Catching Up

"Ooh, here comes the next Mrs. Walter~"

Lily scowled as she took her seat, glaring lightly at the two grinning women seated across her. "I see that the both of you have heard about that too,"

"I think the whole world's heard about that by now Lils." Alaska Hart let out in a delighted laugh, "Not gonna lie, I find it completely ironic that out of the three of us you ended up being the first to get married."

Cathy nodded in agreement, her red-coloured bangs bobbing as she did. "Especially since you were always insisting that you would probably end up being the last to even get a boyfriend. And now look at you!"

"Okay, look, in my defense, I never planned this." Lily defended, "besides how was I supposed to know that the guy would just up and propose to me?! Right in public too! We've probably only met twice before this! Twice!"

"So it's a love at first sight story." Alaska stated with a teasing grin, fingers absentmindedly tapping at her latte glass. "Somehow that suits you, after all this time too. Besides, you are the hopeless romantic one out of the three of us,"

"Hey!"

"What? It's not like I'm lying," the blonde retorted as she sipped carefully on her drink. "You are a hopeless romantic, remember your crush on-"

"We do not talk about him!" Lily interrupted, cheeks reddening at the pointed looks she received. "It's a stupid crush anyway, it's even stupider that I couldn't give up the crush even after I heard he had a girlfriend after we met up."

"Never stopped me from hoping he broke up with the girl and got together with you," Cathy threw in completely straight-faced, face breaking into a smile at Lily's embarrassed shout of "Cath!" as Alaska broke into a fit of laughter. "But I guess I wouldn't need to do that anymore, after all you're about to get married now." She added with a pointed look at the gleaming ring on Lily's hand.

The brunette blinked, shifting her own attention to the pink diamond that laid innocently on her left ring finger. When she had gone over their agreement with Conrad she had asked various questions, including his reasoning on choosing the ring.

'Why pink?"

Conrad blinked at the brunette who was flipping through the contracts diligently from where she was seated on the sofa of his office. "What?"

"Why a pink diamond?" Lily clarified without looking up from where she was reading through the parts stating her obligations in this agreement. "For the engagement ring. Which first of I'm not sure if I even want to know how you got my ring size, but why'd you choose a pink diamond for the ring? If this was all going to be a play of relationship wouldn't a normal diamond be enough?"

When she received no reply from the Walter heir, Lily glanced up only to find the man staring straight at her. Startled and growing embarrassed at the attention, the brunette could feel her cheeks flush, "What?" Lily asked defensively, the slightest hint of a pout on her face. "Do I not get to know the reason why this ring ended up being my engagement ring?"

"...There was no particular reason, I just didn't want my fiancée to have a common engagement ring. Besides, a pink diamond is nothing for me," The man finally replied before turning his attention back to the papers he had been pouring over.

"I see," Lily hummed. She had expected such a reasoning, after all whether they liked it or not the Walter family does have a reputation to uphold.

"....And I figured it would suit you,"

The brunette's head snapped up at the nearly whispered words, although the raven haired man stubbornly kept his eyes on the computer Lily was able to spot the slightest hint of red on the tips of his ear.

Slowly her lips quirked into a soft shy smile, "I see."

Lost in her thoughts, Lily was unaware that the same exact smile was currently painted on her face, something that was easily noticed by her friends who shared a look with one another. "Well," Alaska drawled, a playful lit in her voice. "I guess we could skip the questions on how you feel about him and get straight to how he treats you,"

Snapped out of her thoughts, Lily shifted her attention towards her eager friends, a thoughtful expression on her face. "He's surprisingly been quite the gentlemen so far. To be honest, he isn't at all what I expected or quite like what the media portrayed him to be. But in all fairness all the times we've went out so far has been with Michael,"

"Well, if anything it seems he is a good father?" Cathy offered with a slight shrug. "Which I'm taking as pretty good signs for a husband-to-be,"

"One thing I know for certain is that he adores Michael. It's a miracle that the boy turned out this well-mannered when Conrad spoils him rotten, he's such a cute child too."

"Lils, you do realize that his son is basically a carbon copy of himself, you saying that he's cute is basically saying that Conrad Walter is cute." Alaska pointed out with a teasing grin.

"Look, I may think he's a jerk and narcissistic but I'm not blind okay. Not acknowledging that he's handsome is like being in denial."

This time it was the redhead's turn to aim a teasing smile at the brunette. "So, how are you holding up being the future Mrs. Walter?"

Lily buried her face in her hands and let out a muffled response, it took several nudges from her friends to convince the brunette to actually speak aloud. Taking a deep breath she began, "You know how the guy has a British accent right? And that I have a thing with that specific accent because of how I used to have a Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who phase?" When she received answering nods she continued, "....the guy calls me pet names with his goddamn British accent."

