Chapter 9 Nextflix And Chill (One)

• "I kissed him." Lia confessed and covered her face with the pillow. She still couldn't believe what she had done.
• Jane's expression showed that she couldn't believe it either. "You kissed him? As in on the lip?"
• Lia rolled her eyes but didn't remove the pillow from her face. "You know what a kiss is, Jane Austin."
• "Of course I do I'm just shocked that you, Amelia Lawson, the shy 21 year old actually initiated a kiss."
• Lia took the pillow off and frowned at her friend. "I don't know if i should take offence or.."
• Jane shook her head. "I didn't mean it like that, I'm just shocked. What did he say then?"
• "Who?"
• Jane rolled her eyes. "Fernando, stupid."
• Lia sighed and buried her head in the pillow again. "I didn't wait to see his expression."
• Lia raised her head from the pillow and found Jane's mouth was hanging open. It was so funny Lia wanted to laugh but she couldn't. Embarrassment was eating her up big time and she had no one to blame but herself. Why did she have to go and kiss him?
• "Wait play it back for me will you? Oh please Lia, I need full details if I'm going to say anything." Jane shrugged nonchalantly and Lia narrowed her eyes.
• Jane was acting as if she didn't care if Lia told her or not whereas she was dying on the inside to know. The curiosity was killing her. "I can't, I'm too embarrassed." Lia closed her eyes for effect, grinning on the inside.
• Jane was bound to beg for the gossip sooner or later.
• 5...4..3.. Lia opened her eyes a bit in anticipation. Any minute now. 2...
• "Are you seriously not going to tell me about this? You're being very cruel." Jane huffed and folded her hands together, pouting like a little girl.
• Lia bit her lip to hold in her laughter as she opened her eyes fully. "You look like a little girl." She sighed and resigned. "Fine. I will tell you."
• Jane's face became normal again and Lia shook her head. "Well?"
• "We went to the restaurant for breakfast."
• "Yeah I knew that. What happened afterwards?"
• Lia shook her head. "You have to be patient or else it won't make sense."
• Jane grumbled some inaudible words under her breath but she didn't interrupt again.
• Lia continued. "Well we were served pancakes, chicken, bacon, eggs..a real breakfast buffet."
• Jane let out a long sigh and her eyes had a dreamy look. "I'm getting hungry just thinking about it."
• Lia laughed but didn't reply her. Jane was always hungry. "He said something about me liking pancakes, I can't remember. All I know is I thought of mum and my mood was ruined. It had nothing to do with him but he didn't think so."
• Jane was quietly paying attention and Lia shook her head. Her friend was a sucker for gossip.
• "I went to the bathroom where I cried for a bit and I called you, remember?"
• Jane nodded in response but didn't speak. Lia sighed and laid back, her face to the ceiling.
• "Well I stepped out of the bathroom and there he was pacing like a wounded lion. I felt bad because he was obviously beating himself up about my mood. "
• "So you do care." Jane repeated what she had said earlier when she had called Lia and she rolled her eyes. "Next."
• "Well he figured out that breakfast was over and said he'd take me somewhere. He didn't tell me initially until we got there, it was the park."
• "So let me get this straight." Jane spoke, cutting her off and Lia angled her head to look at her. "You ditched breakfast to hang out at a children's park? Amelia Lawson, I raised you better."
• Lia laughed, shaking her head. "You're crazy and no I did not ditch breakfast to hang out at a children's park, we had fun there too and we met Leo."
• "Who's Leo? Is he as good-looking as Adam? I swear that man is yummy."
• Lia smirked as she said her next words. "Well Leo is as cute as a five year old should be." She giggled when Jane shot her a glare. "Stop interrupting me."
• Jane raised her hands in mock surrender and Lia rolled her eyes. "Well, we ate ice-cream but of course I ruined that too. I choked while eating his and he collected it saying he didn't want to explain to the cops how his girlfriend choked on his ice-cream."
• "Oh." Jane purred with a mischievous look on her face. Lia shook her head and ignored her. "Well, when did this kiss happen?"
• "The kiss happened in the car on our way home. Fernando was saying stuffs about wanting to make things right after I told him I would be staying at your place for the time being." The words rushed out of her and Jane gasped.
• "Well? Did he agree to your staying here?"
• "I am here, ain't I?"
• Jane shrugged. "So, the kiss.."
• "I kisse him and afterwards we both acted like nothing happened. He helped me with my seatbelt and then he drove us home."
• "That's broring. Seriously Lia, where's the action?"
• Lia rolled her eyes and got up from the bed, tossing the pillow at her. "If you're so desperate for action then call up your fiancée."
• "But he's in Paris!"
• Lia shrugged and picked up her phone. Frowning she opened it and saw she had missed calls from Fernando. She hadn't heard it wrong. "That's your business Jane, now leave me in peace. I need to call Fernando. Did you hear my phone ring?"
