Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Lilly woke the following day refreshed and ready to face the day after showering and dressing.
She wandered to the kitchen to make some breakfast. Opening the fridge door, she shivered at the unwelcome cold draft that met her bare legs.
She needed to head to work to clear out her office that she should have done two days ago.
She was sure Harry would be ok with the delay but she wanted to close the door on that job and get it done today.
Cursing her brother she assumed had visited last night and eaten her food hadn’t even left her with a drop of milk.
There wasn’t enough for a cup of tea. She returned to her bedroom to find her shoes and her handbag.
Lilly didn’t know if she was welcome at Blue’s bar after the drama she’d caused and she wasn’t entirely sure if she could make it as a bartender.
Lilly didn’t think she could make it as anything right now.
She felt a fool for being in the vulnerable position of being given drugs.
Lilly felt awful and her stomach ached from lack of food.
She needed breakfast and wanted poached eggs.
The problem was that the best place for poached eggs was Blue’s and she didn’t think she was ready to see Elijah just yet.
They had taken things from platonic to intimate in one giant step.
Craving his company like no other she wanted to go to his bar to see his handsome face smile back at her.
Now that she knew his taste and touch, Lilly wanted more.
It wasn’t healthy to want someone this much.
She’d never wanted anyone this much before and was at a loss to know if this was infatuation, hero worship or real affection.
Lilly’s stomach growled again, and she ventured outside and see where her feet took her.
Wrapping her sky blue scarf around her neck and pulling on her light jacket, she went out for breakfast. She hadn’t noticed the time as she left but soon realised that she had missed breakfast in most of the cafes along the street from her apartment.
After the fifth café, she gave up and her feet carried her to the place she wanted to visit all along.
Pulling open the heavy door to Blue’s, she walked into the light airy bar and instantly felt at home.
She enjoyed coming to this bar. For a long time it was her hideaway from the job she hated.
Her hour of heaven while she escaped from her career and what it represented was bliss.
Now that she no longer worked at the firm of lawyers, this place was still her haven but from reality instead.
She wanted to feel safe, she just wasn’t sure if it were Elijah’s bar or Elijah himself that made her feel safe.
She didn’t much care at this stage because she was staring right at him and he was staring back.
Stuck to the spot and unable to move she kept looking at the handsome man before her.
He had rescued her from the piece of crap that had fed her the drugs.
Stayed with her at the hospital, taken her home and stayed with her until she felt ok.
It was more than she expected of him in one respect because she barely knew him but not enough to satisfy her craving of his company.
She didn’t move and Elijah came towards her, he approached her fast and she was unable to stop the enveloping hug her gave her. He lifted her off her feet and kissed her temple.
“Are you ok, is everything ok, are you feeling ok?” Elijah asked her.
“Yes I’m fine I just needed food and didn’t realise the time and everyone seemed to stop serving breakfast at a stupid hour. I had my heart set on poached eggs,” Lilly said and huffed as she straightened her scarf after being lifted clean off the floor.
Elijah took the edge of her scarf and deliberately pulled it so that it was all askew and chuckled at his juvenility, he had an urge to anger her.
He needed her to get passionate about something even if it weren’t him.
He never wanted to provoke a woman before, but he felt playful and to see how long it would take to see her flare up.
He watched as she straightened it again with an irritated pull, he stepped closer waited patiently for her to finish and then pulled it again.
Lilly’s head snapped up and the glare he was rewarded with was worth it, the fire he saw in her eyes was all he needed to see.
She wanted him and he couldn’t have been happier at the thought.
“What are you doing Elijah?” Lilly asked impatiently.
“I’m trying to make you mad, so we can kiss and make up,” Elijah said playfully.
“You are such a child,” she scolded but couldn’t help the grin that broke out across her face. She liked he was playful.
“If you want a kiss, you just need to ask,” she said.
He didn’t hesitate in kissing her, wrapping her in his arms, he wasn’t going to waste any time asking.
He couldn’t care who saw them, he wanted her and only her.
