{Chapter 11}

“Stop…” Nattie groaned, sinking further into her seat on Livia’s couch. “You’re making me hungry…”

Laughing lightly, Livia plopped herself down on the couch next to her sister, placing the plate of cheese and crackers on the table in front of them. “You asked what I made,” Livia pointed out.

Groaning again, Nattie pealed her back off the couch and reached for a cracker. “Still, that all sounds so amazing right now. It makes the cheese and crackers seem trivial.”

“Haven’t they always been though?” Livia asked, taking a sip of wine and smiling.

Once a month, she and Nattie would get together, no matter how many times they had already seen each other that month, and have cheese, crackers, and wine. It started as a joke between them, as their mother would always put out cheese and crackers when company was over, and when they were little, the two girls decided that when their princes came for them and they would visit each other, they would set out a plate with cheese and crackers when the other would visit. Now, with the surprising absence of their princes, they used their monthly meetings to try different crackers, cheese, and wine.

“Hey, these meetings have always been tasty,” Nattie fired back, her statement contradicted by her face as she tasted a particular combination of cracker and cheese, making Livia snort into her wine glass. “Well, most of the time, anyway…” Nattie amended after she swallowed, still making faces at the taste.

“But he liked the food?” Nattie asked once she had recovered. Livia was still laughing, but her sister starting a conversation again helped calm her down a little.

“They did,” Livia finally answered. Taking a cracker loaded with Drunken Goat cheese, one of her particular favorites.

“They…? Wait!” Nattie hit Livia’s arm, knocking the cracker Livia had been holding to the ground. The both stared at it for a second, then Livia, after giving Nattie a resounding glare, got up to get paper towels to wipe everything off her nice wood floors. Nattie followed, determined to finish her question. “Don’t tell me you cooked for his band too?”

Livia nodded in conformation. “I figured I would have to, so I made enough.”

Nattie shook her head in wonder at her sister. “Do you ever not think things through?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re always prepared for things,” Nattie explained. “You think of things that others wouldn’t even consider a possibility.”

“Nat. Just because you wouldn’t have thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to my boyfriend’s work, where he works with at least five other guys,’ doesn’t mean everyone forgets it. Nattie?” Livia had reached for the food on the table while she was finishing talking. When she didn’t receive the usual snotty retort from her sister, she turned back to look at Nattie, who was staring at Livia, a large grin on her face, finger pointing at Livia’s face.

“What?” Livia demanded, hands flying to her face. She rarely wore her hair up in front of others because she hated fully exposing her face. When she worked, however, she couldn’t focus unless her thick hair was up and out of her eyes, so she had pulled up into a loose bun as she had prepared the snacks earlier. But now, with Nattie pointing at her face, Livia wished she had resisted putting it up.

“You…you said ‘boyfriend,’” Nattie finally breathed, her smile widening further as she finally vocalized her thoughts.

Livia sighed and relaxed, relieved it wasn’t something about her face.

“Really?” Livia scolded. “Was ‘boyfriend’ the only thing you heard when I was speaking?”

Nattie scoffed. “Can you blame me? You called Day Day your boyfriend!”

“No, I didn’t.” Livia replied calmly, taking a bite of a cracker. “You just wanted to hear me say that.”

Nattie finaly dropped her finger, but raised her voice even more as she said, “Oh, I definitely heard ‘boyfriend.’”

“I said that you would have forgotten your boyfriend’s coworkers. I never said Day Day was my boyfriend.”

Nattie slapped her knee, but Livia wasn’t sure if it was because she was frustrated or it was because of her next thought.

“But you used Day Day as a comparison to a boyfriend of mine!” Nattie exclaimed. “You essentially just said, ‘Day Day is to me what a boyfriend is to you.’”

Livia rolled her eyes. “You’re crazy, Nattie,” she said. “Absolutely nuts.”

“You aren’t denying it!” Nattie continued.

“Dear God, just eat your cheese and crackers!” Livia cried, reaching for Nattie’s wineglass. “You’ve obviously had too much of this, and I’m not in the mood to fight with you.” Livia was beginning to feel a headache coming on. One thing she knew about Nattie is that no matter what, once Nattie had made up her mind about something, she wasn’t going to change it again.

“Come on…” Nattie pleaded, trying to reach for her wine glass in Livia’s hand, but Livia simply placed on a small side table next to her side of the couch, out of Nattie’s reach.

Thanks for reading/subscribing~!

Again, I must thank you all for your patience. Time has become hard to come by recently in which I can just sit down and write, and I apologize.

If you want to keep updated with me and my stories, you're welcome to follow me on tumblr, and bug me about updating.

Also, I recently wrote a one-shot about Dalmatian's Daniel, called, "The Signature." Feel free to check it out!

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