The Night We Met

Chapter 26

Riley's POV:

"Are you sure I look okay?" I ask Piper as I step out of the en suite in the new set of clothes I'd brought, my hair curled and accessories applied. She looks up from her phone where she was sat on the bed and a smile instantly takes its place on her face.

"Does a princess pay to look beautiful?" she asks in response but I failed to understand. Was she being sarcastic?

"Uh, no?" I question awkwardly. She rolls her eyes at me and then gets up before pretty much jumping on top of me the same way she had done earlier as she flings her arms around my neck, making me hold her by the arms so that we don't both topple over.

"You look amazing, Riley," she says, ignoring our previous questions. "James is going to fall for you all over again when he sees you," she tells me, making me blush. "Now come on. Since you're ready, I think it's time I show you the way to your date."

"Are you sure I don't need a little bit more make-up or something?" I ask her, about to turn away and head back into the bathroom. Before I can even take a step in that direction, she pulls me back by the hand and glares at me harshly.

"Riley, the only thing you need right now is confidence. You're perfect, okay. Hasn't James told you that before?" she asks. Trust her to ask that. James and I have only been together for just under two months but thanks to his lies at the beginning of our relationship, his entire family thinks we've been together for just under half a year. They'll be asking about engagements soon enough.

"He has," I mumble, thinking back to last night. She nods her head and smiles, beaming up at me.

"He's not wrong. You just need to understand that," she says. Without another word to be spoken, she drags me by the hand out of the room in my floral shorts jumpsuit, hair bouncing by my shoulders and cream wedge sandals on my feet. "Mom, I'm taking Ri to the Canopy. James told me to show her the way there," she calls to her mother who was relaxing on the sofa with her head rested on her husband's. 

"On your own?" Deborah inquires, sitting up slightly. 

"I'll go with them," John speaks up, smiling in my direction. "We'll take Riley there and then Piper and I will come back after picking up some Chinese or something," he says. He kisses his wife on the lips softly before standing up and grabbing his coat and wallet. "Are we driving or walking?"

"Walking," Piper announces before I even have the chance to deliberate. John raises an eyebrow in my direction but all I do is shrug.

"I'm not wearing heels or anything so it's fine. I can walk."

"It's only five minutes away anyway," Piper says, smiling. She runs away to head into her room to grab a hoody and put on her trainers but as she's gone, I turn my head around to capture Deborah's gaze. She looks me up and down, her face emotionless in the process. But eventually, once her eyes meet mine again, her lips form into a light smile.

"You look fabulous, darling," she tells me, causing me to smile back at her. "Any specific reason for the change?"

"Nope . . . I guess I just wanted to feel a bit more natural and like me," I tell her. It was true. As much as Aiden shaped my thoughts on the way I look, a part of me did change not only to get away from him but for myself. The Riley I used to be.

"Well, I like it," she tells me. "I'm sure James will like this new look too."

Everyone keeps saying that. I just hope they're saying the truth and not lying to me. What if James, deep down, has some sort of personality similar to Aiden's? Maybe he's only attracted me because of my looks which he didn't know were artificial before. Would he still see me the same in these clothes and with this hair? God, I hope so.

"Ready?" Piper calls from where she had departed her room and was now holding her phone in her hand.

"Yeah," I smile. John smiles at me too before we make our way out of the caravan and towards the surrounding woodlands. I hadn't heard from James since he left this morning. I'm hoping he's even still alive.