One Wild Night

Chapter 384 Girls Talk

　　She had woken up feeling very happy, enthusiastic, and optimistic. Perhaps it was because she had woken up much earlier than Tom and had spent some time watching him sleep so peacefully while calling her name in his sleep and unconsciously reaching for her with his arms, or maybe it was because of the way his eyes had lit up and he had smiled at her so lovingly when he opened his eyes and saw her watching him sleep. 

　　She had started her day feeling very loved, and in love with not just Tom, but with her life too. And because she intended for it to remain that way she had decided to tackle all of her problems by confronting them head on instead of waiting for them. 

　　She couldn't tell what was happening or why she was changing so much in such a short period, but she knew one thing for sure, she loved it. 

　　Without wasting any more time than was necessary dwelling on it, she decided to return Lucas' call so that she could also give Sonia a call to find out how she was feeling that morning and continue their conversation from where they stopped the previous evening, before facing her job for the day.

　　Just as she was about to dial Lucas' line, Sonia's video call came in, and she smiled as she received the call, "Good morning, sunshine! I was going to give you a call after speaking with Lucas, but it seems like you don't like being number two," Lucy greeted with a wide smile happy to see Sonia's bright face.

　　Sonia smirked, "It is first come, first serve, my love. If it's not a matter of life and death, you will have to give Lucas a call after speaking with me. C'mon! It was all I could do not to call you as early as 5 AM to get all that juicy gist you promised me," Sonia said, and Lucy giggled, glad that Sonia was sounding more like her normal self now.

　　"You sound and look better today. How are you feeling?" Lucy asked curiously.

　　"If she sounds and looks better, then she is probably feeling better, right? Let's not waste time with all that small talk. Tell me about the showdown with your colleagues, why you grabbed Tom's butt in public, what Candace did, and how your dinner with Harry's dad went," Sonia listed, reminding her of all the things she had said she was going to tell her about.

　　Lucy grinned, "Well, that's a lot. But there is something else to tell you about too. I just confronted one of Tom's admirers this morning," Lucy said, and she giggled when Sonia's eyes widened with disbelief.

　　"You? You confronted someone?" Sonia asked in disbelief, her insides bubbling with excitement at the news, and Lucy bobbed her head. 

　　"Remember the lady I told you about? The one who is a director, and was trying to hit on Tom in front of me after the boardmeeting?" Lucy reminded her, and Sonia's eyes lit up when she remembered Lucy telling her about it two days ago.

　　"Oh, yes! I remember. She is the person you confronted?" Sonia asked, and Lucy grinned as she went on to tell her how she approached had Cora.

　　"Oh, my baby is all grown up! I'm so proud of the lady you are becoming!" Sonia cooed, her eyes gleaming with tears of excitement and happiness.

　　Lucy laughed, "Me too. It felt so satisfying! I only wish I was like this with Anita from the start," Lucy said with a scowl as she took off her glasses.

　　"Well, it's not too late. If the bitch shows up anywhere around you, make sure you give it to her," Sonia encouraged.

　　"I intend to. I'm hoping she won't show up anywhere near me though, but if she does, I don't think I will let her be. Especially not when I know she was behind the scandal," Lucy said with a determined glint in her eyes, and Sonia nodded in approval.

　　"Good girl. Now give me the other gists," Sonia urged her.

　　"Not so fast. Are you alone there? Where is Bryan?" Lucy asked when she remembered that Sonia was still with Bryan and his parents.

　　"He is busy working out with his best friend, Matt. So we have all the privacy we need," Sonia said with a wide smile.

　　"What about Evelyn and Desmond? How are they doing?" Lucy asked, and Sonia remembered she wanted to ask Lucy about Desmond.

　　"They're fine. Evelyn is preparing breakfast, and Desmond is with her in the kitchen. They insisted I shouldn't leave the bed even after I told them I was feeling better. By the way, I was going to ask you, what did you and Desmond talk about that night I saw you two together?" Sonia asked, and Lucy smiled as she thought of Desmond.

　　"He told me about his relationship with Evelyn, and asked me to forgive my mom. Why?" Lucy asked curiously.

　　"Did he tell you Evelyn's younger sister died after being molested by their father, and she almost killed her father?" Sonia asked in a low voice, and Lucy's eyes widened in surprise.

　　"She did? No! He didn't tell me that. He only told me that she didn't want to get married because of her dysfunctional family background, and it took him four years to convince her," Lucy said, and this time it was Sonia's eyes that widened.

