The Queen's Dilemma

Ch. 18: Explosion of Leaves

Rani couldn't believe it when Matt and Charlie discussed about what happened in the room.

"You should have seen her face Ms. Rani, oh-em-gee, it was insane." Charlie giggled to herself as she recounted how and what Holly had inherited.

"Are you okay?" Rani asked Matt.

"I'm fine. Just a little...worried." His eyes turned up, as if the anxiety in his voice had attacked them.

"Why?"

He whispered, "Holly's the kind of person who likes to get her own way with things. If she doesn't, she'll make sure she gets back."

"You don't have anything to worry about then, right?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. We'll see."

They went back to his place for his famous lasagna. Charlie couldn't stop gushing about making it and how she was going to show Rani the perfect way to layer. As she took out the needed items and set up the oven, Rani watched Matt.

He let them take over the kitchen, while he stuck to the sofa reading through some of the papers the lawyers had given him. Every now and then, he'd mutter to himself while shaking his head.

"I didn't know he wore glasses," Rani whispered.

Charlie's face shot up from where she balanced the noodles on a pile of ricotta. "Huh?"

"He wears glasses?" Rani hadn't seen that kind of style since the nineties. They were wide, with a thin frame that kept slipping down his nose.

"Only when Dad needs to read tiny letters. Come on, help me with the noodles."

Something jump-started Rani's brain; men who looked good in suits and glasses were another sore weakness for her.

He was wearing both. He even rolled up the slightly oversized sleeves, driving her heart insane.

Her list of weaknesses kept increasing around Matt.

Charlie slid the lasagna into the oven with a bang before rushing over to her room. "I've got homework to do. I'll see you in a little bit."

Matt nodded somewhat absentmindedly, not looking up from his papers and waving his hand away.

Even when Rani sat next to him and laid her head on his shoulder, he didn't look up. When she intertwined her fingers with his, he returned it.

"You okay?" she asked.

"I don't understand a damn thing written in this document." He showed her a contract, listing out every stipulation that Charlie would have to jump through to get her money, if she were to need it before she turned eighteen.

Rani ran through it briefly. "You both need to meet with those lawyers soon and get along with them. Lawyers on your side will go to any length to make sure you win."

"Do you really think we really need them?"

"If Holly got that humiliated, then yes. People can and will still sue, even if they know they'll lose. It's an ego thing."

He shook his head again, before looping an arm around her. "Thanks for coming."

"I really don't think I did anything helpful." All she'd done was play on her phone the entire time they were in the room.

The only excitement she had was when Holly slammed the door; flushed with something like anger; her tomato face muttered something unintelligible before she stormed out of the building.

"Trust me. Knowing you were there was good enough." He kissed her forehead.

Butterflies bumped around in her chest, threatening to make a giggle escape. She hoped the giddy feeling would never leave