Pretty Tied Up

Chapter Eight: Wake-up call

A/N The only thing I know about waffles is that they are square. If you can cook them in the oven, then for five minutes, pretend you can’t. Cheers. Lol.

Liljana smiled as she woke up, stretching and burying her head in the pillow that smelled of Sands. She put her arm out to him but her hand met the cold bed covers. Her eyes snapped open and she noticed a note laid on his pillow.

‘Morning Sleepyhead,

Breakfast is in the kitchen. You don’t need to get dressed-we’re the only ones in the house.

S’

She smiled and climbed out of his bed, brushing her hair through with her fingers in the bathroom before going down.

She opened the kitchen door, “Morning, Sugarbutt. Sleep well?”

“Like a rock.” She let her eyes take in the view; Sands sitting at the table, wet hair, shirtless, drinking coffee and smoking a cigarette. ‘Make way, Johnny Depp.’ “You?”

“Like the dead. I made waffles, but you’ve been asleep longer than I thought you were going to be. So they’re in the oven, keeping warm.”

Liljana scrunched up her forehead, “You put waffles in the oven...?”

“Yeah.”

“The oven...?” Her lips curved up into a smile.

“I don’t usually cook, alright?” Liljana chuckled and Sands blew a lungful of smoke out of his mouth in a long, thin stream. She grabbed the oven glove and got the waffles out of the oven, putting them on the table.

“You know, waffles do not count as ‘cooking’. All you have to do is stick ‘em in the toaster.”

“My cooking abilities are severely limited. I had trouble turning the oven on.” he said with absolute seriousness.

Liljana burst out laughing and Sands reached out and pulled her towards him, making her sit down across his lap. He put the cigarette out and picked up a waffle with his fingers. He held it to her lips and she took a bite, leaning down when she had finished chewing and kissing Sands, letting him taste the sticky strawberry jam on her lips. She felt his fingers find their way under the t-shirt she was wearing and trace patterns on the skin of her lower back as he fed her the rest of the waffle.

‘This is nice...’ she thought. It was one of those ‘little moment’ things that she and Dave seemed to lack.

“I have to go soon. My parents think I’m staying at Naomi’s house.”

“Do you want a lift back? I could drop you at the end of the street so they wouldn’t see.”

“Thanks.” She slid off of Sands’ lap and reluctantly made her way back up to his room to change back into her dress.

***

Liljana couldn’t wipe the smile off her face as she walked up the stairs and into her room. She flopped onto her bed and sighed, grinning. She felt so...happy. He wasn’t a total a.ss like she had expected, either. He was funny and somewhat charming but he still had an ego bigger than a boat.

Liljana finally stopped grinning to herself long enough to check her answering machine.

“You have one new message. Message one: ‘Hey Honey, its me. I know you’re at Naomi’s but you’re not answering your mobile and I forgot to ask you if you wanted to go out to dinner tomorrow night. Call me when you get this. Love you.’”

Fu.ck. She had forgotten all about Dave. Oh God. There was that guilt again, putting one hell of a damper on her good mood.

***

Liljana called Dave and agreed to go to dinner later. He wouldn’t tell her where they were going, but had told her to dress nicely. Just as she put the phone down, her bedroom door burst open.

“Hey, Lil. Your Mom told me I could come up.” Naomi closed the door and sat down on the bed with Liljana, “So how did it go last night?”

A smile crept onto Liljana’s lips.

“Oh, it was like that, was it?”

“No, it wasn’t! I had a really nice time.”

“Well spill, Girl! I want details!”

“We were upstairs alone in the barn and we were kissing and...yeah. When Sands was called downstairs to break up a fight. That kind of ruined the whole mood thing so I went up to the house with him to fix his hand up. He asked me if I wanted to stay over.” Naomi squealed, “I said yeah, but I’m not sleeping with him. So we watched a film and just talked. When I woke up, he fed me waffles.”

“Sounds...oddly romantic for what I hear Sands is like.”

“That’s what I thought. But oh my God, it was amazing!” Naomi joined in with the grinning.

“So are you two...together?”

“I guess.”

“And Dave...?”

“He called last night. He’s taking me to dinner tonight. I don’t know how I’m going to do this. I have a horrible feeling that I’m going to be over-compensating and he’s going to find out.”

“Just act normal. He won’t know a thing. Trust me.”

“Yeah.” She sighed.

***

Dave raised his glass and clinked it with Liljana’s. “To us. To the one year anniversary of us being together.”

Liljana choked on her wine, coughing and spluttering, drawing the attention of other tables. Oh s.hit.

“Are you okay?” Dave asked, leaning over and rubbing her back. Liljana nodded, coughing once more for good measure.

“I’m fine.” She squeaked, before taking a large gulp of wine.

***

Dave insisted they go to a club before going home so Liljana suggested ‘The Pitt’, trying to convince herself that it was not because she wanted to see if a certain person was there.

After their first drink, they went to dance, Liljana being careful not to let her ‘party animal’ come out to play, thinking Dave would be more than a little bit worried if he saw her dancing with no inhibitions, rubbing up against any moving thing in the club.

She frowned when something caught her eye. She stretched her neck to see over and through the sea of bodies. In the corner, pinning a blonde bimbo to the wall was Sands, his tongue down her throat, his hands all over her body.

Liljana’s mouth fell open, her eyes showing hurt, then anger. ‘I knew it. I knew he was a cheating, two-bit-’ her mouth snapped shut as Dave smiled at her.

***

“You saw him kissing her?”

“And groping like there was no tomorrow.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“No, it’s okay. I knew he was like this. I just...”

“You need to go and have good old fashioned row with Sands about this. You want me to come with you for back up?”

“No. I guess I’ll go to his place after college. Thanks, Sweetie.”

“Anytime.”

***

Liljana was waiting to rip into Sands about the night before, willing for college to hurry up and end. But she didn’t have to wait too long.

Liljana looked up as Sands walked in the darkroom with his negatives.

“Hey, Sugarbutt.”

“Huh.”

“You not speaking to me now?” He smirked and came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her neck. Liljana shrugged him off, moving away from him. “What’s wrong?”

“I saw you last night.” Sands frowned, “I saw you at the club, with that girl.” She yelled, “You know, I thought you might have changed. I thought, maybe you weren’t as bad as the rumours. As bad as what I had heard about you. I took that chance on you and you threw it back in my face!”

“Liljana-”

“I can’t believe you! I thought-” She could feel her eyes starting to sting.

“Wake up, Liljana!” He yelled back, making her flinch in shock, “You’re cheating on Dave too. Don’t you dare get all self-righteous with me.”

“I...”

“Lost for words?” He sneered, leaning back against the bench.