Have you ever met someone whose face naturally lifts up into a smile? It makes them look friendly, warm, worthy of trust. It turns them into someone you can spill your guts to without fear of it being copied and pasted all over the internet. Well, I was the complete opposite of a naturally smiley person. I was trustworthy, sure, but I had 'resting mean face.' It left people unsettled, and I didn't tend to attract random strangers into my personal bubble with that face.
Laliana on the other hand, smiled a lot. Like, a lot, a lot. And having gotten to know Tate, that was saying something. Her eyes had a shine to them that made you feel seen and important when she looked at you. A smile that lit up when she found common ground with you. And a set of quirks that was disarmingly charming. I was beginning to understand why the world loved her so much. In other words, she was my complete opposite.
Laliana seemed to find amusement in everything. But unlike Tate, she quickly picked up on how little I enjoyed small talk or being distracted at work. Instead, she was comfortable hanging out in her own mind while she waited for me to hit my lunch break, sitting in the lobby with her nose in a book, lost to the world, while my employees tried not to stare at her.
Eyes scanning the pages, she looked entranced. Gasping when something shocked her, or snorting loudly and covering her mouth when something made her laugh before smiling back at the pages, like Tate staring fondly at a donut, forgetting the world again. It was entertaining.
How do people get lost in books like that? I wondered, looking over a set of sketches from my design team, glancing through my door back at Laliana for a beat.
Taking a red pencil, I adjusted a few designs, leaving notes in the margins and tracing over part of the designs, before shoving the work back into a folder, satisfied with the direction of the spring clothing line. My team had outdone themselves with their ideas. It left me feeling like a proud mamma bird. Stupid, terribly dressed Laurence. How dare he accuse them of stealing!
After looking over the mockups from our couple photoshoot and giving the green light for the images to be plastered up on billboards and across magazines, I left my office curious over what Laliana thought she could do to make my life less chaotic. She seemed too sweet to have a master plan in mind that could destroy my enemies.
It took Laliana a second to realize I was standing above her, purse at the ready, and when she did notice, she jumped, startled out of her book like I had been wearing a killer clown mask and holding a chainsaw. "Holy guacamole! Announce yourself so I don't die!" she gasped, clutching her chest. "I'm reading a murder mystery!"
I stifled a laugh. "Sorry. Didn't know you were so..."
"Antsy? Twitchy? Weird?" she offered like my own book of synonyms.
"Jumpy," I replied, amused by her quick, flustered response.
She stood up and pulled on her purse, which was a raggedy neon quilted pattern that looked like it belonged in the back of a closet. Laliana watched my gaze land on her purse and her face turned red. "Yeah... I'm not known for my fashion sense. Sorry for hurting your eyes."
We made our way towards the front doors of Winters, ignoring the eyes of several employees as they recognized Laliana Summers and began to whisper in excited tones. I couldn't do what she does.
I shrugged. "No need to apologize. If I didn't have to always look put together, I'd wear sweatpants to work."
She laughed, her voice bouncing across the walls, uninhibited. "Should have been a writer."
Several flashes filled the glass doors of my building and I paused, hating the idea of walking out into what was most likely a mess of paparazzi. I just don't have the energy to pummel anyone right now.
Laliana looped her arm through mine. "Don't stop. They love that. Just stick with me. It'll confuse them. Kindness is something they don't seem to get. Plus I'm hungry and pausing will just make me hangry and I wouldn't wish that on you. On them, sure. But not on you."
She turned and wiggled her eyebrows at me. "Now do your best not to look like you want to murder them. Just think about my ugly purse."
I let out a surprised laugh as we walked through the glass doors, impressed that she had purposefully brought her wild-looking purse to distract me from murder. I liked her.
Two bodyguards moved out of the shadows, flanking us on either side, keeping the paparazzi from getting too close to Laliana, and by extension, me. The paparazzi seemed speechless. Confused that we didn't bring a catfight out onto the sidewalk, but instead walked arm in arm, laughing at an ugly purse.
A bodyguard opened a car door and ushered us inside while the other stood before the cameras, blocking their view. "Thank you boys," Laliana called before the door closed, shutting out the cameras and gawking faces.
"Step one complete," Laliana said, looking pleased before sprawling out ungracefully in the back of the car.
"What's step two?"
She smiled, throwing her arms above her head in victory. "Lunch!"
Laliana turned and offered me another grin. "Then I am going to fill you in on a few things. Because paparazzi suck and they've been extra mean to you." She glared at them through the window, even though they couldn't see her face. "Just because you are strong doesn't mean you should be painted as a villain. And I want to help fix that."
