As the sun set over the town, the twins, Olivia and Sophia stood in front of the mirror in Olivia's bedroom. They were trying on their dresses for the upcoming masquerade ball. The opportunities njyes were enldkess
Olivia wore a strapless silver dress that hugged her curves in all the right places. She turned this way and that, admiring herself in the mirror.
"What do you think?" she asked her twin.
"Gorgeous."
Sophia muttered as she reapplied lipgloss on her puckered lips.
"Or should I go with the red? I feel like that's an obvious colour."
She asked and Sophia shook her head.
"Blue fits you best. It brings out your eyes. You should try on the blue one again."
Olivia nodded in agreement. Maybe the blue one was the better fit, Sophia was rarely ever wrong about things like that.
"Okay. I might wear the blue then. I'll tell Laurene."
Sophia shot her twin sister a look.
"Tell her what?"
Olivia smirked.
"To not wear blue since I'm wearing blue."
"What's your deal with her anyways?"
Olivia asked and Sophia sighed.
"I don't have a problem with her. I have a problem with you trying to set her up with our brother."
"It's only because she's a perfect match with him. She's beautiful, smart, we like her and she's like us. I don't think he'll find a better option to be honest."
"At least give him the option of choosing."
Olivia shook her head.
"Past experiences have proven and shown that Damon cannot be trusted when it comes to women. He will always pick the worst out of the bunch. Just look at how he keeps talking to that ridiculous maid."
"You mean Caelia?"
Sophia asked and Olivia scoffed.
"Yes. Oh my God that girl is insufferable. I wish we could eat her. But Daddy said she's off limits."
"Damon likes Caelia?"
Sophia asked. Equally amused and surprised. She hadn't rreally notieced her brother's taste in women. Or even see him be remotely attracted to any woman. He kept to himself and he kept his love life very secret, especially from them. But now he couldn’t do that anymore, not when he has to choose a bride in front of all of Staunton.
"God I hope not. But he sure does spend a lot of time looking at her. I'm hoping it's just a silly fling. Maybe once he's finally done with her he can throw her away like the trash she is."
Sophia stared straight ahead, ignoring all of what her sister was saying.
"If you really want Laurene to be our brother's bride, then you know she must have our mother's approval."
Olivia froze, but then she smiled quickly.
"That should be easy. Laurene is everything mother wants in a bride. I'm sure she'll like her."
Olivia sashayed to her phone on the bed.
"In fact, I should invite her over for dinner. So that she can meet our mother. And Damon of course."
...................
Dinner was going to be with an extra guest. That was all Caelia got from her mother. She wondered who the extra guest was, but she didn't think too much about it. With the masquerade ball coming up they had been doing so much deep cleanning it was actually insane. Mrs Wright said she wanted the house sprakling in time for the ball, but Caelia suspected that it was all a ruse to get them to work twice as hard for no absolute reason.
Tha ballroom was scrubbed daily, the floors were in fact alreadt scrubbed to perfection, but Mrs Wright apparently wanted that done daily. They had even gone as far as brushing every fugurine and miniature painting. But the woman was never satisfied with their work.
Shortly after a car pulled up into the druveway and Caelia assumed that it was the guest that they were having. Rachel, who had quickly snuck out to catch a glimpse of who it was snuck back to the kitchen wuth a ddissapointed look on her face.
"Nobody special."
……………
"Who is it?"
Lourdes, Caelia's mother asked and Rachel shrugged.
"It's just a friend of the twins. Her name is Laurene."
Laurene.
Caelia thought as she went back to scrubbing the pot that she was scrubbing.
That evening, as thet set the table, Ms Margarret informed her that she would wait on the Wrights during their dinner. This was usually no problem for her, but this time it was since she was not on the schedule. It was usually rotated between her, Greta and Rachel and this time it should have been Greta's turn.
But Margaret's tone left no room for arguement or questons so Caelia quickly obliged her.
