Nicole

If they had been a bit more helpful, this whole process would have been done in at least two months. But since we had to renegotiate what felt like a million times before I signed my name on that contract, my book was going to take a bit more time to come out.

I wanted it to be a summer release, but I guess I'll have to settle for a fall release. That's okay though, a lot of people prefer reading in the fall and winter rather than during summer.

"Sparkles?" My best friend questioned.

"Yes! I can't believe you haven't met her in person." With all of this going on, Diane and I have been meeting up quite a lot of times, but mostly at her office or at a restaurant for lunch - just like we were now - and she hasn't had the chance to come to my house and meet my new furry baby. "Oh, I know! Come over for dinner on Saturday night, you and Trevor."

"Sounds great!" She said before taking the salmon skin roll to her mouth. 

"I'm such a bad friend, I haven't even asked you about you and Trevor. How have you two been?"

"We're good. Sex gets better every day."

"Di!" I found myself looking around us to check if anyone had overheard her words.

"What? It's a fact! I didn't even know that was possible. If he keeps this up I might die by the time I'm thirty."

"TMI!"

"I'm your best friend, you should know there's no such thing as TMI in my vocabulary." She gave me a knowing look.

"You're not wrong about that." I let out a loud sigh as preparation before I asked my best friend slash legal adviser what I should keep in mind today. "So, I have a meeting with them at four today. What should I be prepared for?"

"It's just the book cover meeting, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. They already got the message that they can't mess with us. Ultimately, your final word is all that counts."

"I wanted something simple, I let them know that. I just hope they don't come up with a cover that's too all over the place."

"You got the final word, remember that. I'm sorry I can't come with you to the meeting. But you know, I already did the important part which was the contract."

"I know, I know... And I am so grateful for you."

"There's no way I wouldn't do it. But don't forget what you promised me." She pointed up her index finger in my direction. 

The only person who has actually read my entire book from start to finish was Lucas and the editor. I'm not too fond of having my friends and family read my work. Don't ask me why, I just don't like it. I knew the day I would get published that would happen, but while my book wasn't on book stores' shelves I would try to avoid it at all costs. 

Diane, who is my best friend, said that once she was done helping me, the only thing she wanted in return was to read it before it hit the stores, and I obliged to her wishes. 

Of course, after so many meetings where she would defend me and my rights as the writer, she had a pretty good idea of what the story was about it. However, it wasn't exactly like reading the actual book.

"I'll give you the final manuscript on Saturday."

Saturday rolled around and Lucas and I were in a frenzy in the kitchen while we cooked dinner and waited for my best friend and her boyfriend to arrive to our modest little home.

"What time did she say they were coming?" Lucas asked without taking his eyes off of the food he was cooking.

We chose to go for an easy option for tonight and were slow cooking lamb with olives and roasted potatoes. 

"Seven."

I glanced at my London boy who just nodded.

"You're awfully quiet today."

"Me?" This time he let his blue eyes look in my direction for a split second before refocusing on the food.

I nodded. 

"I'm not quiet. I'm just a little tired, I've just been having back to back meetings with the team."

I stepped closer to him and took a spoonful of sauce to my mouth. 

"Hm, delicious." I said, satisfied at how it tasted.

It is a little true that ever since he started working our life as a couple has been through a shift. I've been on a bunch of meetings with the publishers and with Diane, I've been going through the entire book again and working on the final tweaks with my editor and was currently refreshing my inbox, impatiently waiting for the cover proposal to come. Meanwhile, Lucas had been dragged to meetings of his own too, and in the little time he was at home he was stuck in the office working on new sketches that the team wanted to see. 

I guess it makes some sense, he's new to their creative team so he kinda needs to proof his worth and justify his place in such an incredible company like Pixar.

I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't have invited Diane and Trevor for dinner without checking with him first. He probably wanted Saturday night to spend alone with me. 

Just as I was about to speak up about my wandering thoughts with Lucas, the doorbell rang and Sparkles ran to the front door, barking non-stop and wagging her tail.

Lucas rushed to help me hold Sparkles and keep her from going outside and I opened the door and saw my best friend and her boyfriend, both looking like they were about to walk down a red carpet.

Diane had a sparkling black dress on that contrasted very well with the red lipstick she had applied on her plump lips and the red nails that she had wrapped around her phone. Trevor, unlike Lucas who liked to dress pretty casual-like, was dressed in a black suit, a white shirt under the black jacket he kept opened. 

The couple gasped as they looked at our brand new four legged baby. Yes, the pictures were cute but she is way cuter in the flesh.

"Oh my God, she's adorable!" 

Yep, Sparkles gets that a lot. And rightfully so. 

After we closed the door behind us, we all hugged and shook hands and the invited couple offered to help us set the table. 

Once that was done, so was the dinner and we all sat down to eat the marvelous meal Lucas had prepared. I mostly just helped.

"I'm starting to think we should have one of those too." Trevor suggested as he nodded towards Sparkles who was playing with her toys.

"I don't know, I think I'm more of a cat kind of person." Diane stated before taking a sip of the red wine we served them.

"Oh, I don't imagine myself liking cats better than our girl." I agreed with Lucas with a nod.

Time flies when you're having fun, that's a fact. I don't know if it was because we were all too hungry, if the food was just that delicious or if our conversation about the new Chris Hemsworth movie was too interesting (at least for us, girls), but we finished dinner quite fast and now it was time for dessert. 

