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“Who?” Brian asked from the other line. Nick just called him, in the middle of the night, to tell that he met a pretty woman in London. Fortunately, Baylee is already asleep or else, he’d end up wrestling the phone with his son. He rolled his eyes. Nick is always searching for a woman. He only wished that the younger man already learned his lesson from the experiences he had from his ex-girlfriends. He hoped this woman is nothing compared to them. “What’s the name?” Brian asked again. Nick has just finished explaining about some woman and he’s so excited that Brian failed to hear the names of the two women who will be joining him and the other guys later for lunch.

“Victoria and her mother, Alice.” Nick replied. Brian had to laugh at that. There’s no doubt that this new woman is a different one. She’s going out for lunch with Nick but her mother will come along. “Hey, what’s funny?”

“Your Victoria has a chaperone.”

“It doesn’t matter. The mother loves us. She’s actually the excited one, not her daughter. Anyway, I have to make a good impression. I just called to tell you, Brian. You should’ve seen her. She’s so pretty. And she had this cute accent of a mixed American and English.”

“Next thing you’ll tell me is that you’re falling in love with her.”

“No, not yet. It’s still early to say that.”

“I’m glad that you know that.” Brian replied. A few more words were exchanged and Nick finally hung up on his friend. He saw Howie at the lobby and followed him and AJ towards the posh restaurant found inside the hotel. The security at the entrance greeted them as they entered.

“You seemed excited.” Howie noticed. Nick tends to easily falls for a woman. He only hoped that she will last longer than Nick’s past girlfriends. He and the rest of the guys shared the same sentiments when it comes to Nick. Their youngest friend has been through a lot with the family and scheming ex-girlfriends. Since he became famous, other people wanted to take advantage to be associated with him. He saw Nick looked at him and smiled.

“I don’t know why, Howie. I just felt happy.” Nick said, his hands on his heart acting so touched.

“You should be. It’s a good thing you survived that scandal you just had with Anne. In case you didn’t know, we didn’t have enough sleep on those times when you were being called in courts and being of accused of something you wouldn’t dare to do in your entire life.” Howie said.

“It’s in the past now, big brother. I’ll be very careful in choosing girlfriends this time,” Nick winked.

“You should be,” AJ said. They all sat down as the waiter began distributing them menus. Moments later, Victoria and Alice arrived. They began giving out their orders to the waiter as well.

“I’m glad to meet you,” Alice started as soon as the waiter left with their orders.

“Madam, you don’t know how much I felt the same,” AJ said. He actually liked this woman who seemed so vibrant and cheerful. “Victoria somehow had the features of the late Princess Diana.” Alice and Victoria looked at each other then back to them.

“Lots of people have told us that, but I assure you that she is my daughter and she’s prettier than the princess,” Alice laughed. “By the way, what brings you here in London?”

“Well, we’ve been surveying the city for possible places to visit,” AJ replied. He glanced quickly to Nick who suddenly switched into his silent mode. He can be shy when he’s in front of a woman he really likes. Silly guy, AJ thought. Now, he had to work out something to earn a date for Nick. He only hoped Nick can take his hint and do the rest of the work.

“Oh, that’s nice to hear.” Alice said as AJ nodded with a grin. “Why don’t you just go to a travel counselor to take care of it instead?”

AJ shrugged. “Well, we only consulted them to arrange our plane tickets and the hotel. We think that it will be much better to see the sights ourselves. We’ll take an adventure to tour this on our own and meet new people on the way.” He told them. “And if may I inform you, my darling brother, Nick, was a tourist guide in his former lifetime. He’s good with places, except in London that is, although he loves being here so much.”

“Oh, yeah. You see, I love London but I wasn’t able to be more familiar here because of my tight schedule. I love going here because it gives me inspiration for my craft. I love to draw. There are lots of beautiful places here.” Nick said, silently grateful to AJ for giving him a hint with what he’s thinking about. “So, how about a tour from a lovely citizen like you, Miss Victoria?” Howie and AJ exchanged glances after hearing Nick. Smooth one, Nick. Cheesy but smooth, Howie thought amusingly, thanks to AJ.

Victoria smiled. “I’m not a British citizen actually, Nick. I was born here but I grew up in America and legally gained my citizenship there.”

“Alright,” Nick said. “But still, how about a tour tomorrow?”

Victoria looked at everyone in the table. Howie gave her a warm smile. AJ nodded and gave her a thumbs-up, while her mother just smiled as she drinks her glass of water. Nick is biting his lower lip as he waits for her reply. “Damn you, Nick Carter, for putting me on pressure.” Victoria joked. “And yes, it will be fun to tour you around then. Let’s just keep ourselves away from the Buckingham Palace, shall we?” She said. With that, Nick nodded and muttered his thanks.



~~~



“A date. That’s a smooth one from Nick.” Alice said as the two reached home after two hours of luncheon with the boys.

“Oh, please, Mom. AJ did all the tricks to get Nick into saying something.” Victoria chuckled. “But did you see how cute he was, being silent and all? He seemed shy. I found it charming.” They went out of the car and her mother stopped on her tracks towards the main door when she noticed a familiar Range Rover parked on the side. The butler opened the door to greet them but paused when he saw that his mistress was questioningly looking back at him.

“Yes, Madam,” the butler nodded. “They are here.”

“Oh! Louis, David,” without much of a glance to Victoria, Alice hurried off inside the house to see her other children. Victoria followed her mother, walking quietly towards the house. She’s been going through this every time they visit London and her brothers were there to drop by. It was like Victoria wasn’t there for Alice, and all that matters are Louis and David. What has happened before has been hard for every one of them, especially for Alice, who had to choose between her life with her sons and with the daughter that has been taken away from her since birth. All Victoria wanted was a family to know of and when she thought before that her mother was finally hers when they settled with her in America, her brothers still kept on haunting them back from the past. She would suddenly turn invisible every time Louis and David are here, as Alice won’t notice her other child. Victoria, who still felt being the unwanted child, would usually resort into self-pity.

“How are you? Oh, I missed you so much.” Victoria heard her mother said when she reached the main hall.

“So are we, Mum,” She heard Louis replied. Victoria peeked into the Sitting Room. David saw her and smiled. “Vicky! I’m glad you’re here.” David stood up and went to his older sister. No matter how much she is jealous of her brothers and her supposed to be life with them, she fight the urge to show emotions that she too, missed them. After all, they are her kin. They share the same blood. David hugged his sister. “I missed you.”

“Likewise,” was all Victoria could say. She caught the look of her other brother and felt the same thing. She missed her twin too. But jealousy has overcome all her affections towards her brothers whom she actually had never known of, except in papers.