[Thirty-One]

|Chapter 31|

🤍🧳

𝗔𝗿𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗲

𝖲𝖾𝖼𝗋𝖾𝗍 𝗈𝗋 𝗆𝗒𝗌𝗍𝖾𝗋𝗂𝗈𝗎𝗌;

𝗎𝗇𝖽𝖾𝗋𝗌𝗍𝗈𝗈𝖽 𝗈𝗇𝗅𝗒 𝖻𝗒 𝖿𝖾𝗐

My sleep is abruptly disturbed by the sound of shuffling in our bedroom. I also realize that Seb is no longer cuddling me so, I immediately reach over to feel his side is empty. I slowly rub my eyes and roll out of bed to look for him.

I see light shining from the closet and the door is slightly cracked. Pushing it open, I see Seb packing a suitcase. "Baby, what are you doing?"

"Sorry love, I didn't mean to wake you." He doesn't even look at me, he just continues to pack.

"What are you doing?"

He sighs, "I'm going on a trip with Lucian."

I furrow my eyebrows, "Say that again?"

"I'm going on a trip," he replies.

"When, where, and why?" I ask.

"In two hours and you don't need to know where or why."

"So, you were just going to leave without telling me? And since when do we keep secrets about our whereabouts?"

"Baby I-," I cut him off

"Were you going to tell me Emilian?"

"I didn't want to wake you. I was going to leave a note and also message you," he says, still not giving me eye contact.

"Can you stop for a second and look at me?"

"I have to pack," he tells me still looking at the suitcase. I want to throw every shoe in this closet at him right now.

I take a deep breath in, "Alright then. Have a nice trip and don't bother calling or texting me whiles you're gone. You'll be lucky if I'm still here whenever you decide to come back." I stomp out of the closet, grabbing my phone to sleep in the guest room. As soon as I lay down, I let the tears flow out of my eyes.

I unlock my phone to check the time and it's 3:14. This man has me up at 3 a.m. crying. Great.

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I'm sitting on the couch eating cereal, watching grey's and writing an email to the person that got the job as a secretary. My phone rings and it's Liza.

"Hey sis, what's up?"

"I'm bored, can I come over?"

"Yeah, I'm just getting some work done so that's fine."

"Alright, send me your location." I quickly share my location with her.

"Ok, it's sent. See you, mwah, "I hang up.

About 40 minutes later, the doorbell rings. I open the door for my sister and she walks straight to the kitchen. She opens the fridge and takes out a container of leftover pizza from last night.

"Can I have some of this?"

"Sure hun."

She pops the bowl into the microwave and asks, "Where's Emilian? Is he at work?"

"He's wherever your man is and unfortunately I don't know where that is," I say with an attitude.

"Oh, I didn't know he was going with Luci."

"I know just as much as you do, except Seb wasn't going to tell me."

She looks taken aback, "He didn't tell you?" That doesn't sound like something he would do."

"Yeah, well I only found out because I caught him packing a suitcase at 3 a.m. He couldn't even look me in the face to explain why I'm just finding out and where the hell he's going."

"Damn."

"Anyways, enough about him, how was your date last night?" I wiggle my eyebrows.

"It was so romantic and thoughtful. We even said 'I love you' to each other."

"Awwww, y'all are the cutest. I'm glad to know that you're happy." I tell her genuinely.

"Yeah, I'm a little sad that he had to leave this morning but he already called today to check in on me and to tell me that he was still on the plane," she says smiling.

I grin at her, "Look at my little sister all wifed up by a grown man."

She pushes me playfully, "Shut up. It's not that much of an age gap."

"He's 36 and your 20. That's 16 years."

"Ok and? I like older men, there's nothing wrong with that."

I laugh at her sudden attitude, "Sis I'm with an older man too so be quiet. The difference is he's younger than Lucian and I'm older than you."

"Whatever, I-" the ringing of her phone cuts her off and she immediately answers with a big smile.

"Hi babe, how's your flight?"

Lucian's voice comes through the phone, "It's ok but I'm missing you. I haven't been gone for 24 hours and I already miss you and those lips."

"Y'all are nasty," I say out loud.

"Jealousy isn't cute," she says sticking her tongue out.

I roll my eyes and go to the kitchen for fruit. Recently I've been craving healthier foods and more home-cooked meals. I'll definitely be making veggie wraps for dinner.

