Dedicating this chapter to Unbroken_Promises for sticking by this story since quite the beginning & supporting me. I really appreciate it. :)

Still, dedicating to you guys. Don't forget to comment. Though, I already have a few names on my list of dedications. :)

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CHAPTER - 28

PAINFULLY AWKWARD

I waited.

I waited for the time to come when Kim would roll her eyes, remove his hand from her waist and would tell me with a smirk that it was a joke that Josh had decided to play on me. Then I would laugh as the truth would hit me that whatever Josh had just said about Kim being his fiancé is just some lame, pathetic joke.

But that time never came.

My eyes went from her face to her left hand; there was a huge diamond ring on her ring finger sending the message to everyone loud and clear that she was taken. She really was taken.

Josh's smile slowly disappeared at the lack of any response from either of us. Kim was quick to notice this and she smiled at me politely. "Nice to see you again, Keith," she said.

After what seemed like hours, but were probably just a few seconds, I found my voice back and replied, "Same here, Kim."

"What? You both know each other?" Josh's startled voice broke our eye contact and we both looked at him. I was surprised.

'Why didn't Kim ever tell her 'fiancé' that she knew me? What was there to hide?'

This was so hypocritical of me. Never even I had ever mentioned about Kim to Veronica or anyone else.

I looked back at Kim, who was looking at Josh with her lips pressed in a thin line. Eventually, she shrugged and gazed into Josh's grey eyes. "I thought it was nothing important," she told him and I felt like a huge knife had been stabbed in my heart.

I looked at her in complete disbelief. How could she say that?

'Nothing important.'

Apparently it was not only me who had expressions of disbelief on his face, Josh was mirroring my expressions and he looked at Kim like she was crazy. "It was so important. We've been after him to do this cover story with us for about five months, Kimberly. If I'd known that you know him, I'd have made you talk to him," he told her with disbelief in his voice. He looked back at me and asked, "Keith, you'd have agreed to this cover story with us if Kimberly would have talked to you, right?"

'Why the hell is she not glaring at him and telling him to not call her Kimberly?'

"Of course!" I replied in a heartbeat. But, this time, unlike this morning my answer was not at all diplomatic. It was the truth. It had taken Josh Stark himself to contact me numerous times and a lot of requests from Veronica to make me do this Cover story and I had finally agreed to do this a month back. If I'd known that Kim had anything to do with Josh Stark or GGIA, there is no doubt that I'd have agreed in an instant.

My answer made Kim look at me with wide eyes and slightly parted mouth. She couldn't believe it, it was clear. But, Josh was completely oblivious to our reactions as he beamed after hearing my answer and looked back at Kim. "Didn't I tell you?"

His voice made Kim step out of her bubble of disbelief and surprise. She looked at him with a smirk and answered, "I don't like to use my influence and it was fun to see you nagging about how 'Warren' was not agreeing to do that 'sh*t'."

Josh grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of his neck as Kim said this. But, I couldn't bring upon myself to even smile at the scene in front of me.

'Get a grip over yourself, Keith. Get a grip,' I told myself. 'Kim is engaged now. She is engaged.'

But this was Kim. How could she have a fiancé?

The awkwardness of the entire situation and my disturbing thoughts were broken when the waiter who was being abused by Kim five minutes back came with a well dressed man, definitely the manager. The manager cleared his throat to have our attention and looked at Kim. "Ma'am, I believe you wanted to see me," he said with a very polite voice.

Kim looked at him in confusion and frowned. "Why would I want to see you? You're not Bradley Cooper."

Her answer made both me and Josh laugh and we tried our best to cover it in a sprint of coughs. The manager looked a bit taken aback, but quickly covered up his expressions to that of fake polite smile. "I think that our waiter must have mistaken you as someone who was complaining about the cheesecakes, Miss. Sorry to bother you."

"It's alright. Just pay attention from the next time," she replied with a voice as faked polite as the manager's. The manager and the waiter glared at Kim as she looked back at me with a smile on her face and winked at me. I stopped the laughter that was threatening to erupt from my lips.

Once they were out of sight, Josh asked her, "You ate two cheesecakes twenty minutes back. Why did you complain?"

A chuckle escaped my lips at that as I understood the entire scene. I was sure that Kim did this drama because she was getting bored and this party was honestly no fun.

"She thought it would be funny."

"I thought it would be funny."

This was what I and Kim said at the same time to answer Josh's question. This made Josh look at me with raised eyebrows and Kim look at me with disbelief on her face. I just smiled to her in return.

After about a moment, Josh removed his hand from her waist, finally and said, "I'll let you both catch up to old times. I'll see you in a while." She nodded in response. With that, he left both of us alone to 'catch up to old times'.

