Mr. Moneybags | jb

Chapter 2 - Brunch

Three months later

Me and the girls were currently having brunch together and chatting away. Sarah was currently explaining how she went to visit her family over the weekend. Her Dad was apparently the country head of IBM.

"Emma, what about you?" Lily asked.

"What about me?" Where was she going with this?

"How did you end up studying business administration?" A wave of relief washed over me as she didn't ask about my family.

"Uhm... I studied uh... management before and it felt like the natural next step." I admitted with a smile carefully leaving out the music. Truthfully, I had studied music management in Britain before coming here. Lily nodded.

"Where did you study before?" Sarah wondered.

"The other London in Europe." I smiled at them and Chelsea's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"How'd you manage that? Visa and all..." she wondered.

"I'm half German, so..."

"What?" Sarah cut me off. "You never mentioned it before."

"True. It didn't cross my mind, I guess..." I lied. Of course I could have told them on multiple occasion as, but that usually raised questions about my family I wasn't ready to answer...

"So, who in your family is German then? You never speak of your family now that I think of it..." lily rambled.

"My mom." I answered tight lipped.

"Where did you grow up? Do you have any siblings?" Sarah shot.

"Uhm.. no... no siblings." I gulped heavily - not even a lie. Pain cursed through my body and I quickly took a sip from my coffee. "I grew up in LA and New York." I finished.

"Nice." Chelsea commented with a sympathetic smile on her face. "Justin lives in LA." She commented. Thanks for getting me out of this! The girls giggled at her comment, and I was confused.

"Who's Justin?" I wondered and they all gaped at me.

"Omg - she doesn't know, does she?" Sarah got way too excited for my liking.

"Jeremy's son." Chelsea replied nonchalantly. I nodded still not understanding what all the fuss was about. "Actually, speaking of the devil... lily I need to ask you something..." lily looked up at her. "So you remember how Jeremy and I are going on a spa retreat over the weekend?" Lily nodded and I continued with my food. "Justin can't watch the kids. He's only getting here on Sunday, in time for Jaxon's birthday... Allie will stay with her father, but we need someone to watch jazzy and jaxon... could you maybe?" Lily thought about it for a moment and Chelsea continued. "I normally wouldn't ask you, but you know we can't just hire anyone..."

"Chelsea, I'd love to. You know I like to help whenever I can, but I have this group project due next week." Lily remarked. "I'm sorry." She seemed crushed she had to turn Chelsea down.

"If you want me to, I could come over and keep an eye on them." I interjected. "I mean, I have watched them together with Lily before and I'm free, so..." I offered. The kids were really nice and I wanted Chelsea to have her spa weekend, she deserved it. The girls exchanged a look and eventually nodded.

"You sure that's okay with you?" Chelsea asked cautiously. "We'll obviously pay you."

I laughed. "Please, don't do that! I really like the kids and helping out, so please don't make a fuss about it." I smiled at her. She didn't seem convinced though. "Really, it's fine. I'm only doing you a favor, nothing big." I smiled at her. "You better ask J & J first." I laughed. That was my nickname for Jazzy and Jaxon.

"Okay. Thank you so much, Emma!" Chelsea hugged me.

"Of you need help you can always call me." Lily offered and smiled at me. "Thanks." I replied.

"You girls are the best!" Chelsea cheered.

"You better enjoy your weekend, dear!" I warned her playfully raising my index finger and we all laughed.

After brunch we decided to go for a stroll around the city and did some shopping, too. Overall we had a really good time together. Eventually we talked about guys, Lily had had a date last weekend and Sarah was talking about her Tinder experiences.

"I'm just so over it. Tinder is a load of bull!" She seemed exhausted. "How was you date lilz?"

"Ugh... the guy was so goddamn boring! He even went on to tell me how he needed a confident woman by his side because he was that self couscous. What the hell! I mean he's 27!"

"Oh my god!" I scoffed. We all laughed.

"What about you Emma?" Lilz asked.

"Yeah.. you never date or anything, what's up with you?" Sarah chipped in.

"Thank you Sarah, now I just feel a whole lot better about myself!" Sassy me replied. The truth was that I didn't wanna date anyone right now. I was too busy with myself, my problems and fixing my life to worry about falling in love. Also, guys tended to ask questions that I wasn't ready to answer. Eventually I would have to open up and I wasn't strong enough to do that just yet.

"We can find you a guy, I guess..." lily offered.

"Thanks Lilz, that's very sweet of you, but I'll do that myself. I believe when the time is right and the right guy comes along, I'll fall in love eventually." I told her sincerely.

"You have dated before though haven't you?" Sarah asked worried.

I rolled my eyes. "Of course Sarah!" I laughed.

"Justin's single you know..." Chelsea suggested.

"You think?" Lily asked her as they exchanged a look and Chelsea nodded.

"Emma's definitely his type." Lily concluded. Oh right, time to describe myself. I'm not very tall, average I'd say. Because I used to do ballet as a kid and basically danced my whole life I have an alright body, I guess. Also I have long chocolate brown hair that falls down in waves and reaches down until the small of my back unless I decide to pin it up in a bun or ponytail - which happens quite often as I get annoyed with my mane. Other than that I'm nothing special. I'm confident and know that I'm beautiful also I know a lot of guys think I look good so sometimes I like to make use of the effect I have on them, but not in a bad way. Overall I'm pretty fine with my appearance. Of course there's parts of my body I don't particularly like, but we all have these spots I guess.

"Oh my god!" Sarah giggled again and I rolled my eyes at them.

"What's the fuss about guys?" He couldn't possibly be that big of a deal. Chelsea and lily just smirked at me.

"You'll probably meet him sometime next week, so make up your mind then." Chelsea winked at me and I nodded.

"Guys, please don't make 'hooking-up-emma' your next project." I asked tired. I really didn't need this right now. If there was one thing I hated, then people not getting off my back with things like these...