Stewart and Lauren had joined up with Scarlet, Juliet, Clark and the kids. They were now all sitting under the tree they others were sitting under, and were munching on sandwiches that Clark had bought.
“I’m so happy that you’re here. I missed you so much.” Scarlet rolled her eyes as she groaned at how Juliet had been clinging to Lauren while the blonde woman did nothing to push her away. It was as if Lauren wasn’t here for the dark-haired woman, but for the red head clinging to her.
“So, how could you even escape your mother?” Juliet asked as she clung to Lauren’s arm while taking a big bite from her sandwich. Scarlet nodded her head despite her sourness, as she felt herself getting curious as well.
The only thing that the two new arrivals had done after getting to the park was hugging everyone and then sitting down to eat. Stewart had gotten another punch in the gut by Juliet since he had tried to embrace her again. But since he didn’t feel anything (as if), he just ignored the unloving greeting.
“Well, we told her that we were going for a walk.” Stewart shrugged his shoulders as if it wasn’t such a big deal. “Yeah, a walk in the park, a few miles away from your hotel building.” Scarlet rolled her eyes as she spoke sarcastically.
Stewart grinned while Lauren giggled at her brother’s idiotic reply. She turned to her fiancé before telling her the real excuse they used to escape.
“I told her that we’re gonna go suit shopping for Stewart.”
Scarlet raised an eyebrow at that as she pushed away Juliet from her blonde fiancé before clinging onto her instead. Juliet pouted but didn’t try to separate them since she also felt how they would’ve missed each other.
“Well, mom didn’t even show any interest in that since she knows how much of an indecisive shopper Stewart is.” Scarlet chuckled while Lauren giggled at her brother, who glared at her.
“I’m not indecisive, I just like to be sure on what I should buy.”
Juliet placed a hand on her mouth to stop herself from giggling as well as she saw how embarrassed the older guy looked. Clark patted the guy’s back as he shook his head at him. “It’s okay, boss, it’s okay.”
Lauren snuggled into Scarlet’s side as she reveled in the warmth that only the dark-haired woman could provide her with. “I missed you so much.” Lauren whispered to Scarlet, since she didn’t want the others to hear, just so they could tease them later. Scarlet smiled as she nodded her head before telling her how she missed her as well.
“Wow, they only take a second to become lovey-dovey again.” Juliet complained to Clark as she tried to speak in a low voice so the two soon-to-be-married couple wouldn’t hear.
Clark nodded his head with an understanding smile as he played with Samantha, who kept giggling adorably. Stewart was just sat staring at Juliet, as she ate and talked with Clark. The kids were back to running and playing around the park with no worries.
“You know, you’re making everything obvious?” Scarlet whispered to Stewart, before she noticed how he was practically drooling over her red-headed cousin. Lauren nodded her head in agreement as she scooted a little closer to her brother so that the other two wouldn’t hear what they were talking about.
“I’ll tell you what you should do, and that does not include you practically falling on Juliet’s lap.” Scarlet warned him as she pointed a finger at him. Stewart nodded his head quickly, already eager to know what his employee had in mind.
“You see, Juliet loves guys that aren’t afraid to open up about their actual feelings.”
It was pretty evident how Stewart’s face contorted into a frown as he looked at Scarlet with a questioning look. Lauren, on the other hand, was pretty surprised. She had not even imagined that Juliet would like guys that talked about their feelings.
“I can open up to her about my feelings. I mean, I practically fall in her arms. That’s saying a lot.” Stewart crossed his arms as he glanced at the red head that was busy conversing with Clark and playing with Samantha.
“Yes, but you don’t actually tell her your feelings.”
“I agree. You just act like a clingy ass.” Lauren chimed in, which made Stewart frown at her. “Thanks for your input, not that I asked you for it.”
Lauren smiled sarcastically in return for Stewart’s sarcasm.
“Okay, so I’ll tell you what. Try to ignore Juliet for a while. I mean, really ignore her, and I’m not even kidding.” Scarlet paused to give Stewart a serious stare and when she got a nod of assurance from her boss, she continued, “She’ll basically wonder why you stopped clinging to her and that’s when we make a move. You’ll make up a sad story of how you had a girl that you liked and she didn’t like you back but you kept being nice to her and clung to her like a koala. But, then she left and you got broken hearted.”
Stewart smiled nervously as he wondered how Scarlet could be so accurate in making a backstory, as if she knew what had happened in Stewart’s past.
Lauren gave her brother a sad smile as she touched Scarlet’s arm in an attempt to stop her from speaking but knowing how the dark-haired woman could be oblivious, Scarlet didn’t take the subtle hint.
“But if Juliet finds out that it was really just a made-up story, she might want to hurt you a lot more than she does now.” Stewart nodded as he gave Scarlet a small smile. “I think I can handle that.”
Their conversation was interrupted by Juliet, who had a now crying Samantha in her arms. “We need to move.”
The three adults looked at Samantha and Juliet, and how the woman was holding the three-year-old a few inches away from her. When the three refused to move, Clark came up from behind Juliet while pinching his nose with his forefinger and thumb.
“Potty alert.”
It was as if they had been electrocuted by the way they stood up from the grass and moved with incredible speed towards the car, after packing up the stuff they hadn’t eaten yet. Juliet and Clark followed quickly as well.
It only took all of them a few minutes to get to the parking lot with Samantha still crying in Juliet’s arms. Lauren had called over all the children, who didn’t take long to come running to the parking lot.
A few people turned to look at them as they were all entering the car, because of the three-year-old’s loud cries.
