Moira

30.

"Where's Aude?" Was the first thing I asked after pleasantries had been exchanged, and I waited for them to shrug off their shoes in the entrance.

My mother waved the question off casually, eyes already taking in the apartment in awe. "She overslept again," She explained with an amused eye-roll. "So, I left her to teach her a lesson. She'll catch up with us here. Another twenty minutes, maybe?"

I hummed in recognition as I made my way through the corridor and into the living room, knowing that my sister really did have a problem with oversleeping.

Still slightly taken aback by the sheer size of the room and the blatant display of obvious wealth, I tried my best to hide the fact that this was only my second time actually in here. After all, I was supposed to be moving here soon — at least that's what they all thought.

The large dining table was filled with all sorts of foods, more than what had been on it when I last looked at it. I threw a glance at it just before I left; nothing more than a few paper bags from Wallflour's laying on it then.

Now, though, the table was set. Fruit and vegetables cut clean and served on multiple platters, spreads and jams set around the giant mountain of pancakes and waffles in the middle of the room, while the bread from Wallflour's was sitting in a little basket; the syrup right next to it.

Five out of the seven glasses on the tables were wine glasses, each of them filled up half-way with rosé.

The only person already sat at the table was Esmond's sister, her entire attention on her phone, texting away without ever glancing at any of us.

While my mother and both Eniola and Aiden were already going on about the beautifully set table — I had to agree with them on that front — my brows furrowed slightly at the sight.

Debating whether it was a good idea, I asked, "Where's Esmond?" to grab her attention away from the screen in her hand. Her head lifted slowly, the usual frown on her face as her eyes travelled up and down my body once.

Then, they flickered over the rest of the group, the latter too busy to notice her judgemental look before it fell back on me.

It seemed as if she was going to say something, her mouth already opening before she closed it again, clearly deciding against it as her eyes fell back on the screen without a single sound leaving her lips.

I suppressed the urge to groan in annoyance, as well as the urge to roll my eyes and instead turned around to walk over to the kitchen and check for him myself.

Though, lucky for me, as soon as I turned around, my eyes fell on him, a cheesy apron hanging from his neck that made me snort humorously.

I didn't know it then, but that wouldn't be the strangest sight I'd lay my eyes on today.

"Before we begin, we'd like to say something." Eniola's voice made us still in our own little conversations, eyes falling on her before flickering back and forth between her and Aiden, both awfully wide grins on their faces.

She eyed the glass of wine that she had raised cautiously, my brows rising in interest at what they had to say. "Originally, we wanted to wait for Audelle to be here, too— but everyone knows I wouldn't turn down a single drop of alcohol if the opportunity presented itself—"

"—She'll have to from now on, though," Aiden burst out, and my eyes widened at the prospect of my assumption as my eyes darted down to my best friend's belly.

Eyes still wide, before another word left their mouths, I stood up, a smile just as wide as theirs now as I watched them carefully.

"En—!" I beamed, mild surprise lacing my words as I rounded the table as quickly as I could to stand behind the two. "Please tell me you're telling us what I think you're telling us!"