Chapter 14

Chapter 14 – Sex Carnival

Liam wakes with an elongated groan, holding the back of his head with his hands. He hasn't opened his eyes; even with the curtains drawn shut, his head is throbbing. And the incessant ringing of the doorbell does not help at all as well. He just shut off his phone because it won't stop ringing and now it's the fucking doorbell.

"Uhh, fuck me," he mumbles out, kicking the sheets off his body and standing up.

He did not go to work today — he had decided about that the previous night itself and left Chloe a message regarding his absence. He also had dropped off the kids at his parents', requesting that they look after them for one day, and they instantly agreed. Liam prefers to think it's because they adore their grandkids so much and not because of the worry that overtook their features once they saw him.

He is fine. He is absolutely fine.

He just needed a night to let loose. He does not care that his ex-fiancé is such a needy brat. He does not care that he was cheated on. And he definitely does not that he is the one who got dumped in the end, even though he cannot see any mistake on his part. Nope, he does not care at all.

And that is what Liam told himself as he downed the drinks one by one last night and now, he can't even stand or see straight. However somehow, he manages to get out of his room, climb down the stairs.

"I'm coming," he yells and then groans to himself at his own loud voice.

Liam is not alone though. It looks like Rylee, his sister is up and surprisingly about.

"I got it. Don't worry," she cuts in before him and opens the door wide.

Liam doesn't even have time to show his surprise about his sister being up or see who the early and insistent guest at the door is before a flurry of balloons and bouquets and cakes none of which Liam recalls ever asking for stream in. And that is not even the worst part.

"Um," Rylee stands pressed against the wall by the door, letting the flurry of people carrying varying things in and out, "What is going on?"

And just as she asks that, a rather muscly man with no shirt on steps in and exclaims, "Happy Birthday, Rylee!" he whips out a banner and confetti bursts out at the same time.

"Shit," Liam curses, realisation slowly setting in, "Shit, shit, shit,"

It is Rylee's birthday today. How can he have forgotten it? He's been looking forward to it and planning for it, and still somehow, in the midst of everything else, he forgot about it.

Fuck.

This — whatever commotion is going on in the house, has nothing to do with Liam. He has no idea what is going at all.

"You did this?" Rylee asks, looking around with wide eyes, and taking in their living room which has now temporarily transformed into something that looks like a sex carnival. Yes, a sex carnival.

The balloons' shapes consist of penis, tits and some weird shape that Liam presumes is supposed to be vagina. And as if that's not enough there is even a couple of naked blow-up toys. The bouquets have chocolates which are designed to look like all kinds of private parts. And there are cakes and candies and lollies and none of them look decent.

Liam rubs his forehead, his headache growing ten-fold worse.

He grabs a guy, walking past him and hisses at him, "Who asked for all this?"

"A Mr Liam Spencer?" referring to a pad he has in his hand.

"That would be me and I don't remember booking any of this,"

The guy only shrugs, "It's all set however,"

"I will not be paying you a single penny,"

"Oh, it's all been paid for actually,"

"What?"

"Can someone please tell me what is going on here?" Rylee has come to stand beside her brother when he won't give her an answer, "Did you really do all of this for my birthday?"

"No," he rubs his forehead, sighing, "I don't know,"

And as if Liam needs any more commotion, Kaitlyn walks in right then and takes one look around before turning to him with a big chuckle, "Wow, this is certainly not what I expected when you said a small gathering,"

"I have no hand in this at all," Liam quickly jumps to his defense, "I have no idea what is going on,"

Rylee has disappeared into the kitchen, mumbling something incoherent and Liam has to navigate his way to even reach the living room. Apparently, this service whatever it is, included caterers as well, and there are more caterers in his house than the people he knows. They have completely taken over the house. He closes the door and ventures into the living room where he sits with a huff on the sofa, leaning back and letting out a rather long breath.

Katie giggles as she picks up a cupcake with penis-shaped icing on it, and showcases it to Liam, wiggling her eyebrows. He can only shake his head at her childlike manner as she takes a bite.

"Oh my god," she practically moans as she takes yet another bite, "This tastes even better than it looks,"

"It doesn't even look that good,"

"Oh, come on," she nudges at him and picks up another cupcake, showing it to him, "Not even this absolute beaut? It even has sprinkles on it. Do you think that's supposed to be pubes?"

