21

Rosalinda glanced around her diner a final time, as she was about to open it back up for business on the bright and chilly morning.

She was happy Alistair agreed with her on the homey feeling, as they moved things around and allowed her to put couches and coffee tables in the shop.

She glanced over at her employees, as they were already getting everything set back up and together. Rosalinda made sure to leave two spots open for Berkleigh and a guest she may bring in with her.

She noticed Alistair sitting on one of the couches, texting away. The woman simply rolled her eyes and opened the doors to the new diner.

She began to smile and interact with her customers, new ones as well, as they began to flood inside and make their way to the new tables and seats all around.

The diner was a hit, as people complemented on the new set up and the feel of the place, loving the new couches and seats all around.

Rosalinda smiled more when Berkleigh walked in hand-in-hand with a taller man, who seemed to be about 6'2. His blue eyes scanned the place, as his dark black curls fell a bit into his eyes when he moved his head around and caught a glimpse of Rosalinda, smiling widely over to her.

He began to be dragged by the woman attached to his hand to two empty seats, causing Rosalinda to quickly race over to the two and lean against the counter in front of them.

"Hi! What can I get'cha?" She asked with a bright smile, as Berkleigh was about to answer, but Alistair leaned between the two.

"Another black coffee and a kiss, please." He hummed, as Rosalinda rolled her eyes and stuck her hand in his face. She than began to push it away, and turned her attention back to the two, the blue eyed man laughing a bit at the scene.

"Could I have a coffee with three shots of expresso and a crumb muffin?" He asked, as Rosalinda wrote down the order, as she felt two arms wrap around her waist and a chin rest on her shoulder. She continued to ignore the pestering male, as Berkleigh snickered at her pouting older brother and looked at Rosalinda.

"I'll have the same, but lots of cream and sugar for my coffee please! And also, this is my boyfriend, Oliver Westbay." Berkleigh introduced, as Rosalinda shook his hand and exchanged a greeting. She stuck her pen back into her apron, and gave the couple a wide smile.

"Give me 15 minutes and I'll be back!" She hummed, as she tried to move away, but was held back by the pouting man behind her.

"Alistair, I have customers and you know how I feel about any PDA." She sighed and turned to face him, as his bottom lip hung out a bit.

"But, I just want a simple kiss and coffee." He whined, as Rosalinda pecked his lips, and took his coffee cup. She filled his and two more for his sister and her boyfriend, giving them their order and his, before rushing back out into the sea of people.

"You're annoying! You can't let the small woman work without bugging her?" Berkleigh snickered to her brother, as he leaned against the counter in front of the pair and narrowed his eyes.

"She loves it when I bug her for kisses. But sadly I didn't get the kiss I wanted." He sighed, as Oliver began to laugh a bit and sip his coffee.

"Well, she does own the most popular establishment in town, so she's trying to make everyone as happy and comfortable as possible so they come back." He hummed, taking another sip.

Alistair rolled his eyes and mumbled something under his breath. He then head off, finding an open seat, thankfully, in the midst of people, about to sit down, until his arm was grabbed and moved away from it.

"Hey!" He huffed, looking at the tan hand that grabbed him and began to pull him towards her office. She then unlocked it and pushed him inside with a crumb muffin and a to go cup of coffee, in case he wanted another.

"Sorry, you're not a paying customer, so you can sit in here and not take up so much space." She said, giving him an apologetic look. The man raised a brow, about to protest, until she gently kissed his lips and pulled away.

"I'll come see you when the rush dies down. Just eat a yummy muffin!" She hummed, closing the door behind herself once she left. The man huffed for the 100th time that day, taking a seat behind her desk, as he began to munch on the muffin.

***

About two hours later Rosalinda entered the room with a wide smile on her face, as Alistair looked up from the email on his phone with a smile.

"Finally, I thought you'd never come to see me." He sighed, as Rosalinda moved around the desk to lean on the back of it in front of him.

"Yeah, yeah. But, seriously I needed you to go away. You're bad for business, trying to stop me from doing my job and making sure my customers, and your sister, are happy." She scolded, as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, I wanted to be near you and to see how you were doing on the first day back." He tried to argue, as she shook her head with a small laugh.

"It's not helpful when I have you acting like a monkey, trying to hang onto my back." She teased, as he laughed along with her and leaned back in the seat.