• "Nope."
• Lia eyed her suspiciously and Jane shook her head.
• "I didn't, honestly. It's not like I would put your phone on silent mode just to listen to gossip." She said and bit her lip.
• 'It did sound like something she could do.' Lia thought with a smile, walking away.
• "Lia, someone is at the door!" Jane yelled from the rooms and Lia rolled her eyes. Of course she had heard it.
• "Hold on." She called out to the person at the other side as she unlocked.
• "Mrs James." Liam bowed as Lia opened the door and she frowned.
• She hadn't called him and she still hadn't returned Fernando's calls. Why was Liam here?
• "Mr James asked me to come pick you up, ma'am."
• Lia shook her head not understanding anything he was saying. Why would Fernando ask him to pick her up? They agreed she would stay here at Jane's for a while. What was he doing?
• A movement at the side of her eyes forces her to notice that Liam was still standing. She sighed and opened the door wider. "Please come in. I'll be back, I need to make a call."
• "I'll just wait in the car ma'am." He insisted and walked off before she could say anything else.
• With a resigned sigh, Lia closed the door and dialed Fernando's number fuming as it continued to ring.
• Was he going back on his word? He had promised!
• "And I intend to keep my promise, Mrs James." His rich deep voice sounded in her ear and Lia shook startled.
• She didn't know he picked up. "Then what's going on?"
• "I just thought we could watch a movie, yunno to make up for the one we didn't get to see this afternoon."
• The movie! She left out that part when she filled Jane in. 'Oh well,' she thought with a shrug. 'What Jane didn't know wouldn't kill her.'
• "Uhn...are we going to the cinema again?" She would hate to ruin his plans for the second time in one day. A quiet time at home would be best besides he did say he had a den.
• "I was thinking we could stay at the house, in the den. I have set it all up so you don't have to worry. I do need your help with the snacks, I don't know what you would like."
• Lia laughed at the absurdity of the situation and took the phone off her ear staring at it.
• He was really doing a lot. What kind of human being would she be to ruin it?
• 'A mean one.' Jane's voice in her head provided and she laughed placing the phone back against her ear. "Is it too late? I'm sorry I didn't answer the call before."
• "It's okay. I'm glad you called back, showed you didn't brush me off on purpose."
• "Uhn, I need to change into something else. I'm still in the dress from earlier."
• Fernando chuckled and Lia's face warmed. " You looked just fine in it earlier today but it's okay if you want to change. Liam will wait and bring you here. I can't wait to see you."
• Lia didn't reply because what would she say? This was all too much, too much. She was still getting used to the idea that her mother wasn't around. And that the wedding didn't happen.
• Her marrying her soon to be stepfather had never been a fantasy of hers before. Heck it never crossed her mind before. Perhaps if Fernando didn't forced her to...
• "You didn't hang up." He pointed out and she chuckled ending the call.
• This whole thing was one crazy mess. Yes that was the word, crazy.
• ***
• "All ready, Mrs James?" Liam asked walking towards her as she walked out of the house.
• Jane had fallen asleep sometime after their talk and Lia didn't want to wake her up so she tiptoed to get ready for her night with Fernando.
• Besides Jane would have teases her about it and would have definitely talked her ear off for not telling her about their cinema disaster. It was better this way.
• She had showered and put on a simple lip gloss for her lip, applied some powder on her face so her face wasn't oily. She had her pearl earrings on, her mother gave them to her on her 21st birthday.
• She loved them so much she hardly ever took them off.
• Lia shook her head and thanked Liam as she entered the backseat. She didn't want to ruin her night by thinking about her mother. It would only make her emotional and then she'd start second-guessing what she was doing with Fernando.
• Fernando was just a man and she was a woman, they were just hanging out. Asides the marriage between them which was as fake as Jane's eyelashes, everything else was real even though it didn't feel that way sometimes.
• Fernando was being nice to her and he genuinely wanted to know her. How many times had a man tried to know her? She didn't have much success in the relationship area so she didn't have anything to compare her current experience but Fernando was being nice, a gentleman.
• The man who had threatened her to marry him was a wounded man who had just been jilted by the love of his life, her mother and he was only been lashing out. She could understand that.
• Right now, she didn't want to think about her mother and the reason for her disappearance. If her mother actually did disappeared on purpose instead of being kidnapped as she earlier thought then she would be disappointed.
• She had three weeks to find out what actually happened to her mother, so she wouldn't let those thoughts ruin her night.
• "Ma'am." Liam greeted as he opened the door. Lia thanked him as she got out careful not to trip.
• Liam saving her on her date night wouldn't make for a good night ahead.
• As she walked up to the house, she spotted Fernando standing by the door and her heart thumped in her chest.
• "Ma'am." Liam held out his hand to help her up the stairs and she shook her head.
• She had to do this on her own.
• The first step to getting there was walking up the stairs by herself without falling on her face.
• How hard could that be?