From rejection to mates

A DATE AND PREPERATION FOR THE TRIP.

Liliana made her way down to the halls, headed for the kitchen to meet John, until a noise stopped her. She frowned, turning to look behind her, spotting Aromu. She smiled kindly at her. "Hey long time no see, how have you been?" She asked as they gave each other a hug. She shrugged, giving her a small grin. "I've been okay, trying to pick up a lead on all the missing pups, but have gotten nowhere." She huffed out sadly. Liliana tried to give her the most real smile that she could but could not hold it for long. "It's okay, we have all been trying. I did pick something up by the lake. John and four of his warriors are going tomorrow to check it out and see if they can go out on to the lake and get another lead or not." She whispered. Aromu nodded, before disappearing into air. 'I will be glad when I learn how to do that.' She thought to herself. She turned back around walking to the kitchen once again.

Finally arriving, she walked in to see John steadily working away on cooking, and she sniffed the air, smiling. "Smells good in here John, what are you cooking?" She asked, tilting her head to the side, trying to steal a glance. He looked at her smiling, then returning to what he was doing. "Well now, that would ruin the surprise if I told you, now wouldn't it." He chuckled out. She laughed with him, taking a seat at the table, as he turned and leaned on the counter to watch her. "That's true, but it was worth a shot." She said, glancing at the table and how it was set. He watched her for a minute, with his arms crossed over his chest, studying her. "You do understand it is probably going to be a couple of days before we return home, right?" He asked. She smiled, nodding her head. "Yes, I am aware of that, but if it is a chance on getting another lead, then we need to take it." She responded. He only nodded and turned back to the food.

It grew quiet, as he continued cooking, and she just sat and watched. She was trying not to fall under pressure, especially tonight, but when he talks about everything like that, it does not help. She closed her eyes, trying to ease her mind up so that nothing would come out during dinner. It was exceedingly rare this got to happen, so she wanted to take advantage of it as much as she could. She did not want anything to keep it from happening. Sighing to herself, she sat and waited as dinner cooked, and went into her own little world. She started picturing what it would be like if the kids were still here. Would he still be paying no attention to them? Would he still be busy all the time and keeping her out of the loop like he normally did? Now, she would never know. This has seemed to make him pay attention, at least just a little. It made her heart sink, thinking that was the only reason that he is doing that now, but she would rather pretend that's not the only reason, and knew she needed to try and stop thinking like that.

Her thoughts got distracted as a dinner plate was placed in front of her, and John sat down in the chair beside her. She looked at her plate, and nearly smiled from ear to ear seeing what was set out in front of her. Goulash, her favorite food that he cooked, along with a glass of wine. This is something she wanted to continue happening, even when the kids came back home. "Well, let's eat shall we." He cheered, as they both began to dig into their food. It stayed quiet for a while, just enjoying each other's company, and relaxing, until she decided to speak. "John, can I ask a question?" She spoke, looking up at him, taking another bite of her food.

"Yes?" He responded.

"When the kids come home, can we start doing this more often? Having family dinner?" she asked.

He stopped eating and looked at her funny and placed his fork on his plate. "Of course, we can, why would we not?" He asked.

She shrugged her shoulders, moving her food around with her fork. "Because before the kids were gone, we never did, and you were never around." She whispered. It got quiet in the room, not even a fork scraping a plate could be heard. She did not dare to look up just in case she may have angered him or bothered his emotions in any kind of way.