that truth. Anything was better than him thinking that she had snuck into his room to have sex with him. The thought alone made her shudder. She had never had a one night stand with anyone and she wasn't going to start now with a stranger for that matter.

Scott McCall looked at her like she'd made a weird statement, and it probably was now that she heard herself say it out loud, but then he moved to the table nearby and poured himself some scotch, then he turned back to her.

"Drink?" he asked.

Vivian shook her head. She had to think straight and drinking wouldn't help her in any way.

"So you snuck into my hotel room because you want me to give you a job?" Scott asked, as if he hadn't heard her well the first time.

"Yes," Vivian added, "And I know that this isn't the appropriate way to do so, but… "

"You don't say" Scott cut in. He took a sip out of his drink, then added, "And do you seriously expect me to believe that, miss? That's the worst lie I've ever heard in my life. At least try to come up with something better. ."

Vivian's eyes widened. An expression he could only define as anger flared in their depths before she lowered her eyelids, hiding her gaze from him. She almost hissed. There was no point arguing with him if she was still going to get a chance to get what she wanted, although she highly doubted that she would now, but if he kept insinuating that she wanted to have sex with him, then she wouldn't be able to hold her tongue.

"It's the truth." she said as calmly as she could.

"I don't believe you" he cut in, and moved towards her. He was standing right in front of her after two strides. "Perhaps you came to take something…and I came in before you could so you had to come up with this story as plan B. Tell me, what did you come for?"

If he hadn’t been studying her so closely, he might’ve missed seeing the way her body stiffened and her lips pressed harder together. She hesitated, before she said:

"Nothing" The man was getting out of line, Vivian thought, but she had gone into his room without invitation so she wasn't really in the clear here. "I'm not a thief. I've never stolen anything in my life."

She shifted away from him and he laughed. It sounded like he was mocking her. "You do know that I can get you arrested for this. You'd be fired too…. Better hurry up and tell me the truth if you value your reputation. It would make this situation easier for the both of us."

"I already did. I told you… I wanted a job. I have applied before… to your company and so many others, but I was never granted any interview. I'm so tired of being a waitress, and I know that I have so much to offer. I'm very good at being an advertising agent, and I know that I'll be of great help to you and your company. I didn't want to get rejected again… so I…. "

"You decided to go straight to the top…" Scott completed the sentence for her.

Vivian nodded. He didn't look angry anymore, she noticed. In fact, she thought she saw concern on his face for a while. "I'm really sorry that I disturbed you like this. I was way out of line."

She was telling herself not to get her hopes high when he said, "Your story is really hard to believe, but if you are indeed telling the truth, I'm sorry, but I don't think I can help you, miss. I don't even think there's any opening at my office at the moment."

The look of disappointment on her face almost made Scott take his words back, but he shook the feeling away. He didn't have to feel guilty or sorry about anything . He truly couldn't help her, and barging into his hotel room to ask for a job didn't exactly give her points, but that didn't change the fact that he had a weird soft spot for this strange, beautiful waitress.

Vivian nodded slowly as she accepted her fate. This plan was a horrible one right from the start, she told herself. That was the problem she had, she always made the wrong decisions.

She made to leave. "Thank you, Mr McCall" she said gravely. "I'm grateful for your audience and for not throwing me out or calling the cops on me even when you should have."

As she took her first step, he stopped her. “Wait.” He lifted his arm to grasp her elbow to prevent her from leaving. But at the last moment, he changed his mind and lowered his arm back to his side."I…I didn't get your name," he said.

"My name is Vivian…. Vivian Sanchez."

She reached into her pants pocket and handed him a small piece of paper. Scott reached out and took it. "My number" she said softly, "Just in case something opens up… and I'm willing to do anything even if it's not related to advertising. I'm sure that I'll catch up fast as I'm a fast learner. Thanks for your time once again…. I should… I should leave now"

Scott McCall said nothing, but he nodded and watched as she walked past him towards the door. The door opened and closed behind her but he didn't turn around. He stood there with the paper in his hand.

He looked at the handwriting. Beautiful, just like she was, he thought. The woman definitely was crazy to come after him the way she did, but he couldn't help but admire her guts. The sane thing to do was to throw out the paper and hope not to run into her again, but instead, he found him pulling out his wallet and slipping the paper into one of the slots.

He didn't know why, but he just had a feeling that he'd be seeing her again. How, when or why? He had no idea.