Love At Last

Chapter 75 – Lily is my ‘friend’

Cayden

After Lily was already gone, I turned towards the woman to discuss with her.

I was about to start asking her our plans concerning the second site, when she interrupted me by speaking first.

“Who is that lady?” She asked and she looked at me with a weird look on her face. I turned my neck towards where Lily just left to be sure that she was talking about Lily and not someone else.

“Lily?” I asked her to be sure. She let out a small sigh before nodding her head to my question.

“Oh, she’s just a friend.” I said casually, even though I didn’t believe that myself. I didn’t know what Lily meant to be or who she was to me. I wasn’t sure about it and now, using the word ‘friend’ seemed like the only right word to use.

I couldn’t call her my acquaintance because Lily was more than that, way more than that.

“Really?” The woman Interrupted my thoughts and I turned my attention back to her. The woman didn’t look convinced at all. Well, I don’t blame her either, I wasn’t sure about what I said anyway.

I was suddenly curious about what Lily thought about me and she would address me if she was asked the same question. I feel she would probably call me her colleague. Yeah, I think so.

“Mr Cayden?” She dragged me out of my thoughts and I cleared my throat uncomfortably. I was feeling weird about the fact that in less than five minutes, I had already thought about Lily twice, up to the extent of getting lost in the thoughts.

“Yeah, she’s my friend.” I said and looked away from her. When I looked back at her, I saw that she was still looking at me. I wondered why she was acting really weird about it.

Does she think there’s something more between Lily and I? I also think the same too, I just don’t want to accept it at all.

“What does she mean to you?” She asked again and this time, her tone seemed more serious.

I slightly scratched my head before answering her.

“Uh. She means a lot to me since she’s clearly a friend. We are pretty close.” I said carefully and she started scanning my face.

“That’s really bad. For this job, you don’t need to have friends, especially friends like that lady Lily. You don’t need friends, you need to focus. Is that clear?” She said all at once and I stared at her in astonishment.

What was that about? Not having friends because of this job? That’s really crazy.

“What do you mean by that? I’m not allowed to have friends now? Why?” I asked her and she rolled her eyes at me. I was really confused about what she was trying to say.

“You don’t need friends at all, since you’ll be staying here forever.” She said and waited for my answer.

Oh, so that was what she meant.

Well, she actually makes a good point. She’s right about that. The fact that I don’t need friends since I’ll be staying here forever till God knows when is very true, but Lily is different from that. I need Lily so much and even as much as she doesn’t like to admit, she also needs me.

I didn’t know that I was talking into a trap by answering all the questions that I was being asked. I shouldn’t have said that Lily was my friend and now, I didn’t know what to say.

“Yes. Just like that lady now. You don’t need her at all, I think you need to cut her off. That’d be better for you, to be honest, Cayden.” She said and when she started speaking about Lily in that manner, I started feeling uncomfortable with the way he was talking about her. I suddenly remembered something that she said earlier about Lily and I decided to ask her about it.

“What did you mean by friends like Lily? What’s wrong with her?” I asked her and when she widened her eyes at me in confusion, I quickly added, “you said that earlier.”

“Oh yeah. I just don’t have a good feeling about her. It’s nothing deeper than that.”

Nothing deeper than that? That sounds so suspicious. I suddenly started feeling the need to defend Lily.

“Lily is actually a very good friend. You should love her because she is so dear to me and I don’t think she’s going anyway, which means that I’m not cutting her off anytime soon.” I said at once and before she said another word, I added, “I think you don’t have a good feeling about her because you just met her, you could give her a chance?”

When I said that, she looked at me sceptical without saying a word.

“No.” She said after a few seconds.

“Apart from that, this job is even better when you have friends, it’s easier to deal with that way.” Even after that, she still didn’t seem convinced. At that point, I didn’t know anything else to say to make her know that Lily is good for me.

An idea suddenly popped in my head. For her to like Lily, I decided to tell a little lie, just a little.

Little lies don’t hurt anyone, do they? I don’t think so.

“I don’t think you know that Lily is actually a local here. She’s from this place, so she knows the in and out of this town.” I lied. I was surprisingly feeling really good about the lie that I told.

I couldn’t tell if she believed the lie that I told with the reaction on her face. I decided to wait for her to say something before adding more to the lie that I told.

“From this town? Wow.” A frown was on her face and I knew that something was wrong. I didn’t know if she found out that I was lying, but I really hoped that wasn’t the case at all.

“I feel like I have seen her somewhere though. Now that I’m thinking about it, I can see that she actually looked familiar.”

I didn’t say anything as I heard all that, I just stared at her as she continued thinking about how she thinks Lily looks familiar.

