Chapter 69
Lily heaved a breath of relief and collapsed on the couch the minute the last batch of residue was packed out by the cleaners. Shortly after, Angelica joined her on the couch, looking relieved as well.
She turned to her with a smile on her face and reached out for her hand. “Thank you so much for overseeing all this.”
When she got back from dinner last night, Angelica welcomed her with a huge cake, congratulating her on the completion of the house design. Apparently, Angelica hired extra workers to take a night shift just so everything could be finished quicker, and today, Lily finally got to see her design, complete and alive.
“I’m really so grateful to you, Angelica. I couldn’t possibly repay you enough”
“Hey,” she sat up, massaging Lily’s hand gently with her thumb, “you don’t have to repay me for anything, I just did my work, okay? And to be honest, I was impatient to see the design come alive fully.”
Lily breathed out a laugh, and then pulled Angelica into a hug. “Congratulations to us, we’ve done a good work.”
“Even more congratulations to you, Lily. You just finished your first ever big project and it turned out amazing.” It was at that moment that it finally dawned on Lily that this was her actual first big project, and she had just finished it.
She had been reeling in the feeling of relief that she hasn’t had the time to actually think it over. “You are right…” She mumbled, her eyes darting around the living room, “you are right, Angelica,” she breathed out, tears pooling in her eyes, “this is my first ever big project, and it came out perfect. My design is staring right at me, it has made this house that was hollow, a home.” Her lips tugged up in a wide grin, and she was scared she was going to burst her cheeks.
“Congratulations, Lily.”
She turned to her, grinning. “Thank….” The sentence died off in her mouth when she met eyes with Mrs Darby. It took a few seconds for her to realize that it was actually her and she immediately sprang up to her feet. “Mrs Darby?”
She smiled and strutted over to her, “I told you to call me Gloria,” she pulled her into a hug almost immediately. “Congratulations to you, Lily. I knew you could do this.”
“Thank you, Mrs- Gloria” she corrected herself immediately, and they both chuckled as they pulled away from the hug.
“Congratulations to you too, Angelica. You keep setting the bar eveir higher with every project.”
“Thank you, Gloria.”
She smiled at her, then strutted away from them, and gave herself a tour of the house.
“When you sent those pictures to me, Lily” she started as she finally made her way back to them, “I was beyond impressed, and I thought to myself, I must come see this myself. Finished or not. It looked so stunning and I had to make sure it wasn’t photoshopped, and now that I’ve seen it with my eyes, I can say those pictures were an understatement. You’ve pulled off magic here, Lily. You outdid my expectations, especially with the swiftness of the project. How long has it been? 2 and a half months? That’s…. Mind–blowing”
“Thank you so much, M- Gloria. But it wasn’t all me, Angelica, and all the workers, outdid themselves too.”
Gloria stared at her softly for a while, and then nodded. “You are an excellent leader, Lily, and an even more excellent artist, and you need to be
celebrated.”
She and Angelica immediately exchanged excited glances.
“For impressing me so much, your paycheck will have an increase of 15%” Lily’s eyes slowly widened as she did the mental math, she could live extravagantly for over a month with the previous pay check and now… “Also,”
“There’s more?”
Gloria winked at her, and nodded. “In honour of you, I’ll be throwing a launch party of this house next Friday. Some of my friends have been looking for designers, and my hands have been a little too full. You, and Angelica, can lessen my burden, yeah?”
Oh my goodness!!” They both exclaimed at the same time and pulled each other into a hug. “Thank you so much, Gloria.”
She smiled at them. “This was wonderful. I’ll be on my way now. Have a good night, ladies.”
“Goodnight, Gloria!” She waved at them and strutted out of the House. The second she was gone, Lily turned to Angelica with the biggest smile on her face, but that soon turned into a frown when she noticed the gloomy look on Angelica’s face.
“What’s wrong? You look sad…” Angelica sighed and collapsed dramatically on the couch, she stared off at the ceiling. Lily’s frown deepened and she walked over to her cautiously. “Talk to me, what’s wrong?”
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Chapter 69
“Nothing really,” she said, yet the sad look on her face remained, “I’m just a little sad that we won’t be working together anytime soon.”
“Why? Why won’t we?”
“Because…” She dragged her eyes away from the ceiling to look at Lily,” you’ll be all the way in Paris, opening up your company, and I… I’ll be off somewhere, probably Singapore, doing God knows what.”
“I… I don’t understand. Why are you going to Singapore? Why can’t we…?” Angelica grabbed her hands, stopping her.
“You know how you decided that a fresh start in Paris is what you need?” Lily sceptically nodded her head, even though she wanted to tell her she was having second thoughts about it, a lot has changed since that decision. “I also think I need a fresh start somewhere else. The brief moment I lived as a sick person opened my eyes to the fact that there was so much I was yet to do, and I can’t possibly do them by lurking around in New York City, Lily. There’s a life I want to live, and I want to start now.”
“And Christopher?” Lily blurted out. It was a weak attempt to get her to rethink her decision.
A sad smile crossed he features and she patted Lily’s hands. “I called whatever we had going on quits. Going back to an old relationship is never the
answer.”
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