My favorite part of a meal.

"Lucas and I didn't actually bake this, but we promise you're gonna love it."

"It will literally be the best thing you ever tasted." Lucas said while he helped me remove the dinner plates off the table and put some smaller ones for the dessert.

"I'm sure we'll love it." Trevor said. He was so sweet and polite all the time, I'm truly happy that Diane found him.

Lucas followed me into the kitchen and helped me get the cheesecake out of the box and carry it to the table. 

"Wow, this looks amazing!"

The cheesecake was covered with all the red and purple berries and some red sauce made of them dripping on the sides and it did look absolutely delicious. 

"It's gonna taste even better." Lucas said before slicing four slices for us all. 

Once Diane and Trevor tried it, they agreed with us. 

"Where is this from?"

"It's from this little bakery downtown, it's called-"

"La Luna." Lucas completed my sentence. I don't wanna sound like a teen, but this might be my favorite couple cliché about us.

"We discovered it when we were taking a walk with Sparkles one day and we were sold! It's heavenly."

"Okay, you might have to take me there every day after work." Diane shot Trevor a look and he chuckled before nodding in agreement.

"You're the boss."

Lucas and I exchanged a few glances and a few smirks while the two that sat across the table from us shot each other flirty looks and words.

After dessert, Diane helped me prepare margaritas for us and we sat in the couch, each one of us with a drink in our hands while we kept talking the night away. 

The evening passed by too quickly and after we finished drinking the little poison that my best friend and I made, she and her boyfriend had to go home. 

Lucas and I walked them to the front door and said goodbye. I closed the white door behind me and made my way back to the couch with Lucas by my side.

"I was going to talk to you about something before they got here." I started and sucked on my lower lip. When he shot me a questioning look, I spoke up again. "Were you upset that I invited them over for dinner without checking with you first?"

"What?!" His mouth opened in disbelief. "I'm feeling a little sad and uneasy that you'd think that of me."

"No, no... Don't feel that way. I just-"

"You know that I would never be the type of guy who you'd have to run everything by, right?"

"Yes." I stated a bit more firmly this time, so he knows I mean it. "I just noticed you weren't your usual you and I thought that was the reason. I thought maybe you were hoping to spend Saturday night with me instead of with my best friend and her boyfriend. Which would be understandable since we haven't spend a lot of time together just the two of us."

"It's true that we haven't spend that much time together lately, but that wasn't why I was quiet. Which, by the way, I don't think I was."

"What's going on then?"

"It's... My job is a lot harder than I thought it'd be. I've been stressing about it lately."

"I'm so sorry. What's wrong?"

"It's just... a lot of things at the same time. It's hard to grasp the concept the director wants and then make it come alive on a piece of paper with the sketches. They never seem like they're enough, you know?"

"I do." I nodded. "It's the beginning though. It's gonna take a while before you fully adapt to their methods and their dynamic."

Lucas stayed quiet, but his expression indicated he understood my point.

"Did they ever question your work or your skills?"

"No." He nodded in denial. "Not once. Which is pretty great and I should feel pretty grateful that they don't question me or the choice to have me in their team."

My fingers made their way to the back of his head and I let my digits get lost in his brown hair. "You should. But it's also okay not to be okay. You expected it all to be so wonderful once you started, and turns out it's not that easy. I get it. I thought talking with an editor and the publishers would be a piece of cake and look at me now."

"I know, you're right. Thank you." His lips touched mine in a tender kiss. "I do miss spending time with you, though."

"Me too." I pouted.

"I was thinking, we could really use a nice weekend getaway. Just the two of us."

I opened my eyes wider in bewilderment, looking at him in awe. It's not like I thought he wasn't the type of boyfriend that couldn't surprise his girlfriend with something like this, but the spontaneous offer caught me and my heart off guard. 

"Really?" He nodded in agreement with a cheeky smile dancing on his lips and ran his hands though my legs. "That sounds like a great idea."

"I don't know where we should go but I feel like just a three day weekend away from the city would be good."

"I know where we can go!" I sat up in excitement. "We could go to Lake Tahoe, it's the perfect place to go to get away from all this stress."

"Sounds good." He smiled at me. God, his smile will always make my heart do back flips. 

"We can only go after the book's out and everything's settled with the publishers. Are you sure you can take a day off work?"

"I'll have to talk to my boss before hand, but I think they can survive one day without me."

I smiled at his answer and wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer to me, and  capturing his lips with mine in a kiss.

This was just what we needed before everything else falls into place effortlessly. 

 * * *

Author's Note:

Hi hi everyone! How's it going? What do you think of this new life that Lucas and Nicole are living? Do you think there's some other reason behind Lucas' behavior? Is this just the beginning of something worse? Or not? Am I just fooling you? 🙈

Fun fact - La Luna is actually a bakery in downtown San Francisco and everything looks SO GOOD! I'm from Portugal and I have never been to SF (or America) but if I ever go there, I know I need to pay them a visit (and probably order a box full of cupcakes lol) 💗

As always, please vote and comment and follow me or add TMG to your reading list so you never miss out on the updates!

My brand new story called "The Beginning Of The End" is coming soon but I already did the cover and title reveal AND the intro's already out, so you can read it! Also, stay tuned cause there will be more surprises coming for ya before I officially start the story 😉

Xoxo, Mars