Observing her through his cool collected eyes, Julien watched as Thea's face change emotions much like Violet's face changed colors after eating the gobstopper in Charlie's chocolate factory. Surprise, ire, annoyance, confusion, sympathy, livid, and disgust appeared in a rotation.  

The news shocked him as well, but for some reason he remained unaffected. His father clearly meant well. And he was well aware that he was going to have to shape up eventually if he wanted to take his father's place one day.

However, the challenge his father placed before him was going to be, well he hasn't sure what the result was going to be.

As their food came Thea agreed to stay with him for the week, as well as, consider the proposal their fathers had presented. Their eyes connected for a second before she looked down at the plate placed in front of her.  The hatred and abhorrence held in her eyes was more than enough to pierce his very core.  

After staring at her plate for no more than five minutes she pushed her chair back abruptly causing it to screech and excused herself before running out of the restaurant. The parents all looked at each other worriedly. 

"Excuse me," he muttered throwing his napkin onto his chair. 

Thea wasn't hard to find. He could hear the rapid staccato of her heels heading towards the elevators. She was already pressing the close door button as if her life depended on it as he reached her. He wedged himself through the closing door.

The elevator dinged.

They eyed each other wordlessly. If looks could kill Thea would have reduced Julien into a pile of ashes. Julien spoke first.

"So Thea it's been a while eh?"

 His lame attempt only seemed to cause her glare to harden.

Julien turned forward and sighed, "Right, well I know this isn't exactly the most ideal situation in the world but it could be worse."

"Tch, what on earth could be worse than your father blackmailing my father into making me marry you just because you can't keep your dick in your pants?" she sneered.

"You could stay single and have to constantly hear your mother's mouth. Not to mention you could quite possibly wind up alone forever and become a bitter cat lady." He offered.

"I like cats more than I like you, and I'm allergic."

"Noted. But seriously I can't be that bad I mean you can't still hate me or hold me responsible for what happened to..." he trailed off silenced by the sharp pain that seared through his shoulder thanks to Thea's fist. Acting rashly she pulled the emergency gear causing the elevator to heave and stop suddenly.

Julien eyed her with caution. He silently prayed she wasn't the type of woman who kept weapons in her purse incase of an attacker.

"Don't you dare say her name. You have no right to even bring her up. She was my best friend, the sister I never had, the girl I looked up to and you destroyed her. Chewed her up and spat her out for the amusement of you and your friends. I haven't forgotten and I never will. You broke her beyond repair."

Thea pushed the gear back allowing the elevator to resume its course and causing Julien to feel a sense of tentative relief.

 "Don't think if I say yes to this arrangement it has anything to do with you, because it doesn't. It will be for my dad and my dad only because if anything happens to that damn company he'll be devastated, and I can't have that. I won't let you and your family have the satisfaction of ruining someone else close to me."

One of the managers was waiting in front of the doors when they stepped out. To Julien's surprise it seemed the manager knew Thea.

 "Tee is everything alright?" the tall brunette asked with concern.

"Everything's fine, just had to um...take care of something," She finished with a scandalous wink. 

The man let out a knowing chuckle as he looked between the two.  "Ohhhhh, I got you, I got you. Tell Effie and Kara I better be seeing you three lovely ladies at my party next weekend."

She smiled and nodded "For sure Randy!"

Julien watched the exchange in disbelief. How she had gone from bitch to nice and flirtatious in 0.5 seconds flat was impressive.

"You shouldn't leave your mouth hanging open like that, flies will fly in and choke you" she told him before thinking better of her statement "actually on second thought keep it open." He watched her walk towards the valet to get her car.

She really hated him. He didn't think it was possible for one person to hold so much loathing for another. She didn't have to say much for him know it either, her fiery glances were proof enough.

However, his overly confident side began to rear it's ugly head and bolstered his ego.  There hadn't been a single lady he couldn't charm the pants off of. Yeah she might dislike him more than a bit over some stupid bet/prank that got out of hand in high school, but she had to let go of it sometime.

 Right?

 He pondered that as he headed towards her car. Visibly upset and behind the wheel, was not a comforting sight. However, his newfound confidence pushed him to lean against her car.

"Can I help you Mr. Garner?" she asked scrolling through her iPod.

"Why yes, what time will you be coming home sweetheart?" he said with a sickeningly sweet voice. For some reason the more her anger showed him the more he was turned on.

"Well buttercup I don't know, how about never?" she said matching his tone.

"But you told my dad you'd..." he was silenced yet again but at least this time it wasn't a glare just her hand.

"I know what I said. But let me assure you, I have no intentions of staying with you. Honestly, it'll only end with one of us in prison and the other dead. And lets be truthful here, I'm too pretty to go to jail."

Julien smirked at her arrogance. "Look my dad is going to figure out your little scheme. I can guarantee that he will send people over to check on us so you're going to have to stay with me. But I can promise you, your own wing and your space."

Thea eyed him suspiciously. He could almost hear the wheels turning in her head.

"I'll be by tomorrow morning with my stuff, happy?" she said sardonically.

Julien nodded with enthusiasm "Very, see you then sweet...cheeks"

His sweet cheeks commented warranted him to almost be run over by her back tire as she sped off without a word.

Julien scratched the bad of his head. What was he getting himself into?

Breaking him of his thoughts his phone began to vibrate. A wicked smile played on his lips as he read the name on the screen, Mandy Collier. He answered the phone without hesitation as he slid into his car that had been brought out by valet.

"You better be naked and in my bed by the time I get home. See you in fifteen," he told the more than willing girl. She was one of many groupies he was going to have to let go.

"Of course." She barely managed to say before he hung up.

If he was going to betrothed to Thea, he was going to need one last night of raunchy mind blowing sex to last him however long it would take to get into Thea's pants. And though he wasn't above cheating, he didn't for see cheating on Thea as something she would take lightly.