June 2005, NYU

“You know she hates you, right?” Angelica looked Liam in the eyes.

Zach held up his forefinger and said, “Correction. She hates me.”

“That’s too…humble of you, Zach,” Angelica uttered, batting her eyes. “But I don’t think I can help you.”

“Come on, you know her more than anyone else. Just tell me how to approach her without her turning her back,” Liam begged.

“Why haven’t you done it a long time ago?”

“I tried.”

“No, he didn’t,” Zach contradicted. “Come on, Ange.”

Angelica sighed. “I will try—” The two men leaped on their feet as she finished, “but I will not promise you anything. Chanty is pretty much so into Cameron.”

“He’s a jerk.”

“I agree. But she’s happy with him as of the moment.”

“But you will try, right?”

“Yes.” At that moment, Angelica grinned. “And when Angelica Dalton tries, she rarely ever fails.”

2013

“This is not such a good idea,” Liam whispered beside her.

“I know,” Chanty answered back without moving her lips. She could already feel her friend’s strong presence behind her.

“Hi!”

That tone almost made everyone close their eyes. Julianne was the only one oblivious of what was happening. Cassandra was too busy texting her husband to even notice that Zach was almost at the edge of his seat.

“Hi, my name is Angelica. I’m a friend of everyone here though it is obvious they are anxious of my presence.” Angelica uttered with a big smile as she stood next to Julianne. She was wearing a black dress and red pumps that accentuated her long legs. Her red hair was simply tied at her nape. “I am certain they are thinking I would make a scene.”

“And why is that?” Julianne asked, her face looking amused as she stole Zach a glance.

“Because I usually do that,” Angelica answered honestly without blinking an eye. She looked at Zach and said, “Aren’t you going to offer me a seat, Zachary?”

At her words, Zach immediately stood up and grabbed a chair behind him. He carried it to where Angelica was standing and guided her as she sat down. “You should not have let us bother you. We know you are busy. You didn’t have to come,” he said so with sarcasm.

“Come on. I wouldn’t pass the chance to meet J. Green in person!”

Whenever Angelica was in the room, no one could ever stop her. Well, there was her husband which Chanty was praying would turn up anytime soon for he was the only one who seemed to have the best chance of restraining her.

“So, why are you here?” was the first question she asked the astounded Julianne.

“She’s my girlfriend,” Zach answered instantly, his face proud.

Angelica snorted. “Like hell she is!”

Julianne was about to speak up when Zach countered, “Like hell yes.”

“Like yes you are the president of the country?”

“No, like yes I am the man who is about to ask you to not sit too close to my girlfriend. You’re invading her personal space.”

Angelica looked around the table and at everyone’s face. “He’s not serious, is he? He’s not dating the best author, is he?”

“He’s also going to be her groom anytime soon,” Zach added, winking at Julianne who chose to completely shut her mouth.

Angelica’s mouth fell open. “No, you are not.” She turned to Julianne and asked, “He is? Please tell me he is just some random guy you met somewhere. You can’t be with Zachary Astor!”

“And why is that?” Zach challenged.

“You can’t stay with one woman for a week. And it would break my heart to know that my favorite author is crying her heart out over you.”

“That will never happen.”

“Yeah?”

“Okay, okay, enough!” Chanty said, spreading her arms wide over the table. “You can’t possibly be doing this right now.”

“Julianne is with Zach, Ange. You can’t possibly change that,” Liam uttered dryly.

“And she’s carrying my child,” Zach added and he said it in a way that Chanty could almost taste his pride.

“She is?” Everyone asked except Liam who was obviously aware of the news.

Julianne nodded and said, “Yes.”

“Oh my God! That’s great!” Angelica and Cassandra uttered in unison. “Congratulations!”

The two women reached out to Julianne to hold both her hands. Chanty took the opportunity to stare at Liam. They should be having a good talk about their problem at the moment without all this drama—not that she was not happy to know about Julianne and Zach. She was the one who panicked about Julianne being here in the first place and now she regretted it.

Liam was still looking at her and she motioned her head toward the powder room. She got up and after a few seconds, he followed.

“This should not be happening. We should be talking with Zach right now about my problem,” she said, turning around to face him.

“Don’t talk so loud, they might hear you,” he said, reaching for some strands of her on her face and tucked them behind her ear.

“What are you doing?”

“Cassandra’s looking,” he said, smiling at her. “Philip’s wife can be very perceptive, you know.”

She ignored the fact that Cass and Ange knew about the lie. “I know. But what about what I said? How do you figure we can get rid of them? I can’t talk about our problem with everyone present. Ange would only give us outrageous suggestions and Cass would back her up. We will be wasting a lot of time.” Honestly, she wanted this day to be over despite the excitement she felt over Julianne’s presence. This was one, big, messy lie. Cass and Ange had to leave before they could blurt out something that would give them away.

