London | Lin x Pippa

Chapter 19

Renee's POV
I pull out my phone to text Alexis that I am on the subway heading to Lin's house. I'm reminded of the funny chat Jasmine, Pippa, and I had regarding that Chuggington conversation. What horror! I think, chuckling to myself. The subway comes to a stop so I put my backpack on and grab my suitcase. The station is really packed; I wonder if it's always like this. After double checking the map by the door, I conclude that lin's apartment is 4 blocks away. Luckily, it is in a straight line so I don't have to worry about missing turns or getting lost. It is pretty chilly, being the end of January and all. Other people must think so too, as they are bundled up in wool scarves and winter coats. The breeze picks up and people huddle together and talk in hushed tones. I have exactly 5 full days in london with my peeps before it is back to America. Might as well enjoy the time here while it lasts.

Pippa's POV
"Lin--"
"And Wilson and Old Puffer Pete--"
"Lin! Sweetie! Please can we change the subject? Jasmine and I have just been sitting here though this whole immature conversation. And that me, it's not as interesting as you find it," I pout. Lin, as adorable as he is, can be so distracted sometimes.
"Of course babe, and who are you calling immature?" I scrunch up my face at that name. Technically we aren't even together. Also, we company over and I don't want to be one of those couples who are all over each other. They need to get a room and stop making people gag, cringe, and barf. Blegh. He leans in for a kiss but I put my hand to his chest to stop him.
"Lin. You know how I feel about this. Let's... not.. right now," I say awkwardly glancing towards jasmine with a 'help me' sort of look.
"But baby--" I cut him off with a gagging gesture. By rolling my eyes up and putting my hands to my throat to mimic choking, I hope he gets the message.
"Hahah I love seeing you annoyed. You're so cute," he says and pecks my cheek before I can do anything about it. I give him my puppy dog face to try and get him to stop and he does. "I'm sorry pips I won't annoy you anymore," Lin says and puts his arm around my shoulder. I squirm a little bit but eventually we come to a consensus at a point where we are both comfortable.
"So Lin, when is Renee getting here?" Jasmine asks. Lin grabs his phone and double checks the time and the messages he has with Renee.
"She should be here in an hour or so."
"We should surprise her or do something nice! We could get flowers or something and bake a cake," Lin looks at me and raises his eyebrows. "Okay. Maybe I just want flowers and a cake... but we could do it for her too." Lin laughs and pulls me closer.
"That's actually not a bad idea," jasmine pipes in.
"How bout Jazz and I run to the store and get some flowers while you guys make dinner? Does that work? Should we pick stuff up for a cake, too?" Anthony asks. Lin looks at me expectantly to answer this question. I chuckle and respond.
"Do we want a box or scratch cake?"
"Scratch."
"Okay, I will look up a chocolate cake recipe. I know we have stuff for cream cheese frosting but I will text you guys stuff that we need for the actual cake. We can make dinner, we have some pork out actually. We could also make mashed potatoes and then roasted vegetables. I was thinking broccoli and cauliflower. They can be baked with a little kosher salt and pepper. Delicious. That, or we also have chicken and bread crumbs and lemon and eggs and I can whip something up from that too. I saw a recipe once on Pinterest and I think I can improvise a bit for that recipe. Vegetables will work with that and we can make a lemony sauce to go with both the chicken and vegetables. If you don't trust me improvising your food, I think I saved it to my "food is literally life" board... Plus, there is a loaf of French bread in the pantry or I could fry some rice for carbs. If you want we could make garlic bread. This dinner isn't gonna be that healthy, but who cares. Well... I sort of care, but it is okay cuz you are here and I care but I don't care like.. a ton." Everyone stares at me in shock. "What?" I say, oblivious to the fact that my food rant was very... ranty. We all laugh.
"How are you that organized?! How do you know that many recipes?! Or that we have that food in our house?!" Lin exclaims. "I barely know how to make hamburgers without a recipe!"
"Ah, I don't really know. I'm a foodie though..." I trail off, by really knowing what to say.
"Hah, it's not a bad thing pips. I just... didn't know you loved food that much," he says burying his face in my hair. Ant laughs and does the same thing to jasmine. The boys are literally smelling our hair right now. We just look at each other and start laughing. They are so weird... in a good way, of course!
"About renee's surprise, are you guys still gonna run some errands?"
"Yes," Anthony says, helping jasmine up. They head to the door.
"Hey man," Lin says to them. "My keys are on the table if you want to use my car."
"Of course, that would make picking up groceries a lot easier. Thanks dude," Anthony says with a wave. Then they are off.
"Daddy daddy daddy!" Sebastian comes running out of his room with a drawing of some trains. "LOOK WHO I DREW!!"
"Hey bud!" Lin exclaims as he picks his son up.
"Daddy that rhymed. Uhhh,, who and drew!"
"Yeah good job bud! Your so smart!
"Thanks daddy!"
After seeing Lin start to chill with his son, I decide to look at what we need for dinner. I think I am going to go with the chicken because it is a lean meat which is on the healthier side of the spectrum. Plus, after talking about all that yummy food, I am hungry for some of it! I go to the pantry and get the non-parishable foods, like the bread crumbs and the rice. I also look to see what we have for a cake. Sugar, flour, vanilla, eggs, oil there are some things missing. I have to text jazzy... but later. I decide to make fried rice so I get out the pan and turn on the stove. As for the chicken, it is in the fridge so I head over to take it out. Then I cut the chicken and mix the bread crumbs up with a little more Italian seasonings just for the flavor. I make a coating with a little big of egg, lemon juice, lemon zest, and olive oil. After drenching the chicken in the solution, I cover it in the bread crumb mixture. The lemons smell so good. Luckily, there are no cuts on my hands for the juice to get into! After putting that aside and turning on the oven as well, I am reminded to text jasmine.

