In West Village....
Nora slept comfortably in her bed. Sleep had never felt so sweet in her life. She slowly opened her eyes and sighed in content at the sunlight illuminating the room behind the white curtains. There was no irritating alarm to wake her up nor was her mother around to nag her. She sighed again. Life was so good.
Pang!
She sat up immediately. 'What's that noise?' She mused as she got out of bed and walked out of her room not forgetting her phone.
Her heart was racing so quickly as followed the source of the sound. She picked up a baseball bat in the corridor as she braved herself to confront the intruder.
"You unlucky bas-" she swung the bat but immediately froze.
"Nora?" George turned around with brows raised as he looked at her standing with a bat raised above her head.
"Uh....", She threw away the bat, not minding where it landed and flashed him a smile and wave. "Hi."
"Hi", he looked at the direction where the bat was thrown before looking at her. "Did you think I was an intruder?"
"Ha!" She let out an awkward chuckle. "No? Why would I? Of course I remembered that you were here", she chuckled while looking everywhere but at him.
"Uh-huh."
She cleared her throat and walked over. "What's for breakfast?"
He looked at her chest, and his brows slightly rose before he looked back at her face. "I made a little bit of everything, pancakes, bacon, eggs-"
He stopped talking when her phone started to ring. Her eyes grew wide in horror when she saw the caller ID and she quickly signaled him with a press of her index finger to her lips.
"Mo-"
"NORA THORNTON!!!!!" Stella roared that Nora had to bring her phone away from her ear. "WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE IM HEARING ABOUT YOU SO EARLY IN THE MORNING? GOD HELP ME I DON'T STRANGLE YOU THE MOMENT I SEE YOU WHEN I'M BACK!"
'You're so dead Ian', Nora mused with a grumble. It was very easy for her to guess why Stella was mad.
She brought it back to her ear and cleared her throat. "Mom, calm down."
"CALM DOWN? YOU'RE PLAYING HOUSE WITH A COMPLETE STRANGER IN MY HOME AND YOU WANT ME TO CALM DOWN?"
"I'm not doing any of that. You know me", she started in a sweet voice to placate her mother.
"KNOW YOU? OH! I KNOW YOU VERY WELL AND I KNOW YOU HAVE A MAN IN THAT HOUSE! YOU'RE MAKING ME SHOUT WHILE MY GRANDCHILD IS ASLEEP! MY GOSH!
Nora sighed into the phone and held her forehead. "Mom", She looked at George, embarrassed and brought her gaze down. She was sure he could hear her mom's screaming. "Mom, I've met him a few times and he's not a terrible person."
"THAT'S WHAT WE THINK AND SAY ABOUT KIDNAPPERS, SERIAL KILLERS, PSYCHOPA-"
"Mooom", she whined, not knowing how to defend herself.
Stella had every right to freak out. Even she would not allow her child to do such madness no matter how old they are. She was about to speak when George took the phone away. That threw her into more panic fearing he would only make matters worse.
But the man was oddily calm. He had been watching from the get-go. He had planned to officially explain the situation when things look up between him and Nora but it seemed that time arrived sooner.
He did not like how she was shouldering the blame and trying to make him look good to her mom would only make things worse; evidently. And he didn't like seeing her so troubled, it bothered him. So his solution was to expose himself hoping it would alleviate the situation.
"Mrs. Thornton, it's me", he said.
"It's you? So I'm supposed to dream to know? Who are you?"
"Is it him?" Richard who had been silent throughout the whole outburst finally spoke. "Let me talk to him."
He too wanted to know the brave son of a gun that entertained his crazy daughter's idea. George could hear how pissed off he was. His nerves kicked in at this point. Who would he rather deal with.
"I'll talk to him first, I'm also curious to know who it is", she responded. Her tone was full of venom that it made George even more nervous. But he was secretly glad it wasn't Richard. He wouldn't know how to deal with him.
"It's me, George", he repeated calmly.
"George? I only know one Geor-", she fell quiet finally recognizing the voice. The anger quickly dissipated to be replaced with shock. "George?"
"George?" Richard also voiced his surprise.
"Yes, it's me", he responded politely.
Nora was as shocked knowing the man knew her mother. She started to grow suspicious of him and questioned everything about him and their encounter. Was it a set up?
"George. How?" Stella was buffled.
"Well, while I'm here on an errand Amy sent me, I was fortunate enough to run into your daughter and she kindly offered me a place to stay", he explained with lots of sugarcoating.
"Nora..... Did that?" There was doubt in her tone. Even the said person knew her mom would easily doubt her. Unless....
"Ah! I'm sure she did. Nora can't resist beautiful things", she said with a click of her tongue when realization dawned on her. That actually made more sense.
"Mom", she snatched the phone and complained as she was embarrassed.
George put the call on speaker so they could both speak to her.
"It's trueee. But George", her tone was full of worry now.
"Yes?"
She fell quiet. The two didn't know the intense mental debate the woman was having. She could warn him of the trouble maker Nora could be or she could sacrifice him so the she could get over her silly crush and fantasies that could ruin Amy's family. The girl had a child but Nora was still hang up on her. Maybe George would be the perfect solution.
"Nothing, good luck", she said and immediately hang up.
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