The Troubleshooter

15-making the most of it

Lili POV

"Ooh let me" I insist, stealing Ella away from Sophie.

"Who gets excited over a diaper change? Crazy person" Sophie mutters, but she lets me take Ella anyway.

It may seem crazy but I'm loving my bonding time with my new niece and I don't want to waste a single second of my time here, and that means diapers.

Sophie hovers over me trying to restrain herself from taking over. Matt was right when he said she's a natural, but I'm already a pro at diaper changes after two days so she doesn't need to worry.

"What happens when you go back to work?" I ask, pulling Ella's legs from her flower patterened onesie and pretending to eat her feet. They're so teeny!

"Well you see I'm a lawyer, so it's a lot of paperwork, and arguing with people who think they know better than me" she replies sarcastic as ever.

"Hilarious," I comment, throwing the burping cloth at her face. "Seriously though, how are you going to leave this little tesoro with a sitter all day?" I ask, cooing at Ella.

"A sitter?" She frowns, "what do you think your brother will be doing? I'm not the only parent you know?" She chuckles passing me the water wipes. "We have a home office, I'm going to try and do a lot of my research and paperwork from home and Matt picks his own hours so we can work this out between us. Besides"

Our conversation is cut short when my phone starts ringing in my back pocket,
"Can you grab that?" I ask Sophie, sliding the clean diaper under Ella.

"It's Ben?" Sophie tells me, "wait? Ben like first kiss Ben? Oooooh why is he calling?" Sophie squeals, backing out of my reach.

"It's nothing like that!" I laugh, "that day I saw him at Nico's we got dinner and now we check in with each other." I button Ella's onesie back up (got it right first time, killing this aunty gig)

"Dinner, like you went on a date?" Sophie asked, surprised.

"Who went on a date?" Matt asks, walking up behind Sophie, wrapping his arms around her and nuzzling into her hair.

"Nunya," Sophie says,

"Nunya?" Matt asks, resting his chin on her shoulder. She's so much shorter than he is, he's almost bent double.

"Yeah, Nunya-business" she laughs, pecking him on the temple. "Stop being nosey"

Matt chuckles swatting Sophie on the behind before he leaves.

"Come on let's talk in the nursery while I feed Ella" she suggests leading the way.

I wait for Sophie to get comfortable feeding Ella before I start to talk.

"Does it hurt?" I ask, gesturing to her chest.

"Not if she's latched on right. The first week it was a bit tender, more like chafing kind of pain. But now I barely notice. It's more the sleep thing, cause Matt can't do night feeds. So I get why it's not It's not for everyone, it's just nice being close to her" Sophie looks down at Ella adoringly as she speaks.

"Anyway, enough baby talk. Back to Ben. Why are you dating him? I thought you liked Nico?"

"I do like Nico. We're just in a weird place right now after the whole saying they want to marry me thing, and I told you we got dinner. It wasn't a date!" I insist.

"Hold the fuck up! Nico wants to marry you!" Sophie gasps.

"Yeah Nico and the rest of fucking Italy. I'm quite the eligible bachelorette you know?" I scoff "everyone is trying to get their hands on the business through me. There are so many pigs out there. I just wasn't expecting Nico to be one of them"

"I don't think Nico is one of them! What if they genuinely meant it?! Nico confesses their feelings to you and you accuse them of being a gold digger then go on a date with their friend!"

"No! It wasn't like that! And it wasn't a date!" I defend myself.

"Does Ben know that? Does Nico? I mean they're friends. He might have told Nico" she points out.

I'm about to argue when Sophie's cell starts vibrating against the little table.

"Can you press answer and put it on speaker?* She asks. I lean over the cell seeing Nico's name displayed.

"Sophie? I'm sorry to bother you but I have a legal question." Nico says the moment the call connects.

"You're not bothering me, but you are on speaker I'm feeding Ella." She explains

"Who else can hear me? Matt?"

"No just me, Ella and Lili."

"Lili? So much for waiting for me in Venice eh? Sounds like you have been busy" there's a barely suppressed note of bitterness in Nico's voice. 'wait for them?' Sophie mouths at me. The silence seems to hang in the air between us.

"Nico, what did you want to ask?" Sophie says breaking the tension.

"Someone is setting up drug deals in my club and I know who it is but I can't prove it, not in any legal way at least. What are my chances of pressing charges before I lose my club?" Nico explains.

"Unfortunately it's a slim chance. With law it's not what you know it's what you can prove, and doing anything dodgy to get that proof could just backfire. You should report it to the police and let them handle it."

"Police have been involved for months. I'm pretty sure they've been paid off"

"You could plant evidence against him and pay off a different cop?" I suggest.

"Lili! You can't say stuff like that around me!" Sophie gasps. I can hear Nico's deep laugh through the cell.

"Lili how long are you staying with Matt and Soph?" Nico asks.

"Got five days left, so I'll probably be back before you"

"No, I'll clean up here and get my connecting flight from England, then fly back with you. I mean, I want to come see the baby too. If that's good Soph?"

"Of course" she agrees, smirking at me.