Lucas

The last time I'd seen the sheer look of terror in my sister's eyes was when she was having Lexi and she didn't know what to do, as reality started to slowly creep its way in.

Thankfully, Lexi was only staying another night for observation. She'd been getting better and better, the medication was helping her a lot and a wave of relief washed over all of us. 

"Will you be fine on your own?"

"Yes, of course." I smiled at my sister's response and squeezed Melanie's shoulder reassuringly, leaning down to kiss her forehead. 

"I'm only a phone call away." 

"Yes, I know. Thank you." She turned around to face Nicole who was standing back. "And thank you. You've been amazing, to Lexi and to Lucas."

The smile I adored so much made its come back on her beautiful face and I found myself smiling as well. 

"No problem, I'm just glad she's getting better." Nicole leaned in for a hug, before blowing a few kisses of goodbye to the sick little lady. 

Nicole and I made our way out of the hospital where we'd been staying for the past hours, - although it felt like days - our hands gently touching as we walked side by side. 

Tension reigned in between us when we got off the tube. The sky was already dark and she glowed in the night with the street lamp outlining her face. 

"Would you come back with me to my place?"

I didn't want to spend another second away from her, especially after the day I had and the exchange of mean words we shared before all hell broke loose. 

"Yes, of course." 

Step after step we got to my house and I stood by the doorstep watching her as she made her way inside while taking off her beanie, her scarf and her coat. 

I removed my own jacket and put it on the rack next to hers before I busied myself with fixing us up something to eat. 

"You hungry?"

"Not much." She shrugged. "Cereal is fine."

I filled two bowls with milk and heated it up in the microwave while I got the cereal box out of the pantry and placed it on top of the table, feeling her eyes on me the entire time. 

"Penny for your thoughts?" I asked after eyeing her for a minute. 

"I am so sorry." Her voice was shaking, her throat constricting as she spoke.

The pling sound of the microwave letting me know it had finished heating up the milk dragged me away from where I was, leaning against the kitchen counter. 

With two bowls full of cereal and two spoons on the table, I sat down next to her while we started eating.

"Don't apologize. You were right."

Her fingers wrapped around my wrist and she caressed my palm with her thumb. 

"No, I-I was mean to you. I said things I never should have said and I'm sorry. I should have never thrown the love and the dedication you have for your family at your face."

"Stop saying you're sorry." I looked her in the eyes before continuing. "Thank you for making me realize something that I should have realized before."

"No, Lucas, I don't want you to abandon them because of me and what I said-"

"Abandon them?" I laughed. "I could never do that, and you know that. But you have a point, and I need to start making choices. There are certain things that I can help with and there are others that... Melanie will have to just do it herself."

"I just meant that... you need to start putting yourself first, that's all. You owe it to yourself."

"I know, I've heard it before from my sister."

Another comfortable silence reigned between us. 

"Did we have our first fight?"

She giggled as she took a spoonful of cereal to her mouth. "I think we did." 

"I hated it." Her big brown eyes starred up at me, drawing me in. "Fighting with you. Let's just never do that again." 

"I agree." She relaxed her shoulders as she nodded and leaned in to kiss the corner of my mouth to be met with my lips as I turned to her side. 

"Count me in."

"For what?"

"For Thanksgiving. I'll come with you. You know, so you don't have to face your scary aunt all by yourself."

"Aw, so you'll be my knight in shinning armor?" She seductively asked in a whisper, followed by a giggle. 

"Guess so."

We finished eating our cereal and after putting the dirty bowls in the sink, we made our way side by side, upstairs to the bedroom. 

I didn't ask and she didn't mention going back to her apartment - no words were said and we just fell into a comfortable, domestic routine that I was enjoying a lot.

While I removed my clothes and got into my flannel pajamas, Nicole borrowed an old grey T-shirt of mine that was resting on top of the chair in the corner of the room and searched my drawer for some pajama pants that looked too big on her, yet she wore those two items like they were made exclusively for her. 

We went to the bathroom at the end of the hall and brushed our teeth, next to each other while stealing glances from time to time, even bumped our hips together once. 

I felt her hand pulling my arm across her waist as she settled on her side next to me, after we snuck in bed and turned off the lights, and I couldn't help but let my nostrils feast themselves with her scent that got me every single time. 

"Hey Nic?"

"Yeah?"

"When we go to LA, I'll be meeting your parents, right?"

"Of course." She laughed. "Thanksgiving's at their place."

"And will I be meeting them as your friend... or your boyfriend?"

She hesitated a little before answering. "I hadn't thought about it that way. Well, you're my boyfriend, aren't you?"

Was I supposed to verbally answer that?

I bent my head down a little and touched her soft skin with my lips, kissing her cheek and then her neck, causing her to squirm against me and giggling.  

"Yeah, I'll be presenting you as my boyfriend." She said once the giggles subsided. "As long as you're fine with that."

"I'm fine with whatever you're fine with." 

There was something incredibly soothing and relaxing about just talking to the person I've grown to simply adore, in bed, with the lights down, in the comfort of each other's touch and the soft blankets. 

Call me cheesy, but this pretty much rounds up to be a perfect night for me. And especially now that I'm relieved to know that my niece is doing better, and will most likely come home tomorrow.

"No, I'm serious, if you want me to introduce you to them as my friend, I will. When I asked you to come with me, we were still friends anyway."

"I want what you want. Really. I'm just... worried." I frowned at my own choice of words.

"About what?"

