199 Unwelcome Visitor (2)

The next couple days passed in a blur of nervousness. Iris both waited for and dreaded the meeting on the weekend. There were so many things that could go wrong, and yet she couldn't help the excitement that came from the idea of meeting Kyro's friends.

It would somehow become official then, in a noticeable way. Although her mind told her that everyone already knew about them, due to Kyro's statement in an interview, but it was somehow far away. She didn't know any of those people that knew about her.

On Friday evening, they finished dinner and Iris was about to turn on the TV when Kyro asked if she was ready to go.

"Now? Didn't you say it was tomorrow?"

"No?" He looked up at her. "I said it was the weekend, and it starts Friday evening."

Iris wanted to argue about this horrible logic, but then decided that there wasn't enough time. She hadn't even started preparing, having planned to do that before going to sleep after she questioned Kyro about where exactly they were going.

"What kind of place is it?" she asked in a shout from her room, quickly going through her wardrobe. It was fuller than before, but not to the point that she'd need a few hours to choose her clothes. There were only a few options for each style.

"Small seaside villa, at least that's what I was told. I've never been there before," Kyro shouted back at her.

This called for more casual clothes and Iris grabbed a few dresses, shorts, and a blouse. After packing them, she realized that she was dressed too plainly at the moment and changed into a yellow skirt and a white blouse.

On her way out, she also grabbed a short jacket in case it got cold. It was evening already, so the sun wasn't going to last for much longer.

"I'm ready!" she said, rushing out of her room. Kyro gave her a once over, then nodded and led the way out.

They drove for a while before Iris decided to ask. "So who is Jimmy to you? How did you become friends?"

"Gale. Jimmy was of the same year as us, but in the law department. I never crossed paths with him until Gale began dragging him in whenever we got stuck on whether something was still under the law or not. We never told him the full story, but he was fine with just us testing the limits of his understanding.

"From what I heard, he had planned to work for the government as his father, but because of us, he got to learn so much about laws governing multinational companies and mega corporations that he ended up choosing to become a private lawyer."

"In other words, you corrupted him. I see." Iris laughed, and they chatted a bit more before reaching their destination over an hour later.

It was an old house situated near a beach. The building was two-story, but without any wall-length windows. There was a small balcony at the front, toward the sea, but that was it. Nothing more to betray that this was a holiday villa and not a normal house people lived in every day.

The building had once been painted pink, but it was faded and almost white by then. Iris could see a few missing planks on the balcony, making it look a bit unsafe. If they ever got up to it, she wasn't going to trust that railing in the least.

Only one light lit up when they drove into the courtyard. The rest of the place was in shadow, looking strangely ominous. The age of the house made it quite perfect for the haunted mansion scenario.

"You're finally here!" a loud voice shouted out, and Iris jumped in her seat.

A quick look around told her that there was a dark figure approaching them from the back. It was waving with enthusiasm, so Iris calm down a fraction. No monster should be so excited to reveal itself to them.

The figure came to Kyro's side and knocked on his window. When he put it down, Jimmy lowered his head. "Hey, drive the car to the other side of the villa. Ted wants Em to not know that we're here. Then come to the sea, we've already started our preparations there."

Kyro agreed, and Jimmy pulled away. They drove to the other side and found Jimmy's car there. Kyro parked his own next to it, and they left to go where they've been asked.

There was still worry in Iris' stomach, but she pretended that it was all fine. They had work to do, so the others probably wouldn't have time to drill her with questions.

"Are you scared?" Kyro asked, taking her hand in his.

"A little bit," she admitted.

"They won't eat you, you've met them already," he reassured her, lightly squeezing her hand.

Iris gave him a strained smile. "As a fox."

Before they could talk more, they saw Jimmy pulling some kind of net while what had to be Marge shouted at him to hurry up. She was hauling an old boat away, her muscles bulging.

"I better go help," Kyro muttered and hurried to take the boat from her hands. "You know you should be more careful now."

"My hero! See Jimmy, that's how a man should act! Not like you, only being able to pull a measly net. Wait, is that your girlfriend?"

Marge's eyes bore into Iris, and she waved at her with a shaky hand. "Hi, I'm Iris."

"Like the fox?"

"Like the fox."

"Right, I'll get the tale later, we need to clean this up before the lovebirds of today come. In three hours, this place must look perfect! Not a single thing can be out of place!"

The next moment, Iris was thrown into a whirlwind of action: collecting driftwood and placing the beautiful pieces to serve as decorations, carrying lights from the house to be arranged outside, bringing caskets of flower blooms to the boat, and doing anything else she was ordered.

Marge was like a general on a battlefield. While doing her share of tasks, she ran everyone else ragged. Nothing below perfection was going to be good enough for her. Emily was her best friend, and so she had to have the most memorable proposal in the world.