Chapter 48
Roman wandered into the kitchen and began making breakfast. After a few minutes the girls came out and made for the coffee. They were plainly not speaking to each other.
"Morning." He told them.
"Uh" Nic said and folded her arms as she sat down glaring at Ruby.
Annie and Ruby looked at each other.
"Ok." Roman said. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way." He muttered.
They looked at him.
"What's the easy way?" Annie asked.
"That's simple I go and wake Ella and she sorts you out." He told them.
Ruby laughed earning another glare from Nic.
"And the hard way?" Ruby asked.
"I ground you, you sulk, eat all my food, slam doors, arrange parties when I'm not around, and don't talk to me." He told them.
They laughed.
"And by the hard way I meant for me." He added.
He placed a perfectly cooked omelette in front of Nic and put a rack of toast on the table. Returning the pan to the heat he began cooking the next one.
"They stole my phone." Nic said eventually.
"You were texting Geoff until 3am. We wanted some sleep." Annie replied.
"So why didn't you text your brother and tell him not to text me." Nic asked her.
"We did!" Ruby confessed. "It wasn't the beeps that were annoying it was when you were giggling."
Nic glared at them.
"And when you told us that your predictive text didn't spell…." Annie began.
"Dad this is a really nice omelette." Nic said loudly, blushing.
Ruby and Annie laughed at her.
Ruby pulled the phone out of her pocket and handed it back to Nic.
"Thank you." Nic told her.
Roman laughed and placed the second omelette in front of Annie before starting the third one.
"How is Ella?" Nic asked.
"She's ok. She's worn out." Roman told her.
"So you are definitely going home today?" Nic said.
"Yes we are." He murmured. "I want her to go see Rachel when we get home."
He placed the last omelette in front of Annie.
Before pouring himself another cup coffee and sitting at the table.
"You don't have to say it Nic we know you want to see Geoff." Ruby told her.
"I still have loads to arrange for the wedding too." She told them. "Invites for the stag and hen parties. I need to see who has RSVP'd.I need to make the pattern for your dresses and start making them" Nic went through the list and picked up her plate and took it over to the sink and began washing up. She collected her cup next and did that, followed by their plates and even the cups they were still drinking out of.
Roman held on to his cup.
"Nic." He said quietly.
She looked up.
"Oh my god did I do it again?" she asked.
"Yes." He told her. "But I was actually going to tell you she keeps the vacuum in that cupboard and the sheets need stripping from your beds for washing."
Nic looked at him.
"Very funny." She groaned.
Then after a moment.
"That Cupboard?" she asked pointing.
He nodded.
She walked over and opened it pulling out the cleaner.
"Cool!" she exclaimed. "She has a steam cleaner. I can give the carpets a good going over with this."
Ruby and Annie laughed.
They walked into the bedroom and stripped the laundry from their beds before tidying the room. They brought out the bowls of snacks they'd had last night and emptying the last of the contents in the bin they put them in the dishwasher. They packed and brought the bags out near the door to let Nic go in and vacuum.
Roman poured himself another coffee and walked over to tidy up the DVD's they'd watched. He noticed that there was enough space on the shelf to put the Lethal Weapon movies and he laughed.
Ella came out of the bedroom, she had showered and was dressed.
"Hey." He said.
"Hey yourself." She walked over to him and kissed him.
"Is that the vacuum cleaner?" she asked.
"Nic started thinking about the wedding again." He said.
Ella laughed.
She took the cup out of his hand and took a sip before handing it back.
"That wasn't Decaff." He told her.
"I know but I needed to remember what it tasted like it's been so long since I had any." She told him straight faced.
"You can take any of the films with us if you want." She told him.
He smiled at her.
"Including your Lethal Weapon movies?" he asked. "Mel Gibson too?"
She nodded.
"Maybe." She told him.
"How am I supposed to compete with your other men?" he asked jokingly.
She stood on tiptoe and whispered in his ear and he slowly blushed. He put the coffee cup on the table and took her into his arms for a long slow thorough kiss. She wound her arms around his neck and moulded herself tightly to his body.
"Good Morning." She told him when they eventually broke apart.
He smiled at her stroking her back slowly as he kept his arms around her.
The girls came out the room. Annie was holding the vacuum and Nic was pouting.
Ella looked at them and laughed.
"Nic do you want to look in my wardrobe?" Ella asked trying to distract her.
Nic looked at the carpet and then at Ella.
"I suppose so." She muttered ungraciously.
Ella chuckled.
"I have Chanel." She tempted her.
