Love the Second Time Around Novel

Chapter 102 Worried

Nicholas then took the grocery bags over from Jake and made his way into the kitchen.

Jake followed behind him and asked, “Wait... Nic, are you sure you can cook?”

“Duh! How else am | supposed to make lunch?” Nicholas replied casually.

“But I've never seen you cook!”

| was able to hear everything they said as | followed behind them. So | was right! Nicholas has never cooked

anything for Jake! In that case, | must be insanely lucky to have him makepasta last night! Damn, |

should've taken a picture of it as a memento!

Nicholas then placed the ingredients on the kitchen counter and said, “You go wait outside, Jake. Scarlett should

be coming over soon.”

Jake frowned when he saw Nicholas reach for the knife. “I think | should do the cooking instead. Don’t want your

silky smooth hands getting all dirty now! Besides, it'd be bad if you accidentally cut yourself or something!”

| couldn’t help but chuckle at how nervous Jake was. | bet he must be Nicholas’ biggest fan!

Nicholas placed the knife down and let out a sigh. “I'm not a porcelain doll, Jake.”

Jake pouted. “But I'm worried about you!”

| decided it was tforto step up and said, “Um, how about | do the cutting while Nicholas does the

cooking? That way, it would still be his cooking, but without the risk of injuries! There, a win-win solution!”

“You?” Jake eyeddoubtfully from head to toe.

I nodded profusely in response and winked at Nicholas as | said, “Yup! Don’t worry, I'll be sure to keep Nicholas

away from the knives!”

It's a lot better to havehelp out than Jake nag endlessly, right?

Nicholas spoke up as well. “Sure, we'll go with that. Jake, you call Scarlett and ask her when she'll be here. Oh,

and helppack up the clothes in the bedroom while you're at it.”

Jake was clearly unhappy about his decision but agreed to it reluctantly anyway.

| waited until he had disappeared from sight before teasing Nicholas, “He sure worries a lot about you!”

“He worries too much!” he replied with a chuckle.

“I bet you two must be really close, huh? You know, like how Shannon and | are.”

“Yeah, | knew Jake since | got into the entertainment industry. He's the one who stayed by my side this whole

time.”

I could relate to what he said as it was the sbetween Shannon and me.

Having tasted the pasta he made last night, | had great confidence in his cooking skills and carried on chatting

with him while preparing lunch.

Despite it being our first tpreparing a meal together, we complemented each other surprisingly well and

were rather fast at getting the job done.

It didn’t take long before lunch was served and looked absolutely amazing.

The doorbell rang right as we were done setting the table, and | saw Scarlett standing outside when | opened the

door.

“You're right on time! Nicholas has just finished making lunch, so you get to eat it while it’s hot!”

“Nicholas made lunch?” Judging by the look on her face, | figured she was really surprised by it as well.

Wait, this doesn’t make sense... There's no way she wouldn't know about Nicholas being able to cook!

“Yeah, that’s right. Surely you've tried his cooking before, right?” | asked curiously.

Scarlett didn’t deny it. “I haven't seen him cook in a really long time.”

“Con, Letty! Lunch is ready! Nic made it himself!” Jake shovedaside and led Scarlett inside by the arm.

Wow... Talk about differential treatment... | bet Jake has added my nto his blacklist or something. Well, not

that it matters, though! Scarlett changed into that pair of women’s slippers very naturally like it was a habitual

thing, so | can at least confirm my suspicion about her having ssort of intimate relationship with Nicholas.

After lunch, | volunteered to do the dishes as | couldn't have Nicholas do everything by himself, and | certainly

couldn't let Scarlett do it as it would taint her air of elegance.

As for Jake, | knew for a fact that he would surely offer his help if Nicholas were the one doing the dishes. Since it

wasdoing it instead, he simply strutted off like it was none of his business.

| heard my phone ringing behindwhile washing the dishes and saw Nicholas bringing it towhen | turned

around.

“Who's calling? Is it Shannon?” | asked.

Nicholas hit the answer button and said, “No. Here, I'll hold it for you so you can carry on washing.”

As | didn’t get a chance to see the caller ID earlier, | only found out that it was Benjamin after hearing his voice

on the phone.

| hadn’t been in contact with him ever since | took care of things with Julius.

“Why'd you callup all of a sudden, Benjamin? Just so you know, | can’t tell you anything if you're going to

askabout the recent rumors.” | decided to make my point clear right from the start.

Benjamin’s tone was rather unpleasant. “I'm not interested in any of that. Honestly, | didn’t think you'd do such

a thing, Liliana. Looks like | was wrong about you.”

| turned the tap off and asked with a frown, “What do you mean by that? What did | do?”

What the hell is he on about? What did | do to piss him off?

Benjamin said with a cold chuckle, “Heh, I'd rather not waste my tand energy on pointless explanations. If

you have any conscience left in you, cvisit Dominic at City Hospital yourself.”

“Wait, what happened to Dominic? Tell... Hello?”

He hung up on me... This is unbelievable! What the h*ll did he mean by that? Did Dominic get hospitalized due

to skind of disease? Or is this just snew trick he cup with to gain my sympathy? Yeah, it’s probably

the latter. | mean, he got into a fight withyesterday, and he even punched Nicholas in the face! There's no

way he'd suddenly end up in the hospital on that very sday! Besides, even if he really did get hospitalized,

he has Camille to look after him, so why would | want to go there and see them act all lovey-dovey?

“What happened, Liliana? Did something happen?”

Nicholas’ voice snappedout of my train of thought, and | shook my head in response. “No, it's just another

one of my nosy friends trying to askabout this incident. I'm almost done here, so you can go spend some

twith Scarlett.”

Despite my countless efforts at telling myself to not think about Dominic, | just couldn’t seem to get it out of my

mind.

Knowing Benjamin, he wasn’t the type who would joke about such things. Did something really happen to

Dominic?