Includes: Jasmine, Pippa
Pippa: hey, I think we have everything we need for the main course. can you please get some more cream cheese for the frosting? We are a little short. and maybe some whipped cream too?
Pippa: oh, we also need butter and milk.. for some reason we are running low!
Jasmine: Sure thing! Ant and I are at the store rn so we will get them.
Pippa: Thanks!!!

Lin's POV
Sebastian just came out with the most adorable drawing of trains from Chuggington. I tell him about the plan and Renee coming over, he seems pretty excited.
"hey sebs, I'm gonna go help mommy make dinner, okay? Do you wanna help?"
"No thank you!" he says happily. Then he runs to his room and starts doing I don't even know what.
"Okay then." I say and get up, sighing as I do.
"Aw, it's okay sweetie. Isn't it good that he is growing up independently though?" Pippa calls from the kitchen. She gives me a smile so i return the gesture.
"yeah, but I still want him to be my little boy. I feel like he is getting older too fast. Pips, he is going to kindergarten soon. KINDERGARTEN PHILLIPA! I feel like he was born yesterday!"
"I know it's hard," she says and comes over to hug me. "well, I don't really know, but I can sympathize and I'm sorry."
"thanks babe." I say hugging her back. "You didn't flinch that time," I notice.
"yeah, that's cuz there isn't anyone else in this room." She heads back to the kitchen and I follow her.
"Do you need any help?"
"That would actually be great. Can you make this lemon sauce thing? You need to zest some lemons and get out the honey and a little oil. You also need lemon juice."
"Wow, how many lemons are we using?"
"All of the ones we have..." she says with an embarrassed smile.
"Phillipa that's 8! First of all, how do we have that many lemons in the first place? They are lemons... it's not like.. bread or something. I feel like most people don't have 8 lemons randomly laying around."
"I don't know, Sebastian and I went to the store the other day, maybe that's when we got them? Speaking of milk, Jazz and Ant are picking some up. We actually don't really have that much."
"Huh, that's odd. Maybe it's cuz Sebastian and I always have cereal for breakfast, well, usually at least, and we use it all then," I say laughing.

Anthony's POV
"I think that's everything," I say, looking at our list once more.
"Yeah, we have the stuff Pips asked for, too, right?" My girlfriend asks.
"yes we do!"
"I think we can checkout now," I say as we head over to the shortest line in sight. We load our groceries onto the belt and pay for the food. It is weird hearing them say pounds instead of dollars, but hey, it's a cool new experience.
Soon, we load up our bags into Lin's car and head back to the apartment. I don't have a key so I knock cuz the door is locked. Lin comes to open the door and immediately we are hit by a strong smell of lemon.
"Wow! It smells really good in here!" I exclaim.
"Yeah," he says. "Pippa is really good at cooking." he says. His face lights up when he says pippa and I raise my eyebrows at him. He blushes in turn and looks down and sideways which smiling even wider now, if that is even possible. He glances back at Pippa and we all get an image of her gracefully preparing dinner. It's like she's... dancing? Lin is just staring and smiling like an idiot. I punch him lightly in the arm and smirk, getting him to blush even more. It is so great how they have gotten to become so close. They are an adorable couple and I can tell they make each other so happy. I look at Jasmine and I can tell that she is thinking the same exact thing. Pippa looks up I guess because she starts talking.
"What are you staring at, ba-Lin?" He blushes even more (if that is humanly possible) and shakes his head to wake him self up a little.
"Nothin, sorry," he says sheepishly as he backs up to let us in. Pippa shrugs and goes back to making dinner. Before we know it, the chicken is popped into the oven and the garlic bread is read to go in after. Then, there is a knock at the door. I look up and see Pippa and Jasmine squealing and running towards the door and shouting "RENEE". Apparently Renee can hear them, too, because she starts screaming. Soon everyone is just yelling and the door hasn't even opened yet.

Hey y'all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm back from break! I guess it was really only a break from updating because I didn't want to feel pressured to write. Of course, I love writing, but I think it is better if I do it on my own time schedule. What I'm going to plan to do is upload as soon as I have a chapter complete, but on my own schedule. This way, I feel more proud of my work and it is a more natural process. (The break was like... a week lol. I need Wattpad ahah)

I literally wanna see Amelie soo ;) bad!! i have been tryna convince my parents! aghhh. i cant even rn XD