54

Kara's day started with her trying to run inside the office room hurriedly. She was very late, and to be honest, delibertly. She wanted to avoid facing James, so she had come out of her room an hour later than when the breakfast got served. Damon had already left for the office and she was about to run to her car when Rita had stopped her, asking her to go shopping with her at evening for jewelry and clothes. She had nodded her head obediently and promised to be back soon. Then asking a driver to drop her at the office, she had rushed in. 
She had not even looked through the glass wall in front of her office to stare at James. She avoided everything about him, including the glass wall of his office that was right in front of hers.
For always appearing calm, and nonpassionate in front of her, Damon had done a damn great job of leaving hickeys on her neck. She had not even realized how dark and visible they were until she had come out after the bath and was putting on her makeup. She had tried to cover them up with foundation, but she was never very good at using makeup. Kara had hidden them as much as possible and hoped to have everyone think of those marks as mosquito bites like a fool.
She wanted to avoid thinking about the marriage and stuff, and with the whole house in uproar about the ceremony and preparations, it was impossible to avoid thinking about it. So the only way to get away from it was to run off to the office. 
The morning hours passed fast with her finishing up the long pending work. As the evening started to come around, the buzz of the workload died. Her hand slipped up to unconsciously roll the ring on her hand. 
The door to her office room suddenly opened. Her eyes shot up in surprise, but found Damon coming towards her. She had barely stood up from the chair when he was grabbing her hand and pulling her around the table, taking her with himself.
"Hey. What happened?" she asked while trying to catch up with his hurried steps.
"No time. You are coming to a party with me."
"Party?"
Damon turned around to stare at her while walking fast, "Yes, official one." they entered the lift when Damon's hand pressed the button to the ground floor.
"I am not dressed for a party." she squeeked in worry while looking down at her simple, cotton dress.
"It is alright. I am with you so there is nothing for you to feel stressed about." 
"It is not alright. I don't want to go." Kara emphasized with worry covering her face.
The elevator dinged and before she knew it, she was being taken out of it towards the car standing outside. 
"Be my date for today, please?" Damon asked with such a look that she did not know how to refuse.
As they reached the party hall, they were stopped at the door to check for the invitation. Everyone in the hall was dressed in super fancy clothes. The ladies had diamonds and designer dresses covering them while men were wearing smart suits with fashionable watches. Damon looked the same as them but Kara felt left out from the crowd in her simple attire. She was still hesitating and asking Damon to let her return, but he bent down his head in her neck and softly murmured so only she could hear the words, "Don't run away. Or I am going to kiss you here in front everyone and then all the attention is going to be on you."
Her mouth dropped open at his words and she stared at him with narrowed eyes. He gave her a cheeky grin and a wink before grabbing her hand and pulling her along. He handed her a wine glass first before taking one himself. As they had just started sipping, Damon's secretary came towards them, asking Damon to meet some major company's CEO upon being called for. 
"You should go." she immediately said, trying to avoid going with him to the boring chatter, "I will be here, I promise. I will just go grab something to eat. I have not eaten lunch till now."
"You shoud have said this to me earlier." Damon looked down at her with worry, "come with me, I will help you."
"No!" she pulled at her hand with a smile, "go chat about business stuff. I will go eat something, promise."
Damon hesitated for a second before nodding his head and walking away to talk to the other businessmen. A girl dressed in pure red shade cocktail dress had her eyes stuck on them for a while now, unknown to them. When she saw Damon walking away, she immediately followed him to join the group of businessmen.
Kara walked towards the buffet area to grab something to eat. The delicacies present were unending in the line. She just quickly grabbed a plate and started eating a cake. Her whole focus was on eating it when suddenly a man, most likely in his early twenties, but dressed in a smart, dark blue suit came to her.
"Delicious, isn't it?" 
Kara's eyes lifted to look at him without any interest but she chose to avoid him and continued eating, thinking he will go away taking the hint. But instead, he grabbed the same cake as her and leaned against the counter right in front of her. His eyes grazed over her from top to bottom, "Who are you? You don't look like you belong here."
Kara was now starting to get fed up with the man's attitude. To shoo him away she randomly shook her hand, "No one. None of your business."
"You are a worker here, aren't you?" the man grinned, roaming his eyes around the hall to stare at the numerous waiters serving the people in the hall, "why aren't you in your uniform."
Kara pressed her lips in frustration and put the plate down, trying to sidestep the man and walk away but he grabbed her elbow, and pulled her closer to himself, "Hey, hey hey... I am just talking to you. Don't be offended."