"What are you doing here?" I heard my wife's voice from behind. I searched for her but couldn't see her through the crowd and there she was, standing behind me. Her face was dull and tired. She had a gloomy expression, and I was sure her days in California were exhausting.

"To pick up my beautiful wife from the airport. Isn't that obvious?" I said, gesturing at the flowers in my hand and extending them towards her. She held them carefully as if I placed thousands of thorns to harm her and I couldn't help but chuckle.

"Thank you." She said and sniffed the flowers. I knew she liked Lavenders, and orchids considering our reception had only those flowers as decorations. It was really hard to find a real lavender and orchid combo and I felt the urge to give her something.

I studied her as she had a won't smile on her tired face. But I shook my head as she always looked so presentable. Her white turtle neck t-shirt and plain grey bottoms looked so beautiful and gave her a delicate look. She had her hair tied in a bun and her specs rested perfectly on her pointed nose. She had no accessories on her body and an overcoat wrapped loosely around her. Breathtakingly beautiful was all that popped into my mind.

"If you stared at her enough, then we could go home and rest." I turned my head towards the bold voice behind me. Those two never liked me and preferred that I was away from Liara. I wondered whether they were jealous.

"Oh yeah, sure," I said, scratching the back of my neck, and slowly took a peek at Liara side-eyed and saw her staring at the flowers with a smile on her face.

"Oh right, aren't we late already? Shouldn't we go to Mr. Stone's house?" As we walked towards the car, I heard Liara speak to me.

"He wouldn't mind if we cancel it," I said in a flow. Of course, he would be sad but forcing Liara to go there when she came back after such a hectic schedule wasn't correct.

"Of course not! Anthony and Aria will go back home. We shall take our leave already." She said and suddenly grabbed my hands. I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at her, confused, but instead of explaining what she meant, she winked at me.

The baggage that I was carrying slipped through my grip, hitting my leg. "Ouch," I exclaimed, and she burst out laughing. I smiled at her, even if my leg probably had a few cuts. But seeing her laugh had my heart overwhelmed.

"You look tired Liara." Anthony butted in, handing me the luggage that slipped through my hand.

"I'm not tired anymore. I want to have some good food, so let's hurry to their house." She looked at me and had an interesting expression on her face. It was as if she was trying hard to look cute or was trying to gesture to me to go with the flow.

"Okay then, you can take this car. I will call the cab." I said and held out my phone.

"No, we will be alright. You can go." Aria spoke for the first time after they got back from the tour. She had the usual sour expression, and I felt the urge to give her some sugar so that she could be sweet to me for a second.

"Okay then." I saw Liara walking away from us and to the passenger seat. She closed her eyes as soon as she fastened her seat belt.

"She went through so much just to go out for dinner with you. Make sure not to hurt her." Anthony glared at me and said in a stern voice. I knew I made mistakes, but I never thought of harming her.

"Did something happen there? She doesn't look like herself at the moment." I said, studying their sleepy face of Liara inside the car.

"That's not what's important. But she was stressed and nauseous throughout the journey. Please take care of her." He said, and I had a bad feeling about it. Something happened so that Liara wasn't her usual bossy self. Leaving her alone would lead to her stressing about things, so it was better that she had some change.

"Okay," I said and hopped into the driver's seat. I knew Anthony. He was one of a kind. Even though he said he'd leave, I was sure he made the arrangements for Liara's safety.

Pressing the button beside the passenger seat, I reclined it so that Liara would take proper rest. I felt a surge of guilt at burdening her with something when she already has so much on her plate.

Carefully driving throughout the journey, I kept on going at a slow pace, making sure Liara had her quality nap. The ride was about an hour long considering the peak time of traffic. I hummed the rhythm of the new beat I tried in the club days ago. Suddenly, I sighed and drummed my fingers on the steering as I missed playing with the instruments in the Shimmers.

"Did we reach already?" I heard her faint voice beside me. I took a peek at her and saw her looking at the road and then she looked at me, half-eyed, still sleepy. Her hair was slightly on her face. I controlled my urge to push her hair back behind her ears and away from her face and hummed, responding to her question.