"I'm sorry, I just wanna be near you." He replied, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her to sit in his lap. The woman relaxed, laying her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes for a moment.

"Mmm...We can hang out later, I need to stay focused on the tasks ahead of me." She said, as Alistair took her up on the offer to cuddle later.

The two continued to sit and talk for a while longer, until the woman got up from his lap, and stretched.

"Welp, I can hear the door continuing to open and close, so it's back to work!" She smiled widely, pecking his lips. Alistair tried to grab her and tell her to stay a bit longer. She managed to just be out of arms reach a few moments later, and shut the door behind herself, as the man sighed.

"Alone, again..." He spoke aloud in the empty room, as he began to look around the dingy office.

He thought for a moment about what he could do, until a thought popped into his head about maybe helping Rosalinda redo her apartment, like he helped redo her diner.

He smiled widely at the bright idea, and began to make calls and right down a couple of thoughts on what he could do to help her, which ultimately led him to decide to buy her a new apartment, with more rooms and space for her to move around in. He began to look for apartments closer to his house, as some of them may be on the more pricey side, but had no problem possibly buying and helping her pay for the cost of living there.

***

After the last couple of customers left, Rosalinda locked up the diner with a large sigh of relief for the day to be over.

She watched her employees help her clean up the place and head over to help as well. After about another half hour, her employees left, as she finished up the last few details and messes laying around.

She decided to see what Alistair was up to, walking into her office, about to yell loudly and tell him a joke, but quickly stopped herself.

She looked at the sleeping man on the desk, papers laying underneath his arms and head. She walked over and looked at him a bit more, until a couple of the papers caught her eye.

She gently pulled some of them out, and saw that he had bought a new apartment along with furniture. She raised a brow, wondering why he would want a new home, when he lived in a huge ass mansion. She decided to wake him up and ask, until the papers were snatched from her hands.

"You weren't supposed to look at those!" The businesses man yelled and began to cover up more papers.

The Maltese woman held her hands to her chest, trying to calm down her racing heart from him scaring the crap out of her. She watched with humor as he messily hid the papers away, and rested her hands on her hips.

"Oh yeah? And why's that?" She snickered, as he sighed and pulled out his phone.

"Well, I might as well tell you..." He mumbled, handing her his phone, as she flipped through pictures of the beautiful and spacious apartment.

"Wow, why'd you buy this? You have a house. A huge one, might I add." She snickered, handing him the phone back.

"Well...It's your's. I thought you might want a new one, so, I was able to get you out of the lease at your old and dingy apartment and get you a new one with a pretty view! I have people packing and moving your things now, so we can go over and see how it's decorated later today when they're done! I thought we could go back to my house and-"

"Hold the fuck up. So you just assumed I wanted a new apartment and made the decision to move me out of my home and into a new one? Oh yeah, no biggie, let's just move me around how you please! Oh yes, you might as well take over how I live my life! Should I ask if I can take the next breath I need to breath?!" The woman's voice rose, as her face began to turn red.

"What else do you wanna change in my life?! Huh?! I mean, you already changed two of my homes, change my third! Should my mother have more an American accent, huh?! I mean that's the last home I have that hasn't seemed to change yet! You might as well do it while you're on this rampage!" She screamed, as Alistair shrunk back in the seat a bit at her sudden outburst.

"Well, I thought it would be nice-"

"See! That's one of your issues! You don't think all the way through about what other people may want! Maybe you should learn how to ask things first than just assume! Like always!" She scoffed, sitting on the floor and taking a couple deep breathes.

She rubbed her templates as the two sat there quietly in the small office. Rosalinda was about to open her mouth to apologize, until her phone began to go off.

She held a finger up to Alistair, as he nodded, as she noticed the hospital calling. She quickly answered and began to pace the room. She answered happily, hoping it was good news about her mother's kemo, until her face fell.

She stopped pacing and began to look more pale in the face and shake a bit. Alistair raised a brow and stood up, about to ask what was wrong, until she hung up the phone, grabbing Alistair and shaking him a bit.

"I need you to get me to the hospital! Now!" She screamed, as tears began to fall down her cheeks.

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Oh no! Not a great way to end a chapter but definitely leaves you on a cliffhanger! Lemme know what you thought of this chapter! :)

Vote and Comment please!