Seven

Chapter 52

LILIANNA'S POV

Setting the table I look at the clock on my oven and notice it's already ten minutes past six. Dinner will be ready soon and Seven isn't even here yet. But I stop myself from letting the worry slip under my skin.

It's only been ten minutes Lily, I remind myself. Ten minutes of traffic, ten minutes of losing track of time. Ten minutes of an inconvenience, ten minutes is nothing. Calm down. I plate our food and put it into the oven on a warming setting so it will be readily hot on his arrival. I'm a little antsy waiting for Seven to show up and begin to exhaust myself with distractions from watching the clock. I've set the table, condiments and all. Cleaned, dried and put away all the dishes I used to make dinner. I've even brushed my teeth, hair and clipped my nails to try distract me from the time ticking by. When the time turns to seven o'clock I turn the oven off as the food is now drying out rather than warming.

I won't lie, the slight worry has grown and is beginning to morph into a low burning anger. If he's going to be late he could at least have the decency to tell me. I check my phone for the hundredth time and still there is no contact from him. With a reluctant groan I give in and dial his number, if he won't call me to tell me why he's late then I will call him and demand to know. His phone rings for what seems like forever until the robotic voice recording of the answering machine plays so I hang up. He's never not answered me before, and I feel my annoyance grow.

Instead I call the next best thing.

"Hey girl!" Mesha picks up on the third ring. At least she's not ignoring my calls.

"Hey." My voice is dripping in disappointment.

"You okay?" Mesha picks up on it right away.

"I think I just got stood up." I admit.

"Stood up? By who? Seven?" She asks in disbelief.

"Mm. Can I come over? I made dinner if you want it?" I ask her picking at my nails.

"Yeah of course. Defo bring food too." Mesha agrees. I'm glad I met her. She's always there for me even at the most random of times.

A few minutes later after getting off the phone with Mesha I pack our dinners into some Tupperware containers and pull a bottle of Riesling I had chilling in the fridge that I had intended to serve with dinner for Seven and I. I drive to Mesha's, and attempt to call Seven again but he still doesn't answer. When I pull up outside Mesha's place she's waiting outside for me, dragging on a cigarette.

"I didn't know you smoked." I nod at the smoke billowing from her mouth with my hands full of food and wine.

"I lost my vape." Mesha coughs and grimaces at the strong taste of tobacco in her mouth before tossing the cigarette into the gutter.

"It's just not the same." She shakes her head at the smouldering butt. 

"Also why the fuck have I been driving us around when your whip looks like that?" She asks me.

"Oh, I only got it a few weeks ago." I forget she hadn't seen it yet. Since, like she said, she has been driving us around most of the time.

"What happened to the old shitter?" Mesha asks as we walk up to her apartment.

"Seven got rid of it and gave me that as it's replacement. He said my old car wasn't safe enough." I roll my eyes. Or fast enough to outrun dangerous situations but I don't say that to Mesha.

"Jesus, I wish one of my sugar daddies got me a new car." She replies.

"He's not my sugar daddy!" I laugh.