“Well, I guess, we separate here.” Stewart spoke as he grabbed ahold of Lauren’s arm, to stop her from getting into the car. She frowned as she remembered that they had to go back to the hotel to their mother.
Scarlet looked at Lauren through the passenger side window, as she pouted but then smiled reassuringly. “I’ll see you at the wedding then, my bride.” Lauren giggled as Scarlet tried to flirt.
The emphasis here being placed on the word ‘tried’.
“Ugh, ew, can we just go, Samantha’s poopy diaper wasn’t enough, you’re gonna make us sick with your flirting too.” Edward, or was it Edmund, I don’t know anymore, whined from the back of the minivan, which made Scarlet turn in her seat to throw a glare at her cousins.
Clark nodded his head when Scarlet wasn’t looking, in agreement to what the 16-year-old had said.
Lauren laughed at the whining of Scarlet’s cousins, before she went over to the driver’s side of the car and leaned into the open window to place a sweet kiss on her fiancé’s cheek. “Take care and be nice to your cousins.” Lauren whispered to the dark-haired woman before moving away.
Scarlet sighed before nodding her head, already feeling her cheeks get a little warm due to the kiss Lauren had placed on her cheek.
“Can we please go now?” Juliet spoke from the back, before she looked at Lauren with an apologetic smile. “It’s not you Lauren, it’s just that Sam needs a change of diapers, and probably also a change of aunts because I ain’t touching her again when we get home.”
Ed and Ed snickered while Clark rolled his eyes with a chuckle because of the red-head’s exaggeration.
Stewart tried not to chuckle at Juliet since he had a task of ignoring the woman, as he held a straight face.
It was only after a few more seconds of whining, did Scarlet pull out of the park’s parking lot. She drove while listening to her cousins’ bickering and childish antics. Sam had stopped crying as she looked at Juliet with fascination, who had refused to even acknowledge the toddler now.
Scarlet sighed as she wished for her wedding day to come sooner.
…………………………………..
On the other side of town, Blake and Katie were coming back to the Payne house after giving all the instructions to the card designer.
It was awkward in the car as Blake drove silently while Katie looked out of the window with the tense atmosphere getting to her. She didn’t know how to start speaking or what to speak about with the guy.
On the other hand, Blake felt so awkward, not to forget how he still felt about what had happened in the living room the other day when he had unintentionally hurt Katie with his words.
“Uhm, do you want to listen to the radio?” Katie turned away from looking out of the window to Blake, who glanced at her. The previously blonde could tell how uneasy Blake felt.
“No.” Her answer was small as she went back to looking outside of the passenger window, at the small buildings going by.
Blake sighed since he didn’t know what else to say or how to even say what he did want to say. But, judging by the way he felt like he had to clear this misunderstanding up between them, he spoke.
“Uh, I’m sorry about the other day.” Katie didn’t look at him this time, but she could tell that he was being sincere. She didn’t need his apologies though since she wasn’t feeling like this because of him. It was because she didn’t like how she was still held up in the past where she had cheated on Scarlet.
She didn’t like that she had done something so wrong to someone so right.
“I didn’t mean to say it like that, I was just talking about Scarlet, and I didn’t even think that it could hurt you.” Blake spoke quickly because of his nervousness as he kept glancing at the girl sitting beside him.
Katie nodded her head before turning to look at the man again, “It’s not your fault, Blake.” The man didn’t know why but the way Katie had spoken his name made him feel a little happy.
“I just got reminded of how bad of a person I am.” Katie continued as she smiled sadly towards the man that was still driving the car.
Blake gripped the steering wheel tightly as he took in the words that Katie had just spoken. They were so sad.
He saw how near the two of them were to the Payne residence and wanting to have more time to talk with the dark-haired woman, Blake parked by the road before turning his parking lights on.
The sky was turning dark as evening approached slowly.
“You’re not a bad person.” Blake spoke as he looked at the sky and the passing cars, not wanting to look at Katie to see how sad she might look.
He didn’t know the reason for his serious behavior even though he felt himself responsible for Katie’s sadness.
Katie let out a humorless chuckle as she wiped at her eyes. “You’re a nice guy, Blake, but you were the one that was hostile with me when I first got here with Scarlet and Lauren.”
“Hehe, uh yeah, but I was just immature then.” Blake rubbed his neck as he looked at Katie, who raised an eyebrow at him in question. “And you think you’re not immature now?”
Blake’s mouth fell open as Katie began to giggle.
“Rude!” Katie didn’t care about Blake’s hurt ego and truthfully, Blake didn’t either as he smiled watching the woman next to him laugh.
The atmosphere in the car had gotten a lot better than what it was when they were leaving the Payne house. This time, it was a lot pleasant too, as Katie’s laughter faded but a smile took its place, while Blake started the car again with a similar smile on his face.
There was silence in the car as Blake began to drive towards the Payne house which was nearer than they had thought.
Oddly, both of them wondered inside of their heads about a single thing, and that was about how they wanted to spend a little more time together.
Maybe, get to know each other better.
Surely, Blake wanted to know more about Katie even when he knew enough since Scarlet had blabbered about the woman to him when he had taken her home from the bar once. It was when Lauren and Scarlet had stayed for Vanessa’s wedding.
Blake hadn’t told Scarlet about it, but that time she had told him everything she herself knew about Katie, in her drunken state.
The only difference then was that, Blake didn’t have any interest in a woman that had broken his cousin’s heart, and this time he wanted to know all there was to know about the woman.
He just didn’t know if that was okay or not.
Comments (0)
See all