Nic looked up from the carpet.
"Really?" she asked.
Ella laughed. She placed a quick kiss on Roman's lips before leading all the girls into the bedroom.
She opened her wardrobe and Nic dived in picking out clothes and laying them on the bed.
"Prada." She gasped. "Chanel."
Ella laughed and added.
"Vintage madam, that suit is an original 1954 design." She told her. "For her comeback collection. I picked it up from a stall in Paris."
"Wow." Nic said. She stroked the suit slowly.
"Do you want it?" she asked her.
Nic nodded unable to speak for a moment.
"I couldn't." she said picking it out of the wardrobe and hugging it while being careful not to crease it.
"Of course you could. I can still borrow it if I want to wear it. Same to you girls if you see something you can have it." Ella told them.
She opened up another part of the wardrobe and pulled out garment bags, tucking the suit in one she handed one to Annie and another to Ruby.
"Annie I'd also like to give you the Victorian dress you were wearing yesterday." She added.
"No. You can't it's too much." Annie told her.
Ella laughed.
"There is no way I can possible fit all of these things into the Bay not to mention I probably won't wear half of them anyway." She said patting her bump.
Nic laughed.
Ella started packing her clothes on top of what Roman had already packed. She added the outfit she'd worn the other night. The girls giggled as they watched her. She added a number of maxi dresses she had and a few more gypsy skirts and tops. The bag was completely full and she grimaced.
"What is it Step-mama?" Nic asked her, still eyeing up the collection in the wardrobe.
She walked over to the dresser and pulled out Travel Bear and wrapped it in a colourful scarf before putting it in her canvas handbag.
"Nothing." She said. "However many times I pack I always think the bag is bigger than it is."
She went back to the dresser and picked up a velvet jewellery holder and picked out some pieces of jewellery from her box. She did it up and tucked that inside her handbag too.
"Right that is me done." She told them. "Have you decided what you want?"
Annie shook her head.
"Ok then I'll do it for you. " Ella walked over to the wardrobe and picked up a simple shift dress in vivid blues and greens in a swirl pattern. She handed it to her and then fetched a patent black belt from her dresser and handed that over too.
"There you go." she said. "Ruby?" she asked.
Ruby blushed and went over to pick up a 1950's dress.
"I love this one." She exclaimed.
Ella laughed.
"I've never actually worn that one." She confessed. "Don't tell Roman."
"Don't tell me what?" he asked from the doorway.
"Nothing!" Ruby exclaimed tucking the dress in the bag. They stood up and began filing form the room. Nic hung up the outfits she'd scattered on the bed and picked up her garment bag. She looked one last time at the wardrobe and sighed before joining the girls. They went downstairs and picked up the outfits from the photo shoot and Ruby had to collect the Victorian dress on behalf of Annie. They tidied up the make up and accessories tucking the boxes back in the storeroom. They folded up the rest of the clothes and put them back in the trunk but decided to leave it where it was.
Nic went into the back of the storeroom and picked up one of the boxes Ella said she could have carrying that to the outer door. Before she tackled the other one.
She looked up to see her Dad and Ella coming down the stairs. He carried the boxes to the car for Nic while Ella pulled their car out of the garage. She left the car open and they started filling them up. Roman smiled at her as he stashed his secret shopping on the back seat with the other shopping bags and the holdall. He then fetched the girls bags handing them over to them, before the packages containing the material and putting them in the back.
Ella double-checked the garage was locked before doing a check of the inside. She made sure the studio was secure and she hadn't left anything on before going upstairs and doing the same with that. She checked the door was double locked before going down the studio steps and out. She locked the outer door before walking over to the outer door of the apartment and checking that was double locked.
"What about all the food in the fridge and the rubbish?" Ruby suddenly asked.
"My assistant will take care of that." Ella told her.
They climbed into the cars and set off. Ella drove them out of the city, with Nic driving the car and following behind, then she pulled over watching as the girls sped past with a smile and she and Roman swapped places with him driving the rest of the journey.
"Are you going to tell me what you bought?" she asked.
He smiled and reached into the back seat to hand her a bag before putting his hand back on the steering wheel.
She looked into it and saw that he'd bought a white woollen shawl.
"Before you say anything it is for you not for the baby." He told her with a grin.
She lifted it out of the bag and fingered the soft fringe.
"It's beautiful." She gasped.
"I thought it might help with your nesting." He grinned.
"Thank you." She told him.
He grinned.
"The other one will have to wait." He said concentrating on the road. With a grin he overtook the girl's and pulled in front.