Leah's POV
"Breakfast's ready, Miss Leah." Mr. Carson stared at me while I was going through a pile of paperwork.
"Is Finn awake?" I asked. "I want to have breakfast with him before taking him to the company."
"Beta took him to the Lake House this morning. Apparently, Doctor Monk wants to run some more tests on him. They left early without having breakfast." Mr. Carson said while arranging the paperwork on the table for me. It seemed that it was very important for him to make sure all the paperwork was placed horizontally and vertically aligned.
"Finn isn't a lab rat. They can't just drag them around without telling me," I said.
I don't like the idea of my mate being fiddled with by some weird doctor. I mean, Dr. Aspen Monk is really a good doctor, but he's also really weird. I have never seen him blinking or smiling, which is kind of creepy.
"It's just some routine check-up. It's for Finn's good and it won't take long," Mr. Carson said, looking very satisfied after he had aligned all my paperwork.
"In that case, when he's back, please let Jalin take him to my office. I want to see him as soon as possible. I've got a staff meeting at 10:00, and I'll take Finn for lunch in my favorite Italian Restaurant. We're going to have pizza and gelato!" I said with excitement.
A lot of girls dream about walking down the aisle in a beautiful wedding dress when they were young. But my childhood fantasy was sharing a slice of pizza with my beloved boyfriend. I have never had a chance to do it with anyone. Today, I'll finally have a chance to check that on my bucket list.
"May I remind you that Mr. Laflamme will do your measurement this afternoon? He wasn't able to do it last night due to the incident that happened during the show..."
"That nobody should mention again," I said.
"Very good, Miss Leah," Mr. Carson said and snapped his fingers.
The maids brought in trays of food that is enough to feed an army.
"You know, I'm having pizza for lunch and doing my measurement this afternoon, Mr. Carson," I said.
Mr. Carson said, "Yeah, that's exactly why I'm trying to fatten you up. You've been working too hard these days and you're losing weight, Miss Leah. When His Majesty is back and sees his precious daughter losing half of her body mass, he will want to hold someone accountable."
While I was chewing toast, I heard a familiar voice at the door -
"Mmmmh! Something smells so good. Is that bacon?!"
"Laura!" I jumped up from my seat before Laura ran into the dining room.
Laura, looking refreshed and cheerful, flew toward me like a little bird to hug me.
"How are you feeling? Are you fully recovered?" I looked at her up and down.
"I'm fine! I'm just starving! You can't believe what they fed me in the hospital. It's absolutely cruel to treat a poor patient like that!" Laura said while picking up a chunk of sausage with her hand.
Mr. Carson removed the sausage from Laura's hand and replaced it with a napkin.
"Miss Parrish," he said. "May I remind you that your behavior is very unladylike? I would also like to inform you that Alpha Lucian will be down here at any moment. He will be very impressed if he sees you shoving food in your mouth like a hungry rogue."
Hearing my brother would be here, Laura immediately jumped up and said, "Oh, no! I thought he had already left for work! I can't let him see me here!"
"Why?" I frowned and asked.
A voice appeared outside -
"Because she's not supposed to be released from the hospital."
"Ah!" Laura panicked and hid behind me as my brother walked into the room.
Everyone in the room bowed at him except Laura. She was hiding under the table, covering her head, with her eyes closed as if that could make her invisible.
I couldn't stop snickering. Laura's so adorable. I couldn't believe someone would want to hurt her. Let Clara and her cousin Mick rotten in that asylum!
Mr. Carson pulled out a chair and my brother took his seat. He took up the teacup and said, "Miss Parish, I would really appreciate it if you could come out of the table and enjoy breakfast with us."
Laura didn't come out straight away.
Instead, she asked under the table in a muffled voice, "If I come out now, are you going to send me back to the hospital where they treat me like a rabbit and feed me carrots?"
Lucian took a sip of tea and said, "No, Miss Parrish."
"You promise?" Laura asked.
"I promise." My brother answered while flickering the news on his mobile.
Laura popped up her head under the table and peeked at Lucian to check if he was mad.
Confirmed that there was no danger, Laura jumped up and dusted her pants, pretending nothing had happened.
She looked around and saw that the only empty chair was the one next to my brother.
While she was hesitating, my brother tapped the seat without looking up at her.
Laura sighed and took the seat reluctantly.
"For my justification, I haven't done any of the things that you're about to ask me. I didn't sneak out of the toilet window and steal the hospital janitor's bike to ride back." Laura said and took a giant bite of greasy bacon on her plate, which almost gave Mr. Carson a heart attack.
"But you're going to give Mr. Plum his bike back and apologize, right?" Lucian asked.
"Sure," Laura munched the bacon in her mouth. "Pass the salt."
"Manner." Mr. Carson coughed awkwardly on the side.
"Oops. Sorry." Laura made a face and said. "Pass the salt, please, Alpha!"
Lucian passed the salt to her. I could see affection and intimacy in his eyes, like a gentle warm spring breeze stroking through a frozen river.
It seemed that my plan to set up my best friend with my brother worked! So far so good!