Chapter 76 – The awkward sightseeing.

Cayden

She continued thinking about where she had seen Lily earlier, while I watched her impatiently. I was really curious about where she thought she had seen Lily and I really hoped it wasn’t going to turn out to be a problem for me.

“Where is that? Can you remember now?” I said and I placed my thumbs into my two pockets, waiting for her reply. A few seconds later, she shrugged and told me that she couldn’t remember.

When she said that, I silently heaved a sigh of relief and I started trying to make her get over Lily’s matter, by telling her that I wanted to go for the site seeing immediately.

She reluctantly agreed and I thanked God for that.

“We should go now.” I said when she finally agreed. We turned to the opposite and we started walking, when she suddenly stopped me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her and she looked at me before speaking. She dragged me to the side and now, we were walking back to where we were leaving.

“I remember where I saw her now. Lily? Yes, I remember now.” She said with a hint of pride in her voice and I was suddenly curious about where she had seen her.

I just hoped it wasn’t on one of our trips. I waited patiently for her to start speaking..

“I saw her at a company. I think she went there for a party, more like a dinner party.” She said while she waited for my answer.

What she said sounded so familiar and I started panicking. She wasn’t lying when she said that she had seen Lily before. I started thinking about ways to stop her from thinking about that because she seemed like she was ready to be persistent with asking questions about Lily. I needed her to stop really fast because I wasn’t ready to even give her answers to her questions.

“Oh, really?” I said, feigning surprise.

“Yes, I’m so sure. I wondered why I’m just noticing now. I should’ve asked her about it.”

“I think you might be mistaken about that. I don’t think Lily has attended any party and definitely not one in a company.” I was really hoping that she was going to make the issue die down peacefully without asking any more questions.

“No, I’m very sure that I saw her there.” She sounded so sure of the answer and at that point, I just couldn’t do anything else to change her mind.

I just decided to confirm her answer and just twist in another way. I was really tired of going back and forth with her.

“I remember now. I think you’re right, but she went to the party at the company a very long time ago. It’s been long, that’s why I couldn’t even remember. It’s nothing to brood over, it isn’t worth it, don’t worry.” I said it all at once and with what I said, I wasn’t expecting her to say anything again.

“You were telling me a minute ago that I was telling lies and now you’re telling me that it happened a long time ago? Are you serious about that?” She eyed me suspiciously and crossed her hands against her chest.

The fact that she kept on going back and forth with Lily’s issue was starting to make me feel really uncomfortable. All the questions that she was asking me weren’t even necessary at all, but I just had to answer everything so she would forget about it all.

“Yes. It happened a long time ago, that’s why I didn’t remember at first. It’s nothing serious.”

“Hmm.” She squinted her eyes at me, while I just stared at her.

“Yeah. Can we go and see the second site now?” I asked, trying to make the atmosphere feel lighter.

“Yeah, sure.” I was correct, it made the atmosphere lighter.

We turned to the other side again and we started walking towards the opposite side to see the second site.

I could still see that she was still feeling suspicious, but I wasn’t interested in clearing her doubts again. I had already tried my best and if that wasn’t enough for her, then I have nothing to do about it.

The site seeing was actually going pretty well and it wasn’t as awkward as I expected. We had small talks here and there and I was really cool with it.

However, I wasn’t sure if I was completely satisfied with the way things were going, but it was okay. It wasn’t bad at least. I could see that she was also sceptical about the vine that we were having, but she also thought it wasn’t bad either.

The next hour, we were already through with the site seeing and I was a little bit happy about that. I was starting to feel sick about the whole process and I just wanted to go back.

When we were done with site seeing, I was about to bid her goodbye and leave instantly, when she stopped me. She told me that she needed me for something and she didn’t want me to leave yet.

A small frown settled on my face, as I listened to her speak patiently.

“So, you don’t want me to leave yet?” I asked her and in response to that, she shook her head slowly and I furrowed my brows in confusion.

“Why? I thought we were done with the site seeing. Is there another place that you want to go to?” I asked her and she looked away from me before answering me.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

“No, not that. I just feel like we should have a drink together. Or what do you think?”

“A drink together?” I was a little bit confused and I didn’t know why she wanted us to go and have a drink together.

Did she think that this was a date? Oh God. That’s funny.

“Yes. I’m inviting you out for a drink. So, is it a yes?” Her eyes suddenly started glowing with a little bit of excitement.

I looked away from her before answering her. “Oh, I’m sorry, but I have to go. I have to resume early tomorrow. So sorry.”

She slowly nodded her head and she looked away from me. The glow that was in her eyes was gone now.