Liam thought for a moment and while he was doing that, Chanty looked over his shoulder to check what was happening around their table. Cassandra’s attention was now focused on Angelica who was still bantering with Zach while Julianne sat there awed and silent. Angelica was moving her hands around, trying to make a point, wearing disbelief on her face. Zach looked like he was ready to get up and strangle her any moment.

“I have an idea.”

“You better. Zach and Ange are about to kill each other.”

“They always act like that since NYU. You should have gotten used to it,” he said, punching his phone with his thumb.

“What’s your plan?”

He looked at her and winked. “I’m calling the husbands.”

Philip came first and when he entered the door and at the moment Cassandra spotted him, she turned sharply at Chanty with an accusing look. Chanty held up her palms and shrugged her shoulders.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“How did he know where I am?”

“I tracked your phone. I was calling you and you were not answering,” answered her husband, now standing behind his very pregnant wife.

“Philip!” Zach shot to his feet, glad to finally get the chance to ignore Angelica. “It’s nice to see you, man. Let me introduce you to my future bride…”

While Zach was doing the introduction, the door opened once again and Angelica’s husband came in.

“Who called him?” his wife instantly asked, throwing Chanty the same look Cassandra gave her.

“I didn’t. I swear.”

“I heard you’re causing quite a scene.” Henry told her as he neared.

“As she always does,” Zach answered, shaking Henry’s hand. “Meet my girlfriend, Julianne.”

“He can’t help it. He always has to introduce his girlfriend to everyone,” Angelica said, rolling her eyes. “His fiancé, his pregnant girlfriend,” she added dryly.

“We have to go home,” Henry announced without taking a seat.

“Why?”

“You need to do some chores around the house,” Henry answered with a smile.

“When did I ever do that?”

“Never. That’s why you have to follow-up with your mess.”

“Someone told you to take me away from here. Do you know who this is?” She pointed at Julianne. “This is J. Green. She’s my favorite author and you came here to take me away from her presence.”

“It is nice meeting you, Julianne and I am sure we will meet again in a much better circumstance. But right now, is it okay if I take my wife away?” Henry addressed Julianne.

“Uh…sure…” Julianne answered, her face showing exactly how amused she was at the look on Angelica’s face.

“You are impossible!” Angelica stood up, stomping her foot. But before her husband could drag her out of the place, she whirled around and faced Julianne with a big smile saying, “We should really spend more time with each other. And let me tell you that I do regret not knowing you were one of the women in that show. If I knew, I could have stomached seeing Zachary’s face just so I could watch you. But they do have re-runs right? I can watch it all over again and then I can finally see how you made Zachary fall for you and your--”

“Angelica,” Henry said beside her with warning.

“Fine!” She cried out and gave Julianne one last smile.

“You told me you were not going out of the house…” Henry was saying as they left without much of a goodbye from everyone else.

“What?” Cassandra’s voice said. She was looking up at her husband.

“You must have forgotten that we have an appointment with the doctor,” her husband said.

“If you didn’t forget it the last time, we wouldn’t have to come today,” she pointed out, but stood up anyway.

“We have to go, guys,” Philip said to the group. “It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Grey,” he said to Julianne.

“Please, just Julianne,” Julianne answered.

“But never Jules,” Zach inserted.

“Nice to meet you. Ange was right. We should really hang out together soon,” Cassandra uttered before they left.

“Oh my God,” Chanty gushed when the couple walked out the door.

“What?” Zach and Liam asked.

“Ange forgot the book! I should have known she wouldn’t get it and come right over here instead!”

“I’m sure we will see each other again soon,” Julianne reassured her.

“Can we now talk about what we should do with Cameron?” Chanty asked.

Liam shrugged. “Sure.”

“Man, you really want to get rid of Cameron that bad,” Zach stated with a laugh. “You have always hated that guy ever since he started--” but Chanty didn’t hear the rest of his words because he stopped and quickly took Julianne’s coffee and drank it up.

“What do you mean?” Chanty asked.

“Nothing,” Zach answered with a cough. “I just meant that we had always hated that guy. You have always been too good for him, Chanty.”

She did not answer but eyed him suspiciously. Zach was never a good liar. His eyes always gave him away. She transferred her gaze to Julianne but the lady just shrugged. And when she looked at Liam, her curiosity reached the roof. Something was definitely going on that she didn’t know.

He wanted to strangle his friend for almost spilling the beans. Zach had always known he still had this thing for Chanty, but it didn’t matter now. All he wanted to do was to get to know his son and the only way to do that was to get rid of Cameron. And if he could do that, Chanty could live her life the way it had always been. She deserved a life without Cameron in it and Liam was going to make sure that she got it no matter what.

Chanty couldn’t find out about his past feelings for her either  because if she did, she would think he only wanted Willie because of his own selfish reasons. He had to prove himself first. But proving he was a better man would also be a challenge after what that bastard Cameron did to her. Liam was certain that she had reservations. She had put a wall around her that no man could easily climb over.

He just got lucky that he was Willie’s real father and he would be happy to play the part. But how willing would Chanty be if she found out about his past feelings toward her? That was why she couldn’t know. She would totally freak out.