Missing Piece

Chapter Thirty-Three

Benjamin

For the two weeks that I've known Maddy, I've come to a conclusion that it's really hard to say no to her. I don't blame Will for caving in so easily. Maddy somehow always finds a way to persuade anyone to do anything. So, that's why we ended up at this Italian restaurant for lunch on a Wednesday afternoon.

Mel is sitting grumpily beside me cause she didn't get her sandwich nor the watermelon juice. She's angry-eating from my plate since apparently her pasta wasn't spicy enough, even though we both ordered the same thing.

She finds a piece of broccoli in her dish and her cute nose scrunches up in disgust. She picks up that tiny piece with her fork and holds it up in front of me. I sigh, but I still move forward and put that piece in my mouth. Mel pulls the fork back with a happy grin on her face. I feel my own lips twitching in response. Yeah, I wouldn't mind eating all the pieces of broccoli for her.

I move my gaze to the couple when I hear a camera shutter. Will puts the phone down after clicking yet another candid picture of Maddy.

I've never seen him being this obsessed with a girl before. It's kinda repulsive to watch.

Maddy puts the fork down, looking at Will, she once again starts the argument about who can finish up the drinks first in one go; despite losing to Will a few minutes ago. She grabs her second glass of non-alcoholic yellow drink and asks him for another go. Will grabs his own glass and they start the drinking race. I'm placing my bet on Maddy this time. She is so going to win.

My attention from the intense race gets shifted when Mel suddenly leaps out of her chair from beside me. I watch bewildered as she dives for a plant and tries to hide behind it?

Uh, what?

Should I tell her that it's kinda impossible to hide behind that plant?

Mel's sudden action also grabs the attention of both Maddy and Will as they stop the race and instead stare at my wife with matching perplexed expressions.

"What is she doin' now?" Will asks as we watch her trying to make herself smaller and trying to hide behind the spider plant, but not quite succeeding in it.

She has a better chance at hiding behind a pole.

But why is she hiding? More importantly what is she hiding from?

"She loves plants, so I think she's thinking of taking that plant with her." My eyes dart to Maddy when she answers Will's question.

Okay, she needs to stop making ridiculous assumptions about my wife. Just because she loves the greens doesn't mean she'd just take plant from anywhere.

"Man, you've got a weird woman." Will says giving my Mel weird looks. "Constrain your woman before she gets herself arrested for stealing a plant."

I glare at him, and he stops with those funny stares. "She's not trying to steal the plant. She's trying to hide."

"Really?" Will stares at Mel for a second before looking back at me. "Well, that's even dumber than stealing a plant. Who's gonna tell her that she's doing a terrible job at hiding?"

"Mels," Maddy shouts, startling Mel as well as us. "We can still see you. The tree isn't very good cover. Come hide under the table."

"Thank you, Mads." Mels- Mel stands up from her hiding position and walk back to us and just before she is about to crouch down, she stops and freezes in her spot.

What happened? Why is she looking like Casper the Ghost.

I'm about to get up to check up on her when she defreezes and opens her mouth.