In Time

13.

⭐ Zachary's POV ⭐

"Eva, how much longer do you need?" I was standing in front of the mirror, trying to tie a bow tie.

"Ten more minutes, and I'm done."

My eyes were fixed on the phone screen as a YouTube tutorial video was playing. I had absolutely zero ideas on how a bow tie works. Luckily, with modern day's advanced technology, we could simply key in our problems on Google. Instantly, various types of solutions were brought to me.

A frown was visible on my forehead as I concentrated on following the instructions from the video. When I thought I was about to get the bow tie out, it ended up looking super weird. I pulled out the tie from my neck and threw it to a side in frustration. I raised my hands in surrender and stared at the tie.

From the mirror, I could see Eva walking down the stairs behind me and picked up the tie. She stood in front of me and started to help with the bow tie. Eva did not have to read any instructions or see the video. A smile was visible on her face after she was done with the bow tie.

"There you go." Eva patted my left upper arm and went to put on her earrings.

"Thanks. I didn't know you knew how to do this." I said while pointing at the bow tie.

I heard something dropped on the floor with a soft thud. My gaze automatically turned to the floor and saw Eva's earring. She quickly bent over to pick it up. I noticed something weird when she did that. Eva's hands were shaking, not really obvious. Nonetheless, her slightly shaking hands still caught my eyes.

It was followed by Eva's awkward laughter. As she tried to put on her earring, again. I could see the nervousness in her eyes through the mirror.

"My mum taught me how to tie a bow tie long ago. She said learning a new skill will never useless." Eva chuckled as she reminisced the past.

On the other hand, I quietly observed her as she spoke. A smile that did not quite reach her eyes was on her pretty face.

"Are we going now, or what?" Eva lightly slapped on my chest.

"Er, yeah. C'mon, let's go."

I took Eva's hand as we made our way to the living room.

"Hey mum, where's dad?" I gave my mum a small peck on the cheek. She chuckled and was followed by her usual coughing. My mum's health has not been that well lately. My mum took out her reading glasses before answering me.

"Your dad is busy deciding which tuxedo he should wear to Dylan's and Helen's wedding." I helped my mum to get up as she made way to the kitchen for a glass of warm water.

"I bet he'll look good in any outfit." A peal of soft laughter escaped through my mouth.

"That's what I told him. I swear he is even vainer than your old mother."

"Who dares to say that my mum is old?" I asked with a serious expression.

My mum was tickled by my words as she laughed out loud. She quickly brought the glass of water to her mouth to effectively stop the coughing.

"Zach, honey. You're going to be late if you don't set off now." My mum said after checking the time.

"Yes, ma'am!" I gave a mocking salute and was returned with a smack on the arm. I walked out to the living room with my mum to find Eva dozing off on the couch. I patted Eva gently to wake her up without scaring her.

Dylan asked if I could be the best man for their wedding. They are my best friends since high school, how could I reject them? Of course, I accepted their request without any hesitation. As for Helen's bridesmaid, they did not tell me. But, I'm guessing it would be Ella, Nicole or Rachel.

Eva and I were heading out first, to help Dylan prepare for his wedding.

"Eva, do you want to go to Helen's house and help the girls?" I asked after driving out of the garage.

"But, I don't really know them," Eva answered as she blew her bangs.

"They're really friendly people. I'm sure you'll do just fine."

"I still think following you to the groom's place is a better choice."

I gave Eva a sideways glance to find her scrolling through her smartphone. My fingers drummed the steering wheel as I thought about what Eva said. The car stopped at a red light and it was about time for me to make a decision.

My mind was brought back to the time when Eva and Rachel first met. An alarm was set off in me as I realised what could happen if Eva and Rachel were to meet outside of work. I drove the car forward instead of taking a left turn.

I stole another glance at Eva and found a small grin was etched on her face.

"So, how's the big project going?" My question caused Eva to look up and placed her smartphone on the lap.

"Um, it could have been better without Rachel Williams," Eva mumbled, her voice laced with annoyance.

"What's wrong?"

"She ordered the wrong colour for our flower decoration. Before you start to defend her, there was a whole lot of things she'd done wrongly. I can even say that she nearly ruined this project. I don't get why Mrs Wright, who is a very strict person could tolerate this kind of mistakes."

"I thought this kind of things should be done by your assistant?" I questioned carefully so that Eva would not be misunderstood that I was trying to help Rachel.

"The company still cannot find one for me."

"So Rachel is working Mrs Wright and you for the time being?"

"Yeah. Which I totally hate it. How can the company hire such a dumb person to work?"

I pursed my lips in disagreement, but could not voice out my opinion.

"That's weird. Normally, you would double-check everything your assistant did."

"I am extremely busy and how would I know Rachel could not even handle such simple tasks."

"Eva... You need to understand that Rachel is doing you a favour. Technically, if you don't have an assistant to help you, you have to do everything by yourself. Plus, Rachel was doing two person's job for the salary of one."

"Zachary Davis. Why the hell are you defending that bitch?! She's the one who's in the wrong. Not me."

I pinched the bridge of my nose as the car stopped for another red light. I decided to ignore Eva because she would never ever admit that she's wrong. It would be best if I keep my mouth shut.

Fortunately, Dylan's home appeared in my line of sight just in time. I quickly find an empty spot to park my car and kill the engine. Eva still had that look on her face and went out of the car without saying a word.
*~*~*~*~*~*

❇ Rachel's POV ❇

"Helen!"

Helen turned her head to look at me with an arched eyebrow.

"Why aren't you preparing?"

"Relax, Rach. There's always time for a pizza." Helen finished off the sentence with a playful wink.

"Besides, you're much more nervous than the bride here." Helen wiped her mouth with a piece of tissue as she pointed to herself.

"You're one in a million, Helen. I've never seen a bride as calm as you." I chuckled and bent down to pick up Helen's hairpin.

Helen hummed in agreement as she went out to wash her hands. She came back with the rest of the girls. We immediately start our work, so that we could arrive at the church on time.

Author's notes :
Heyyy :) I just survived my first week of school, which was extremely tiring 😢 I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thanks for reading! 😄 Any votes, comments or shares are greatly appreciated by yours truly ♥ On a side note, In Time, just hit over 800 reads! You guys are so awesome!! Thank you! 😋