"Babygirl can you pass the phone to Elara for a second?" I hear Lucian ask. I vigorously nod my head no because I know why he wants me on the phone.

"She doesn't want to talk right now."

"Elara, I know you can hear me. Could you please call Emilian back?"

"No, because I have no reason to talk to him," I tell Lucian. Seb called me five times this morning and I have 10 unread messages from him but he has yet to answer any of my questions. He didn't want to talk to me earlier so, there's no need for him to call me now.

"Liza I'm going upstairs to shower and take a nap. We can go out later if you want."

"Yeah I need to go to the store so, sounds good."

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"Liza, can you take my picture before we go in?" I ask her.

"Mhm, pass me your phone," she holds out her hand.

I unlock my phone and open the camera. "Make sure you take good ones. I want to post on Instagram."

"Ok, ok." She snaps a few photos and gives me the phone.

"You're not taking photos for me ever again. I'll just take my own photo to upload." I snap a few photos at different angles and choose one. I ask her, "Instagram worthy?"

"Yeah it's cute but that cleavage though. Don't let your man see that because he'll go crazy." She's right but, I post it anyway.

"Shut up. If he sees it, there's nothing he can do but text me multiple times. He's been texting all day and I'm not answering."

"Lara doesn't do that. Maybe he has a good explanation," she tries to defend him.

"He had a chance to explain this morning, and he chose not to and I know he's not going to give me an explanation, even if I answer the phone."

She sighs, "Alright. Let's go to the store because I need snacks and a few other things. Madeline has been eating all of my food like she doesn't have a home." We hop out of the car, walking to the entrance.

I laugh, "That sounds a lot like Sara."

"Have you heard from her?"

"No. I texted her yesterday when I got home but she never answered. I'll text her right now." I look up to enter the store, "Liza grab a cart."

I text Sara and I immediately see three dots. When the text sends, I'm shocked as she spams me continuously.

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Me: hey Liv, are you good?

Liv🍭:  You think that my man

wouldn't tell me that you and

your hoe sister were flirting

with him and tried to get his number?

I should've known you were jealous of me.

Block my number.

Me: Sara, nobody flirted with him.

He came up to us.

Liv🍭: Shut up and stop lying.

Emilian deserves so much better,

I can't believe he decided to be with you.

Me: Who do you want him to be with?

You?

Liv🍭: Maybe. He just deserves better.

Me: Um, bye.

I definitely will block you, good day.

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I show Liza and she laughs, "Now you have no friends."

"Girl shut up. We should go out this weekend and find me some girlfriends at the club or maybe just have some fun."

"Lara, neither of us drink."

"Ugh, well what do you think we should do. We have until next week to do something because you start your job."

"Well, we can go on a little trip," she suggests. "We just bought new clothes and we haven't been on a trip together in a while."

"I don't mind. Although I'll probably have to do work whiles I'm there. Where do you want to go?"

"Hmmm, somewhere with beaches maybe."

"Yessss, I need to wear my swimsuits. What about Bora Bora?"

"I'm in, I've seen a lot of people post pictures from there and it looks beautiful. Can you pay for my ticket and I'll pay you back when I get my first paycheck?"

"Liza you don't have to pay me anything, it's fine. I'm your sister and you know your boyfriend would give you money in a heartbeat so you never need to ask to borrow money. Plus, don't you still have the black card? "

"Thanks and yes I do but, I'm only going to use it once a month or for emergencies. I want to make my own money Lara," she explains.

"Oh, that's smart. You should get your groceries, I'm going to look for a flight that's within the next few days," I say walking behind her.

In the search bar, I type 'flights from New York to Bora' and I gasp.

"Lara, what's wrong? She texted again?"

"Nope but these flights to Bora Bora are extremely long and expensive."

"It's going to be worth it though," she tells me.

I sigh, "You're right but I can't find any cheap ones. Oh, there's one but, it's tomorrow and there's only one seat available."

"Maybe I can ask Lucian if we can use his jet."

"Yeah, I guess," my eyes land on a huge bag of my favorite chocolate. "Can you get me those M&Ms from the top shelf?"

"Yeah," she grabs a bag for me and places it in the cart. "I'll call him tonight for confirmation."

We finish our grocery shopping and check out. Our first stop was her apartment. I help her put up her groceries and she packed a suitcase for at least 2 weeks. We aren't sure when Lucian and Emilian would be back so, we decide to sleep in the same home because we'd both be alone.

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