　　"Four years?" Sonia asked, surprised.

　　Both friends swapped information they had received from Desmond about his wife, and by the time they were done they sighed, "Desmond is awesome," Sonia said, and Lucy smiled.

　　"Yes, he is. He is so patient, thoughtful, and kind. I can't imagine deciding to study a course just to help my partner. But then again, I can imagine Tom doing something like that. Tom took after his father. I'm not so sure about Bryan though," Lucy joked, and Sonia giggled. 

　　"I don't think Bryan is that patient. Thoughtful and kind, he is. But patient? Not at all. I think Tom inherited all the patience and left none to Bryan and Jade. God probably knew Tom would need all the patience he could get to deal with a blockhead girlfriend like you," Sonia joked, and Lucy giggled.

　　"Yeah, and God knew Bryan wouldn't require any patience at all to deal with a bad bitch like you since you would be the one throwing yourself at him," Lucy said, and Sonia laughed.

　　"Yeah, you are right. I have the patience to deal with Bryan. And I think Harry has the patience to deal with Jade so they don't need it," Sonia said thoughtfully.

　　"That reminds me, about Harry and Jade..." Lucy went on to tell her about the dinner and what Aaron had said about helping Jade and Harry come together.

　　"Interesting. They seem to have a lot of supporters. That ship must sail," Sonia said, and Lucy nodded.

　　"So I guess dinner was fun?" Sonia asked, and Lucy nodded as she told all she had learnt about Aaron and Harry.

　　"That's nice. You haven't told me about your colleagues yet," Sonia reminded her.

　　Sonia laughed as Lucy told her about the colleagues who had been badmouthing her in the restroom. And then about how she had kissed Tom in the lobby to pass a message across to everyone not to mess with her. 

　　"You must have Tom wrapped around your fingers for him to let you do all that with him in the company. The once invisible CEO now playing around the whole place with his girlfriend," Sonia observed in amusement.

　　"He is the one that has me wrapped around his fingers for me to be doing all of that in the first place. You know I don't like drama, and if I didn't love him, I wouldn't be putting up with all of this," Lucy said with a sigh, and then she looked at Sonia with a serious expression.

　　 "I was staring at him as he slept this morning, and you know what I thought?" Lucy asked, and Sonia shook her head.

　　"I could die if anything happens to him," Lucy said, and Sonia blinked in surprise.

　　"It feels like I have merely been existing before meeting him, and now I feel alive. I thought my life was good and I was happy being alone, but I feel like my life is better now. I still love my career and I'm committed to my growth, but it all feels different having Tom beside me. You won't believe he even offered that I could return to my apartment if I needed space, but I didn't want to leave his side," Lucy said with a lost look in her eyes, and Sonia smiled as she watched Lucy pour out her feelings.

　　Even though Sonia knew that Lucy loved Tom, she hadn't expected such intense emotion or an heartfelt confession like that. Lucy wasn't usually such an expressive person. She wasn't sure about it yet, but something told her that Lucy was going to be changing her mind about marriage before everything was over.

　　"Love looks good on you, Lu," Sonia said as she watched Lucy, and Lucy smiled.

　　"It looks good on you too."

　　"I spoke with Tom about you," Sonia said, biting her lower lip since she knew she shouldn't be telling Lucy about what Tom had told her in confidence. But then Lucy was her best friend, and she felt Lucy deserved to know just how deeply Tom truly felt about her as it would help boost her self-confidence.

　　"About me? When? What did you both talk about?" Lucy asked curiously.

　　"You can't tell him I told you about it, promise me," Sonia said, and Lucy nodded.

　　"It will remain between us," she promised, and Sonia smiled.

　　"Well, it was that time after your fight with your mom, and Tom and I excused you two to talk at the balcony. Tom said it was love at first sight for him. From the moment he saw you at the door of the club he thought you were his soulmate. He took notice of you from the moment you stepped into the club and was watching you even before you sat beside him," Sonia said, and Lucy's brows pulled together as she tried to remember the first night she met him.

　　"He thought I was his soul mate even before talking to me?" She asked, unable to understand how anybody would fall in love with someone they barely know. Attraction, yeah. But love? That was too much.

　　Sonia nodded, "He said he was going to propose to you the next morning before he confirmed you were his staff, so he decided to take his time to get to know you," Sonia said, and Lucy's eyes rounded.