"Isn't my dress too casual for dinner?" She asked, and I almost got in an accident as I saw her removing her hair tied in a bun and letting it fall loosely around her shoulder. Cursing at the stupid heart that suddenly had the urge to flip at me, I took a deep breath and concentrated on parking the car properly in the parking lot.

"Nevermind." She said when I was just about to answer. My mouth remained agape and words were on the tip of my tongue as she ignored me and stepped out of the car, removing her coat.

"You look good," I said, and she looked at me with furrowed eyebrows, confirming whether I was joking. When she saw me smiling at her, she rolled her eyes and held a small tube in her hand, and dabbed it on her lips. Her face was pure barre. She had nothing on her face except her lip balm that she applied just a few moments ago and still looked so beautiful.

"Is there something on my face?" She asked as her expression told me she was genuinely concerned about her looks. I didn't understand why.

"Nothing. It's all good." I said, clearing my throat and slowly getting down off my seat.

"I didn't have time to buy anything for them. But I have something for you." She said and showed me a white shirt that was so beautiful. It surprised me that she thought of buying me a gift.

"You bought a gift for me?" I asked, mocking her, but soon saw her face turning into a deeper shade of red. But she ignored me and said, "I knew you would wear something like this. A t-shirt and ripped jeans showing off your legs." She pointed at my jeans and I laughed at her.

"You will attend a dinner with me, so being a little classy wouldn't hurt your ego." She concluded by shoving the shirt into my hands and I removed my t-shirt and started wearing the shirt.

"Geez! Don't you have some shame?" She said and turned away from me.

"Don't you think we are past that phase already?" I asked and suddenly felt like that was a wrong call.

"I'm going inside." She said and walked away without looking at me. I sighed as my brain likes to spoil the mood when I hardly had any friendly conversation with her.

Slowly buttoning the shirt, I walked towards the house and Liara, who rang the bell noticed her holding the bouquet that I bought for her, and I knew exactly what she was up to. I felt a little disappointed, but yeah, I deserved it after I brought that up.

"Greetings, Mr. Stones." She greeted the old man, who beamed with happiness as he opened the door for us.

"Oh hello, my sweet child! Please call me Oliver, as it's an unofficial gathering." He said and cradled her hands, gesturing her to enter inside. I, on the other hand, stood outside like a bystander.

"Do I need to welcome you too, young man?" I heard him say, and I shook my head, as it was so obvious that he was excited about the dinner.

"Thank you so much for inviting us, Oliver." She smiled at him and it mesmerized me at how approaching she looked talking to him compared to her shabby side that was always on me.

"Perhaps everything was planned for my wife and not for me?" I said, disappointed, as he completely zoned me out.

"Ph shut up, we meet daily. It's such an honor that she spared some of her busy time for us." He said and took Liara towards the living room, never leaving her hand.

"You are like a family to him. I had to come." She said, gesturing at me and then giving him the bouquet.

"Oh, my sweet child. This is such a rare combination. The flowers are so fresh." He beamed with joy. Yeah, yeah oldie, that's my hard work that you are holding such a rare bouquet, okay? I said it in my mind and rolled my eyes.

"You always start gossiping and forget to let them take their seat." I heard his wife, Maria, entering with a plate full of cupcakes towards us.

"Please have a seat and taste these cupcakes. I baked them just before you arrived." She said and placed it on the table. Greeting us and showing how grateful she was to have Liara in her house, she went inside again to set the table.

"You look uncomfortable. Is everything alright?" Oldie asked her and she shook her head as her mouth was full of the cupcake she took a bit of.

"It's just that she just got off the flight after three days of stressful work in California," I informed him.

"You brat, you should have told me earlier. We would have planned everything another day." Oldie snapped at me and Liara chuckled.

"No, I wanted to come and I'm alright." She said gently, calming him down, otherwise, he would have scolded me more.

"Hello, Ms. D'Waner."

" I heard a gentle voice and turned around towards the source. The cupcake that I had in my mouth got stuck in my throat and I coughed because of the pressure.

**†****†****†****†****†**

Can you guess why he reacted that way?

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