"And I truly appreciate your advice, I always take it to heart, always," Lulu smiled. She was not just saying that to get Natasha off her back. Far from it, she truly did appreciate Natasha's advice. She was the older sister she never had.
"I know you do, Lulu, so enjoy your dinner while I go do some other things," Natasha smiled as she stood up.
"Thank you Natty," Lulu smiled.
"Don't mention it," Natasha smiled as she left the dining room.
Lulu focused on her food. She sighed, she did not feel as hungry anymore. It was not fair, Benjamin was not making it easy for her to forget about him and move on with her life. She hated that he was coming over here, she hated that he kept on calling her.
She had expected him to be himself and just stop and respect her wishes and never make contact with her again. The fact that he come over here and she knew that Natasha was the one who asked why he did and what was wrong, on a normal day, Benjamin did not tell people about his personal life.
So Natasha must have asked and he told her, and if Natasha knew, then it meant her brother knew and that was just annoying enough. She did not want any unnecessary intervention in her life choices and she was going to ignore Dom if he brought it up.
Lulu groaned, she hated feeling like this. She had made her choice and she did not want to be friends with Benjamin any longer. Last night was a wakeup call for her. It made her realize that forcing yourself on someone never turned out well.
In the end, you just felt like you put in all the work into the relationship that the other did not truly cherish. It made her sad, it made her angry and worst of all, she was regretful that she thought he was changing and getting better.
If she was being honest, she did not really know what about his words made her so hurt, but it did show her that the high regard she gave him, he did not give her and that was painful, so painful.
Lulu sulked, she wished that she had brought her phone down with her, maybe watching soem cute cat videos online would cheer her mood.
Apart from that, Natasha was not making her decision feel any better. After all, she had told her to listen to him which indirectly meant forgiving him.
Indeed, that was the meaning to her. Lulu did not mean to be disrespectful, but when Natasha and Dom were in the hottest bit of their disagreement and hating each other. The both of them rarely talked or gave the other a chance to explain or speak.
She did not mean it in a rude way, but that was just how things were. She just hoped that neither Natasha, nor Dom pressured her about this whole Benjamin thing and they just let her make her own decision the same way she let them...to an extent.
After about thirty minutes of slowly eating so as not to waste the meal that Natasha had kept for her, Lulu walked into the kitchen, she washed out her dishes, dried them and said hi to Joy in the living room before returning to her room.
Lulu laid on her bed and picked up her phone. She switched it on and noticed she had received a message from Benjamin.
"I thought I blocked you," she said to herself confused.
Regardless, she decided not to make this any harder for herself, she went to his contact and blocked him and then deleted his contact. She did not want to read anything he sent her. She believed that maybe he just wished to tell her what she wanted to hear as she was the granddaughter of his employer.
Lulu shook her head and groaned. This was so annoying. So very annoying. However, she was certain that it would get easier to avoid him, ignore him and forget him as time passed.
The next day.
Joy was watching tv and what seemed to be her new favourite show The Cars of Vroomsville. She giggled when something funny happened on screen and then she heard the landline ringing in the kitchen.
Joy rushed into the kitchen to answer the landline. She got a little stool and climbed on it to get the phone.
"Hello," she said.
"Hello dummy," Ethan said.
"Ethan?" Joy asked confused.
"You truly are a dummy," Ethan scoffed. "Of course it's me, who else would be calling?" he asked.
"Well my daddy, or my aunt, or my uncles or Alfred or—"
"Alright, alright, I get it, many other people might have called," Ethan stopped her, she was about to mention all the people in her life and he did not have the time for that.
"But Ethan, why are you calling?" Joy asked confused.
"Is that supposed to be a question or should you not be happy that I took some time off my busy schedule to call you?" Ethan scoffed.
"I am so happy, so, so happy Ethan," Joy smiled, she really was.
"Joy, who is on the line?" Natasha asked from upstairs.
"Oh it's just Ethan mommy, he called me," Joy responded happily as she walked to the hallway so her mother would be able to hear her clearly.
"Oh alright my dear, I'll be in my office if you need me," Natasha said.
"Okay mommy," Joy responded.
Natasha smiled and walked back to her office but she left the door slightly open so she could hear what was going on.
"Hi Ethan," Joy giggled, she put the phone to her ear.
"Hello dummy," Ethan responded. Joy would have frowned if not for the fact that she was very happy to hear his voice.
"Ethan, why did you call the landline and not my mommy's phone?" Joy asked.
"Well, I figured that aunt would be busy with her phone and she sent my mom the number to your landline and I knew that you would be bored and answer it quickly," Ethan explained.
"Wow! Ethan, you know a lot of things!" Joy exclaimed with stars in her eyes.
"You should know that by now dummy," He responded.
"Anyway, so what are you up?" he asked.
"Oooh, I was just watching The Cars of Vroomsville, and I'm almost at the end," Joy replied as she walked into the living room and sat on the couch. She got the tv remote and paused the cartoon so she could focus on one thing at a time.
"As expected," Ethan said.
"Yes, so what are you up to Ethan?" Joy asked smiling. It just made her so happy to talk to Ethan, he was one of her only friends and her other friends had not called her, but he had and she liked that he did.
"Nothing much, my grandad and I just came back from walking Pluto on the beach and now I'm back to being cooped up in my dad's old room again.". Ethan sounded annoyed and Joy could hear that he was.
"So you are bored Ethan?" she asked.
"Mhmm, once more, I am bored," Ethan scoffed. Joy laughed, she was also bored too. It felt nice to know that she was not the only one that got bored too.
"I am also bored, so what do you want us to talk about?" Joy asked, she had nothing in mind, but since Ethan knew a lot she was sure that he would know.
"How about how hot the summer is?" Ethan asked.
"It's hot?" Joy asked.
"Where have you been living dummy? Under a rock? Of course it's hot, it's scorching out here, when you go to the beach it's nice and cool, but once you come back inside, it's so hot," Ethan said.
"Really? I don't know, my house is not hot, it's very cool," Joy said.
"You probably have not gone outside today, and maybe your house is always air conditioned," Ethan frowned.
"Well, the air conditioner is on right now, let me see if it's really hot outside, wait a moment," Joy said. She rushed upstairs with the phone in hand.
Ethan frowned hearing the sound of her running up the stairs.
"Mommy," Joy called as she walked into her mother's office.
"Yes my darling?" Natasha asked while typing something on her laptop.
"Mommy, can I go out to the garden quickly? I want to see if it's as hot outside as Ethan says," Joy said.
Natasha looked up from her screen and laughed. What a really odd question.
Ethan facepalmed himself. Joy really did not know how to be smooth then asking for something.
"Sure my darling, but don't stay out for too long and no bringing Meggie in to feed her, you can feed her outside but not inside.".
"Okay mommy, thank you!" Joy smiled.