Falling For My Ex's Uncle

Chapter 10 Ella's POV

Four days later, mum was back in high spirits. I and Dad had kind of brushed over the things I had said to him, and we were enthralled in a project. We were redesigning a website for a multi-million company that sold cosmetics. Mum came into the office holding an envelope with a huge smile on her face. I hadn't really looked up from my screen, it was dad who had nudged me and alerted me to her presence. I had come out of my haze of concentration and seen her standing there looking like a Cheshire cat.

"Sorry mum did you say something ? " I asked and she huffed and rolled her eyes. "Honestly Ella, you are more a workaholic than your dad. But yes I did. We have just received the invite of all invites. Tanner Kingsmans welcome home party" she literally bounced on her toes as she announced it. But at the mention of his name, my heart stuttered and switched its rhythm to a very aggressive thud.

" Tanya", my dad warned, a bite to his tone. My mum looked at him confused, and then it must have dawned on her. Her eyes snapped at me, and then widened. " Oh Ella, sh*t I'm so sorry. I didn't even think who else would be there. I just, not many people get invited to Kingman family hosted events. It's just this is big. We got invited to possibly THE event of the year. If those witches saw us there, they would have to think differently" my mum looked deflated now.

" Tanya, we agreed to not care what people think "my dad chastised her. Mum looked down at the invite in her hand and I knew she was thinking this event was off of the cards. But you know what, I wanted to tell him that I didn't know who he was. The more I thought about it over the last few days, the more I believed he thought I definitely did, and that was because he was so well known. Plus , if I was honest. I honestly couldn't stop thinking about him. At random moments in the day, I would get a flash of a memory or those intense eyes would haunt me. I mean this was a man. I gave something special to me. Shouldn't I at least talk to him? Or observe him and see the man I had drunkenly gifted that to.

" No dad, honestly let's go. You never know it could lead to doing some work for them. I mean there has to be a reason they invited us, right ? Maybe it is, so they can speak with you or scope you out. Mum's right. If they see us there, they may cut us some slack. And we will also go and practise our not caring too ", I smiled at both of them. Mum looked hopeful again, but her eyes went to dad to see if he would approve. " He looked between us both. I knew the memory of my hurtful words would play a part in his hesitation. All dad wanted to do was protect us, and now he will feel like he hadn't been doing a very good job of it. To him, taking us there would be like putting us back in the line of the firing squad.

It made me nervous to think I would be around those people again, but like I had said before. I wanted to work for dad, move up, and eventually I would need to confront them in a business sense.

Dad eventually conceded and said we would go. Mum insisted we needed to go buy a dress straight away. The rush she was in had me asking her when the party was, which she said tomorrow night. Which then had me thinking we were literally an afterthought. No functions here happened on a whim. They were planned with months of planning going into the event. So why were we being invited so last minute ?

But I suppose it would make it better for me. I wouldn't spend weeks agonizing over it and going back and forth about whether I should go or not. So I shut down my computer and spent the afternoon shopping with Mum. I secretly was happy we were going. I didn't want to admit this was the reason why, but if I stopped kidding myself I would admit it. I wanted to make sure I looked super hot.

I even talked mum into going and getting our nails done and to really pamper ourselves and hire someone to come and do our hair and make-up tomorrow. It didn't take much persuading. Mum had it all booked just ten minutes after I suggested it whilst I was in the changing rooms trying on a few dresses in the high-end boutique.

In the end , the lady that was assigned as my personal shopper pulled a dress out that I absolutely loved. The other five I had tried were nice, but they just weren't hitting what I was after. When I had eventually said to her, I want to be eye-catching, she had grinned, took the more conservative dresses away she had been bringing and came back with exactly what I had asked for.

As I looked at myself in the mirror I grinned, it was a black silky satin fabric that danced the light off of it. It dipped a little lower in the front, just enough to give anyone a small peak of what the rest concealed. But the back, well, it was backless. I would need to use dress tape to make the fabric stick to my sides, and then again to make it stick to the skin just at the top of my bum. My body looked amazing and it was exactly what I had wanted, but the more I looked I began to self-doubt myself. Would I be making it too obvious what I was trying to do with this dress ?

I began to overthink myself and ask if I should get her to bring the other dresses back when mum had come barging in the room , dressed in her own dress, which was a beautiful purple one. She had stopped dead in her tracks and taken in the dress, a slow smile spread across her lips until her teeth were showing. " Ella, you look absolutely beautiful in that dress. Oh my gosh, this dress screams. LOOK WHAT YOU MESSED UP DOUCHE BAG " she clapped her hands together.

Of course, she would think this was for Caleb's benefit, when it totally wasn't. Nope, she would have a heart attack if she actually knew it was for his uncle. That I may have popped my cherry with. But let us let her think this was to teach Caleb a lesson. " I know right , not that I want him back. But it really would be like putting the middle finger up at him, right ? " I let out a small laugh and grinned at her.

" Ella Bella, I have been waiting for this side of you to appear. No offense baby, but you are always so safe. When I was your age, hell even now. I would dress and flaunt what my momma gave me. And grill your momma gave you a sexy figure "she winked and put her hips on her own hourglass figure. This time I really did laugh out loud.

That was because mum had tons and tons of confidence whereas me, I had a lot of self-doubt and low self-esteem. People could tell me until they were blue in the face that I was sexy or pretty, but I would nod and agree and then brush it off. It was why I hated compliments. They made me uncomfortable.

" It isn't too much, is it ? " I asked her, running my hands down my sides. Feeling the smoothness of the fabric against my fingertips. She shook her head violently. " Nope. That is exactly enough. Please don't bring her any more dresses. That is the one. Get her some stroppy shoes that will show off her toes. And ring us up. Please, I want this dress also", my mum smiled at my shopping assistant, who looked all too pleased to go off and do mum's bidding. She had also said my mum was right as she walked out, throwing a wink in my direction.

After that, we stopped and got our nails and toes done, as well as eyebrows by mum's request, then mum took me for food. It was nice to actually spend time with her. I realized I spent a lot of time with dad because we had a lot of things in common and not really much time with mum. Mum liked shopping and fancy meals, and I wasn't really a shopping person. But seeing mum so happy made me think I needed to do it more often.

That night, while lying in bed, all I kept telling myself was. I needed to do this, I needed to for my career. I had to adjust and learn to get on with these people. I needed to step up and build an I don't give a f*ck wall. I needed to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable, or I would just hold myself back.

It wasn't the most peaceful sleep, but then again, I hadn't had one of those since that morning. It was like he had a permanent place in my waking thoughts and sleeping subconscious. I needed to get him out of my mind and my thoughts were, once I told him that he had me all wrong. That I don't care who he is or what he has and that I wasn't playing games like the girls he is used to. Then I could move on. And once I saw that he was an ass, like Caleb said he was, then maybe I wouldn't fixate on him. Those were my hopes. Let us just hope they come true.