I woke up today and felt like doing absolutely nothing. I wasn't actually doing anything, but today I just felt like sitting all day in my room wearing my PJ's and watch a series on Netflix or something.

I spend the entire day in my room. Mary came to check up on me. She was indeed worried, but I brushed her off by telling her that I think I'm coming down with something, so she bought me something to eat because she was concerned that I wasn't eating well.

Just when I was about to tune into another episode, cuddling with one of my pillows, the door burst open

“Okay. That's it”, Quinton stormed into my room, holding his hands up before placing them on his hips

“Have you ever heard of the term knock?”, I asked sarcastically, and he stroked his chin whilst posing to think

“No, not really”, he came to sit near me on the bed, already helping himself to my snacks. “What's wrong? Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?”, I raised an eyebrow at him.

“Well I don't know”, he shrugged lightly. “Maybe the fact that its 3:30pm and you still in your PJ's and watching these sad whatever you're watching here”, he paused for a second. “Are you PMSing?”, he asked, and I looked at him with deadly eyes.

Really? Out of all the things, he had to think that am I PMSing?

“Really Q? Can't a girl just have some time to herself, lock herself in and watch a movie? I have to be PMSing?”, I hit him with a pillow.

“Well, are you? “, he smirked which caused me to hit him even harder, and he got up from the bed laughing

“Whoa, okay. Don't hit the questioner, I was just asking”, he surrendered.

“Well shut it, one more word from you and I swear I'm going to shove this pillow down your throat”, I pointed a finger at him, and he stuck a tounge out at my threat

“Well we're going out sweets so you better get ready”, he said ignored my threat, while managing to drag me out of bed and forced me to get ready, and I couldn't say no to him.

“So what do you want to do today?”, he asked when I got downstairs

“I don't know”, I shrugged my shoulders. “Surprise me”

He grinned. “I was hoping you would say that”

Our first stop was the music store, he had to collect a couple of CDs for himself, I mean couldn't he just download them?

“Trust me sis. I'm going to be making millions with these babies 20 years from now”, he picked up his collection and I rolled my eyes. So to keep myself occupied I walked around the store checking out some RnB hits, I'm a major fan

“Layla?”, a husky, deep voice called behind me and I turned to meet the blue pools I fell in love with 6 years ago

“Troy”, I gulped heavily. “Hi”, I croaked out, surprised that I bumped into my ex-crush in a music store.

Troy Roberts, a guy I had a huge crush on while I was in high school, in the 10th grade to be exact, until he broke my heart. Not like we were dating or anything, lets just say I wasn't one of the lucky one's that have a crush on someone and end up dating them. He broke my heart indirectly.

“It's really you. You look... different”, he said astonished by my sudden appearance before he embraced me in a hug.

By different he meant that back in high school I was one of the nerds and my appearance was not appealing to the eye. I had pimples all over my face, round glasses, braces and I always let my long black hair down to cover my face, so you can use your imagination.

Now not much have changed, just that I replaced this and that. I wore eye contacts and my braces were removed short after my high school graduation and I dyed my hair.

“You don't look too bad yourself”, I smiled at him

Not too bad? Who am I kidding? He's still handsome as he still was back in high school...a real eye candy this one.

The thing is what happened between us is that he and I went to the same classes, we even shared a seat once, and we were not the best of friends, but we were close in a way that I ended up liking him. I mean he was the IT guy. He had good looks, was cool to hang around with and was the captain of the schools' football team...so obviously, he had the body to die for.

One time, we got assigned to work on a science project together, and I felt like the havens were opening up to me. I was over the moon.

But my happiness didn't last long as he ditched me and ended up partnering with the new girl at school that with no doubt he liked. He was practically a player, not only on the field but with hearts too, mine was secretly entangled in the whole saga.

I felt like my heart was ripped into shreds. So to stop myself from getting hurt any further, I decided to let him go.

“I never thought I'll see you again, and now you're-”, his eyes dropped to my wedding ring. “Married?”, he rose an eyebrow and I looked down on my hand. I had totally forgotten about this, so I nodded in response.

