A Lily Among Thorns

𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝙵𝙾𝚁𝚃𝚈-𝙵𝙸𝚅𝙴

✞ C E L A I L a C R O I X ✞

Celai watches Kassima and Brian with a huge smile on her face. Kassima catches her and raises an eyebrow. "You okay?" she asks.

"Uh huh! You two look really nice!"

Kassima gives Brian a glance and looks back at Celai. "Uhh, thanks." Her eyes look to Julian, who's beside Celai on the couch with an identical smile. "What do y'all have up your sleeve?"

"Nothing," they both say.

"If they destroy the house while we're gone, we can finally get that new house we've been looking at," Brian whispers loudly.

Celai rolls her eyes with a grin. "We're not going to do anything. Go have fun!" She swats at them playfully.

Kassima gives her one last suspicious look before she picks up her purse. "Don't forget we're only going out to dinner, we won't be gone for the whole night."

"Mom. Go. Please."

"Okay, okay," she says. "We'll be back soon. Bye, my loves."

Her and Brian leave out the front door and in the next instant, Celai jumps up from the couch and goes to the window. She can hear Julian chuckling behind her.

Celai's eyes follow Kassima and Brian as they leave and she snaps the blinds closed. She faces Julian. "We have an hour and a half, two hours at most, to get this place looking good."

"You got that," Julian says, putting his hands behind his head. "You're the interior designer after all."

Celai scowls and throws a pillow at him. "Come on, Jules, don't play with me. You're making my heart hurt. It's their anniversary, everything has to be perfect and I don't have enough time to make it perfect by myself."

"Fineee," Julian says dramatically as he stands from the couch. "You better do the same for our anniversary though."

"We've got a little while until then, but I got you. I'll do this and more."

"What's more?"

Celai smirks, knowing good and well she doesn't know what she'd be doing for their anniversary. "Why would I tell you? That'll ruin the surprise."

"I don't like surprises," Julian says, stepping closer to Celai.

"I think you'll like this one."

"Give me a hint," he says, just inches away from Celai now.

Celai looks up as she thinks for a second. "Okay. It starts with a 'k', ends with an 'iss', and it'll be like this." Celai kisses him softly and feels his lips spread into a smile before she pulls away.

He raises an eyebrow. "You're giving me a kiss for our anniversary?"

Celai laughs and walks away from him. "Dude! It's April and our anniversary is in February, I haven't thought that far ahead."

"Oh I'm 'dude' now?" Julian questions. Celai doesn't have to look at him to know his arms were crossed and he's putting on a fake mad face. "What happened to Jules? Or babe or baby?"