𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙇𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙨 - Lando Norris (LN4) [Book 2]

𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕣𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕟

I walk through the front door on what has, with no doubt, been the weirdest day of my life since moving to Chiddingfold. Nothing happens here, it is a tiny village. The biggest drama comes from the knitting and natter club, when they start talking about each others baking in a bad light.

The worst drama was when Mrs Smith couldn't be bothered to bake, so she bought 6 brownies from me instead, took them, and everyone then guessed that she hadn't baked them herself, they all recognised my baking and they banished her from the club for two weeks, TWO WEEKS!

I wish I was joking. Mrs Smith then spent the next two weeks knitting in my cafe until she was allowed back into the group.

Each room in my house is dark, as I shine my phone torch to turn the light on in the hallway.

"Hello?" I shout, wondering where Hugo is, before I get no answer back. He is supposed to be home today, he was working from home. Maybe he's gone out to get dinner. I drop him a text, asking what time he'll be in, and whether he is getting dinner.

I walk into the front room and throw myself onto the sofa, letting my arms and legs flail everywhere.

I can't believe he is here, in the village. I wonder why he is in the village, did he really not know that I was here? It can't be a coincidence, someone must have told him I was here.

We didn't speak after the breakup, other than a text to arrange picking up my stuff. As soon as it was done, I went straight to Liana's and moved in. We went back to the apartment a few days later to collect all my stuff, but he was out. And that was it, we've had no communication, I've not seen him in real life since that day. I avoided him, he avoided me. Liana didn't even talk to me about him, so surely she was doing the same to him.

I pick up my phone, and still haven't had a text back from Hugo. Before deciding to make dinner myself, I look for Liana's number and click the FaceTime button.

She answers almost immediately, but the face on the screen is not Liana, I can hear her in the background though.

"Say hello Cannoli, say hello to Auntie Rae in England, go on Cannoli, say hello,"

The dog just stares through the screen completely uninterested, but Liana continues in the back.

"Say hello Cannoli, just bark or something, bark cannoli, bark.... bark... bark...."

I stare down the phone bemused, when Liana adjusts the phone so I can see both her and Cannoli, she's sat on the sofa and he moves so he cuddles into her lap.

"Hey, you okay?" she asks, confused by the look on my face.

"Hi hi, yes. Erm, you know that's a dog and not a parrot?" I let out the laugh I had been holding in.

"Yes I know, but I'm trying to teach him to like bark at people to say hello, I think it would be cute, like imagine calling and him barking to say hello,"

"No offence Li, but you've only had him a week or so, you won't be able to teach him to bark on command yet,"

"Starting him from an early age," she grins, "Anyway, are you okay? What have I done to deserve a random phone call from my beautiful best friend?"

"I have something I need to tell, you, to debrief, something actually wild happened today. Are you free? To talk? Is Charles there?"

"Oh no, he's not, he's just out getting dinner, I think he went to Giacomo to pick it up."

"Ugh, I miss Giacomo so much. Do they still do that giant ice cream dessert?"

"YES! I had asked him to pick that up for me, but he wasn't too keen on bringing home a mountain of ice cream in his new car, it's understandable to be fair, I had said we'd go out but the bakery was so busy today, I just wanted to chill so he said he would pick it up."