Awkward.

Painfully awkward.

We stood there looking at each other with expressions that said that neither of us knew what to say next. What the hell was going on? It was Kim and me. We were never awkward with each other. We were just us.

Eventually, I decided to break the silence and said, "I never thought you would end up with some big shot like Josh."

She raised her eyebrows at me and chuckled. "But I always knew that you would end up with a blonde model like Veronica."

'It was not so easy,' I almost said but kept quite.

"Dance?" I asked, bringing my palm in front of her. Just as she opened her mouth to say something, I beat her to it. "I know you suck, Kim. But it's okay." She again looked at me with surprise, but eventually smiled. She gave her hand in mine and I led her to the dance floor, where a slow song was currently being played.

Once on the floor, I snaked my hands around her waist and she snaked hers around my shoulder. As I looked at her brown eyes, I couldn't help but think back about the New Year's night five years back. Right now standing in my arms, she gazed in my eyes and I took in every feature of her face; the face I was going crazy to see for five years. These years had done justice to her beauty. She was beautiful, a lot more beautiful than she earlier was.

"Congratulations on the win. The final touchdown was too good" She smiled as we slowly moved along with the music.

I smirked as I remembered the game and said, "It was all planned." The arrogance and cockiness were back in my voice as I remembered the game.

"Bullsh*t!" She rolled her eyes at me and my mouth hung open as I heard her say the next words. "It took you good two seconds to realize that you were in the end zone. First you thought that Connor had taken you down before the line," she said these things with a smirk as if they were way too obvious when I knew that they were not. Not even Lee could tell that, and that's saying something. He knows me too well.

This was the reason of the surprise on my face as I looked at her. "How...?"

The smirk from her face disappeared and formed into her beautiful smile. "I just know you a lot better than you think I do."

Her answer confused me. "Do you watch football regularly? My games?" I let my curiosity get the best of me and I asked her this question.

A frown formed on her face at my random question and after a moment, she answered, "Oh no! Josh loves football and it's somehow related to his career so I have to see it with him. I'm not a fan." She shrugged her shoulders and looked past me, anywhere but me.

A chuckle escaped my lips and I said, "All girls are like that, huh! Veronica doesn't like the game too." She looked back at me and after a thoughtful second, smiled while nodding her head.

We let the silence overtake us, neither of us saying anything. But, someone had to break it by interfering. "This has to be a miracle. You're dancing?" Our heads snapped towards Josh, who was looking at Kim with raised eyebrows and his grey eyes were playful.

Kim pulled away from me and answered him, "No, I'm not. There are spiders in my dress and they are making me move my feet in a very outrageous way." Her witty and sarcastic replies never ceased to amaze me. I guess, same was the case with Josh as he laughed out loudly and just as he was about to say something, someone else decided to interrupt him.

"Holy sh*it, Kim?" Adam's voice made both Kim and Josh look at him in surprise and made me roll my eyes. He took two huge steps so now he was standing on Kim's right side and looked at her from head to toe. "Is that really you?"

She laughed and pulled him in a friendly hug, which he happily complied. "Yes, it's me Adam," she said once they pulled back. Adam was grinning from ear to ear and so was Kim.

'Why wasn't she so happy when she saw me? Why didn't she hug me like that? What the hell was going on in her mind?' I wanted to know so many things but I couldn't ask even one.

"I seriously thought I'm never going to see you again," Adam said with the grin still plastered on his face.

For a moment, I was shocked to see Adam behave like this with a girl. I mean, C'mon, he had too much of an attitude to be happy at seeing some girl, especially Kim. I clearly remember how he never liked Kim in the beginning of that winter vacation five years back and how he used to look at her with a murderous glare every time.

Kim smiled at him one of her genuine smiles, but didn't say anything, she just shrugged. Josh said on her behalf, "Wow, I never thought my girl already knows two famous footballers. This is unexpected." He was beaming at Kim with admiration in his eyes.

My mind stopped listening to whatever he was saying after he called Kim as 'My girl'.

Seems like it was not only me who had paid attention on his words, but Adam too, as he frowned in complete confusion and looked from Josh to Kim and from Kim to Josh, reminding me of myself. Finally, his eyes settled on Kim and he asked, "Kim?"

Kim smiled and answered, "He is my fiancé." Just for a split second, Kim's gaze travelled to me as she said this and then back to Adam who tried to digest the information at hand with his eyes wide open.

"And, she doesn't likes to be called Kim. Call her Kimberly," Josh informed Adam.

What the f*ck?

This is the look that I gave to Josh as he said this to see if he was kidding, but it looked like he was being serious. My gaze travelled from him to her and I found her looking at the floor, obviously avoiding eye contact with me and biting her lower lip. Watching her like this, I knew she was either nervous or thinking hard about something.

