Happy Birthday to me🤗

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I help Zayneb get her suitcases upstairs and decide to call Shawn again when I let Zayneb settle into the guest room. He doesn't pick up and I send him a short message, letting him know I'm a little worried. 

I sit down on the couch and Aristo sits down next to me, resting his head on my leg. I pet his head and he closes his eyes a little.

'Liz. Look.' Zayneb holds her left hand in front of my face.

I see a shining ring with a big diamond around her ring finger. I grab her wrist and look at the beautiful ring. She has a big smile on her face.

'He proposed two days ago!' She says with a high pitched voice.

'I'm so happy for you!' I say with a big smile.

Who would've ever thought that Ludovic fucking Ryder would get married to my best friend? Yet again, there are a lot of things most of us would've never thought of but still happen all the time... 

Like Shawn Mendes disappearing out of fucking nowhere! I inhale sharply, trying to push my thoughts away.

'And I need to tell you something else...' She sits down across from me, petting Aristo's back.

'Please don't tell me you're moving halfway across the world?' I hold my breath, waiting for her answer.

'No!' Her leg moves up and down. 'I'm having triplets!'

My eyes widen. She is having triplets?! There will be three babies instead of one coming out of her in a few months?

'That's fucking awesome!' I yell, grabbing her hand.

'I know right!' Her whole face shines.

We mostly talk about her and Ludovic. She tells me what a delight he is and how nice he is to her. All the romantic gestures he does for her. If I didn't know him myself, I would start to think she's engaged to an angel.

'And the best part is... it doesn't bother him that I'm pregnant from another man.'

'That's nice, Zayneb. I'm really happy for you.'

She looks at me, studying my sad face. I am happy for her, but I just have this terrible feeling that everything in my life is falling apart. 

Maybe I'm overreacting and everything between Shawn and me is fine. I try to tell myself he just went to the dry cleaner, to clean his clothes... and toothbrush... and shaving cream... 

I mean, who am I kidding? Maybe he left me and he's not coming back, but what have I done to him that he decided to leave me? We made up yesterday, how could he leave me without telling me?

'Elizabeth!' Zayneb shouts.

'Yes.' I respond.

'Talk to me. What's going on?' She sits down next to me and wraps her arm around my shoulder.

'I think Shawn left me.' I whisper, standing up to grab the rose in the bathroom.

'What do you mean?' I hear her say from the living room.

I grab the rose and look for the note I saw thirty minutes ago, but it's not there. I look in the sink, behind it, on the ground, in the other cabinets, but nothing. It's gone. 

I decide to grab the rose and show it to Zayneb. Maybe I am the only one seeing it as a goodbye present.

'He took everything he had at my place, so I thought, maybe, he went back to Amsterdam?'

Zayneb nods as I hand her the rose.

'But when I got there, a guy told me Shawn rented the place to him two weeks ago. With a contract and all.' I sit down on the couch. 

'And when I call him, he doesn't pick up. My messages are not delivered. I'm starting to freak out Zayn.'

'Ok... I can understand why... but what does this rose have to do with it?' She spins the pedicel around between her fingers.

'I have no idea... just before you arrived there was a note underneath it. Would you let it die or let it grow? It said, but just now when I looked for it, it was nowhere to be found.'

'It's probably from Shawn... So? Would you let it die or let it grow?'

'Deciding on how I feel at the moment?' She nods with a soft smile. 

'I want to burn it and flush it through the toilet.' I say, anger clear in my voice.

'Ok!' She sighs. 'I'll hold onto it for now before you'll do things you might regret later.' She chuckles.

-

The next morning I get up and decide to go to the gym again to release myself of some building anger. 

I still haven't heard anything from Shawn, but I just can't sit still and cope with this as a normal person would.

I open the door of the guest room and tell Zayneb I'll be back in two hours. She moans something about chicken nuggets and I laugh before closing the door again.

I drive to the gym and put on my boxing gloves when I finish changing my clothes. Amir walks up to me and asks if I want to train with him.

'Yeah, that's cool. You're wearing the pads.' I climb in the same ring I was standing in yesterday with Adriana.

