unexpected love episode 18 & 19

?Unexpected ?
? Love ??

By: Worthy liBr@ry

Genre:R0m-nce

Tags: arrange marriage, betrayal, love, hate and revenge.

Chapter 18

?A Mutual Agreement… Finally ?

For the entire weekend, I mope around the house. Well, that’s not entirely true.

On Saturday I spend all day with Kim, looking at wedding ideas. Then on Sunday, we all meet at Nikki’s house to celeBr@te her sister’s birthday.

We actually just used it as an excuse to pig out on cake… which was pretty much what I had been doing at every moment I had by myself.

On Monday, I really felt like I nee-ded to turn the attention on KIm. But that wasn’t ha-rd; for some reason, there was a strange rumor going around that my engagement was just a joke, a plot for humiliation.

That Connor intentionally pushed me in the fountain. But I didn’t really care. My new sole mission was to make Kim happy… and to block out the world.

I’m slowly gathering my books for first, second, and third period. I’m early today, which is really unusual.

The hallway is crowded with seniors talking with each other and freshman looking lost.

I smile at how mundane it all seems. Kim is just a little ways away, surrounded by gushing girls that wish they were her.

When I turn back to my locker, there’s someone standing at the other side of the door. I gasp and take a step back. “Geez, are you trying to kill me?”

Connor laughs. “Sorry. I just nee-d to talk to you.” I start to turn away but he grabs my arm. “Hear me out. I feel really bad about what happened.

I @$$ume you’ve heard the rumors going around?” I nod. “Yeah, that was me. I though… maybe I was a little harsh. That maybe we’re looking at things from the wrong perspective. Perhaps we should get to know each other the right way.”

I give him a confused look. “You lost me at harsh.”

A smile breaks out across his face. “What I mean is, let’s take things slow.” He gently takes my hand and pulls the ring off my finger. He shoves it in his jacket pocket but doesn’t let go of my hand. “Allison, would you like to go on a date with me?”

I laugh lightly. “I would love that.”

“Great. Tonight at seven? I’ll pick you up.”

“Okay. See you then.”

* * *

“I like your dress,” he says. He’s standing on our porch, if you can call it that. It’s much too fancy to be considered a ‘nasty old country porch’ as my mother says.

I’m wearing a str-apless black dress that reaches just above my knees. Matching diamond earrings and a ne-cklace sparkle un-der the porch light.

And I have low heels on, to avoid a disaster. “Thanks, you do, too.” He’s wearing a simple tux. It’s very handsome.

We drive in the dark fairly quickly. Connor talks about his football, I talk about my art. We chat about nothing and it feels good. It feels like a date.

We get to a small Greek restaurant about twenty minutes away from my house. It’s nice, but it’s smaller than the other places we’ve eaten at. We get a booth and keep chatting. I’ll save you from the boring details. But it feels comfortable. it feels familiar. It feels…. nice.

When we’re done with our food, a song begins to play on the speakers. It’s “Just the Way You Are.” Connor smiles and takes my hand.

He silently pulls me to the dance floor. I laugh and we begin to dance. “I really can’t dance,” I mutter.

“That’s okay. Neither can I.” There’s a few couples around us, and they’re watching us carefully. No one really knows who we are. And I like it that way.

“So,” he says quietly. “You like this place?”

“I dont’ know. But I like you.” I say into his jacket. He’s taller than me and I can ba-rely see over his shoulder in these shoes.

“Well, aren’t you a smooth talker. I have a feeling you’ve done this before.” I step on his foot and he missteps for a moment. “Where do you get these smooth moves?”

I smile and look up at him. “It just comes naturally.”

We giggle.

“So are we going on a second date?” He stops dancing for a minute. He starts dancing again before he answers.

“Obviously.”

I giggle. Which is weird, because I never giggle. Ever. I have always thought of giggling as something wannabe teenage girls do on corny movies.

I have never, ever giggled before. But tonight, giggling seems okay.

And I like it.

