Ellison Taylor

"I doubt he would want to.." Brent said, nonchalantly.

"Why?" Marilyn asked, huffing.

"He's taken.." he said. What is he trying to imply.

"By who?" Edith asked.

"Ellison."

My mouth dropped open. I didn't expect Brent to say something like that. Marilyn give me a dirty glance.

"He came to talk to me.." Brent started.

"He did what?" I asked.

"We met up for lunch yesterday."

"You did not." I said.

"We did.." he give me a look that he will explain to me later.

I can't believe he did that. I know he wanted to talk to Brent, but I thought he would let me know when he does that.

"What are you guys talking about?"

"Nothing that you should be concern about." Brent smiled, but his smile doesn't reach his eyes.

Edith pouted at the lack of response to her question. Our lunch went better than expected. While Marilyn bragged about her work as an influencer all Brent and I could do was give each other blank look. We are so out of social media's now. We don't use social media's often anymore.

After lunch Brent said we can go sight seeing. We went to the High museum of Art- Edith and Marilyn of course didn't care much and took pictures of the places and Edith wanted to do a sudden live video thing with her followers.

"I'm out of the video." I said and stepped back.

"Me too." Brent said with raised hands.

"Brent, I will get new followers quickly if you feature in my followers. A good looking doctor in my videos will boost my viewers!" Edith whined.

"Sorry.." he said sticking to his decision. Edith pouted.

While the two sisters was busy with their live stream. Brent decided to fill me in with details, right here in this place of all places.

"He called me up Friday midnight. He should be glad I was just done with work. He wanted to talk and initially at first I said No, but he said you guys just hanged out and will be hanging out tomorrow again and maybe much more. I decided why not! And well, we had lunch. He was genuinely nice to nice and was honest about his feelings. I doubt that guy has changed but then I can see his changes. He has grown a lot in these years. Seeing him talk openly about how much he cares for you. I doubt any guy will have the guts to come and talk to me about that. He said that I'm an important person in your life which is why he wants to make sure we were okay."

"So you are buddies with him now?" I raised my eyebrow at him. He shake his head and laugh.

"I warned him If he tries funny business with you again. I will not hold back with my punches and he said he will make sure that I don't have to do that." He sighed and looked at me. "They say people change, I don't know if he really change for good or he is just fooling around again, but all I want to say is be careful. You are old enough to make decisions and I hope you make wiser decisions and hope you two will think of each other's and your own feelings when making a decision. Your own true feelings shouldn't be thrown away for other's happiness. I know we want to please and make people happy, but let's not forget our own feelings and happiness."

"Thank you Brent, I'll keep these things in mind." I said.

"I hope you do, buddy." He give me a side hug.

"Let's go!!" Marilyn called out.

"Absolutely forgot about the queen." He said.

"Hey!!" I said chuckling and he smiled.

I got a text from Claire- finally! She had to go for a business trip and was out of town.

"Hey, what's up? What's the plan tomorrow?"

"After breakfast, we are going to Centennial Olympic Park and then to world of coco-cola and then we are going for lunch and some shoppings and then they have to meet some of their friends.."

"Okay cool. I'll see you at your place after breakfast?"

"Cool." I texted her.

"Hey.." Ian texted me and my heart skipped a beat. Jeez, I need to control myself. It's just a text.

"Hi." I replied back.

"Are we meeting up later?" He asked.

"Maybe tomorrow?" I asked.

"I want to meet today." He replied.

I bit on my lip thinking of our plan. We have to go for early dinner before going to the park for live music.

"I can just drop by for few minutes, just to talk. Please..." he said and I know he doesn't say that often.

"Okay, there is a live music show that is taking place in Downtown later. I'll text you the address. Meet me there?"

"Okay." He replied back. "Stay safe."

"Let's go, Ellison. We don't have the time in the world." Marilyn said while rolling her eyes.

We went to the steakhouse for dinner. So far, we all are polite with each other. Never forgetting our 'please' and 'thank you' mannerism and I can see my grandma's approval face and I shake it away.

"So far, how do you like it here?" Brent asked.

"Could have been better." Marilyn said. "Edith and I are going to the Hollywood the coming Sunday."

"Nice." He said. "I told Ellison we should go on vacation too." He looked at me.

"We can.." I said.

"You're sure?" He asked surprised.

"I still have vacation days left." I said.

"Perfect." Brent said.

After our dinner, Brent cheerfully walked out of the restaurant. He is way more excited than any of us with this live music thing.

I texted Ian that we were on our way to which he replied, "I'm almost there."

Brent parked his car in an underground parking lot before we head upstairs and walked to the Main Street.

"Ian is here, too." I said to Brent and he shrugged.

"Okay, cool." Was all he said.

I see Ian standing near the signal. He looked around like a lost child in that crowd. When he saw me, I waved at him and he waved back. When the signal turned green for the pedestrian to walk. I couldn't help but walk quickly. He give me a quick hug before greeting Brent.

"Are you guys a thing again?" He asked.

Ian and I looked at each other. We didn't spoke about this matter. I think we should.

"Hello." Marilyn interrupted us. "Sorry about yesterday. We were a little intoxicated at that time. My name is Marilyn but people call me Lyn." She greets him with flirty looks and I looked at Ian who give her a bored look. I doubt anyone could ignore her flirty look or ways, but there's always a first.

"Ian." He said and pulled me for a back hug.

"I'm Edith." She introduced herself half-heartedly. She was more interested in taking pictures.

"Let's go.." Brent said.

"I have to steal Ellison for a while." Ian said apologetically.

"I have my eyes on you." Brent said and looked at our cousins. "Leave them alone."

They followed Brent quietly.

"Hi." He said.

"Hi.." I said with a shy smile.

"You left me this morning?" He pouted a bit.

"Yes." I said.

"What did Zoey say to you?"

"Did you speak to her?"

"She thought you were a one night stand." His jaw tensed and his eyes blazed with sudden anger.

"What was she doing at your place?" I asked.

"She came to drop the painting that I purchased from her show."

"I see.." I said. "She fancy you."

"More like one side thing." He said. "I promise, I don't have any feelings for her."

"What are we, now?" I asked.

"Well, like I said from the beginning.. I wanted to be more than friends. I'm just waiting here for you." He said nervously.

"I like you." I said after a long silence. "I can't deny that."

"I feel the same way.." he whispered.

"But I'm scare.. it's too nice to be true."

"I'm scare too.. I'm scare I will do something stupid and you will walk away again from me. I made mistakes and I learnt from it. I want to try to be better for you. I may make mistakes again, but I just want you to trust me."

I could hear the music behind us. It was way too loud and the crowds was energetic as they screamed as loudly as the music.

"Let's work together on it." I said.

His eyes widened. "You are willing to give this a try?"

I nodded my head. "Are you?"

"I'm more than ready." He said excitedly.

"Then we can try." I smiled.

I hope it won't turn out to be sour like years back. All I can do is to hope that everything will be better.

Author's Note: Thank you for reading this book, please give this chapter a Vote. Next update will be tomorrow ❤️