Ecie & Esme III: Forever and a Day

Two

'Are you almost ready?' Verde asked poking his head around Lauren's door.

'Just a second,' Lauren called. 'I need to find some shoes.'

'Okay then,' Verde smiled walking into the room and sitting down on the bed. 'I'll wait here for you.'

Lauren looked at Verde. 'I don't need a babysitter.'

'I'm not babysitting,' Verde grinned as Lauren came towards him. 'I just want to be with my girlfriend. God that sounds weird, I haven't said that in ages.'

Lauren chuckled as she kissed Verde and pushed him down to the bed. 'How about we have a little work out before we go and work out?'

'That is absolutely fine by me.'

'I was thinking,' Verde said as he walked hand in hand with Lauren. 'That maybe you'd like to move in with me.'

Lauren laughed. 'You do like to move things quickly, don't you?'

'You don't have to...'

'I'm already living in the apartment,' Lauren replied. 'And I'm only down the hall if you ever need me.'

'I don't want you down the hall,' Verde said stopping and looking at Lauren. 'I want you in my bed. All the time.'

Lauren looked at Verde. 'We haven't even been dating for three months,' she said. 'Perhaps we could talk about this later.'

'Fine,' Verde shrugged as they continued walking. 'You can forget I even asked you...'

Lauren rolled her eyes in frustration. 'You are just...' she stopped Verde and looked at him. 'There is so much about me and I don't want to trap you in my bubble of hatred. How about for once, you try and except that maybe it's not all about you. For once it's all about me.'

'I wasn't...'

'Forget it,' Lauren mimicked. 'You have got to be the most self absorbed narcissist...'

Verde kissed Lauren on the lips.

'I hate you,' Lauren mumbled.

'I hate you too,' Verde grinned. 'Come on.'

'So anyway, I asked Taylor to move in and he completely blew me off,' Esme sighed. 'Maybe he's not ready for that.'

'Did you actually ask him?' Ecie looked at her sister.

'It was so obvious,' Esme said wiping her mouth. 'I would have totally understood what I was asking.'

'Of course you would,' Lauren laughed. 'Why don't you ask him again, but this time be more blunt and to the point. Like Verd.'

'What do you mean?' Ecie looked at Verde. 'What did you do?'

'I didn't do anything,' he replied.

'He asked me to move in with him,' Lauren replied looking at Verde. 'He wants me in his bed, not down the hall.'

'Wow guys,' Esme said. 'Maybe having you two going out is a little bit creepy. I don't know, it's kind of weird.'

'What did you say?' Ecie asked.

'She turned me down,' Verde said looking at Lauren. 'She wants to talk about this later.'

They looked at Lauren.

'I'm already living in the bloody place,' Lauren said. 'What does it matter anyway?'

'She does have a point,' Ecie nodded looking back at Verde.

'Forget it,' Verde rolled his eyes. 'It's fine.'

Lauren laughed at Verde then turned back to Esme and Ecie. 'So how was your family dinner?'

'Basically dad and Riley are getting married,' Esme said.

'No way,' Verde said. 'That's awesome.'

'Yeah,' Ecie said.

'You could at least pretend it was awesome,' Lauren said. 'What's so wrong about them getting married?'

'I don't know what it is,' Ecie replied. 'I'm really happy for them, and the ring is to die for, but I don't know.'

'Me neither,' Esme agreed. 'I guess the only thing we can do is be happy for them. But I can't help but feel like everything is always changing. As much as I love Eric and Riley, I wish they had never come into mom and dad's lives. They've ruined everything.'

'How do you mean?' Lauren asked.

'Before they came, we already had everything sorted out,' Ecie replied. 'We knew what we were doing and we had become so used to it. But now with them, they've made mom and dad happy and now mom and dad are different. We don't know what we're doing anymore, they've ruined everything.'

'That's a bit steep,' Verde said. 'How did Ross take it?'

'Not good,' Esme replied. 'Dad went to have a word with him after dinner, but that didn't go anywhere.'

'I feel bad for Ross because he's been there from the beginning,' Ecie said. 'His whole life has been change.'

'What do you mean?'

'Well for starters Cassie and dad split up,' Esme said. 'Then dad got with mom and the mom had us...'

'Mom and dad split up,' Ecie continued. 'Then Cassie moves away. Now mom's with Eric and they're living on a ranch with an impending baby; Cassie is going out with Peter; and dad's getting married.'

'It's okay for us because we've just been born to adapt,' Esme went on. 'We can just get on with things, but Ross. Poor Ross, he's been dealing with this for his whole life.'

'It'll take some getting used to,' Verde said. 'But don't you want Jonathon to be happy? Riley makes him happy and if he wants to marry her, then he should.'

'We know,' Esme said. 'It's not even that. It's weird that so much stuff has happened so quickly. It's weird.'

'My head hurts,' Ecie sighed. 'We should go out for drinks tonight.'