"Hey, you home?" said Lucy as Rachel just walked into the apartment with a gloomy face.

Rachel smiled faintly, "Hey, you're not going out with Charles?" she asked, taking off her high heels and placing them in the shoe cabinet.
"Yup! Charles will be picking me up in a minute. Rach, there were three calls today and all three are from the Bank, they're collecting loans. Is everything all right?" asked Lucy rather anxiously.

Rachel tried to smile, "Yeah of course everything's fine! Just a little late in payment, that's all! Don't worry! It'll be fine," she said cheerfully.

But Lucy was unfazed, she looked at Rachel with a probing look.
"You're not broke are you?"
"No! I just forgot to pay the bill, that's it! Do you want some Pannacotta? I bought it on the way home," Rachel mumbled trying to change the subject. Lucy took the paper bag of Pannacotta from her with a frown, "You're not lying, are you? You know you can always count on me," she said earnestly.

Rachel laughed, "Of course not! I would definitely tell you if I was in trouble, don't worry! Okay? Now, I'm going to clean up first! Get that worried look off your face!" she said as she walked to her room.

Rachel closed her bedroom door tightly, she took a deep breath, panicked. Soon all the bank collectors might come to her apartment or maybe to her parents' house. How could she possibly overcome the mess she had made? She threw herself onto the bed, staring at the ceiling in deep thought.

Three years ago, she got a job at a prestigious New York public relations firm and that changed her life completely. Her lifestyle began to change, she lived with her best friend in an expensive apartment in the Central Park West area whose rent, even though it had been halved, was actually still too expensive compared to the salary she received as a regular PR staff. She also started to often buy luxury goods so that she could compete with her colleagues in the office. Whenever Lucy reminded her, she always said that she needed to improve her lifestyle to keep up with her clients.

She borrowed large sums of money from several banks, swiped all his credit card limits, and even mortgaged her parents' house certificates just to satisfy her shopping craze.

"AAAAAAARGH!" she screamed into the pillow, releasing the weight on her chest. What should she do?! She couldn't borrow that much money from Lucy, she had helped her too much. She had to do something! If her parents realized that she mortgaged their house certificate, her life would be done.

"Rachel, are you sleeping?" a knock on the door startled her. She quickly got out of bed and opened the door for Lucy.
"What's up?" she asked, putting on a cheerful face.

Lucy handed out an invitation to her, "I know you're not in a good mood but a few complimentary glasses of wine will surely please you, come to this party, Charles and I, we want to go somewhere else," she said with a wink of an eye.
"Isn't this a premium event for the rich people? You and Charles deserve to be there, but not me, they won't recognize me and I'll look stupid among the tycoons," Rachel mumbled as she held out the black invitation back to Lucy.

Lucy rolled her eyes "Oh come on! You're used to hanging out with the upper class, just put on your best clothes! Who knows you'll meet your soul mate there! I'll be staying in Los Angeles for a week, don't mess around while I'm away! Bye Rach, love you!" she babbled as she walked briskly waving her hand, leaving Rachel staring at the invitation in her hand in bewilderment.

"Shit, should I go?" Rachel raved to herself, she had two choices. Go to that prestigious event to enjoy free wine and food and then go home with a full stomach or spend her Saturday night in her apartment alone thinking about her debt that will not pay off on its own. After thinking for a while, she finally decided to leave.

The theme of the party was 'mysterious masks', lucky her, she had a nice silver mask she bought last year for the Halloween party. She put on her best black dress, bandaged her legs in twelve-inch stilettos, and styled her hair in a stunning messy bun. After feeling confident with her reflection in the mirror, she went down to the apartment lobby, took a can, and went to the five-star hotel in the Soho area where the party was being held.

She read the invitation in her hand that was engraved with Nicholas Anthony's Birthday Bash. She frowned, she seemed to have heard the name but couldn't remember where. What was clear is that the man must be one of the New York conglomerates because the list of invited guests was very impressive, even the vice president of the United States will be there.

New York City's traffic was quite heavy, five minutes later Rachel arrived at the hotel where the party was being held. She got out of the cab and felt inferior when she saw other people getting out of their luxury cars. She sneered, envious that no matter how hard she worked she would never become rich like them.

