Chapter-11

For some people, life is always a challenge. Even in happy times, or what is supposed to be considered a happy time, life throws tons and tons of unexpected tests. While Abrams loved tests, Elise despised them. Leo's opinions were ruled by the type of test.

"When will she be back!", Abrams legs were moving at an insane speed, making the chair she was sitting on the move.

"Can you stop shaking your leg!", Leo scoffed.

"Stop thinking about my legs for once!", Abrams replied.

"It is your fault, Elise had to marry that guy!", Leo screamed.

"I wanted to do something good for her!", Abrams defended her actions. She stood up annoyed and left the room. Leo heard a loud bang, and in normal circumstances, he would have run to see if Abrams was okay. But today nothing was normal. Or was it?

"Did you guys fight again?", a voice joined him in the living room.

"El!", Leo almost screamed. He ran and hugged his best friend.

"How are you? Did he do anything to you?", he was worried.

"I am fine! Yeah, he is rude, but I am fine physically!", Elise muttered giving Leo a faint smile.

"El, is that you?", Abrams slowly crawled out of her room.

"Rams!", Elise hugged her friend. She wasn't excited, just glad to see the familiar faces. Faces of the people who loved her.

"Are you okay?", Abrams asked and Elise nodded.

"I am so sorry!", Leo was shocked as he heard Abrams apologising.

"You can't expect me to forgive you both this easily. I didn't scream or yell at you guys because I was glad to be back. But your little prank has put my entire life in danger!", Elise was eerily calm about her situation. She sat on the sofa and Leo looked at her, scared.

"El, tell us what exactly happened.", Abrams asked.

"Why did you call Clayton? How did you even get his number?", Elise asked.

"I was looking for Daniel Cameron's number but somehow, I got his. I realised it after you guys got married.", Abrams explained.

"Seriously! And whose idea was this? A blind date?", Elise was getting furious slowly.

"Hers!", Leo spoke up before Abrams could even cook up a nice apology.

"And you helped?", Elise looked at Leo. He looked away.

"We know what we did was wrong. We are sorry El! We will do anything to help you!", Abrams saved Leo from Elise's wrath.

"I don't know guys! You both got me entangled into this mess and right now I don't know how to even look at your faces!", Elise said with a sad sigh. Without another word she walked to her room, closing it firmly after her.

"What do we do now?", Leo asked defeated. He wasn't expecting a warm welcome from Elise, but he hoped it didn't end with her crawling into her den.

"We need to plan something!", Abrams said.

"Are you not tired of planning stuff? This all happened because of your stupid plan Rams! Let's just beg for forgiveness!", Leo's plan was safe but plain.

"My plan is very safe this time!", Abrams said and walked out of the apartment. Unfortunately, Leo followed right after.

Elise flipped her phone again, desperately refreshing all the news pages. She was afraid of the consequences if her mom read about this marriage. Clayton had promised her that all the news regarding their marriage will never reach Mrs Iverson or Mr Iverson, but there can always be a loose strand.

"I hope she never finds out!", Elise whispered to herself and refreshed the page again to find the headlines were about another famous animal doing a tough TikTok routine.

Bored she finally kept her phone aside and picked up her laptop to write another pending chapter. She knew the moment she switched on this device; her life will overflow with unread emails. Scared she opened the screen and saw at least 42 unanswered emails waiting for her. So much for wanting to be successful.

"Another sleepless night!", Elise sighed as she clicked on the first mail from her editor.

She was typing in a reply to the third email when her phone started ringing loudly. She peeked a little to see it was an unknown number. Elise is not the curious type. She hates to pick up unknown numbers to just say, "Sorry you have dialled the wrong number!". She preferred picking it up once it rang a few times.

On the third time, Elise finally gave up and picked up her phone.

"Hello!" she said.

"Why were you not picking up!", it was a man on the other side.

"Sorry, but who is this?", Elise asked politely. As polite as she could be.

"You forgot your own husband's voice!", it was Clayton.

"Ha-ha! Very funny Clayton!", she mocked and started typing furiously on her laptop again, placing the phone perfectly between her ear and shoulder.

"Are you busy?", Clayton asked. He could hear her fingers hitting the keyboard.

"No! What is it?", Elise lied.

"Nothing! I just wanted you to save my number.", and Clayton also lied.

"That's it?", Elise asked absentminded.

"Also, we need to meet tomorrow for breakfast.", he said carefully.

"Tomorrow? Didn't we just meet?", Elise asked somehow still understanding all the sequencing techniques. Her eyes were focused on the ATGC combinations in Sanger sequencing while she was also confused about the sudden breakfast plans.

"But we need more people to see us.", Clayton replied.

"What if my mom sees any of the pictures?", Elise finally closed her book.

"I promised you it won't happen! Didn't I?"

"How can I trust a complete stranger? I trusted my best friends and look what happened!",

"Am I a stranger now?", he feigned hurt.

"Oh, not again with the husband joke!", Elise almost yelled.

"Elise Iverson, you are so boring!"

"And you annoy me, Clayton Cameron!", Elise mocked.

"Let's meet tomorrow morning and I'll annoy you more!", and somehow this made Elise laugh. Someone managed to entertain Juliet Elise Iverson!