"Are there any warnings I should know about? Like what to say or what not to say in front of them?"

"No." She chuckled lightly.  "My father can be a little overprotective,  like every father is, but that's all." 

"How overprotective are we talking about here?"

"He might ask you a ton of questions but I promise, he won't hate you. No one could ever hate you."

"You're sweet." I kissed her cheek again, feeling them rise as she smiled. "And your mom?"

"She's the best, won't ask you a lot of things. She'll ask you what's your favorite dish and then make it the next day and that's it. You can expect a lot of love from her."

"That sounds nice. And your scary aunt?"

"Oh, she'll be the least of your worries. She'll just spend the entire thanksgiving dinner asking me...and probably you," She added after thinking for a bit. "about Matt and what happened between the two of us."

"Yeah, that... will be-"

"That'll be bullshit. Don't get me wrong, I like her but she could not be any more different than my mom. She always does that. When I started dating Matt the question she asked at every family gathering was when we going to get married, or have kids. It's what she does. And then she loves judging me for every little thing." She shrugged her shoulders. "I am used to it by now."

Honestly, as scary as that might sound, it's not her family that keeps me awake at night. They can say all they want, but at the end of the day, Nicole is the only person I should ever worry about because she's the one I'm dating. 

"What about your parents?"

The question caught me off guard as I relented in my thoughts, alone. We'd stopped talking for a while and I figured she'd fallen asleep by now. 

"What about them?"

"How are they like? You never talk about them."

"They're... normal parents. Very British. They... they got stuck in time." I took my time to think about how to explain myself. "They're the type of people who still have the same mindset they had in the sixties."

"Are you and Mel not close with them?"

"We are, we just... we are different. I swear, it's not like they're our parents." I chuckled at the differences between everyone in our family and how we can get when we all get together. "They don't live here. When Mel and I became adults they moved to Bristol, where Dad's from."

"Don't you miss having them around?" I laughed at her question and she wasted no time in correcting herself. "What am I asking? Of course you don't." 

"Nope, we don't." I ran my hand through her hair. "Of course I wish I could see them a little more often, but I think distance is better for us."

I felt her chin against my chest, moving up and down as she nodded. 

"Thank you so much for today. For coming by, for never leaving my side, for cheering up Lexi. You're really good with her, you know?"

"She makes it easy to be good with her, she's a good kid. And you don't have to thank me, for anything."

And with a kiss on my lips, Nicole put our pillow talk to an end, allowing me to drift off to a deep sleep that I very much needed after the day I had. 

  * * *

I heard footsteps behind me, but didn't bother to turn around as I was focused on not burning our breakfast. 

Without any warning, I feel the arms and legs I knew so well, wrap themselves around my neck and around my waist, from behind. She demanded a piggyback ride. 

I smile while I take my eyes off the food for a second, directing my look to Nicole's beautiful face that's sweetly resting on my shoulder, her smile drawing me in.

"I was in your office. I was looking at your sketches. I'm so glad you went back to doing what you love, you're so good at it."

"Thank you. You're one of, if not, the reason why I went back to them." I admitted while I put down the spatula on the counter.

"Well, I'm honored to have such a special place in your life. And I especially loved the sketch you made of... who was it? Aria?"

"How do you know about that one?"

"I told you, I was going through them."

"As much as I would love to spend the entire day doing a very thorough investigation about why you were randomly going through my drawings, at eight o'clock in the morning," I roamed my hands through her thighs."I have to get ready to go to work. I'm meeting with a possible person of interest for the ring."

"Oh, right." She didn't even try to hide the disappointment in her voice. With a kiss on my cheek, she slid down my back and let her feet hit the ground before helping me bring the breakfast to the table and we started digging in.

I got dressed in less than ten minutes and took my last sip of hot coffee as I walked out the door and thankfully, I made it to Gems of The Heath in time.

"Hello, good morning, I'm Lucas Thompson. I'm sorry for the slight delay but my boss only told me last minute that we'd be meeting via Skype." 

I adjusted my laptop to get a better look at the man on the other side.

"No problem. So, you've got the ring with you?"

"I do." I took the ring to the little camera on the top of the computer and showed him the diamond crusted ring.

"I have a friend who's recently moved to London, he's also a tech engineer, currently working for a start up company in the city." I nodded and the man continued. "He was passing by your store the other day and saw the ring, recognized it and told me about it."

"So, you're interested in buying it?"

"I am, but I'm gonna be pretty busy at work these few weeks so it's gonna be hard for me to fly to London."

"You could ask your friend-"

"No, I want to do it in person." He cut me off.

"Okay. Well, I will be flying to the states for Thanksgiving, gonna be there for four days or so. Do you think we can meet then?"

"Where would you be staying?"

"I'll be in Malibu a few days and I'll be in San Francisco on Friday."

"Sure, that'd be great. I work in the Valley, I could meet you on Friday."

"Good! Just give me your phone number or e-mail so I can contact you, and your name."

I registered the digits on my phone and saved the contact and before ending the call, I said a quick goodbye to the man who goes by the name of Matthew Brown. 

 * * * 

Author's Note:

Hey lovelies! This one was a cute chapter, wasn't it? 

Also, what do you think Nicole was doing so secretively in Lucas's office? You'll find out next chapter and trust me, you're gonna love it when you find out what it was! 🤐🤫

And... Matthew Brown? Do you remember who he was? 🧐

As always, votes and comments are very appreciated, I love you all!

Xoxo, Mars