We pulled away from the curb, Laliana's kindness stunning me into silence.
...
Lunch wasn't at a restaurant, or at a hole-in-the-wall place, or at a place at all. Instead of going inside and being trapped by cameras watching our every move through glass, we had picked up a large pizza and taken it to an unoccupied lifeguard tower at the beach. Legs swinging off the side, feet covered in sand, and fingers greasy with the best pizza I had ever eaten. It was a slice of heaven... pun not intended.
Laliana tilted her head back, catching the end of a melted string of cheese in her mouth before consuming another slice of pizza like a hungry gremlin. "I'm so glad you like pizza," Laliana said, attempting to catch another string of cheese. "Aiden doesn't like most unhealthy foods. So this is a real treat."
I wrinkled my nose at the mention of her grumpy fiancé. It was hard to imagine Laliana picking someone like him. "Oh... I know that look," Laliana said past a mouth full of pizza. "Aiden isn't the best with first impressions." She wiped her hands on a napkin, her face thoughtful. "And he's very protective of Tate. I know he was a little... much when you met him."
I resisted the urge to snort. Understatement.
"So... speaking of people being a bit much..." Laliana said with some hesitation. "I heard you've been spending time with Tate for the last few weeks." She eyed me over a can of soda as she took a long, pointed sip.
I eyed her carefully. "Yep. That tends to happen when you hire someone to drive you around."
She glanced over my shoulder, suddenly distracted away from the topic of Tate. "We have some company. But they won't get too close with Hank and Stewart around." A mischievous smile crossed her face. "Bodyguards tend to keep paparazzi wary of getting too close."
Laliana put down her soda and wiped her hands on her knees. "Two things you need to know about those vultures with cameras. One, they will follow you anywhere. If they think there is something to know, they will sniff it out, or make it up in order to keep things interesting. And two, if you look even remotely irritated, you get the villain treatment."
"Great," I muttered, finishing off a piece of pizza and leaning back on the lifeguard tower on my elbows.
Laliana sighed. "The only exception is for the grumpy guy type. Which they give a free pass to because brooding men get the secret knight in shining armor treatment." She leaned back on her own elbows. "Girls don't get that free pass. Sucks, but it's true." She pulled out her phone. "So if you ever need to be seen with some friendly faces, here's my number."
She held out her phone sheepishly, her number staring up at me brightly on the screen. "You don't have to use it." Her voice took on a tentative, nervous tinge. "But I remember getting bombarded with unwanted attention. And I know it suuuuuucks. So... if you need someone to vent to... or a friend, I am available. It would be very mutually beneficial. I mean, I don't have a lot of female friends... well try ZERO female friendsâ"
Her mouth fell open, seeming to catch herself by surprise. "Aaaand I've said too much. Can't back peddle so I'll just own it. Long monologue short, we should be friends. It would be mutually beneficial because the paparazzi would be nicer to you and I would gain a friend so win, win."
She coughed, looking away, utterly mortified by her unfiltered proposal of friendship. I pursed my lips, trying not to smile. I didn't want her to think I was laughing at her. I wasn't. But I thought a sudden smile might look weird.
Plucking her phone from her hand, I typed in my number and added her number to mine. "Sounds fair."
She laughed, relieved. "It's a miracle that I didn't scare you off. My plan sounded way less crazy in my head."
"Nah, Tate helped me build up a tolerance for loud, excited planners," I replied before thinking it through. I shouldn't have mentioned him. I could tell she was curious and as if to confirm, Laliana bellyflopped onto my mention of him before the words were even fully out of my mouth.
"Since we are friends now, that means I can ask you about friend stuff. So... you and Tate..." Laliana trailed off, waiting for me to fill in the blanks. She leaned forward, chin on her fists, eyes glistening with open curiosity.
I wasn't going to encourage her 'excited detective poking around nature.' "Me and Tate...?"
She failed her arms, excited and frustrated at my lack of cooperation. "Oh come on! Don't do the staring thing where you get me to talk instead of the other way around! That hardly seems fair!"
I crossed my arms, more amused than irritated. "If you want to have an open dialogue about guys, you tell me something first."
"Like?"
I paused, enjoying the idea of sharing secrets together. A bonding ritual that with others sounded terrifying. "Like, why on earth are you with Aiden? You are such a happy, warm person. And he is... well not."
Her face turned an angry red and my heart fell, stuttering in panic.
Crap. I've known her for an hour and I've already ruined things and there are cameras in the distance that will throw it all over the internet...
