part 25

I didn't get any flight that night as all the seats were pre-booked.

The next morning I went downstairs to see my parents doing something in the kitchen.

"Excuse me? What is the special dish today that you both are in the kitchen at the same time?" I asked my parents while raising my brows.

They both got shocked by my sudden presence.

"God Liz! You scared me." My mother said while putting her hand on her chest.

I laughed and went there to see them cooking.

"Cake? Why are you both making cakes? Is there any special occasion?" I asked them.

They both looked at me as if I have grown horns on my head.

"It's your birthday Liz!" My mother said in a loud tone then looked at my father.

"I told you many times that let her work with me in the boutique but no you both were stubborn. Now look at her she is getting forgetful by the pressure of her work. Don't you know James? He makes everyone work like a donkey. And he must be giving lots of burden on her shoulder that is making her weak and irritated day by day. He must have..."

"Mom please stop it."

"Yes please. You are hurting my ears." Dad said while continuing his cooking.

"Yes. Do whatever you both want to do. Leave me both of you." Her voice cracked and tears spilled out of her eyes. She walked away to her room.

"Don't worry. She is behaving like this since a few days." My dad assured me. He placed his and mother's cake on the table.

"Thank you dad. I am very lucky to got both of you as my parents." I smiled.

Should I tell him that I am going in a few hours?

What will be Mama's reaction?

I was confused at the situation.

If one has loving parents who can do  anything for him/her ,then I think one should always give preference to his/her parents than to their personal life.

And ofcourse when your personal life is connected to Mr. James f****** Ashton.

"Is there any problem Elizabeth?"

Huh?

"DAD!" I whined and he laughed.

"You still behaves like a child." He said laughing.

"Yes and you still tease me like a child." I laughed too.

"I should go and check Mama." I went to her room.

"Mama. You know I love you alot." I hugged her from behind.

"Yes. I know."

"Mama I like my job. I did my business studies not to work in a boutique." I said.

"Yes. I know. I was... I got a little emotional.. I am sorry." She said while wiping her tears.

"I know you are worried about dad."

"Hmm"

"Now get up and come outside, it's my birthday today, right?" I said smiling a little.

******

The day went by shopping, eating at my favourite restaurant and spending lovely moments with my parents.

I did not go back to him that day. I decided to go the other day.

"I think we should go now." My mother said while looking at her watch.

"Yes ofcourse. We should." My father spoke up.

"But it is only five." I said while looking at my phone's screen.

"Yeah, but we have to do preparations for..." my father started but cut off by my mother.

"..for your birthday. We both have decided to celebrate your birthday together." She said smiling. "And I want you to wear the special dress which I have made for today" she said in excitement while my father rolled his eyes.

"Fine Mama." I smiled and hugged her.

"Shall we go now?"

******

The dress was nice.

It was an emerald green cocktail dress. I liked it very much.

I left my hair in small curls and did a matching eye makeup.

I put on golden heels and a

golden clutch and ended with a red lipstick on my lips.

I opened my door to start walking for downstairs.

My parents were sitting on a sofa.

"Here she is. You are looking gorgeous." My mother said smiling. She did not give me time to say anything.

"Now please hurry up we are getting late."

"Late? Are we going somewhere?" I asked in confusion.

"Yeah, your mother decided to celebrate your birthday at your favourite restaurant." My father shrugged.

"Thank you Mama. But you shouldn't have..."

"Stop now and come."

I entered the restaurant only to be greeted by a dozen of people.

There was Mel, Ben, Dave, Jack and my other colleagues.

"Thank you everyone."

I looked at my parents.

"Thank you so much dad, mama"

"Am I late?" It was Diego with his wife and a cute baby in her arms.

"No Diego." I smiled and welcomed them.

Have they invited James too?

As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I saw him coming towards me.

Is he really here?

Or am I dreaming?

"Happy birthday." He said and gave me a small box.

"Thank you. Should I...." I looked at the box.

"Yes you can open it." He said.

I opened it to reveal a bracelet.

Wow!

"It's so beautiful. Thank you." I said looking at him.

"Welcome."

What now?

Should I ask him now?

No it will sound stupid!

It would be really awkward if I will ask him "hey James will you marry me?"

But no, this is not the way I should ask him, it should me like this "hey you stupid son of a ..."

No stop calling his innocent parents like that.

"Are you going to celebrate your birthday while looking at me the whole night?" His voice interrupted me.

Damn!

"Actually I was thinking?"

"Of what?" He asked raising his brow.

"None of your business." I said and walked away from there.

I was very happy at the moment.

I never expected that I would ever celebrate my birthday at my favourite restaurant with my favourite people.

I am really glad that my parents were happy and enjoying themselves. They are too adorable to think of inviting all my friends.

