"No, no, we don't have a date," Justin reassured Lily with a smile, and then he took hold of her hands. "I got off work early, so I thought we might go somewhere for dinner."
Lily smiled back at him. "That's very thoughtful of you, but remember tonight is girl's night out with Martha and the girls."
"That's tonight!" said a regretful Justin. "We hardly see each other anymore with your new project at work."
"I know, I know," Lily was feeling bad already, now she feels worse. "I'm sorry."
"Lily, there's no need to apologize," said Justin as they walked towards Lily's flat together. "I know how much you love your work, and I wouldn't want to take you away from it."
"How about dinner on Friday then?" asked Lily, wanting to make it up to Justin. She had missed the last three dates with Justin because she had to work late.
"Yeah, about Friday night," said Justin as if suddenly remembering something, "my mom asked me to bring you home for dinner on Friday."
"That's nice of her," said Lily. She hadn't talked to Mrs. Cavendish after the engagement party and had meant to see her and formally apologize for being late and distracted.
"So, you'll come on Friday?" asked Justin sounding worried that Lily would have to work.
"Of course, I wouldn't miss it for the world," said Lily as they stopped in front of her flat. "I'll let you know where to meet me on Friday."
"I'll probably meet you at your office, knowing the way you work," Justin said as he gave her light kiss good-bye.
Lily stood there for a long time watching Justin's back slowly disappear into the night. Her heart felt warm when she was around Justin, warm and safe. He will make a wonderful husband. That's what everyone told her. He will make a wonderful father. Her mother kept on insisting. Lily smiled as she thought of all the good things everyone always said about Justin. She was lucky, lucky to have someone like him in her life. She was lucky, except for the haunting ache she felt in her heart late at night.
"I looked at some of the information you sent me about the site you had picked out," said Lily as she handed Michael the preliminary design and plan from her folder. "From the information, I thought the safety will probably not be a problem for us."
"This looks good," said Michael, as he looked the plan over. "I was afraid that the safety was going to be a problem."
Michael said nothing more as he read over the plan. Lily used these few seconds to get a really good look at him. When he's reading like this not saying a word, he really does look like James. Lily found herself having troubling averting her eyes, but she quickly looked away when he turned to the last page. She resumed the cold expression on her face.
"I hope everything is to your satisfaction, Mr. Shore," said Lily as she put all her papers back into her folder. "I'll have the final plans ready after Katherine and you look at the site together."
"Is Miss Evans always like this?" asked Michael suddenly as he looked up from the proposal. "Cold, distant, unapproachable? I don't ever recall seeing you smile."
"I don't know what you mean," said Lily looking down at her hands.
"Some would say your behavior borders on being rude," said Michael with a twinkle in his eyes.
Lily looked up, surprise showed on her face, but she simple said; "If Mr. Shore would prefer working with someone else."
"I don't want to work with anyone else," interrupted Michael before Lily could finish. "I like your work, Miss Evans, and I would like to make our working relationship a comfortable one. I would like to be friends seeing how closely we'll have to work together for the next few months."
Lily made no comment to Michael's statement, and they both continued to work in silence.
Michael looked down at his watch and said, "Miss Evans, I think we've done enough work today. Since it is time for dinner, can I interest you in dinner?"
"Sorry, if we are all done here, I would like to leave," said Lily as she picked her papers and put them in her folder. "I've made other plans."
Michael watched as Lily disappeared behind the doors without another word. She's such a puzzle to him. Women usually fall at his feet, but this one, this one was different. With a light chuckle, Michael went back to work.
"Lily, I need a big favor," announced Katherine the minute she walked into Lily's office on Friday.
Lily looked up from her drawings and smiled. Katherine was forever asking for favors and forever promising it was the last one.
"Lily, I forgot I had to go to my son's school for something," said Katherine all out of breath. "And I already made the appointment to go and see the site with Mr. Hirsch today."
"And I'm guessing, you want me to go with Mr. Hirsch to the site," asked Lily, knowing full well that is what Katherine want her to do.
"Would you? You are the only one I trust," pleaded Katherine.
"Yeah, yeah, but this is the last one," joked Lily.
"The last one, I promise," yelled out Katherine as she ran out of the office.
Lily ran to the place where Mr. Hirsch was waiting for her. She was late again.
"Miss Evans," someone called out to her. It must be Mr. Hirsch. Lily turned around and was shocked to see Michael Shore waving at her.