Liam starts coughing at that, "What the–"

"I'm just saying," that does not deter her from biting into the cupcake.

She is really unbothered by their surroundings and is actually quite enjoying herself.

And Liam would have too, under different circumstances.

But this is his sister's birthday. He first birthday after her husband's untimely passing. Liam wanted to make it special and intimate — have a small gathering with only their family and friends.

This is the exact opposite of what he had in his mind. He knows he should probably go and check up on his sister who finally after weeks of staying in bed, has gotten out with no one urging her to do so. And this just had to happen today. But he needs to rest his own head, and calm his own emotions first, and also figure out who is the culprit behind this. He feels it shouldn't be too hard to figure that out, since he already has a faint idea as to who could have done this.

This has revenge written all over it.

The doorbell rings once again, and before Liam has even stood up, one of the caterer guys rushes to open the door and– Great, just great, he thinks to himself when he sees who it is at the door.

His parents and the kids have arrived, and seeing the state of the house, his mother quickly rushes to close the kids' eyes, but there's no use anyway. They've seen them all. They break free from their grandparents and rushes into the house.

"Uncle," Tania calls him and shows him the choco-lolly she has picked up, "This looks like Claude's willy.

"No, it doesn't," Claude frowns from beside her, "Uncle, tell her it doesn't,"

"Nuh-uh, it does,"

And soon enough, they start fighting with the lollies. Liam wants to bang his head repeatedly on the wall, but he settles for rubbing a hand down his face.

"Liam, what is this?" his mother asks him while his father silently looks around the house his expression caught between being amused and confused, "I thought you said this was supposed to be a small gathering,"

"I did say that. And that is what I had planned,"

"What would you call this then?"

"I don't know!"

"You don't know?"

"Anne," fortunately his father intervenes, "Let's go in first. We can discuss about this later,"

His mother sighs but nods anyways. Liam mouths a silent thank you at his father.

"Where's Rylee?" Anne asks him.

"Um..." Liam drawls, scratching the back of his head, "Actually let me go, check up on her first,"

He quickly takes his leave before she can say anything more, and walks towards the kitchen, where he's seen her disappear to. And upon entering, he is surprised to find, that she, in fact, is not alone. The caterer guy from earlier is in there with her and they seem to be conversing about something quite intently.

Liam clears his throat, making his presence known, "I'm not disturbing you guys, are you?"

The caterer guy only shoots him a smile, "I should get back anyway. It was nice talking to you, Rylee. Happy birthday,"

"Yeah, you too. Thank you, Tyler,"

Liam waits a beat, making sure that Tyler is out of earshot before turning to his sister, "You good?"

She sighs. She is sat on a stool by the kitchen island and Liam occupies the one before her.

"I'm sorry," he apologises, "This is absolutely not what I had planned,"

"I didn't even know you were planning for something,"

"You really thought I was going to let your birthday pass by like that?"

"I thought this year you might," her voice grows softer, and her gaze is directed towards her hands on her lap.

Liam does not need her to explain what she means by that. He gets it. She's lost someone very important to her and she has barely recovered from it. However, that is the exact reason why Liam wanted to celebrate her birthday especially this year — to show her that there are people who still care about her and wish her well. It may not feel like it's ever going to be okay, but Liam wanted to show her that maybe that's alright too — that there are people around her to support her and get through his not-so-ok life.

But of course, his plan got ruined.

"I'm sorry," he apologises again, "It was only going to be a small gathering. I don't know how it turned into... this. I'm sorry. I'll go and tell everyone to leave, okay,"

"No, no," she grabs his wrist before he can stand up and pats his hand, "It's fine," and gives a wobbly smile, but still, it's a positive reassurance, "I think it can be fun,"

"You sure?"

She nods, and then stands up and extends a hand out, "I'm sure. Come, let's go join everyone out there,"

Liam, smiling back, accepts her hand and stands up. But before going out there and joining everyone, he pulls her into a hug, "Happy birthday, sister,"

She squeezes her arms around him, before letting him go and nodding, "Thank you,"

Both of the siblings walk hand in hand out of the kitchen and is greeted by a joyous gang. Maybe this is not that bad after all. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves.

But just as Liam thinks that, the doorbell rings again. Again, one of the caterer guys gets the door, and it's as if the devil has come itself. His boss is at the door.

֍֍֍