Love, Lies and Billionaires

“You’ve been staring at that thing for the past forty-five minutes, and I’ve been asking about it for the past thirty.” Nella complained as she seared her tea absentmindedly.

“If you aren’t going to tell me what it is, at least you should explain where you left to that day at the pool. You’ve been avoiding that conversation all these days”

Maren ignored her still and just stared at the locket with a silver chain in her hands. She gazed at it, with everything Nella said, falling in her ear but not getting to the drums.

“Maren? Are you still here?” Nella looked up from her phone as her friend neither moved nor spoke. “Maren?” She poked her with a finger.

“I’m still here, Nella”

“Then say something,” she snapped, and Maren finally turned to her for the first time since she walked into the tearoom to meet her.

Maren placed the locket on the table in front of her and finally took up the teacup, which now harboured lukewarm tea.

“Care to share what that is?” Nella asked as she turned off the screen of her phone and placed it on the table.

“It’s a locket,” Maren answered, taking a sip of the tea, though she knew there was no use sipping since it was now almost cold.

“Yeah, I know it’s a locket. Whose is it? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in one”

Maren was quiet for a while and stared into space. Her mind seemed to be jumping in and out of reality.

“My father gave it to me a long time ago, but it got lost and I never bothered looking for it.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, mostly because I hated him before he died, but also because he didn’t bother about it when it got lost,” Maren answered, her eyes still lifted into space.

They were lucky they were almost the only ones there otherwise, one would have thought Maren was some fortune teller telling Nella how she’d die.

A server walked to their table and placed two saucers of croissants in front of each woman.

“So where did you then find it?” She took a bite from the warm pastry.

“I didn’t.” Her voice trailed off. “Someone else found it.”

“As much as I’d like to know who that was-”

“Kendrick Harding,” Maren interrupted, and she could feel the shock in her silence.

“You mean the same famous Kendrick Harding who everyone knows?”

Maren rolled her eyes, “Yes Nella”

“I thought you guys were just business partners, since when did he become your little scavenger hunter? How the hell did he find it?” She paused and gasped, widening her eyes. “Is he your long lost brother?”

Maren scoffed, “Of course not, Nella. Definitely not. Jesus, Nella!”

Nella shrugged. “How, then, did he find it? I mean, he didn’t just stumble upon it and assume it was yours, did he?”

“Well, he did see my picture and my dad’s in the locket, so if he’d stumbled on it, I’m pretty sure he’d know who it belonged to right away.”

“But he didn’t, did he? That’s going to sound super shady, don’t you think?”

“He didn’t stumble upon it. Honestly, he refused to tell me how it got to his hands.”

“Wasn’t expecting it to be that easy, anyway.” She bit into her croissant again and sipped the tea. “Anyway, that aside, you completely ditched me at a place I took you to,” she accused.

“You started it. I only went with the flow and took your advice. Was it supposed to be the other way around?” Maren replied, brushing her thoughts aside and getting her shine back.

“Well, I didn’t leave the pool area unannounced and then show up at my doorstep in a strange car wasted.”

“Well, I wasn’t going to just stay back while we’re getting banged by your whitish black boyfriend,” Maren snapped back.

“Wait a minute” she raised her head and looked at Maren intently, to which Maren looked away with the teacup raised to her lips. Nella squinted her eyes.

“Where did you go? And with whom?”

“I really don’t have to answer that question if I don’t want to,” she said, batting her eyelashes.

Nella suddenly flashed a smile. “You did get laid, didn’t you?” She teased.

Still not going to reply, Nella,” Maren replied, still refusing to look at her. A scene from that time at the pool flashed in her mind, making a shiver run down her spine.

“Oh my god, was it that good? You’re reddening up,” Nella chuckled.

Maren turned to her sharply. “No, I’m not.” She dropped the cup on the table and picked up her phone hurriedly. Using it as a mirror, she checked her checks one after the other. “No, it’s not,” she argued. In truth, her cheeks did feel hot and flushed.

“I wonder who that was,” Nella teased further, pretending to be on her phone whereas her eyes were half watching Maren.

“Well, think all you want, you’re never going to get a name from my mouth”

“Ha! So you did get laid,” she chuckled heartily while Maren realised she’d just been a careless blurt. “I really am a good coach.”

Maren smiled, “Well, that’s definitely the only thing you’re going to get” she took up the teacup again and took it to her lips.

“Wild guess, it was Kendrick”

The tea came rushing back up Maren’s throat and out it came from her mouth. She spat it out.

“What?” Nella asked in shock, looking at the mess her friend had just made drawing a little attention to the table which they sat at.

“What is wrong with you? Why would you give such a guess?”

Nella shrugged, “I don’t know, maybe because I wouldn’t know the names of random strangers and it definitely wasn’t Alexander or William’s dead ass, was it?”

Maren knew she was right, but it caught her off guard and even the liquid couldn’t stay in there. Damn, she hated feeling guilty. It was like a heavy wet sack stuck in your throat and wouldn’t go down, only up.

“Well, you could have just said some random stranger instead of just saying Kendrick so bluntly”This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

Nella just giggled as they watched a server walk over to the table with a towel which he used to wipe the table.

“Hey, that reminds me, what about the detective?”