??Unexpected ?
? Love ??

By: Worthy liBr@ry

Genre:R0m-nce

Tags: arrange marriage, betrayal, love, hate and revenge.

Chapter 19:

?: Wedding Plans and Fries ?

Things were going surprisingly well, considering the circu-mstances.

Connor and I were… how do I put this? Bonding?

I guess that’s the word. We were taking things slow, though. In my opinion, a little too slow. Painfully slow.

We’d been on five dates and no first kizz yet. He walks me to cl@$$, we drive to school together, have study sessions at my house.

I know, I know; five dates and you’re already doing all that?

I thought you were taking things slow? Yes, we are. In the physical sense and emotional sense.

No commitments, blocking most of our feelings so that we can focus. We nee-d to have a public appearance.

My parents strongly disapprove of this. That is probably because I didn’t really tell them the truth.

They’re sort of un-der the impression that I am dating three other guys. And that Connor nee-ded some severe help in Spanish, so we have to spend some time together.

I change in my car when we go to dinner; I don’t want them seeing me wearing nice clothes on our dates.

I pretend to wear jeans and a sweatshirt, which drives them up the wall, but it’s fun.

We fight in front of our parents (turns out he wasn’t exactly happy with their engagement decision either).

In front of the public, we’re a happy couple. Alone, it’s a little awkward.

And in front of our friends, it’s almost normal. We bicker, we laugh, and we hold hands. It feels comfortable, which is exactly how I nee-d to feel right about now.

Today, I’m in Kim’s house. I’m helping her with some wedding details. She has insisted that we start working right away, even though the wedding is six months away.

But hey, I don’t mind doing this. It’s a nice distraction.

We’re looking at wedding invitations at the moment. “So,” Kim begins. “How about this one?” She holds up a dark green paper with white writing.

I glance up. “I don’t know. I mean, I know you want green as your color theme, but isn’t that shade a little… dark?

And do the invites necessarily have to match your wedding colors? It’s not like they’re going to make the connection.

They’ll just stick it in their planners and forget about it.”

“Yeah, I guess.” She looks down again and picks up another paper. “This one?”

“Lavender and yellow? It’s nice, I guess.”

She throws it down in mock exasperation. “I don’t nee-d guesses, I nee-d opinions! Strong, clear opinions! What kind of maid of honor are you?!”

My head snaps up. “Maid of what now?”

She grins. “Well, I do want my maid of honor to be able to help me with wedding details!” She sees my expression and she laughs.

“Did you really think I would pick Mark over you? I know you’re jealous, but come on! He may have better clothing, but you’re much cooler.” I smile and pull her into a hu-g.

We sit there, crying happy tears. Then her mom walks in.

“Ah, I see she told you?” I nod and she places a plate of cookies on the carpet beside us. “Picked out any invites yet?”

“Not yet. Your daughter is being very picky. And she has bad taste.” I hold up the green one.

“Yuck! Kimmy, what are you thinking! Do you want some help, girls?”

I smile again. “Absolutely!” I love Kim’s mom. She is so adorable, easy to talk to, and she genuinely likes her daughter. It’s a way different change from what my mother is like.

She nods and plops down beside us. “So, your color theme is green, right? But we don’t know what shade?”

Kim nods. “I’ve narrowed it down to a few choices, though. I know I have to hurry, Mom. It is, after all, ‘the base of all planning.'”

I tune them out and just watch them together. They work together really well.

I am kinda surprised at how well Maria is taking this. She was totally cool when Kim told her about her engagement.

She went out and booked a church that day. Kim’s dream church. There were tears, and cake, and I was there. Metaphorically, of course.

I sort throu-ghsome samples and finally settle on one. I hold up a golden-yellow paper with pale green lettering. “How about this one?”

Maria and KIm look up. “Oh, wow.” Kim says.

“It’s perfect!” Maria jumps up and takes the sample from me. “Subtle, yet beautiful!”

“But I don’t want that shade for my wedding, Mom!”

