The Millionaire's Bet [BOOK ONE][#Wattys2015][#SYTYCW15][#CarinaPress]

part fourteen

ALYSSA

The sound of my alarm going off at half three on Thursday morning, wasn't something I wanted to wake up to, and I wished that I could turn it off so that I could go back to sleep. I would rather spend the entire weekend in the comfort of my own home, spending the time catching up with all the sleep I had lost over the last week, rather than spending two hours on a flight with Andrew and then spending the next five days in the company of a man who can't decide whether he hates me or loves me.

He may have been nice to me for the last couple of days, and he had actually shown me that he didn't need to be a total prick all the time, but I had a feeling that wasn't going to last. Something was going to happen which would fuck with his good mood and he would only take it out on me, something I had quickly realised within the first couple of days, that he would take any bad mood out on me because he could.

I sat up in bed, throwing the covers off the end of the bed and stretching my hands above my head, a loud yawn filling the silence of my bedroom and I took a moment to mentally prepare myself for the long day which I already knew I was going to have ahead of me. I allowed my thoughts to go back to the dinner last night and just how well everything actually went between the three of us, there was plenty of conversation and even a whole lot of laughter, and it was an entirely enjoyable evening.

"You shall have to give me the recipe for this. It's simply delicious, Alyssa," Diana complimented through a mouthful of her chicken. It wasn't anything complex, it was just something my mother had shown me when I was younger and, whenever I cooked it for people, it reminded me of the times I would spend with my mother in the kitchen as a child and the things which she would happily teach me when our father wasn't around to entertain her culinary skills.

"I have to agree with my mother on this one. I never knew you could cook," Andrew smiled as he demolished the vegetables which I had served on the side of the plate. I was proud that I was the one who had got both Andrew and Diana to sit at the same table and that I was the reason they were now talking with each other because, had I not mentioned anything to Andrew about meeting his mother, I am sure he never would have told me about her and he would still be ignoring her. "Who taught you how to cook, if you don't mind me asking?"

"My mother. When I was a child we would spend many weekends in the kitchen and she would teach me some of the recipes when my father was working in the fields, and it was some of the best times that I spent with her, because it was one of the only times that she was ever really silent since she was so focused on what she was showing me," I chuckled.

"You questioned why I didn't see my mother, so does that mean I am allowed to question why you haven't seen your mother?" Andrew asked. And, after the questions I had asked him last night, he had every right to ask the reasons behind me not seeing my mother because it was only fair that he asked about my lack of contact with my own parents.

"Andrew," Diana scolded him disapprovingly.

"No. I just couldn't bring myself to see her after everything happened with Dean, and I've been pretty busy going between jobs that I haven't had the time to speak with her since I moved to New York and Dean was sent to prison," I told him honestly. I knew that I needed to contact my mother and that I needed to do it before she had the chance to do it first, but I didn't know what to say to her and I didn't know how to make her understand that I didn't hate her, I just couldn't bring myself to speak with any member of my family after everything happened and most of my family shunned me for allowing it to happen.

"I am sure she misses you though, Alyssa, and she wants to speak with you," Andrew sighed when he took a bite of his chicken and, given that he hadn't spoken to his mother in over three years, he would understand how I was feeling and he would be able to realise how my parents were feeling with the severe lack of contact, "I insist that you take a week off work when we return so that you can visit your family."