See this is the reason why I love them very much.

"Hey birthday girl." Someone whispered in my ear and I jumped.

"God! Robert this is insane." I said and he laughed.

His laugh caught attention of some of the people including him too.

"Now stop laughing like a hyena." I narrowed my eyes.

"I don't laugh like a hyena." He narrowed his eyes towards me.

"Oh yeah. I know better." I give an innocent smile.

"Shut up." He said and I laughed that time.

"Have you done talking? Because I have some important talkings to do." James said to Robert and then looked at me.

"It's her birthday. Let her enjoy and stop disturbing her by your loads of work." Robert said to him.

"It's none of your business."

"Miss Miller I need to talk. Now." I nodded a yes and walked after him.

We went to booth at the restaurant.

"Why didn't you come yesterday?" He asked as soon as we sat.

"There were no tickets available..."

"Why didn't you call me?"

"For what?" I asked in confusion.

"For the tickets. Anyways I have already booked a ticket for you and if you have done celebrating your birthday then we should start going now. The flight is in an hour."

"Excuse me? Are you crazy? You should have asked me before..."

"I have already booked it. Now stop arguing."

"You are insane. And what do you think of me? I am not your slave Mr James Ashton. And I AM NOT GOING with you." I said gritting my teeth.

"Hey is everything alright here?" I didn't know from where did my father appeared suddenly.

Did he hear our argument?

"Nothing Sir. I am glad that you invited me here. It a lovely place. And I must say this is the best restaurant of the town." James started showing his charms to my father with a sincere smile on his face.

No Liza don't think of that...

You can't break the plate on his head now..

Wait for your luck.

"Thank you so much. It is Liza's favourite restaurant over here." My father said in a cheerful tone.

"Oh really? She has a good taste of choosing things." He said looking at me. "Well, I will like to fill you with the information that this restaurant is mine." He said giving me a proud smile.

Bull****

"Oh Great! Wow! You have a restaurant over here too. I didn't know this." Suddenly James got nervous.

"Actually...no one know this..." He looked at us in an unusual way and walked away.

"What was that?" My father asked me.

"I..I don't know. Maybe he revealed his secret to us by mistake." I shrugged.

"Maybe. Let's keep it secret then." My father winked at me and join the rest of them.

It was getting late and everyone decided to leave the place.

Some took the flight that night and some took a hotel room to stay the night.

Everyone was gone by eleven except for the one person.

He was sitting with my father and chatting.

My mother looked at me

"Is he planning to stay?"

"Umm..how will I know? You should ask him after all he is your friend's son." She gave me a stern look.

"But you know it better that I don't like his attitude. He is a stubborn rich lad." She said looking towards him.

"Haven't't you invite his parents?" I asked her.

"Yes I have. But they were busy."

"Oh.."

My mother walked towards them.

"Don't you think we should go back to our home now?" My mother asked in a fake sweet tone to my father.

"It is still eleven." He said while looking at his watch.

"Yes. We decided to have only dinner here. We are not going to party all night." She said crossing her arms.

"Sure. But we should atleast say our goodbyes to them." My father said to my mother.

"Them?"

"Yes James and Liza."

"What? I am not going tonight." I said interrupting them.

My father looked at James, who looked at me while I was looking at my father.

My mother looked at the three of us.

"What is going on here? Why is Liza going tonight? And why am I not informed?"

"I think it should be answered any day. We are getting late." James said and stood up.

"I am waiting for you in the car." He said to me and walked away from there.

"Dad I am not going tonight." I declared.

"But you wanted to go anyway."

"Yes but not now..."

Not according to his wish.

"When Liza don't want to go then she will not." My mother said seriously.

"But he has booked your ticket already. You have to attend an important meeting tomorrow. How could you be so careless? It's your duty as an assistant."

Meeting my foot.

He is again lying I know.

"Dad..."

"Stop it Liza. You should go because it's important. I think you shouldn't have come here at this situation. The company needs you. He cancelled the meeting once and now it is your last chance with the Cook's Cooperation.."

S***

I forgot..

James...

"Oh no I am sorry mother I need to go now. I will come soon. Dad you should have directly told me about the meeting instead of giving me the minute details of my assistance. Now bye. Take care." My father had a puzzled expression while my mother was not happy.

I rushed to his car and sat on the passenger's seat.

"I thought you will not come." He commented as soon as I entered.

"You should have told me about the meeting at the first place." I accused him.

"Did you mean to say that you forgot about the meeting?" He asked in a frustrated way.

"Yeah I.."

"It's the job of an assistant to inform her boss about the schedules of the meeting. And here i thought that you were not wanting to help me in the new project."

"Now shut up and drive."

He narrowed his eyes towards me but started to drive to the airport.