William was at my door...
Why was William at my door?
To give your phone back, obviously.
He shouldn't be here. No, he can't be here. Not with everyone, including my mother in the other room.
I shook my head to free myself of my stupor, grabbing my phone from his outstretched hand.
"Thank you, I really appreciate it. Goodbye now!" I rushed as I attempted to close the front door on him.
William wasn't offended by my hasty attempt to get rid of him, if anything he seemed to find the whole situation amusing judging by the smirk dancing on his lips.
He would, since he didn't know what it was like to live in constant fear of being embarrassed by an overly flamboyant mother. No, his whole family was dripping in sophistication and smelled of old money.
Which only increased my apprehension of him being anywhere near the inside of our house.
"Willie!" came the nasal voice of the very person I was trying to spare William from ever meeting.
Her voice filled my insides with dread.
This woman has no shame...
William's eyebrow twitched up accusingly at me before his attention landed on my mother who was fast approaching from the patio.
I don't know what he suspected me of, but my mother's overly-familiar way of addressing him was all her own doing. I have never and certainly will never in my life call William, Willie. Calling him such, was inappropriate for various reasons which I did not care to explore at present.
I can only imagine what he must be thinking at this very moment. He probably took me for some lovesick teenage girl, doodling my little pet names for him with glittered gel pens in my notebook.
I was going to kill my mother. It was going to be a slow death.
You know you cannot actually kill your own mother right?
A girl can dream...
William did not show the dissatisfaction that he must have been feeling on the inside from the potential encounter with my mother. I give him credit for keeping a straight face as my mother in all her sweet perfume repugnance came to a standstill in front of him.
"Finally, I get to meet the William Knight," She exclaimed, latching her pink manicured fingernails around his forearm, "Elizabeth has told me so much about you."
No, the hell she has not.
There was another slight quirk of William's eyebrow and if you did not know him, you would not have noticed nor have known what it had meant.
I could only stare at my mother and William's exchange, rooted firmly to the spot. I was a bystander to the car crash that was my life.
"The pleasure is all mine," William said with a genuine smile as he placed one hand over my mother's.
The gesture seemed way too familiar.
Why was everyone acting completely insane today?
I expected as much from my mother, she didn't have any sense whatsoever. But William was a constant personality, he did not deviate unless purposely done. He wasn't fake and would make it very clear if he wasn't pleased with a situation. So what on earth could be the meaning of him not acting coolly towards my mother as I would expect him to do in this situation? She had no connection to him whatsoever and I knew how he felt about letting people get close to him. And yet, here he was allowing her to touch him, talk his ears off, lead him out to the patio with their arms linked...
Wait... what?!
I rushed after them, out to the patio where my mother was already doing introductions and ordering William to sit right next to where I had been seated.
Hailey was scurrying back with a place mat and cutlery, hastily putting it in front of William.
My mind finally caught up to the gravity of the situation. William was sitting down to eat with us. My mother had somehow managed to bully him into staying.
I hardly think anyone is capable of bullying William Knight into doing anything he didn't want to do.
With my mother, anything is possible!
"Didn't you say you had a meeting to get to?" I piped in, trying to provide William with an out for the situation.
"Haven't you been paying attention Elizabeth? Willie, just said that his meeting was unexpectedly cancelled." My mother said, giving me a stern look to keep my mouth shut, "You must forgive our dear Lizzie, she has this unfortunate knack for spacing out at the most inopportune times." My mother said, turning to William with a sickly sweet smile plastered on her face.
I stood in the doorway, mouth agape, trying to figure out what exactly my mother was up to. I had assumed she was trying to push me and William together, but her over-enthusiastic smiles and attention towards him almost made it look like she herself was interested in him.
She wasn't even this eager towards Ian, whose entire demeanor was way more inviting to begin with than that of William.
Everyone around the table continued with their own conversations as I slipped into my seat next to William. I was absentmindedly staring at my place mat in front of me, willing the universe to turn my current pridicament into a dream. Something that I could wake up from with the washing relief that it never actually happened.
Maybe if William and my relationship had not taken the drastic turn it had, I wouldn't have minded as much that he met my parents or the embarrassment that naturally came along with it. If we simply maintained that employer-employee relationship that we started off with, I wouldn't have given a flying fig what he thought of me and my family. But now things were different and I did care, more than I was willing to admit out loud.
William nudged me with his knee under the table, causing my eyes to shoot to his. His eyes held a warmth to them that, much like his touch, managed to calm my raging nerves. He proceeded to give me a quick wink of reassurance that everything was going to be okay.
At that moment, I realised how much I appreciated the calming effect that he always seemed to have on me. Sure, he could come across as really cold and aloof at times, but the way he looked at me and made me feel secure when I needed it made up for this.
A very loud throat cleared from the other end of the table, drawing William and me away from staring at one another.
"I'm sorry to interrupt," the man sitting next to Charlie said, managing not to look sorry in the slightest. Judging by the way he drew everyone's attention and puffed his chest out like a rooster trying to assert his dominance, settled my opinion of him being utterly ridiculous.
"Did I hear correctly? Are you William Knight?" After an inclined head from William, the pompous man started rambling about his own importance in the tech industry and how he and William had to do business together.
William seemed absolutely bored out of his mind, only providing an occasional head nod every now and then to remain civil. The man who was busy tooting his own horn wasn't paying anyone else except William attention and had not noticed that the rest of the table had stopped listening a long time ago.
"...and after struggling with the code for quite some time, our team, but if I'm being honest, it was mostly me, figured out how to stop the system from glitching."
Who on earth was this guy?
My eyes drifted towards Charlie in question. She was the only one who could answer this particular question.
Her eyes widened with realisation and she cut into the middle of the guy's sleep-inducing monologue.
"I just realised I never finished what I was saying earlier. This is Collin," Charlie addressed the peacock next to her with a smile, "my fiance."
I'm so sorry for the long wait!
I am a terrible, horrible, despicable person and hope you guys can forgive my extended absence...
I'm honestly terrible at balancing life in general. Please tell me I'm not the only one? 😅
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!
xo
Audrey