After Gia cried for a good half an hour she decided that she needed to pull herself together. She got up and walked over to her bathroom, turned on the water and washed her face. She couldn’t believe that her parents would just leave her like this. But why should I be so suspired? They’ve been doing this my whole life, she thought. They would always leave her if something important came up. But this made her job of getting out of this arrangement all the more harder. She was still determined to stop it some way or another. Gia waited until her eyes were no longer puffy and her face no longer blotchy to go downstairs, the last thing she wanted to do was seem weak to these people.

Nik was concerned for Gia. She hadn’t come downstairs once since she found out that her parent left. Dinner would be done soon and he was contemplating going up and checking on her if she didn’t come down soon. Just as he was about to go check on her, he looked up to see her coming downstairs. “You have a serious staring problem you know that?” She said with a glare when she reached the last step of the stairs. Nik had been sitting in a chair reading, oh who was he kidding? He was waiting for her to come down. Gia hopped down the last step and made a face at Nik, he just grinned at her. “Umm creepy much?” She said sarcastically. She sighed when he continued to smile at her and not say anything.

This guy was really starting to get on Gia’s nerves. The way he knew how to get under her skin was annoying her. She hated how he could make her mad without even saying a word. But why did it make her heart skip a beat every time he smiled at her? Well, she wasn’t about to let him know that he had this affect on her. She crossed her arms in front of her (a stance that was typical for her) and stared him down.

Nik was sure that Gia’s intent in staring back at him was to make him back down but that’s not was it was doing. Seeing her with fire in her eyes turned him on immensely. His eyes moved from her eyes down her body. Her neck tilted as she cocked her head to the side, her hip slanted to the right, her braids sprawled over her left shoulder. He brought his eyes back up to hers moved his eyebrows up and down and grinned.

Gia felt her knees go week, the look she saw in his eyes scared her. “Quit drooling prince.” Gia rolled her eyes and walked past him. She saw him check out her butt, out of the corner of her eye as she passed. She braced herself against the wall and closed her eyes briefly when she was out of his view, trying to slow her heartbeat. She took a deep breath and entered the dining room and saw Stefan already sitting at the table. “Ah, princess Gia.” He said with a smile when he looked up at her. Gia smiled at him. She kind of liked this man. He was very gentle and quite. “I’m sorry your parents had to leave so abruptly. It must have been a bit of a shock.” Stefan said. Gia heard Nik inter the room but acted as though she didn’t. She just shrugged a little at Stefan. “I’m use to it.” She said. Stefan nodded and looked up at Nikolas who took a seat at the head of the table. Stefan could feel the tension between Nik and Gia and decided to try and break the tension a little. “So Nikolas where did you take Gia today?” Stefan asked as the food was served. Nik glanced at Gia who was not looking at him. “Well we went to Kelly’s for lunch.” Nik said. Stefan looked at Gia who was looking down at her food and bent his head down until he was eye level with her. “Did you have a nice time?” He asked. Gia looked up at him and nodded slightly. “Nikolas has interesting friends.” Gia said.

Why is she like this? Nik thought. She’s always pretending that everything is fine but when I’m alone with her, it’s definitely not fine. He watched the interaction between Stefan and Gia and once again was somewhat envious.

“Excuse me Mr. Cassadine but the young woman’s parents are on the phone.” A staff member interrupted. Gia got up and walked over to the woman who led her into the kitchen to use the phone in there. “Mom?’ Gia said into the phone. “How could you just leave me like that? You ditched me here with two men I barely even know!” “Don’t give me it was important! Mother!” “Fine but I’ll never forgive you for this.” Gia had to breath to prevent from crying. “Whatever!” She said slamming down the phone. Not knowing that her parents and Stefan had secretly decided that it would be best for them to leave so that it might push Nik and Gia together.

Gia pushed the door to the dining room open and stuck her head in. “I’m not really hungry and I’ve had a long day, I’m just going to go to bed.” She said to Stefan, never even looking at Nikolas. “We’ll see you in the morning then.” Stefan said with a smile. “Goodnight princess.” Nik said looking at her. She was trapped with Stefan there so she forced herself to look at him. “Nikolas.” She nodded at him and went out. Nik sighed and he and his uncle sat in silence and finished their meals.