With his chin held high he walked to the examination site.
"Good evening, Ms. Lucy Fergusson? Did you come alone?" asked the security guard.

"Yes," Rachel answered simply. Her eyes fell on the neatly arranged party favors not far from her, she couldn't wait to see them.

After scanning the invitation barcode into the computer, Rachel was finally allowed to enter. "Enjoy your party Ms. Fergusson!" said the security guard almost without a smile.
"Thanks!" replied Rachel while walking briskly to the table with party favors on it.

"May I know what's in it?" she asked a woman standing beside the table.
"Tiffany's gold keychain," the woman said curtly, watching Rachel as she chewed gum.
Rachel sneered, how could the hotel hire such an annoying woman like her?
"Can I have one?" she asked, trying to keep herself friendly.
"Yeah, sure," answered the woman casually.
"Um, actually I came with my boyfriend, can I get two of them?" she lied though not completely because, in fact, Lucy was supposed to come with Charles that evening.

The woman chewed the gum more rapidly as her eyes lingered on Rachel.
"Sure," she said, shrugging. She held out not two, but four boxes of souvenirs to Rachel, who happily accepted them.
"It turns out you're not as annoying as I thought! Thanks, have a great night!"

The woman smirked, "And you're not as rich as I thought," she replied casually but managed to make Rachel's face turn red instantly.

The party was held in a hotel ballroom which she just realized called The Anthony's, which means the property belongs to the birthday person, Nicholas Anthony. She entered the banquet hall and instantly her mood improved. She took the two glasses of wine that the waiter passed around and took a quick sip. "Ah, free drinks are always delicious!"

She walked towards the food booth hurriedly, "Oh my God! Caviar! Scallops! Abalone with white truffles! Is this heaven?!" she said as she took the food one by one and ate it voraciously.

"You look like you really enjoyed the party," suddenly a man in a black mask greeted him.

She turned, nodded, and smiled with her mouth full of caviar bruschetta. She ignored the man and returned to focus on the food she wanted to taste all of them.
"Want to eat more comfortably? There is a room there, you can ask the waiter to bring food and drinks there," said the man, pointing to somewhere.
"Really? Is that even allowed?" asked her hesitantly.
"Yeah, why not," answered the man, shrugging.
"Okay! I'm in!" said Rachel excitedly, she was in the middle of the party, no one would harm her.

"So you just like me? Didn't know anyone at this party?" Rachel muttered, glancing at the tall, well-built man walking beside her.

"Yup," the man replied, his gaze still straight ahead.

Rachel patted the man on the back lightly, showing empathy.
"It's okay, it's really hard to get into the company of rich people, but I will teach you how," she said lightly.

The man smirked but he didn't say anything.

Rachel followed the man up the stairs and walked into a room.
"How did you know this place? Do you know Nicholas Anthony well?" she asked in amazement. She looked around the room, all the things in that room were looked very luxurious. She looked intently at the man in front of her. "Are you Nicholas Anthony's bodyguard?" she whispered suspiciously.

The man waved his hand, "It doesn't matter who I am, wouldn't it be better if we didn't know each other?" he said as he typed on his cell phone.

Rachel shrugged, "Well, okay, I can understand if you're afraid of having your identity exposed, Nicholas Anthony will definitely fire you, won't he?" she babbled as she flung herself onto the soft khaki sofa.

Soon there was a knock on the door and two waiters came with a trolley with food and alcoholic drinks on it.

"Wow! You really are amazing!" chirped Rachel as she took a piece of cheesecake and put it in her mouth.

The man snorted with laughter, he shooed the two waiters away and sat across from Rachel.

"Okay, I'm going to get drunk tonight! Mr. Don't Know Who, can you pour me some vodka?" Rachel said impatiently.

"For the shitty life!" Rachel said, raising her glass of vodka high.

The man nodded, "For the shitty life!"

Time went by so fast that without realizing it, Rachel had already finished the glasses of vodka that made her very drunk. The last thing she remembered was when she was signing something on the man's cell phone.

*****

"Who the hell are you?!" yelled Rachel when she woke up in the morning to find herself all naked with someone snoring softly beside her.

"I'm your future husband, have you forgotten what happened last night?" said the man with her eyes half-closed.

"No way!!!" screamed Rachel, shocked.