63. The Morning After the Party (Liona)
After her omega grandfathers had visited her, Liona's memory got a little hazy. She vaguely remembered talking to them about fated mates, but after that was nearly blank. She knew she had taken her strongest suppressant since she had wanted to be sure that she wasn't going to affect her guests further, but she ended up passing out instead of returning to her party. She knew this because it wasn't until the next day that she woke up.
It was early morning, that she could tell due to the subtle light coming in through the window and the heavy fog of the pre-dawn morning filtering what little light there was this time of day. Grabbing her phone, she saw that she was right, and it was super early. The only one awake at this hour would be her parents. Her mom, if she was home, was usually getting home from the hospital this time of morning, and her dad would just be about ready to grab some coffee before work, depending on if he was getting an early start or not.
Groaning as her head hurt like nothing she had experienced before, she got up and rummaged for a set of her most comfortable loungewear before heading for her bathroom to take care of her morning routine. She almost was afraid to see herself in the mirror, but she dared to take a look. Her hair was an awful mess, since she had fallen asleep with product in it, as well as her face looking like death had warmed her over and had attempted to disguise it with makeup. While running water for a good soak in her jacuzzi tub, she ever so carefully applied her facial cleanser to remove her makeup and attempted to run a brush through her tangled mane of golden strawberry locks.
It was a tough job, but as she dropped a bath bomb in the tub and let it fizz, she continued to work the tangles out carefully. Before getting into her tub, Liona grabbed the bottle of her suppressants since she was still emitting a little bit of pheromones from her rogue heat, as well as the bottle of headache reliever. Taking one of each, she washed it down with a glass of tap water before stepping into the full tub. Putting on her favorite relaxing music, she stayed like that until the ache in her head started to lessen. Deciding to take the lazy route, she dunked her whole head in the water before she washed her hair and used the adjustable shower handle to rinse her hair and body.
After drying her hair partially with a towel, Liona got dressed before tackling it with her hair dryer and her specialty styling brushes. Once she was satisfied that it no longer looked like a rats nest on steroids, she put everything away where it belonged. Her stomach chose the moment that she stepped out of her bathroom to rumble. It felt like it echoed up and down the empty upstairs hall, so she giggled before trudging downstairs to raid the kitchen of any leftover food from her party. She loved having catered events since her extended family of cousins had a catering business that had been passed down in their family and were good cooks. They always patronized their family or friend's businesses for major events, and she loved that about her family.
When she got to the kitchen, her first reaction was that she was in trouble. Her mom was sitting at the breakfast nook table with a dark expression that usually preceded a lecture. She knew if she tried to be cutesy with the look on her mom's face she was going to be getting more than a lecture. That was when she looked down at the table and saw her mom had her report card displayed on her tablet. She had forgotten all about her grades while she had fun yesterday, and now reality was coming crashing back down on her as she prepared coffee and warmed up leftover food for an early breakfast.
She still attempted to be at least somewhat cheerful to her mom, though, so she greeted her, "Morning Mom…"
"Adeliona, sit." Liona sat without hesitation. Her mom was using her full first name that meant business. Not as severe as her whole name, but still enough for her to automatically obey.
Her mom got up from her seat at the other end of the table and walked toward her. She looked up at her just in time to see her smile before she was enveloped in a loving hug, a kiss placed on the top of her head, her forehead felt and her mom's surprising words. "I'm proud of you, Liona and Happy belated birthday, Baby."
Liona was a little worried, so she asked, "Are you feeling alright, Mom?"
"I should be the one to ask you that, Darling Daughter! I heard you went into heat yesterday! How are you feeling now? Any lingering trouble? Are your suppressants working? I heard you had to take your tranq yesterday…"
Liona giggled at her mother's concern. She was being such a mother hen right now. "Momma, I'm fine now. I just felt so out of sorts yesterday and I was really surprised by my heat coming early. I was afraid and so I panicked a little and took my strongest suppressant. I know I should have assessed my heat's severity first, I'm sorry for not thinking it through all the way. I even missed my grandpas visiting and missed you getting home, yesterday. I ruined my birthday…" Liona couldn't help but feel a little sad. Her main worry about ruining her birthday was that she literally abandoned Erik in the middle of her party, leaving him to the shark pool.
"Not at all, baby! Your father filled me in on the details and how you had a couple of unfortunate party crashers. Your Grandpa Lionel took care of Jeffery Peterson, giving him a good talking to and discussing his very inappropriate actions with his parents as well. He won't be harassing you again. As for Brenda Hillis, she was sternly reminded that her attitude and actions, sneaking in Jeffery was highly inappropriate. She will be having a discussion with her parents as well as your father at a later time. We don't condone those that show up disregarding a verbal disinvitation. Even though she had your physical invitation, she was still told not to come. To top it off, she still snuck Jeffery past the officer posted at the gate, making sure that he was distracted enough to look the other way. The officer will also face disciplinary action for failing his duty, regardless if this was voluntary overtime for him." Her mom explained.
"Oh. I didn't know that was how Jeffrey got in. I was too busy interacting with my other guests. We were having fun playing the games I had planned but then she started to say nasty things about my choice of game. Was I wrong to make a game that was a bunch of riddles for clues, Momma? Is it really hard for people to play a game like that when hunting for treasure?"
"No. Your game was perfectly reasonable, and I looked over your riddles. They were very clever and not very difficult at all for anyone that was seriously into playing the game. If your guests give up, that's not your fault."
"But someone did win the grand prize, Momma!" Liona lit up as she remembered the joy on Erik's face when he solved the final clue and found the gold coin nestled in with the chocolate coins in the pot of gold at the end of her rainbow display.
"Really?! Which one of your guests are we giving the grand prize to?" Her mom sounded pleased that someone had found the prize.
"Oh, about that…" Liona sighed as she remembered the terrible deed she had done. "Momma, um, what should I do if I kissed someone against their will?"
Her mom raised an eyebrow at her. She was waiting for her mom to yell at her for being a bad person, but it never came. Instead she was hugged tighter and felt her mom sigh. "Liona, did you verify that the person that you kissed didn't want it? Did they say or do anything that suggested such a thing?"
"I don't know. I didn't look at him after I kissed him. I was afraid of seeing that had hurt him. He's my friend and he didn't deserve that from me. I told him that I liked him, but he wasn't ready to accept my feelings, so I told him that I wouldn't force my feelings on him. But wasn't kissing him forcing my feelings on him?" She was confused and scared about the consequences of her actions.
"That depends on how he was feeling after you kissed him. Since you didn't look at him and didn't see his reaction, I'm assuming you didn't talk to him afterwards either?"
"No, I didn't. Dad called for cake afterwards to distract everyone from the commotion that Jeffery and Brenda caused. I didn't get the chance to talk to him at all about it. Should I just apologize? What if he did like it and apologizing makes him feel like I didn't mean it when I kissed him? I mean I didn't mean it, but I also meant it. I don't know!" Liona was frazzled the more that she thought about it.