Until you call again. (Complete)

Tonight (Best you ever had). Part 2

I haven't seen Jake in a while. Not because things are bad with us but because he is a very busy person. Being a CEO of a now multimillion rand company will do that to you.

So even though we're friends, I never expect him to show up and be there for me for things. So my shock is justified not only that he's here at my grandma's ball, but that he's the person responsible for the amazing gown I have on this evening.

"This was you?" I ask him rhetorically in disbelief.

I don't even want to begin to think about how he managed to sneak it into my house with the level of security there but I'm not mad either.

"Yes mam." He says with a smirk that I try really hard not to slap off his face. I know he's only doing it to get on my nerves though so I instead say,

"You didn't have to."

"Well you didn't stop about this whole thing and I felt forced to do this." I know he's joking but that doesn't stop me from rolling my eyes at him.

But also,

"I'm pretty sure I only told you once about this." He hasn't been around for me to 'not stop about this' like he's saying. I'm also certain that I mentioned it in passing, it wasn't like we properly talked about it. So that means,

"You listened." I say to him with a smile. He goes around acting like he doesn't care but I know he does. More than one would think.

"It's no big deal Ms Oliphant." He says shrugging it off. It is but I don't mention another word of it.

The last time I saw him physically was back at his house a few weeks ago when we were working on the McKenna report. We've chatted a bit on the phone every now and then, but nothing substantial. We mostly talk about work stuff as I'm still helping him out like I'd promised.

He's wearing a black suit with a tie that matches my dress. It's not much of a deviation from what he usually wears but he looks good nonetheless.

I know he ended up wearing the suit I chose for him the other night for the conference even though he hasn't said a word about it. I saw the pictures that were posted on the company's social media platforms.

He's such a weird being but in a cute kind of way. He wants so bad to be seen as this bad guy who doesn't care about anything but he's the opposite of that. He adds a different angle to my pool of perspectives that I didn't know I needed. We've become great friends and I feel thankful to have him in my life.

"Oh Dear Mia, look at you!" We're disturbed by a bunch of grandma's friends who make their way inside the castle-themed reception. I give them hugs and cheek kisses as they stare awe-fully at my dress.

After their long scrutiny, they look over at a very entertained Jake. He looks like he's hiding a laugh and I can't help but have the same expression when they make their way over to him now.

"And who is this fine gentleman?"
Are all people grandma's age thirsty for young men? Seriously!

"Uhm, this is my friend Jake." I'm hoping my embarrassment doesn't show.

They're soon done asking him a million questions and Jake and I join everyone in the ball room. I still haven't seen Tristan but I'm guessing he went home to get ready.

Jake accompanies me as I walk around saying hello to everyone and thank them for coming.

This was a bit last minute as I struggled to get grandma out of the city.

Speaking of the lady of the night, I'd been chatting with Aunty Judi who's with her on her way here right now. There's no way we'll be able to hide everything so she's more surprised, because that would be impossible with how the house has been decorated. I won't even be surprised if she thought they were at the wrong house on arrival.

So I asked Aunty Judi to have her blindfolded, that's going to be extremely difficult but Aunty Judi can be convincing. I told grandma that I have a surprise for her, but she doesn't know exactly what it is. I know that she certainly won't be expecting all this glamour so that makes me calm down a bit. To grandma, I'm just an ordinary person who lacks a taste of the finer things in life, and I guess that's not entirely false.

I eventually get a text from Aunty Judi letting me know that they are 5 minutes away. I then announce it so everyone is in position for the surprise.

Now grandma is old, despite her not wanting to accept that. I made it clear to everyone that there will be no screaming 'surprise' as I don't now want her having a heart attack.

"Judi, if you don't get these off my eyes your mother will be hearing of this." is the first thing we hear as they come through the front door. Everyone tries really hard to hold in their laughter until Auntie Judi leads her right in front of the crowd and takes off the blindfold.

Once that's done, we all laugh. Really hard and really loud. She's at first surprised by the entirety of the situation but soon enough, she joins us in laughter.

I then go to her to give her a warm hug that she happily returns.

"Mia, what did you do?" She asks after our embrace making everyone laugh harder.

"Grandma, everyone is here to celebrate you. Not for anything specific, just for the fact that you are you." I start after a while when everyone's recovered from the laugh fest.

"This is to show our appreciation and to remind you that we love you."

She hasn't been ok lately. Because of her husband leaving her and everything else. I've been wanting to do this for her for a while, in hopes to get her to her happy state again. She's not getting any younger, and I don't want her spending the rest of her days in misery.

"Grandma, you are an incredibly hard person to be around." I say as they all erupt in laughter again.

"But be around we will because there's no one in existence who'll ever take your place in our hearts." I can see a tear making its way down her cheek.

"I hope all this reaches your standards of over the top." I say looking around the decorated room.

"Lastly, if you go upstairs. You will find a group of people ready to pamper you up and get you on our level because you look too comfortable in those sweats." I say and she fake-hits me as I duck.

A couple of her friends escort her upstairs after she'd gone around giving everyone hugs.

"That was a lovely speech." Jake says surprising me. It's still weird when I hear him say anything that's not sarcastic and mean.

"Aww." I say to him going in for a hug but,

"Nope!" He says turning his entire body to the other side and I roll my eyes. A couple of old people notice and they laugh at me, I can't help but laugh too.

Before,

"Nugget..."

His voice is soft and so emotional. If it wasn't for the word he said, I wouldn't have known it was him.

I turn around to see an unreadable expression on his face as he looks me up from my toes. I blush because I don't know what to do.

So I look at the nicely dressed lady next to him and say,

"Hi Meghan."