She stood dutifully at the door of the dinner table when Laurene and the twins walked in.
Laurene was a stunning young lady. She had the looks and the body of a supermodel and there was something so striking about her that looked irresistible.
Caelia admired her. And her beauty. The twins certainly seemed to be very impressed with her. Caelia had never seen Olivia so engrossed with another human being other than her own reflection in the mirror.
Mrs Carolyn Wright also looked equally pleased. She was beaming al the whole time as Olivia mentioned that Laurene was the daughter of the Vive Mayor of the town.
It turned out Carolyn was an old acquaintance of Laurene's mother and they started talking about her mother.
"Damon. You haven't said anything."
Carolyn said as she put down her fork. Damon looked away from his food and smiked.
"I'm sorry. I've been in my head for a while."
Caroly shook her head.
"That's no excuse. You haven't said a word to Laurene since she got here. Don't you think she's a spectacular young girl?"
His mother asked and Damon smiked carefully, glancing at Laurene briefly.
"She is."
"Exactly. She's going to be at the ball. So do well to keep your eyes out for her."
Damon nodded. Caelia glanced at the both of them, there seemed to be some secret conversation between them. Some weird code that they were talking about and she had no idea of. She could just feel it.
"Oh I will also be keeping my eyes out for Damon. He's quite the catch so I'm sure he has caught a lot of of women'a attention. He might not have time for me."
Laurene said and Carolyn laughed.
"Oh nonsense! He certainly will now that he's seeing you now. I'll make sure he saves you a dance. Or two. Who knows, maybe even the last dance?"
She said and Sophia gasped, her eyes going to Olivia who was beaming proudly.
"Mother. It seems you're already picking out my dance partners for the ball. I thought it was meant to be a night where I could be free and make my own decisions."
Carolyn shrugged.
"Oh you know I'm not stoppping you from that. Heaven knows I can't stop you from doing anything once you out your mind to it."
She took a sip of her wine.
"I'm simply gearing you towards the right direction."
She said as her eyes trailed over to Laurene's seat.
Caelia was watching all of them intently. From what she could decipher, Carolyn wanted Laurene and Damon to be friends, or more than friends or whatever the hell she was implying.
Damon was trying not to catch the hint.
"We'll see."
Damon simply said.
The conversation continued slowly, Damon remained quiet, while his sisterss continued the conversation with Laurene. He didn't pitch in, instead, he stole glances at Caelia, who smiled a little too bashfully when their eyes met.
Damon almost laughed.
Laurene tried not to look too disappointed, but it wasn't hard to see the small smile on her face collapse quickly. She raised up her wine glass and tapped at it with her fork. Loudly too.
Caelia hurried to her side and took the wine bottle, pouring her a drink.
She didn't know what happened, but suddenly Laurene's drink spilled all over her dress.
"You dimwit!"
She shrieked as she stood up from the chair, acting as if the wine was hot larvae.
Caelia didn't know what happened, but she had been extra careful with the wine bottle. The spill was not her fault, in fact, the way she remembered it, it was as if Laurene had spilled the drink all over her dress herself.
But as hard as she thought about it, she couldn't figure out why the girl wil do that.
"I'm sorry."
Caelia murmured as she quickly picked up a napkin, quickly attempting to dab at the stain.
"Don't fucking touch me! You did that on purpose!"
She accused and Caelia'a eyes widneiddd.
On purposes?!
She would never. There was no reason that she would.
"No... I didn't..."
She stammered as she moved back a little, Laurene's eyes glared daggers at her, there was something dangerously scary about the way she was glaring at her.
"Yes you did! The cup was right in front of you and you spilled everything all over me!"
"That's enough!"
A voice boomed from the side. Surprising all of them and willing them to silence.
It was Damon and he was standing, a small frown on his face.
"Olivia get Laurene a new dress from your closet. Laurene you can give one of the other maids your dress and they will get it dry cleaned immediately."
He then turned to Caelia.
"Caelia you're dismissed."