Eyes full of stars | ✔️

Chapter 5: You found me

"Where were you, where were you?

Just a little late

You found me, you found me"

-The Fray

*

Felicity, Sherlock and I had a tradition: every Sunday, we would have brunch and spend the afternoon together in St. James Park. While Sherlock was splashing around in the lake and playing with other dogs and some ducks, I recounted my meeting with Sebastian to Felicity.

"Oh well" she commented, "I really wasn't expecting you two to have sex on the meeting room table."

I looked at her, my face completely red and hot. "Thank you so much for not considering me an easy girl who goes straight to the point on the first date!" I snapped in a sarcastic tone.

She looked back at me. "It wasn't a date."

"You know what I mean."

"Come on, it would haven't been THAT bad! You have waited for three years!" She turned around to watch the lake, the trees and the animals through her big sunglasses. She was very beautiful, with the long brown hair down on her shoulders, the cream knitted wool hat that I had given her last Christmas protecting her head from the cold air of March. She shrugged. "But I really respect you... and envy you. For your patience. After all that time I would have at least asked for his mobile phone number."

I crossed my arms on my chest and followed her gaze. "It's too soon" I murmured.

"Maybe you're right" she replied. "But just make sure it won't become too late, Lily. And I'm not talking about the phone number only."

Honestly, the recent turn of events was starting to scare me. As long as Sebastian was pretty impossible to reach, all the emotions I felt were breathtaking palpitations when I would see him, burning blushing when I would talk to him and just a quiet feeling of void when I would miss him. Now that he had become more "real" I was worried about both the prospects of being extremely happy and being extremely sad. Our "story" was certainly heading to one of those directions, but I wasn't sure if I was ready to find it out yet.

Silence fell for a while, until I noticed that the sun was setting. It was time to go home.

"Sherlock!" I called, clapping. "Come here, boy!"

My dog, a black and white Border Collie, turned around and looked at me, but instead of obeying to my order, decided to turn his attention to a couple of children running towards the park. My curse was that Sherlock adored children... I knew exactly what was about to happen.

"Sherlock! Don't!"

It was too late. He ran after them outside the lake area and straight into the park.

"Holy shit!" I exclaimed, following him as fast as I could.

Besides the fact that my feet still hurt because of the stupid high heels I chose to wear for my meeting with Sebastian, the path was muddy and full of dead leaves and I wasn't what you would call a fit person. I ran for more than one minute until I noticed that Sherlock had stopped running and was being petted by two men, the children were nowhere to be seen. I stopped and took a breath, bending over and resting my hands on the knees.

"I'm sorry" I said to the two men, gasping. I slowly walked towards them. "I'm really sorry! He is a good dog, he just has a thing for chil--"

I stopped dead, absolutely positive that I was about to have a heart attack.

In that moment, Felicity showed up at my side, gasping like me. "Where is Sherlock?" she asked.

"Right there." I pointed at him. "With Sebastian."

***

I was stuck to the ground, I really could not move, same for Felicity. Sebastian and the guy with him walked towards us, Sherlock happily wagging his tail by their side. Upon seeing and recognizing me, Sebastian slowed down until he stopped right in front of me.

"Lily" he breathed, astonished. He looked at me from head to toe and smiled. "What a surprise!"

He then did something totally unexpected: he came closer to me, touched my shoulder and brushed his cheek against mine. I was ever more petrified than before.

Sebastian bent down to keep on petting Sherlock. "So, this good boy is yours?"

"Yes" I replied. The return of the Exorcist Voice. "His name is Sherlock."

"I love that show" Sebastian commented, leaving Sherlock go and do his business against a tree. Then, in a perfect Benedict Cumberbatch impression, he quoted "Don't talk out loud. You lower the IQ of the whole street" and chuckled.

The guy with him spoke for the very first time. "Sherlock is an adaption of a series of novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle titled Sherlock Holmes, did you know that?"

Sebastian stared at him, hands in his pockets. "Elementary, my dear Watson."

"Actually--" the guy began.

"Sherlock Holmes never said that quote in the books" I finished for him before I could stop myself. "Only in the movies."

I was such a nerd! Damn!

The guy looked at me, probably more astonished than Sebastian had been upon recognizing me. His big amber eyes observed me like I was a very interesting and peculiar thing. He finally seemed to have decided he liked me and his face lit up with a smile so shining that made me blink.

Sebastian cleared his throat. "Lily, may I introduce you to Tobias Reynolds? He's my best friend and coworker."

"Everyone calls me Toby" the other man pointed out, he took my hand and shook it.

"Lily Montgomery."

"Nice to meet you." He turned towards Felicity.

"Oh... she's Felicity Watts. My best friend and housemate" I quickly introduced her, and both Toby and Sebastian shook her hand.

"So, you are Lily" Toby said. "Sebastian told me about you."

I froze.

Felicity came to my rescue. "Yes, Mr. Lavender is showing a huge trust on Lily's skills by giving her this responsibility" she cheerfully commented.

I was lucky to have my best friend right there by my side, someone who knew exactly how I would have reacted in a situation like that... when embarrassment was about to kill me.

"Why shouldn't he be proud of her?" Sebastian smiled. "She's amazing. I was telling Toby that I'm considering to steal Lily from that law firm and hire her as my personal assistant."

I had never fainted in my entire life, but this time I had the feeling I was about to find out how it felt like. Felicity put an arm around me and squeezed me as she burst into laughter. Again, I was so glad to have her there with me.

"Who knows what the future holds?!" she laughed. She turned around. "Sherlock, come here. Let's go home, it's getting late."

The dog, who had been quietly laying on the grass under one tree, got up and obeyed. I leashed him and looked at Sebastian and Toby.

"Well..." I cleared my throat, feeling shier than ever. "We have to go. It was nice seeing you, Sebastian. And meeting you, Toby."

"My pleasure" Toby said, never stop smiling.

"See you tomorrow, Lily" Sebastian said.

They greeted Felicity and Sherlock and off we went. We actually wanted to run away like thieves, but they could have thought we were crazy, and we cared about our dignity. So, we decided to walk like normal people do in a park on a Sunday afternoon.

"I. Can't. Believe. It" Felicity breathed.

"Neither can I" I mumbled.