16 Don't stress over the future.

"And if you're sinking, I'll jump right over,

Into cold, cold water for you...

I won't let go."

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-ELIZABETH-

On my tippy toes, I try to slide in a new book in the crime section but continue to fail terribly.

A familiar presence suddenly makes its way behind me and grabs the book -not forgetting to lightly brush my fingers in the action-, sliding it in easily.

I look up to find the familiar presence belonging to Mark.

"Thanks." I say smiling.

He smiles back and lifts my wrist up, his smile vanishing "I see you wore the bracelet." He tries to hide his fallen smile by plastering on another.

I ignore his weird reaction and say, "Yeah, thank you by the way."

"No problem." He takes my hand and intertwines our fingers making me blush "isn't it time for your lunch break?"

I look down at my watch and nod.

"Well let's go then." He holds onto my hand tighter and leads us out of the library and into his car.

We sit in comfortable silence until it is broken by his ringing phone. He taps on his Bluetooth headset and answers the call.

"What do you want?" he asks coldly.

The person on the other end must've said something irritating because Mark's face suddenly turns into one displaying annoyance , "When?" he asks, still visibly frustrated. He then cuts the call and sighs.

"Are you okay?" I ask curiously.

"I need to go back to work."

I nod in understanding "right now?" I ask

"Yeah." He sighs.

"You're still taking me to lunch though." I demand.

"I can't-"

"You will."

"But I've got-"

"No buts. We'll go for lunch and then you'll go to work."

He chuckles "Yes ma'am"

"Good." I smile victoriously and look out the window.

We pull over in front of the same diner as the other night.

Mark exits the car to open my door for me, and offers me a hand as we walk into the diner.

We take our seats in one of the booths.

Jessica approaches us to wait our table and I chuckle at how nervous she is to be in my presence. This time she's not dressed as revealing as she was the other night, probably because of our embarrassing encounter. She was also (clearly) forced into waiting our table, visible by her slightly irked demeanor.

"Hey Jessica." I say with a smile.

She smiles nervously "Hello, What can I get for you?"

"I'll have a burger without pickles, cheese, mustard and with extra lettuce. And a side of fries."

I look over at Mark who's staring at me with a cloud of thought hanging over his head, "Don't you want anything?" I ask.

He shakes his head and I nod.

"Anything to drink?" Jessica asks.

"A large vanilla milkshake with sprinkles." I respond.

"Coming right up." She says before rushing back into the kitchen.

I turn my attention back to Mark who's still staring at me, "Are you okay?" I ask.

He nods.

"Mark don't lie to me."

He shrugs, "It's just work."

"Oh, how's the project going?"

He shuffles in his seat, "Well, I found what I needed to find." He say's without a trace of happiness in his voice.

"That's great...isn't it?"

"It is, but now I'm worried I'll lose it."

"Don't stress over the future. If whatever you found was meant to be found, then you won't lose it." I give him a hopeful smile.

He opens his mouth to say something but is interrupted by Jessica laying my food on the table.

I do a little happy dance before digging into my food, Mark just watches in amusement.

"What?" I say with a stuffed mouth.

He shakes his head with a smile on his face "You're just adorable."

I blush at his words.

"Why do you seem to enjoy fast food over fancy food?"

"Because before, I never really had the option to eat whatever I wanted." I shrug.

The cloud of thought returns, hovering over him territorially, "Why is that?"

Because my mother never let me.

After a brief moment I look up at Mark, his features now tense, depicting confusion, "Your mother?"

Then, my heart sinks as I realize that I said that out loud, "Pardon?" i ask, knowing fully well what he's talking about.

"You said your mother never let you, but on our first date you told me your mother was dead."

I stare at him blankly, unsure on how to respond.

"Liza?" he questions.

"Erm, yeah. My mother is dead, I grew up with a step-mother. She w-was the one who, um, never let me eat fast food." I stammer and give a shaky smile which he ignores, instead responding with,

"Step mother?" he asks, clearly not buying my lie.

"Yup."I dig into my food once more, stopping him from pressing on further.

He nods and I continue as if nothing happened.

Once I finish eating, I call for the bill.

I reach for my purse to pay when Mark says "I'll pay."

"But you didn't eat anything." I pull out a couple bills.

"That doesn't matter I'll still-"

I cut him off by paying the waitress and leaving a hundred-dollar tip.

"One hundred dollars for a tip?" Mark asks as we walk out of the restaurant.

"To show my appreciation, I guess." I shrug.

"How do you have so much money Liza?"

"I saved up." This isn't completely a lie, my money was saved up, just that it wasn't saved by me but by my dad.

We get into the car and Mark drops me off outside the library.

"Call me when you're done working."

"I will." I nod.

"And tell me immediately if you need anything."

"Gosh Mr. Protective, nothing is going to happen to me. Now get to work."

He sighs "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Okay" I smile and watch him as he gets into his car and drives off.

-MARK-

"What's the emergency?"

"What took you so long?" Frank asks with evident stress on his face.

"I was out for lunch. What's going on?"

"Alice's mom called off all the private investigators."

"What?"

"All of them apart from one group, you know what that means right?"

"Shit. They have her location." I rake my hands through my hair.

"Yup, and I feel that some bad shit is gonna go down if Boss doesn't prove Miranda McAllen's motive soon."

"But we already know about the fathers will and how it excludes Miranda, why can't we use that yet?"

"Because it's not solid enough, you know this Mark. We need hard, solid evidence to take up to the office. We can't take her down with only speculation."

I sigh, "You're right." he always is.

"I need everyone in here right now!" I yell, making everyone stop what they were doing and scurry into the living room, which is our meeting room.

"We need to intensify our security. You," I point to a member of our IT team "I need you to set up cameras all over Alice's apartment building and outside of it."

"On it." He nods and takes his team with him.

"Now, I need Frank's team to set up and remain stationed outside her apartment, inconspicuously."

"Copy that." Frank and his team leave the room.

"Now for the rest of you, I need you to set up vans all over the town connecting to all the electricity towers, and all the camera's,as in roadside camera's, building camera's all of the camera's that you think are relative. Make sure to report anything suspicious immediately."

They all nod and head out the room.

I take my phone out of my pocket and dial Alice's number.

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Song: Cold water by Major Lazer.

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