Who knew it better than me that she hates being called Kimberly?

'Obviously not her fiancé,' was the answer.

Before I could voice out any questions or before Adam could process every information he had received in the last two minutes, Kim decided to interject, "There are really good cheesecakes here, Adam. Wanna have some?" Her eyes were filled with excitement, but I had to be a very naïve person to not know that she was just trying to get out of here.

Just hearing the word 'cheesecakes' was enough for Adam as he forgot about everything that just happened here and nodded his head in the most enthusiastic way possible. "Anything for cheesecakes." He grinned and they both got away from us, laughing and day dreaming about the cheesecakes; but, I didn't miss the glance that Kim sent my way, no matter how secretively she was trying to do it.

Yes, she was the same Kim, whom I had known five years ago, but there was something different about her. Very different.

Maybe it was all because of the time - five years. People do change with time, so it is said.

"Let's give five minutes to some official discussion," Josh said, breaking my concentration from Kim and Adam who were now serving cheesecakes in their plates. They were the same cheesecakes that Kim had compared to sh*t a few minutes ago.

Shaking my head in disbelief at the brunette, I murmured, "Sure."

We started moving towards the balcony, greeting many known people on the way and once we were out, Josh said, "So, I wanted to tell you that you'll be going to Miami this Friday with a team of seven people and you guys will be coming back on Monday morning."

'I already know that, dumb*ss.' I wanted to growl, but instead I said, "Thank you for the information." See, here I was being a diplomat again.

"Great! The team has Brianna - the interviewer, our best makeup artist - Farah, a designer who you've already met when you gave him your measurements - Andy." I grimaced as my mind went to last week when I had to go to Andy's office and give him my measurements. That guy had the hots for me. I don't think any further explanation about the grimace on my face was required. Josh oblivious to my unpleasant memories, continued, "There would three assistants, one each for the makeup artist, designer and photographer."

The reasons he was telling me all this were beyond my understanding. Like I give a f*ck about who all would be going with me. All I was concerned about was getting over this sh*t.

I nodded my head like an obedient child. Why the hell was I all of a sudden pissed off at Josh? He was a nice guy. I liked him till this evening when he came into our dressing room complaining about the sweat smells.

What the hell is wrong with me?

I took in a deep breath in an attempt to calm myself and my nuisance thoughts; thoughts that were not going to do any good for any of us. Once, I had calmed down, I shot him a smile and finally decided to take part in the one-sided conversation by asking, "You didn't mention who the photographer is. Is it Jason? I'm cool with him. I've met him a few times." Jason was GGIA's professional photographer and is Lee's wife - Joanna's brother. I had met him on a few occasions and he was quite cool.

Josh shook his head and said, "Jason has some assignments here in New York and we wanted the best in the business to do your photo shoot." He gave one of his best professional smiles as he played the 'you-are-our-favorite-client' card and I nodded my head in fake appreciation. He continued, "So we had to go out of our ways and take an appointment out of her very busy schedule." He shook his head as if he was recalling the tough times he had to face to get an appointment. Bullsh*t! I was damn sure it was his assistants who must have gone through the pain of making thousands of calls to get an appointment of the 'best in the business'.

"That must have been tiring as hell," I added my forced input to the conversation.

He nodded his head while rolling his eyes and said, "You very well know how difficult it is to deal with women." He huffed in the end, pissing me off again.

Couldn't he just get to the point and end this unwanted conversation? I so wanted to get back in the hall, or push him from this balcony. How Kim had said 'yes' to marry him was beyond my understanding. He was so not her type. But, of course, being the diplomat I had become over the years, I couldn't do any of the things I so badly wanted to do; so, I just asked the main question, "Who is she?"

He smiled, not the fake-professional smile he had on his face every time I had talked to him, but a very genuine smile and answered me, "Kimberly Jones."

'Friends, where the hell is the alcohol that I had asked for in the last chapter?'

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A/N

Please VOTE, COMMENT, FOLLOW & spread a word about this story if you like the story. :)

Please someone give some alcohol to Keith. He needs it so badly :D

How was it? I wonder what all happened in Kim's life in these 5 years? *scratches my imaginary beard* 

Ahhh...They are going to Miami! TOGETHER! Yayyy!! Isn't it awesome? I'm eagerly looking forward to your VOTES & COMMENTS that make me feel soooo good.

I want to thank you guys who actually went back to the beginning and voted on all the chapters. It really means a lot. Thank you direct from my heart! <3

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THANK YOU, all you beautiful people. :) <3

23rd April 2016 - Edited!