It started with arranged marriage

Chapter 16

- Lily Jane Collin - 

Here I was, sitting and watching the busy street at the restaurant. I was waiting for Emily and Nicole to have dinner together. I was thinking why all these stupid things have to happen to me. I was losing in my thoughts and didn’t know that Emily and Nicole were already sitting in front of me. 

“Hello! Lily, did you order food already?” Emily asked. 

Because of her I was able to come to my senses again. “Sorry Em, what did you say?” I asked her again. 

“I ask you, did you order food already?” she stressed her question. 

“Oh not yet, I was waiting for you guys. Let’s order now,” I said and called the waiter to order. 

We were chatting while we were waiting for the food that we ordered. I told them about no use of convincing mom to cancel the marriage. 

“Why don’t you just agree on it. I mean you will not lose anything tho,” Nicole said while giving me the naughty smile. 

Emily was chuckling because of Nicole's comment. Then she said “yeah Lil, I saw him in the newspaper, he is hot!”.

“You are an i***t, both of you!” I said and both of them laughed like an i***t. 

Because of them I felt like my worries and stresses were gone for a while. They made me laugh with their stuip jokes. In the meantime, our foods were delivered to our table. We all were busy with digging into the food then suddenly I felt like someone was standing behind me. When I looked back it was Nick and Eric. 

“What are you doing here?” I asked Nick. I tried my best to ignore Eric present. I was surprised to see them both. 

“Why do you look so surprised? I saw you from outside and stopped by to say hello. We were at the restaurant next door for the business meeting,” he said and then called a waiter and asked for an extra chair. 

I was still confused why he asked for the extra chair and why did he need to stop by and said hello. Because we were met at home anyway. After he got the chair, he asked Eric to sit in the empty chair next to me and then he took a seat on the extra chair. Not only was I confused in the whole situation, Emily and Nicole looked confused too. 

“Wait Nick, you said stop by and say hello, now you already did. Goodbye brother!” I said. I didn’t feel comfortable sitting together with my friends, brother and Eric. 

“Why sister! We were here already. We should at least drink wine together,” he said sarcastically. I knew I couldn’t win the argument with my brother and just let him do what he wanted. 

“Why don’t you introduce your friends to Eric,” Nick said while ordering wine. 

“This is Emily and Nicole. This is Eric,” I introduced them with only the names, nothing else. 

“Nice to meet you Eric, we heard a lot about you from Lily,” Nicole said. As usual Nicole always found a way to tease me. He was smiling because of Nicole’s commnet. Nicole,Nicole she always found amused to see getting frustrated and embarrassing.   

“Oh! Really! What did she tell you about?” he asked, giving me the winning smile.

I looked sideways in anger to both Eric and Nicole. 

“You wish!” I said and finished the food from my plate. While Nicole, Eric and I were in our little barking war, Emily has meanwhile found her own world in front of my brother. 

In the meantime, the waiter delivered the wine and poured it into each of our glasses. We were chatting and enjoying the wine. Nicole was the one who talked the most. She kept throwing questions to Eric. 

“By the way Eric, what do you think of Lily,” Nicole snapped at him with an unexpected question. 

Everyone's attention was on Eric. “What do you think about me Lily,” Eric asked me back unexpectedly while smiling. 

I was awed because of his question. I literally have no good answer for that. “Just another guy like my brother,” I said, looking straight at him. He knew what I meant by that. My brother was a good brother but he was known as a playboy never committed to a stable relationship. 

“Now your turn,” Emily asked Eric. I knew Nicole and Emily wanted to know about the answer from him and they were not also given up until they got the answer.

“I think I like her,” he said. That also made me choke with wine. Emily and Nicole were giggling at each other, I could tell from their giggling they were satisfied with Eric’s answer. 

“Finally, our saint Lily found someone,” Nicole said while poking at my arm. I just gave them a really awkward smile. 

Emily and Nicole were really impressed with Eric at the moment I could tell they would be convincing me to get married with him. We ended our unexpected small gathering after we finished the whole bottle of wine. Nick and I went back together and the rest they also went back on their own. 

Me and Nick were on the way back home. Then Nick received a call from Steve. After he received the call, he told his driver to change the direction to the hospital. “Nick, is something happening to granny,” I asked, full of worry. At the same time, I was hoping it was not granny. 

“Yeah, Steve said grandma is at hospital now,” he said, squashing my hand and telling me not to worry. 

We arrived at the hospital shortly. Mom and Steve were there already, they both looked really worried about granny. “Hey mom! How is granny doing?” I asked, giving a pat on her shoulder. “Not really good, but let's hope for the best,” mom said. Grandma was lying weakly on the hospital bed unconsciously. In a few minutes she regained her consciousness back. The first thing she did after she regained consciousness, she was searching for me. “Hey granny, how are you holding up,” I asked, smiling at her and trying my best not to cry in front of her. 

“I’m holding up pretty ok now,” she said while smiling and looking at us. 

“Is there anything I can do for you granny,” I asked while holding her hand. 

“I just only have one wish for you Lily, I want you to have a life partner that you can count on,” she said. I knew what she meant by that. I knew she wanted me to marry Eric. I was looking at mom with what I should say to granny. But no help from mom too. 

“Granny, now please just focus on your recovery, if you are worried about me don’t be. Mom already found my partner,” I said. 

“So it means, you agree to marry Eric?” granny double check with answer. I nodded at her and I felt relieved after I saw the bright side of her.