But after a moment, Laliana cleared her throat and offered me a helpless smile, revealing a flustered blush. She wasn't mad or hurt, she was just blushing over the idea of talking about her fiancé. I forced myself to calm down. Not everything is going to end badly Allie. Calm down. This isn't a 'Mean Girls' Movie.
Laliana tugged on a strand of her hair thoughtfully. "That particular Dalton Boy would burn down the world to keep me safe. Which is as terrifying as it is comforting. That's a whole lot of love to have focused on me."
She smiled to herself, lost in thought for a moment, almost like she couldn't believe her own love story. Then she blinked, coming back to the conversation. "And for every word he doesn't say, he shows me how much he loves me with five actions that are far louder than any love confession."
She closed the pizza box between us to have something to do. "I'm nice enough for both of us and it makes every smile I get out of him that much more amazing. Because it feels so well earned."
She was so openly smitten that it was as adorable as it was a little sickening. Laliana loved her grumpy Dalton Boy. "Gross," I teased before taking a large sip of soda.
Laliana rolled her eyes. "Okay, my turn," she said, staring me down, her face completely serious. "Is Tate a good kisser?"
And because my timing was on point, I did a spit take, accidentally spitting coke in Laliana's face, being rewarded with dozens of paparazzi camera flashes.
Well... so much for not being painted as a villain.
I sucked in a big breath, eyes wide with alarm as I scrambled to hand her a napkin. "What?!?... Oh crap! I'm sorry! I..."
Laliana threw her head back and laughed. "OHMYGOSH!" She squealed with delight. "YOU SHOULD SEE YOUR FACE!" She patted away the soda. "I'll take your near panic attack to mean that he is a VERY good kisser." And when my face turned red, she laughed harder. "YES! TEN POINTS TO LALIANA!"
"You are crazy," I muttered, throwing my hands over my face to hide my pink complexion.
"Obviously. Most writers are a bit mad." She finished wiping her face. "But don't change the subject. You obviously like him."
"I do not!" I protested, sounding like a five-year-old.
She shook her head. "Oh please. If a guy were to try and kiss you and you weren't wanting to be kissed by said guy, the pictures online would be of you punching him in the face. Not melting into his arms on the back of that motorcycle, kissing him back."
I opened my mouth and snapped it shut when nothing came out to refute her claim. My brain is completely useless when I am flustered. "How much do you know?" I squeaked, hating how panicked I sounded.
She smiled softly and held her hand above her chest. "Only what you want me to know."
"Can we talk about something else?"
Laliana shrugged. "For now. Sure. But I have opinions. All in favor of you dating Tate. Like a very large list of reasons why. But..." she searched my face. "I can see by the sudden panic in your eyes that it should probably wait for another day... Maybe tomorrow. And maybe in text form so you don't have to stare at me while I quote you my reasons."
Oh my gosh. She's serious.
Laliana stood up, stretching. "Thanks for humoring me. Ready to go?"
I nodded, grabbing her hand, and letting her help me to my feet before we climbed down the side of the lifeguard tower. Wiggling our toes in the sand, we smiled out at the water. "Thanks for coming with me today," she said into the wind.
"Thanks for reaching out," I said walking towards the water, enjoying the feeling of the wet sand on my toes. "I'm kinda surprised that you did though."
We stood side by side looking out at the waves, watching them get slowly closer, threatening to dunk our ankles in chilly sandy water. "Well, us girls have to help each other out. There's too much toxic crap happening between women these days."
She sighed, running her fingers through her hair as the wind sent it flying around her face. "We get jealous. Pick fights with each other. Assume there isn't room for more than one of us at the table of success. And when that stupid article came out making us look like rivals..." She shook her head, looking angry for the first time. "I was done letting them have their way."
"Oh no," I whispered. "Does that mean I have the paparazzi to thank for us becoming friends?" Because that is what we were, I realized. She had found her way into my inner circle. Something that I thought was nearly impossible at this point. Standing next to her on the ocean shore felt like home. Something I hoped to have more of down the line.
She smiled, splashing her feet in the shallow water, getting my own wet. "I won't tell them if you won't."
I smiled, kicking water back. "Deal."
---
Thank you for reading chapter thirty-five! I hope you are enjoying the story! Or are at least curious to see where it goes! Add this story to your reading list to know when the next chapter drops!
UPDATE DAYS - A NEW CHAPTER EVERY FRIDAY!
Do we smell a friendship brewing?!? I think so! *CUE GIRL POWER MODE*
How would Tate feel about it?
Or Aiden?
Will Laliana start texting Allie reasons why she should date Tate? If so, what reasons do you think will show up on that list?
What will happen next?
CHAPTER QUESTION -Â Have you met someone that you instantly got along with?