"Where is Mr. Hirsch?" questioned Lily when she got close to him.
"He had some other business he had to attend to," said Michael, then asked, "Where is Katherine?"
"Oh, she had some family emergency," said Lily, surprised at the turn of events.
"I guess it's you and me then. Come, the ministry provided cars" Michael exclaimed as he got inside the car. Lily was slow to follow, eyeing him suspiciously.
They drove largely in silence. Lily refused to look at Michael, so she stared out her window absentmindedly. Michael darted looks in Lily's direction once in a while. Once, his eyes fell to her engagement ring.
A while later, "It that your engagement ring?" asked Michael.
Lily turned her face to him, looking surprised and nodded.
"It's so unlike you though," commented Michael. Lily looked to him with questioning eyes. "It's too shiny, too showy, too pretentious, and I suspect Miss Evans is exactly the opposite."
Lily wanted to say something, but she stopped herself before the words got out of her mouth. It's better this way she told herself. I do not want to get there with him.
"And they say women in love sparkle like a diamond," Michael continued his one-man show when Lily didn't reply. "But how come Miss Evan's eyes are so dull? Why is there sadness in your eyes when you're in love?"
Lily eyes suddenly looked up and into Michael's eyes. There was surprise there, and a little bit of anger, and a little bit of hurt. Michael looked a little surprised too for a second before looking back at the road.
"Please don't not make presumptions when you don't really know me, Mr. Shore," Lily said with more annoyance than anything else.
"Miss Evans is unassuming, unaffected by society's pretensions, and is someone who would cry by herself at night rather than worry someone else. She doesn't fit in with the flashy piece of rock on your hands. It's either you have extremely bad taste in jewlery or your fiancee doesn't know you at all. And I suspect it's the latter."
Lily felt a mixture of emotions at his comments, but she simple sat with her face turned away from Michael. She had felt anger. How dare he! how dare he who knew her a mere few weeks see the dullness in her eyes when she had done such a good job at hiding it away from everyone in her life. She had felt surprise. How is it that Michael can see straight through her no matter how much she tires to hide herself. She had been surprised when Justin gave her the ring because it was so unlike her. She had later wanted to change it, but Justin mostly just ignored her. Then there was hurt, a lot of hurt. This reminds her too much of the conversations she had with James. Michael's every gesture, every look reminded her of James. As they drove on, more and more memories of James flooded through Lily's brain. Tears threatened to come out the corner of her eyes, but she refused to let the tears drop.
"We are here," exclaimed Michael excitedly and flashed Lily a big smile. Lily stepped out of the car and was surprised by how beautiful the grounds looked. Everywhere you looked was snow, on the ground, on the trees, on the faraway mountains. The view was amazing. It was as if you could see the end of the earth standing there. Surprised by the beauty before her and the freshness of the air, Lily couldn't help but smile. Out of nowhere, a heavy winter coat dropped on Lily's shoulders. She turned around to see Michael standing behind her. "It's colder here than London," Michael simply said before he started walking around.
While Michael talked with people, Lily started taking pictures of the grounds. Through her lenses, Lily saw Michael lean back into the wall of the building and look toward the mountains as if in deep thought. Then he ran his hands through his hair. Lily could hear her heart beat faster. How many times had she seen James do the same thing at Hogwarts? Before she knew what she was doing, she was talking pictures of Michael. What would he think of me if he ever finds out these pictures, thought Lily.
"Miss Evans, come on, we are going up the hill," called out Michael, snapping Lily out of her trance.
They entered a little cabin on top of the hill, and Michael suggested they rest for a while before heading back to London. Lily sat down in front of the fire while Michael sat opposite her and took papers out of his briefcase. He put on glasses and started reading the preliminary proposals. Michael looked up from his paper and found Lily staring at him.
"Miss Evans, are you amazed at how good-looking I am?" joked Michael, trying to break the awkward silence.
"You've never been to London before? Have you heard of Hogwarts? Remember Professor McGonagall? Headmaster Dumbledore?" asked Lily in one breath. "Remember the Whopping Willow?"
"Wow, slow down, Miss Evans," said Michael, startled at all the questions. "How did you ever hold all these words in?"
"If I tell you, would you believe me?" asked Lily, staring straight into Michael's eyes.
Michael nodded, but at the same time the cabin doors burst open.