There was a few seconds of silence before both Cathy and Alaska broke out into laughter. "Oh shut up okay," Lily groaned, leaning her face on her hand dejectedly. "You try handling a handsome guy calling you "love" every time you meet him without your brain short-circuiting,"

"Robert and I are way past that phase." Alaska retorted, scoffing lightly. "Though, we're not big on pet names in the first place,"

Cathy hummed. "Well, you both know how Niels is, I had to endure his pet names too and from what you said the pet names he called me seems way more embarrassing to hear, especially in public."

The brunette laughed, although she couldn't disagree that in the pet names department she got off lighter when compared to Cathy. "How are Robert and Niels by the way?"

"Good, busy as always with work. He said that he'll have to go on a business trip again soon so there's that," Alaska responded, gazing down fondly on her own engagement ring that stood out prominently against her pale skin. The two had recently gotten engaged themselves with plans to marry within the next year, something that had always been a matter of when and not if, especially since they had been dating since they were in high school.

"Niels is doing good too," Cathy tacked on with a bright smile. "He's still pretty down about the fact that we have to do long distance for a bit, but it's unavoidable right now seeing as how I'm currently working here and he has his own work back in the Netherlands."

"That's good to hear then, it's too bad that you guys will have to go through long distance but you can always visit each other and do calls."

"Alright, enough about us." Alaska chimed in, impatiently. "Tell us more about you and that fiancé of yours. How does it feel to be going on dates with a billionaire? Has he made moves on you? How far have you gone? How was it? I bet that he made the first move,"

"One, rude. Two, you're only asking because you want to know if I slept with the guy aren't you?" Lily accused, eyes narrowing when the blonde spoke of neither a confirmation or rejection. "Alaska! I haven't even known the guy for a month! Why in the world would you assume that I've slept with the man?!"

"Hey! You never know? I wouldn't even blame you if you did! I mean look at him. I'd bet that woman throw themselves at his feet daily for the chance to spend even one night with him."

"I am not sleeping with a guy that I barely know." The brunette stressed out, "and even if I did, I'm sure as hell not telling you!"

"So you did have sex with him!"

"I just told you I didn't!"

------------------------

Lily flopped onto her tiny apartment couch feeling drained, although it was mostly the good kind of tired, the ones you get when you just want to curl up under the blankets and take a nap after a good day. It had taken her nearly an entire hour to get Alaska to drop the subject about her and Conrad sleeping together and that was without Cathy's own prodding into the subject herself. Thankfully, she had managed to keep yesterday's incident under wraps, it would have been impossible to get the two to drop the subject had they known she did slept -purely sleeping mind you, Hell she didn't even knew it was happening until later- with the raven haired man.

She had barely spent a few minutes relaxing when her phone rang, blindly reaching for the device Lily let out a low groan at the sight of the bright "Conrad" caller id.

"What?"

There was a low chuckle that sounded from the receiver. "Hello to you too love, I see that someone's grouchy,"

"Conrad, I was seconds away from falling asleep when you called me this better be important."

"Well then it seems that I have excellent timing, because we have dinner plans with my parents in about 30 minutes so you need to get ready."

Lily sat up abruptly, all traces of her previous sleepiness having vanished at the words. "And you're just telling me about this now?!"

"If I told you any sooner you would've came up with some excuse to not attend." The man responded matter-of-factly, Lily hated the fact that couldn't even refute his words however it was his next few words that resulted in a raise eyebrow. "Go get ready, I'm a few minutes away from your place,"

"Should I be concerned about how you know where I live?"

"I'm your fiancé, love, I know everything there is to know about you."

"You're more of a stalker that's what you are," the brunette scoffed, the sigh she received in return cause her to grin. "But alright I'll play along, give me a few minutes to get ready. Where are we going?"

"No can do love, that would ruin the surprise and I promised both Michael and my mother that I would keep it a secret from you." Conrad responded, laughing at Lily's annoyed huff. "Dress up nice but nothing too extravagant, all I can say is that we're going to a rather upscale restaurant."

"Alright," Lily hummed in acknowledgement at the provided hint. "Let me know when you're nearby and I'll meet you outside." Ending the call she rummaged through wardrobe for an appropriate outfit, before finally settling on a floor length champagne pink strapless dress. The dress had a high-cut slit just shy of being scandalous that began mid-way on her thigh that would expose her leg when she walked. A design decision that Lily had initially protested against but was easily ignored by Alice who insistent that it would suit her when she had been gifted the dress months prior.

"You've got killer legs Lils," the designer insisted. "You've got to show them off more!"

Initially Lily had continued to protest against the dress having both a high-cut slit and a strapless design but she eventually caved to Alice's insistence.

The sudden sound of her ringtone snapped her out of her thoughts. Eyes widening at the time flashing across the screen, Lily rushed to the bathroom to change and get ready. She's gonna need all the time she could get to prepare if she was going to meet her in-laws today. After all, she needs to leave a good impression on them, even if this is a contract relationship.