Elijah wanted to taste her, so he pinched her bottom that in turn made her squeal, but he had her firmly in his arms so there was no escaping.
Her startled response gave him what he wanted, he touched the tip of her tongue just once, sweeping across her mouth.
He needed to stop or else would carry her off to his office and bend her over the table.
He wanted their first time to be somewhere far more private and comfortable. Where they wouldn’t be interrupted.
He couldn’t stop, her taste was intoxicating, her body moulded to his, he carried on kissing her in the middle of the bar until he heard a discreet cough. He knew whose cough it was as it wasn’t the first time he’d heard it. He broke away from her mouth and kissed her forehead.
“I need to take care of an issue, take a seat and I will be back very soon, order whatever you want and the chef will make it for you. Don’t worry about the menu.” Elijah said.
“Is everything ok Elijah?” Lilly asked.
“Everything is fine, I’ll be right back with you.”
He kissed her temple and walked away with Pete, he looked grave as they talked rapidly to one another.
She dismissed the conversation as none of her business and took a seat in the soft leather chairs of the day bar.
In all the time she had visited the bar she had always chosen the tall bar stools but now she preferred the armchairs’ comfort.
The server came over and she ordered poached eggs and coffee.
With a curt nod, the waiter left her to her thoughts.
She was in a world of her own when a group of loud women walked in and broke the hushed murmur of chatter in the bar.
It seemed like the whole bar stopped talking as they walked in.
The group of women didn’t notice the stares of the bar patrons and carried on cackling and laughing as they approached the bar.
Lilly knew who they were and hoped that they wouldn’t turn around.
They were the last people she wanted to see.
Silently, she prayed over and again that they didn’t turn around and that she could sneak off to another part of the bar.
She was sure the waiter would find her if she moved.
It was too late, she locked eyes on the woman she hated, and she saw the gleam of hatred shine back.
The woman started walking towards her and she didn’t have anywhere to turn, trapped in the chair.
She had no desire to talk to Jenny now or at any stage.
Jenny was about to open her mouth to speak when she was blocked from view.
“Ah, here you are, Elijah said you were here, I’m so glad I got here in time.
Are you having breakfast because I am starving?
Why doesn’t this town serve breakfast after 10am?
” Olivia prattled on to herself more than to Lilly.
Lilly had never been so grateful to see a relative stranger in all her life.
When she saw Olivia sit down next to her and unblock her view, she saw Jenny retreat back to her friends.
It wasn’t without a scowl.
“Hi Olivia, its lovely to see you again. I didn’t get a chance to say thank you at the hospital for staying with me. You were so lovely and especially with so much going on with the wedding and the baby,” Lilly said.
“Hold on a second, what baby, I’m not pregnant, is that why you think we are getting married?” Olivia asked.
“No, I don’t think that’s why you are getting married.
I thought you were marrying because you loved each other.
Your love for each other is transparent.
The pregnancy I assumed was a happy coincidence.
I’m sorry if I upset you, it wasn’t my intention, and I tend to blurt these things out,” Lilly said.
“It’s ok, I’m sorry that I am a little snappy and defensive. I’ve had too many people assume this is a shotgun wedding. I mean to say, who has a shotgun wedding these days, surely they’re a thing of the past.”
“I’m not so sure about that, my parents would make me marry if they found out I was pregnant out of wedlock.
It may sound old-fashioned, but it’s alive and well in my family.
I don’t know why my mother is so outspoken on the subject.
She’s so vehemently against children out of wedlock and lectured me from an early age about it.
It was the best contraceptive method she could have made for me.
” Lilly’s words hung in the air. Olivia didn’t reply and sat there twirling the edge of her scarf and huffing.
“You see the thing is, I am pregnant but I haven’t told Jack yet.
I’m worried about what he’ll say, I haven’t told anyone.
It shocked me you’d guessed.” Olivia fiddled with the strap of her handbag.
Lilly watched her wrinkle her forehead into a frown.
“I’m so scared that he won’t be happy, that he’s just got together with me and now that I’m pregnant he will get bored and go back to his old ways,” Olivia confessed.