Episode 622: Fallout

She’d seen him an hour earlier, mid-morning when he stopped by to give her the most fantastic opportunity. Lila smoothed out her white skirt with her free hand and buttoned one more button of the pale pink cardigan over a similarly hued camisole. They were her clothes; she just didn’t ordinarily wear them together. It was Bas’ idea to go more conservative than usual. "I don’t want to mess this up."

"You won’t," Bas said, though his tone was more along the lines of you’d better not. "Just be respectful and flattering and-"

"I have to go, she’s coming." Lila shoved the phone into her purse and hurriedly stood, extending a hand to Mrs. Marques.

Mrs. Marques did not take Lila’s hand. "Where’s Avalon?"

"Sebastian thought I would be better at the job," Lila happily trilled.

Katherine Marques clearly disagreed. "On what planet would you be better than Avalon?" Worry filled the woman’s eyes. "Tell me my son doesn’t really think that."

Sebastian likely didn’t think that. Still. "Ava isn’t that great." Lila couldn’t help but pout.

"Be careful how you speak of my future daughter-in-law. I think you should leave."

"I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t mean to say anything bad about Ava." Not out loud to one of Ava’s many adoring admirers. It wasn’t even as if she still hated Ava anymore. There were just moments. "It’s just that I always lose out to Ava. I mean, at one point I thought I might be your future daughter-in-law."

"Thank heavens that never happened. It’s distressing enough that you seem to have your hooks in him now."

Lila narrowed her eyes and thrust out her chin at the nasty woman. "I don’t have hooks in him. He’s my friend. And he’d be lucky to have me as more."

"He’d be lucky to have a woman that didn’t even know which man had fathered her child? Thank goodness, my son wasn’t involved in that! One of those men wasn’t even remotely fit to be a father. You’re fortunate there was a mix up in the lab with the paternity tests and I decided to go with the better father for that child. Who knows who was really-" Katherine Marques clapped a hand over her mouth.

"What did you just say?"

Episode 623: My Life