Chapter 4

Liam "What's her name again?, Starts with an L, Lacy? Lucky? Lucy? How could I have forgotten? She was here a few hours ago, less than two hours," "Nevermind, I'll go talk to mum," I said leaving the kitchen for the sitting room to discuss with my mum, he was set against the idea at first but with Ethan's help we were able to convince her, and we concluded that they would be joining me in two weeks. Isabella made cookies and we had them while we conversed about different things. "Are you sleeping over tonight?" My mum asked and I shook my head. "No, we checked into a hotel already but I'll be coming over tomorrow to check on you before we leave for New York City," "Okay then," "Speaking of leaving, we have to leave now mum we have to meet up with some of our friends," I said eating the last cookies "Okay my love," she said hugging me then she hugged Ethan while I hugged Isabella. On our way back to the hotel I felt the need to express my gratitude, If Ethan hadn't convinced me to go home, I wouldn't have known what had been going on. "Thanks, man," "You are welcome," he replied weirdly looking at me. "What's wrong?" "That's unlike you, saying thank you is not your thing, normally I just sense your gratitude," he said and I shrugged "Saying it once in a while is not bad, right?" I said, smiling at him. "Yeah right, " he said, rolling his eyes. "Look at this, your internet wives know you are in Canada," he said showing me a picture of us coming out of the private jet. "Those people are everywhere," I said shaking my head. "They will be heartbroken when you get married, you know," he said, smirking. "I'm never getting married, good for them," I said. "Never say never, man," he said, full-on sneering at me now. "I told you already, I've not seen any woman that changed my mind yet," I said with a straight face. "You are so promiscuous yet you've not seen a woman you'd love to stick with," he said, dropping the sneer. "The main reason I said I'm not getting married," I said and he sighed. "Getting married is not part of the things I'd like to get done, I want more money instead." "How is your mum doing?" He asked changing the subject. "Huh?" I asked, puzzled. "How is your mum doing? I saw her walking down the stairs, and I don't remember her using glasses," "She can't see as well anymore," "What?" he asked, bewildered. "Let me rephrase, she is temporarily blind," "How come?" "I think the beatings she got from him are just now taking a toll on her," I said and he sighed "Don't worry, we will get her the best doctor once she gets to New York City," he said, trying to comfort me. "Sometimes I wonder if you are my long-lost brother because you act more like her son than I do," I said and he laughed. "Your mum is my mum," he said and it felt good hearing that from him, we felt no need to continue to talk so we were quiet for the rest of the journey. "We've arrived," the driver announced and the bodyguards who were sitting in front got down to open the door. We changed our clothes and then the driver drove us to my friend's club where we had all decided to meet. One thing about my circle is that we are all successful, we were all among the top ten richest young men in North America and I liked it that way. "And there they are!" Blake said as we entered and the other guys cheered, apparently we were the last two to get there. We exchanged pleasantries and took our seats. "How is it going, guys?" Ethan asked and everyone began explaining how things had been going for them, I listened carefully and I was able to gain some business tips from them. "Liam, you are not saying anything," Troy said and I smiled. "Yeah, tell us about your internet brides, are they still sending you gifts every day?" Blake asked and I rolled my eyes. "Like you all don't have internet wives," I said. "That's not the point, the point is that we're all very aware of the fact that the total number of our collective internet wives aren't anywhere near as many as yours," Mark replied "Are you keeping stats?" I asked and they laughed. "Look guys, the internet wives are still there, yes, the gifts are still coming in, everything is going great, the company is also doing fine," "That's good, so any of you gotten a shawty yet?" Mark asked and I fought the urge to groan, Mark was the only married one among us and he had taken up a habit of asking if we've gotten serious about a girl whenever we meet. "Blake's got one, I've been seeing a certain girl around him for a while now and she is lovely," Troy said and Blake smiled. "Troy's right, her name is Penelope," Blake said, proudly. "I thought you didn't like the name Penelope," I said sitting up. I was confused, when we were in school, Blake would tell us how dumb the name Penelope sounded and now he is dating someone with that name. "Well I guess I changed my mind, now I'm in love with that name," he said, with that look in his eye, man's whipped. I made a whip-cracking sound and we all laughed. "Are you going to put a ring on it soon?" Mark asked. "Hey, wow, chill man, we're taking it one step at a time," he said. "What about you Troy, you've been dating Sarah for years, are you putting a ring on it soon?" he deflected, moving the attention away from himself. "Sure, I'm working on it," "Ethan?" "For now, I'm not interested in dating. I'll admit, I'm not completely over Emily yet," he answered and I scoffed, he loved up and the lady who vowed to love him every day of her life left him to marry another man. I realized they were staring at me like they could hear my thoughts. "What?" I asked and they continued giving me weird looks. "What?" I demanded this time. "What about you? Any shawty?" Mark asked, making me roll my eyes. "If you are asking me how many girls I've gotten in bed since we last met, I've lost count. If you are asking me if I'm in a serious relationship at the moment, my reply is the same as last time, no." "Is it because of Natalie?" Blake asked suddenly catching me off guard, I had the sudden urge to throttle somebody's son. "We will talk about something else now," I said firmly. They respected my wishes and we moved on to talking about other stuff. The rest of the chat was cool but there was that tension from the way I changed the subject so brusquely, I could feel it slightly but I had no interest in addressing it.