“Yes, but dear you don’t have to have this exact shade! This is just the invitations. You still have plenty of time! So what do you think?”

Kim hu-gs me again and pats me on the cheek. “I think you found the perfect one.”

* * *

Spending the Day with Kim has been enlightening.

I picked out a few invitation samples for my parents, even though they’re doing most of the work. Kim finally settled on a light shade of green with white accents.

It suits her personality perfectly. I have decided on either pink or lavender. Or maybe light blue…

Anyway, all this wedding planning has made me think. And hungry. On my way driving home, I stop in an old diner called “The Bar Stool.”

Stupid name, but it’s my favorite place to eat. The owner, Sherry, divorced her husband thirty years ago and moved here.

She started this diner and called it the bar stool because that’s how she met her husband. Sherry and I are good friends now, even though she’s fifty-something.

I sit at my favorite booth- the one at the end with the window showing the busy road- and pull out a menu.

Sherry walks over and gives me a smile. “Hey, darlin! It’s been just too long! WHat’ll it be, the usual?”

I quickly skim the list. “Hmm, I think I’ll go with the burger and fries today. And a chocolate milkshake. We’ll mix things up.

“Great! Be right back, sugar.”

I smile and look out the window. Seeing the people playing across the road at the park brings back memories.

Maria would take us there once in a while and Kim and I would play for hours. The slide was our favorite, because we thought we were such rebels climbing up after we slid down.

“Excuse me, Miss, is this seat taken?”

I look over quickly and see Connor standing there with a big grin on his face. “What are you doing here?”

“A friend told me about this place, I thought I’d go check it out.”

“But I thought you were shadowing your dad at work today?” I ask.

“I blew it off. He wasn’t happy, but what can he do? I have a car, cash, and a crazy mindset. He just has to deal with it.” He glances down at the empty seat across me. “Can I sit?”

“Oh, sure!”

He slides down and places his Coke on the table. “What did you order?” I ask.

“Burger and fries. Is that right? That’s what Trey told me to get.”

“Yeah, it’s perfect. Their fries are legend.” Sherry comes back and places our orders on the table.

She doesn’t say anything about my new eating partner and I just nod at her. She gives me a knowing smile and walks away.

I take a sip of milkshake and smile. “Mm, this is just what I nee-ded. Here, try!” I slide the shake across the table and he catches it with ease.

“Yeah, that is good!” He pauses. “What have you been doing today?”

“Over at Kim’s, looking at invitation samples and helping her pick a shade of green out of a thousand look-alike samples. Tons of fun, I’m sure you can tell.”

He laughs. “DId you find any invites you like?”

“Yeah. Here, look.” I pull the samples out of my purse and hand them to him. He looks them over and places them into two piles.

“I like the lavender, but hate the yellow and orange.”

“Yeah, the lavender was my pick, too. But my mom wants yellow as the wedding theme.” I shrug and place them back into my purse.

“Shouldn’t you be able to plan your own wedding?”

I glance up at his concerned eyes and cave. “I guess so, but honestly? I don’t really want to. I just want to get it over with and move on, you know?

This wasn’t my plan. I never wanted to get married before I was a vet, or have my parents pick my husband for me.”

“But they did an amazing job, right?” He says jokingly, but his eyes aren’t smiling.

“Heck yes!” We laugh for a while and eat our burgers. After a while, we were laughing. Then he tasted his fries. “Jeez, these are good!”

I smile. “Told you.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re always right, I know.”

“Is that sarcasm I hear?”

“What do you think!”

I give him a face and throw a handful of fries at his face. He dodges them and throws some back.

Soon we’re in a full on french fries fight. People are glaring at us, some are laughing. Soon, Sherry comes over and breaks it up. She’s laughing too, though, so I know that she’s kidding.

We clean up and pay the bill. While walking out of the restaurant, he grabs my hand and gives a gentle squee-ze. I squee-zeback and smile.

It’s all going to be okay.

Tbc

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