Crazy In Love

CIL - Chapter Thirteen - Unwanted Meetings

Nope."

"Seriously? I'm telling you! It's the last one, I promise, baby," I tried to assure her.

"But she'll be there. And Marky told me that she's not very nice. And I don't get along with not nice people." She says trying to convince me.

"Lily is coming too, you have to protect Lily don't you?" This will definitely work.

"That will never work on me, Damy."

"I hate you."

"Really?" I say, faking sadness. Immediately, her face fills with regret.

"No, Damy. I love you, I was just angry."she reaches for my hand and holds it tight, not realizing that it was the first ever time she had said those three words to me. For some reason it made me happy that we both didn't plan when we would tell each other. It just shows how natural our love is.

I place my hand at the back of her neck and pull her into a short kiss. "And I love you, baby." She just smiles back.

We were currently in the car with Lily at the back seats playing Minecraft on the iPad. I finally convinced Rose to come to this interview with me, it was the last one and I wanted her to be with me for it. I also convinced Mark to let me drive the car for once, meaning he was playing online with Lily at the back, with a bored looking Emily next to him. He's a real kid at heart.

"Guys, there's kids in here, you know?" Emily says with a smile on her face.

"What do you mean kids ?"

"HEY!"

Rose and Mark. Always the late ones.

I lean over and place a kiss on her cheek, "Lily and Mark, that's two right?" I wink at her as she laughs, finally understanding what Emily meant.

"Mark's a child? Well, he does act like one!" She says and laughs out loud, making me smile fondly at her.

"Look who's talking." Mark retorts, with a chuckle at the end. No one else seems to find it funny as Rose turns back to the front of the car and looks down at her twiddling thumbs and mumbling a quick apology. I turn towards a guilty looking Mark and throw the most vicious glare I could towards him.

"I'm sorry, Rose. I was only kidding." He says quietly as he puts a hand on her shoulder. She smiles slightly and shakes her head.

"It's okay, so was I! Fooled you all, right?" She bursts into a fit of giggles as we all stare at her in awe. Only a couple of weeks ago she would hide away from anyone who tried to say anything against her condition, and now here she is making jokes and scaring the life out of us.

"Rose, I honestly thought you were upset. Good one, baby." I say as I get out of the drivers seat. I walk around the front opening the door for Rose. After she steps out, I close the door behind her and open the back door and unbuckle Lily from her car seat. The iPad was still in her hand.

"Princess, we're going inside now, do you want to give that to me to put in my bag?" Rose asks her sweetly. Lily smiles and nods.

"Yes! Wosie, are we going inside there?" She asks, pointing towards the tall building in front of us. Rose looks just as excited as Lily now as she takes her from my arms, giving me her bag, and they start talking animatedly with each other, and soon Emily joins in with them.

"Only they know what they're talking about," Mark mumbles under his breath, "girls! Let's go in." He grabs Emily's hand, whilst I take Lily back, exchanging her for the bag, and take Rose's hand in mine. We walk in to the turning doors and Rose seems to find it funny to walk around it five hundred times. I didn't exactly say no to her as I joined in with her. Seeing her happy was the only thing on my mind.

"12. That's quite high." Rose says nervously as she watches Mark press the button in the elevator. Before I could say anything, Emily answers.

"You won't even realise how high up we are. We'll be there in 5...4...3...2...1." Ding.

"Good timing."

"I know."

I pull Rose and Lily out of the elevator and walk towards the door of the studio where the interview would be at today.

"Damien Anderson. It's been a while since I've seen you." A feminine voice calls, making the three of us look up.

"Indeed it has, Beth." I smile at her as she pulls me into a hug. Instantly, Rose's grip on the back of my shirt tightens. That's my Angel, all possessive of me. I break away from the hug and wrap an arm around Rose and Lily. "This is Lily, as you already know and this is my wonderful girlfriend, Rosalina Blake." I say as I kiss the side of Rose's head.

"So I've heard. You're even more pretty in real life, what product do you use in your hair to make it so soft." Rose's demeanour immediately flipped and she was smiling as she replied to Beth.

"I use Lily's Johnson's Baby Shampoo. It's the best kind, isn't that right Princess?" Lily nods along enthusiastically, and Beth gives me a thumbs up, letting me know that she's got it under control.

"Angel, I'm going to go and see where Mark and Emily went-" I started.

"No need, we're here," a smug Mark says, with his arm around the waist of a flustered Emily. We all know what happened.

"Oh my, Emily are you okay?" Rose asks, rushing over to her with Lily in her arms. She presses her hand against her forehead and her cheeks as if checking for a temperature. Apparently not all of us did understand. "You were fine a second ago, why are you so red now?"

I walk over to them and pull Rose to my chest and lean down to whisper in her ear, "I think Mark and Emily were having some fun," and place a kiss there as she giggle, almost dropping Lily in the process.

We all burst into laughter as the smug smile wipes off Mark's face and they both go red. All the laughter is paused when a voice breaks over all the noise.

"Damy?" That definitely wasn't Angel's voice. So that can only mean one thing.

We all turn to look at the unwanted, but invited, visitor. I nod at her before sending a reassuring smile towards my girls.

"Melanie, how are you?" I ask as she walks closer.

"I'm amazing, I can't wait for this interview. Maybe after we could go and get a -".

Before she could finish and upset my Rose, I cut in. "Melanie, this is my girlfriend and my daughter. Rose and Lily, I don't think you've met them before." Rose, being the kind woman she is, smiles at Melanie and Lily looks up at her and copies her action - as usual - whilst Melanie forces a smile on her lips.

"I don't think I have. Hello..." she says in a creepy high voice, which I think was meant to be a baby voice. Lily just cringed back against Rose and Rose does the same towards me. Melanie realizes and takes a step back and crosses her arms angrily. "Damy, I didn't know you had such a girlfriend, teaching your daughter to be rude to other people."

"Watch it, " I almost growl in a low voice. She can attack me all she wants, but attacking my family was on a whole other level.

Because that's what we are, a family. And family stick together, no matter what.