Life Is Good, I Can't Complain (c)

[Tag Along]

Lillian didn't stop running until she reached the stables outside. She stopped before she ran in, trying to catch her breath.

"What." Gasp. "The hell." Gasp. "Was that?"

[Specs]

"I don't know!" gasped Ryan, feeling just as winded as Lillian. He held onto the fence, propping himself up. That was a lot of news in a short amount of time. And running too.

"Our parents... went behind... our back! What... happened... to your... Lord Whatshisface?"

[Tag Along]

"Lord Westcliff... And he's not MY Lord Westcliff." She waited a few moments before continuing, breathing a bit easier now.

"You heard my parents. My brother gets the title, so really all that matters is that I marry rich. And guess what? You're rich. Plus, marrying me will give you more clout among the nobles."

[Specs]

Ryan rolled his eyes, still trying to catch his breath.

"I was supposed to go home!" he retorted, reality finally hitting him now. Sometimes he hated being the oldest one.

[Tag Along]

Lillian stared at him, her eyes narrowed.

"Well, if you'd rather go back to your precious America than marry me, fine. Go ahead. See if I care." Why was she so offended by that thought?

[Specs]

Ryan looked at her in surprise. Laughing, he walked over to face her. "Wait... do you care? You do care!" he smirked, catching on.

[Tag Along]

"No! I just don't think I'm that horrifying that you'd escape to another country to avoid marrying me. When I'm not irritated--" She said this through gritted teeth, "I can actually be quite nice."

[Specs]

"Oh, so you're justifying yourself now, are you?" said Ryan with a smug smile on his face.

[Tag Along]

"Oh, shut up." She rolled her eyes, not in any mood to deal with this.

She thought of marrying him. She actually wouldn't mind kissing him... But when she thought about him getting to know everything about her, she bit her lip. There was no way she could keep some of the things secret that she most desperately wanted to hide.

[Specs]

"Look," said Ryan, this time more serious. "I'm not leaving until the end of this month, which is actually quite a while. And knowing our families, they'd plan things for us to do. How about we see that goes and decide from there? If we still hate each other, we can go on our merry lives afterwards."

[Tag Along]

"Oh, fine." Lillian replied, sighing heavily. "I don't see how that could kill me, so I'll do it. We'll start with a picnic tomorrow afternoon."

If she was gonna do this, she was gonna do it her way.

[Specs]

"A picnic?" he repeated incredulously. "Really?"

[Tag Along]

Lillian raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Really. Meet me here at 1 o'clock tomorrow afternoon. Sharp."

[Specs]

"Fine," he said, sighing. "But don't think you can always go ordering me around."

[Tag Along]

Lillian just smiled cheekily at him. If he was serious about this, he'd have to get used to being ordered around.

Lillian slept horribly that night. She kept waking up in the middle of the same dream. Ryan was there, and there was definitely kissing involved... She didn't want to think about it much more.

At 12:55, however, she was ready and raring to go on the picnic. She admired her cream muslin day dress with small pastel yellow stripes in her mirror and prided herself on choosing the perfect picnic hairstyle; a loose chignon with stray wisps of hair hanging down around her chin and neck.

"Guess I better go, then." She said to her reflection, shrugging. She made her way down to the stable, suddenly feeling nervous.