I start hitting the pads Amir is holding up for me. It goes well, I don't lose control and when I'm done training with him I decide to punch a punching bag. I give Amir a quick hug before I climb out of the ring. He is the guy that has been training me over the last three years.

I start punching the big bag hanging from the ceiling. My anger towards Shawn starts to rise now I know I can't physically hurt someone. Every punch I land hurts my soul. 

I knew I shouldn't have let my suspicion go after Madrid. 

I punch again. 

I knew he was hiding something! 

I punch again. 

Why did I have to fall in love? I told myself not to fall in love!

I punch the bag six times, making it swing back and forth. 

But his stupidly handsome face had to show up at my office, making me doubt everything I stood for! 

I groan and punch as hard as I can, realizing tears are rolling down my cheeks.

'Are you ok, Liz?' Amir puts his hand on my shoulder and I nod.

'Yeah, yeah, I'm fine.' I pull at the velcro around my wrist.

I take the boxing gloves off and put them in my bag before leaving the gym. 

I pick up breakfast on my way back home and when I look at the time I see I have been away for three hours and it's already noon.

'Lucifer. Leave a message.' Lucifer's voicemail beams through my car.

I sigh loudly, hanging up without saying anything. I wanted to ask him what he's doing tomorrow. I thought it would be nice to bring everyone to the fair out of the city. Might be nice for Zayneb too.

I park my car in the parking lot and hear my footsteps echo through the garage as I walk to the door leading to the lobby. The elevator ride up seems to take forever and when it finally stops at my floor I walk to my door. 

Just when I put my keys in the lock to open it, I hear two people moaning and groaning from inside my apartment. I take a step back and listen if it's not coming from my neighbours, but no, it's coming from inside my house! 

I frown and turn my key in the lock, not really knowing what to expect.

'Oh yes!' I hear Zayneb yell.

I start to gag. I love Zayneb, but I don't want to hear her having sex. 

Did Ludovic fly over from Scotland just to see her? I look through my apartment and my eyes stop at my couch. All I see is the muscled back of a man, laying on top of Zayneb and I just know it isn't Ludovic. 

Her hands are roaming his back and I gag again. I don't ever want to see other people having sex, especially not Zayneb. And on my couch nonetheless!

Suddenly I spot Lucifer's leather jacket on a stool next to the kitchen island. I frown and look at the man with the exact same hair colour as me. My eyes get big and I see the birthmark on his shoulder, realizing it's my brother who's making love to my best friend who is engaged to my it's-really-complicated-kind-of-ex.

'What the fuck!' I yell, closing the door behind me.

'Oh shit.' I hear Zayneb whisper.

I throw my bags onto the ground and run to my room, grabbing some clean sheets to throw over their naked bodies.

'What the fuck!' I yell again.

'Liz, we can explain.' I hear Lucifer say.

A few seconds later I turn to look at them, my eyes big and my heart racing in my chest. Lucifer looks down at his feet, the sheet wrapped around his waist.

'Pull that sheet up! I don't want to fucking see you half-naked!' I yell, looking away from his upper body.

He looks at me, cheeks red. He pulls the sheets up and turns around, wrapping it around his shoulders. Zayneb sits up from the couch with her hair all messy. 

I close my eyes and inhale sharply. How am I supposed to handle a situation like this? She is fucking engaged! She is pregnant and engaged!

'You are engaged...' I whisper, looking at Zayneb with disappointment in my eyes.

I look at her hand holding the sheet together around her chest and see no ring on her finger. 

When I see Lucifer stare at her, I realize he didn't know she was engaged to Ludovic. At least my brother isn't a homewrecker on purpose.

'I know...' She sighs, looking away from Lucifer's glare.

She looks for something underneath my couch and holds the golden ring between her fingers when she sits up again. 

She slips it around her ring finger again and I see tears well up in Lucifer's eyes. This doesn't look like just sex. 

The way he looks at her... Shawn used to look at me like that. 

I think Lucifer is in love with her...

'I'm sorry, Liz.' Lucifer walks away and grabs his folded clothes from the stool before leaving the apartment, closing the door behind him.

I look at Zayneb one last time before turning around to follow my brother.

She might be my best friend, but I will always put family first...

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