6

"You're going to make me blush if you keep talking like that,"

Elena laughed out this time. Chandler Kendrick… Blush? Now wouldn't that be fun to see? She opened her mouth to say something when Emily, Daniel and Charlotte showed up behind them.

"I really hate to break up…Whatever this is, but we have to go," Emily said, "Daniel has this really important meeting tomorrow morning so he has to go to work early,"

Chandler looked behind them and frowned when he didn't see his brother. Emily seemed to notice what he was looking for and said, "Elijah and Lexi are in the parking lot. They're waiting for you,"

Elena stared at Chandler and smiled politely, "I'm sorry I have to go," she told him, "I had a great time tonight. Thank you, Chandler,"

Chandler smiled back and nodded, "I had a great time too, Elena. Goodnight," to Emily he said, "Could you please tell Elijah that he can go. I'll take a cab back to my place and call him tomorrow morning,"

Elena began to leave with her sister and Daniel, then turned around when she noticed that Charlotte wasn't leaving with them. She looked back just in time to see Charlotte slid into the chair she'd just vacated, and her heart clutched in her chest ridiculously as she watched Chandler smile broadly at something Charlotte said.

Elena looked away immediately. It was none of her business. She barely knew the guy and if he wanted to take Charlotte or any other girl home for the night, she shouldn't care.

—--------

The one thing Elena hated about moving was the stress that came with it. There was so much to do. So much to think about, and just when you thought you had everything figured out, something else came up. Probably something that went wrong, or something you forgot.

Elena didn't want that. She planned to do everything right and make sure this move wasn't going to drain the little energy she had. The truck carrying her stuff was arriving in two days. Her new apartment had been cleaned, but there were still a few more things to do. She still had to go shopping, and Emily, being the sweet, supportive twin sister, was coming with her.

Elena was throwing on a pink crop top to match the blue jean she was wearing when Emily burst in without knocking. "Ready?" she said, poking her head in first before coming in and shutting the door behind her.

"You know, at some point in your life, you're really going to have to learn how to knock before going into people's rooms."

Emily rolled her eyes and leaned against the wall. "Relax," she said, "Like Damon said in the Vampire Diaries, 'if I see something I haven't seen before, I'll throw a dollar at it,"

Now it was Elena's turn to roll her eyes. "Haha. Very funny. What do you want Emily? And to answer your question, I'm almost ready,"

"Good. Look, I just came to tell you that I'm bringing a friend. Her name is Beth. We met at my office and she's really sweet. She said she wants to go clothes shopping and since we were going to the mall, I thought it'd be a good idea if she came with us. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before agreeing, but she asked when she called this morning and I couldn't say no. Anyways, if you're not okay with it, I'll call her back and come up with an excuse…Maybe tell her that we canceled or something,"

Elena raised an eyebrow," It's okay, Emily," she said, "There's no need for that. Of course your friend can come with us. I have no problem with that. The more the merrier,"

Emily pushed herself away from the wall, smiling mischievously. "That's good, because I was lying. If you'd said no, I'd have told her it was your fault,"

Elena grabbed a pillow and flung it in Emily's direction. She missed, because Emily darted out of the room, laughing loudly as she went. They picked up Beth on their way to the mall later that afternoon, and minutes later, Elena decided that she liked the girl. Beth was cheerful, easygoing and funny. She had short dark hair and had one of those faces that seemed to be happy all the time.

At the mall, Elena bought as much as could for her new apartment. Toiletries, items for the kitchen and the bedroom, new sheets, curtains and cleaning supplies. By the time they finished trying out the new clothes they'd bought, they were exhausted. Emily suggested they go out to eat before heading home and that sounded like a good idea to Elena and Beth.

They were heading out of the mall when Elena spotted someone. It was Chandler and Elena thought the way her heart jumped at the sight of him was very embarrassing. She wasn't sure if Emily had seen him yet and she didn't call her sister's attention to him. It didn't matter if she did anyway, because Chandler Kendrick was moving forward in their direction and Emily would eventually see him.

It had been three days since she met him at the club and there had been no contact whatsoever between the both of them. How could there be, when they didn't even have each other's phone numbers…. And he hadn't even asked for it, Elena reminded herself. Okay, she didn't ask for his number either, but it wasn't her fault. Emily had interrupted their discussion at the bar that evening, and not only had he said goodnight to her so quickly, but he'd also replaced her immediately, she thought, remembering the way Charlotte had occupied the stool she'd vacated and the wide smile she'd seen on Chandler's face as he directed all of his attention on her.

Maybe that was his thing, she thought. Ask a girl to dance, make subtle flirtatious comments, then say goodnight without any effort to keep up the connection with them. Elena frowned, although she didn't realize that she was. She shouldn't be surprised. Chandler was nothing like his brother, Elijah and she hated to admit that it was one of the reasons why she'd found him so charming. He was dangerous. The kind of guy she was sure would break her heart into a millions pieces and still not give a shit. Maybe he'd done her a favor by not taking her number.