　　"Propose? To me? But it was only a fling," she said, and Sonia smiled.

　　"It was a fling to you, not to him. That man worships you, Lu," Sonia said, and Lucy's entire expression softened.

　　"Yeah, I know," she said with a smile, thinking of how he was always showing her he loved her, "Sonia, if he wanted to propose to me the first time we met that means marriage must be very important to him..."

　　"Getting married to you is important to him, not marriage to just anyone. I didn't tell you this to make you worry. I only told you so you would know that Tom doesn't love you because of anything special you did. He loves you because of you. He loves you because deep down he believes you are the one for him. So you have to protect what you have with him fiercely, and don't let anyone come between you both. It is one thing to have a man, and it is another thing to keep him. If you are going to keep a man like Tom, you can't afford to be weak or timid," Sonia said, and Lucy gave her a nod.

　　"Yeah. I know. By the way, you said you wanted to talk to me about your career," Lucy reminded Sonia.

　　"Yes, about that. About what we discussed the last time about getting an office space. I was thinking of doing something bigger. What do you think about owning a writing app where I publish my stories as well as those of other authors? And people pay to read?" Sonia asked, and Lucy smiled.

　　"Are you sure it should be just a writing app? Why not something like a website or something where people would get more than just stories? You could do a bit of blogging too. Since you will be dating Bryan, you'd be meeting lots of celebrities. You can use this to your advantage," Lucy said, and Sonia's eyes lit up.

　　"I think that is a very good idea. I will have to think more on it. By the way I'm not going to be working with my editor anymore. I can't work with someone that doesn't trust me and can't vouch for me," Sonia said, and Lucy nodded.

　　"Yeah, I understand."

　　Sonia looked at Lucy without saying a word for a moment and then she took a deep breath, "Lu?"

　　"Hm-hm?"

　　"I miss my mom," she said, watching Lucy's face closely to see her reaction.

　　"Me too. I particularly miss her special pancakes. I was going to ask you for some of her recipes, but since you never talk about her, I couldn't bring myself to ask for it," Lucy said with a small smile, and Sonia's brow pulled together.

　　"You are not angry with her?" 

　　Lucy shook her head, "No, I'm not. She was always nice to me, remember? She even bought us similar clothes a couple of times, don't you remember? She's your mom, I love you too much to hold grudges against her," Lucy said, and tears dropped from Sonia's eyes.

　　"I always wondered why you never talked about her, but I didn't want to upset you by asking. I'm glad you can talk about her now," Lucy said, and Sonia sniffled.

　　"I didn't want to upset you by talking about her," Sonia confessed. 

　　"And now you want to upset me?" Lucy asked with a grin, and Sonia smiled back as she wiped her tear with the back of her hand.

　　"I figured you are my best friend, and I should be able to tell you how I feel. I really wish things didn't end that way," Sonia, and Lucy looked at her apologetically.

　　"I'm sorry. I should have convinced you to go with them or visit them. I'm sorry," Lucy said feeling sad. 

　　"Don't apologize, Lu. I never would have left your side for anything. I still haven't forgiven her, but I miss her. I want to visit her graveside, Lu. I want to take flowers to her graveside," Sonia said, and Lucy nodded. 

　　"Do you want me to accompany you?" Lucy asked, and Sonia smiled.

　　"She would probably turn over in her grave if we go there together," Sonia joked, and Lucy smiled.

　　"You can go first then. And maybe when next you go I will accompany you," Lucy promised, and Sonia let out a sigh. 

　　"Lu, have you ever regretted our friendship? I mean if we weren't friends you wouldn't have had such an experience. Don't you blame me sometimes?" Sonia asked the one question that had been on her mind for years.

　　"Blame you? No. I can't blame you for something that is not your fault. I blame Jamie not you. At first I did regret our friendship. I figured, he would never have had those nude photos of me if I wasn't spending so much time at your place to begin with. But now I'm just grateful I have you. I think of the incident separately from you. When I think of you, you are just Sonia Smith, my best friend and soul sister, not Jamie's half-sister" Lucy said, and Sonia sighed in relief, grateful for Lucy's honesty. 

　　"I should disown him," Sonia said, and Lucy bobbed her head.

　　"I already disowned him on your behalf."

　　"So back to our gist. What did Candace do?" Sonia asked, making Lucy giggle.

　　"You still haven't forgotten about that?"

　　"Nah, I haven't. Tell me what she did."