The Bond

Ch 67

"Bold."/"Bold italic" : animatronic is talking/animatronic is talking in mind

"Normal."/"Normal italic." : human is talking/human is talking in mind

=o^o=

Lucy went to the supermarket only to tell her boss that she couldn't work for some reason that day. Of course, because she wanted to wait for Mike at her house. Her boss gave her permission.

Everything was going fine until she stepped out of the supermarket and passed Mary, and Alice.

"Oh, Mary, hi ...," Lucy greeted softly, her eyes darting away to avoid colliding with Alice's. "Is your arm okay now?"

"As you can see." Mary waved her broken arm, apparently it had recovered. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

"Why don't you work?"

Lucy flinched a little, then laughed nervously. "I just asked for a few days off," she replied—she wasn't completely lying. "So I might as well relax for a bit and go back to my parents' house."

Mary raised her eyebrows. "Really? Usually you don't want to go back to your parents' house."

"Once in a while is fine."

Mary's suspicious and skeptical gaze made her feel nervous, presumably afraid she had said the wrong thing. For a few moments Mary looked at her intently from top to bottom, Lucy breathed a silent sigh of relief once Mary decided to give a small nod of understanding.

Then Mary turned to Alice who was watching her surroundings. "By the way, you must have met my friend, right?" Mary asked her. "She said you helped her look for some stuff yesterday."

"Yes," Lucy answered quietly, her eyes locked with Alice's for up to three seconds.

"We also met on my first day here," Alice said excitedly, smiling broadly at Mary then Lucy—Lucy slowly only averted her eyes from Alice as Alice smiled at her. "Miss Dawson is a lovely person."

Mary glanced up. "Is that true?" Alice nodded in response to her question, Mary looked at Lucy again with some skepticism. "Lucy, you better not ... aim for Alice."

Lucy's forehead wrinkled hearing Mary's words, she felt offended but decided to brushed off the feeling. "No need to worry," Lucy replied a little curtly, before she flashed a small grin to cover up the odd tone of her voice. "What are you doing here, Mary?"

"We're just taking a walk." Alice still fixed her smile on Lucy, slowly it made Lucy shudder. "You know, afternoon is a good time."

"Right ...."

Lucy hesitated with that answer, the supermarket was located a bit far from the city's public park, why did they walk all the way here? What's more, Mary's house was actually closer to the lake, it should be a great place to spend the afternoon.

Could it be that they were looking for Mike?

Lucy suddenly felt her insides twist at the speculation, but she couldn't get her head around it.

There wasn't only one person named Alice.

"Lucy?"

"What?" Lucy replied too quickly, she was even surprised by that.

Mary's green eyes looked at her with a slightly odd expression, Lucy furrowed her brows deeply. "Is Mike still working now?"

Alice turned around for a moment, Lucy gasped.

"I don't know." Lucy pursed her lips. "He hasn't come since a few days ago."

"They fired him?"

"I don't know. Probably yes."

If her guts were correct, then her hunch was telling her to not tell them anything about Mike.

Lucy fiddled with her fingers behind her body, she took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "I'm going home now and getting my things ready to go to my parents' house tomorrow. See you later!"

She didn't wait for Mary and Alice's reply, instead just walked away from them. When she felt the distance was far enough from the sight of the two girls, without waiting Lucy ran towards her house. Having a lot of negative thoughts in her head towards Alice, Lucy felt guilty but at the same time she really felt to remain vigilant.

Considering her house wasn't far from the supermarket—moreover she was running home, in a few minutes she had arrived. Her eyes rounded.

"Mike!"

The man was already perched casually in front of the door. Mike turned to her and smiled widely. "Lucy! I was waiting for you," Mike said before grinning.

Lucy didn't heed Mike's surprise when she opened the door and immediately pushed Mike inside, then Lucy looked around and finally stepped in after taking—possibly the thing Mike meant to hide from the red-haired man. Lucy locked the door quickly.

"Lu?"

She didn't know since when Mike had that nickname on her, but Lucy didn't really care. "It's nothing at all," Lucy replied quickly, then she took off her shoes and stepped into the living room. "You can put it here." Lucy pointed at the single sofa and gave a small smile.

She watched over Mike who was putting it where she meant it. "Hey, uh Mike?"

Mike mumbled incoherently for a moment. "Yeah?"

Lucy had opened her mouth to speak, but Mike suddenly interrupted her words. "Oh, right! Lucy!" Mike walked over to her again, Lucy raised both eyebrows. "Can I spend the night here?"

The question made Lucy tilt her head in confusion, Mike hastily continued his words again.

"I know it was sudden, sorry—but Ennard has been pissing me off again since yesterday." Mike pouted and puffed his cheeks in annoyance. "So I wanted to stay for the day, but I understand if you won't allow—"

"I actually wanted to ask you to stay at my house longer but you cut me off."

Mike blinked at that, then his mouth rounded like an 'o' and he smirked. "So I can stay?"

"Of course." Lucy nodded and smiled back.

"Yay."

Lucy chuckled at Mike's reply, the man sounded so happy. Now all she had to do was wait for the right time to tell Mike and keep him safe.