The Eleventh Hour

Chapter 28

I stared at him, horrified.

“Parents?”

Nathaniel was – as ever – completely at ease, leaning back against his chair, looking all smug and cocky and – hot. “They’re in town,” he said simply as if it was nothing, “they want to go to dinner. But that’s only if you want to. It is your birthday, after all.”

“Dinner?” I gulped.

“Don’t look so scared,” he laughed quietly, “they won’t hurt you.”

“Believe me, that’s not the problem. What if they don’t like me?”

He rolled his eyes. “Of course they’ll like you. I like you, so they will.” He gave me a serious look. “You know I don’t like many people, Lola Rose.”

I’m not sure if he was trying to be funny or not, but my guess was not. To be honest, Nathaniel rarely cracks a joke. And when he does, it’s usually funny. This isn’t funny at all.

I took a long, nervous sip of my drink. A bubble of unease was settling in the pit of my stomach, and I suddenly felt sick. But I suppose there was still a slight plus to this – wasn’t this a good thing that he wanted me to meet his parents? This was Nathaniel. So maybe it was.

He smiled at my unease and did something totally unexpected, lifting his hand and putting it on top of mine on the table, holding it. All my nervousness melted away in an instant. “Come on, we better go. If I have to share the birthday girl tonight, I want her to myself beforehand.” He sent me a smirk – his eyes turning into a smouldering liquid tanzanite, making me quickly finish my drink and jump to my feet, ready to go. I can live with that.

 ~

“Are you sure this will look okay?”

I was stood by the door of the closet wearing a pastel blue flowing dress that was fitted in all the right places.

Nathaniel was sat on the edge of the bed, seemingly bored before seeing me twirl in the dress I was now wearing. His eyes widened and then twinkled, so I didn’t need to see the wide grin that spread across his face in approval.

I exhaled with relief – I’d finally found something to wear! It was the first dress we agreed on after a good half hour of trying things on, considering he’d turned his nose up at all the dresses I’d brought to America with me and at first whinging that ‘they aren’t extravagant enough to be seen on you’, I refused to listen to his suggestion about trying some of the dresses on that he’d bought for me the day I came here, still stubborn on the whole ‘new wardrobe’ thing.

But of course, eventually, he got his way. He only had to simply point out why I was looking for something to wear in the first place. I’d recently become pretty big on making good first impressions – I had to be what with all the interviews and appearances so I begrudgingly complied. Saying that, the smug grin on his face after I’d agreed to try on some of the insanely expensive dresses nearly changed my mind at first, just so I could wipe it off his face – but this was a nice dress. And I was so unbelievably nervous about meeting his parents, I felt sick.

After we’d finally come to an agreement with the dress, Nathaniel left it up to me to find some matching shoes and accessories while he showered and got himself ready. There was a pair of black studded Louboutins that admittedly, I’d admired for weeks. After all, they were sat boxed up in a closet belonging to me – sort of – and it was my birthday. So I thought, why not treat myself? I wouldn’t tell him that, though. The smug look on his face about the dress was enough.

I decided to make more of an effort, so parted my hair in the middle and curled it all into full, loose waves and applied my make up as perfectly as I could.