“Who's the lucky guy?”, he asked intrigued, and before I could answer him Quinton came behind me and asked whether I was ready to leave

“Is this him?”, Troy asked amused and greatly surprised when he probably noticed Q looked a lot younger than me and Quinton and I denied simultaneously while laughing

“This is my husband's younger brother, Quinton Kingsley. Q this is Troy Roberts, an old friend of mine”, I introduced them, and they shook hands.

“Nice to meet you Q. Your brother is one lucky fellow”, Troy said before they broke their contact

“I know right? I was just telling her the same thing the other day”, Quinton chuckled.

“Troy”, an angel voice said and our eyes shot up to the little figure coming behind Troy, carrying a furry teddy bear, and he picked her up, holding her safely in his arms as he kissed her on the cheek

“Meet my princess, Tina”, he smiled, taking a step closer to me and I took Tina's little hands in mine

“Hello Tina”, I smiled, and she buried her head on Troy's neck

“She's a little shy”, Troy chuckled, and I kissed her little hand

“She's beautiful”, I remarked, and he thanked me. Tina looked at me with the cutest smile before she rubbed her eyes sleepily.

“She looked sleepy though”, I ran my hand up and down her back

“We're ready to go now”, a feminine voice said as I witnessed her wrapping her hands around Troy, who was carrying Tina. She was beautiful, almost like she stepped out of a magazine cover beautiful. It was kinda good to be true, almost impossible that a guy like Troy wouldn't have a wife and kid by now. Her eyes diverted to mine and a polite smile played on her lips.

“Hi there, I'm Madison”, she extended her arm for a handshake and I gladly took her hand in mine

“I'm Layla, it's nice to meet you”, I smiled at her and her eyebrows knitted in confusion as she turned to look at Troy for a second

“Layla, as in thee Layla?”, she asked quietly, almost in a whisper, but I could read her lips and Troy gave her a simple nod, shrugging his shoulders a little as if he was brushing the issue off or something. Madison turned to look at me again.

“It's nice to meet you too Layla, Troy has mentioned quite a lot about you”

“Really?”

“It's mostly about the times we were in high school together, so it's only good things, trust me”, Troy added, laughing uncomfortably, and I couldn't help but wonder if that's all this was about

“And I can see what he definitely meant, you're really beautiful”, Madison was still looking at me with a warm smile on her face

“Oh”, I laughed nervously while tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear. “Thank you, but I think I should be the one raving about your beauty”

She laughed a little. “I'll take that as the best compliment I've received all day so thank you”

There was this tension that was slowly creeping in on the three of us, it was now starting to get a little awkward

“So are you two-?”, I asked, urging them to tell me about them. I don't know why I bothered because it was quite obvious but just to keep the conversation going.

“We're cousins”, she announced happily as my chest tightened, mostly because it was only then I could see the resemblance between them

“Cousins?”, I repeated in disbelief while looking in between them, neither of them showing any signs of disagreeing on what was being said. “I really thought that the two of you-”

Madison interrupted. “Are a couple and Tina was our daughter?”, she raised an eyebrow and I nodded. “Most people think that but honestly, it's the opposite. Tina is my daughter. Long story short, the jerk ditched me when I was pregnant and as they say, the rest is history”.

She tried to flash a smile but behind that smile was sadness. I decided not to push the story further. She was about to say something again before her eyes widened as she caught a glimpse of my ring, and she grabbed my wedding hand and grasped.

“Oh my god, your ring is stunning”, her jaw dropped to the ground and I heaved a silent sigh. I need to lean to leave this ring at home when I go out in case I bump into people I know because I'm just not in the mood to talk about me and Damon, more especially on why and how we happened.

“He must be pretty loaded to be able to afford a ring like this, isn't he?”, she asked, and I gave a light shrug

“Uhm yeah”, I pulled Quinton next to me to introduce him to avoid getting into the whole Damon-Dilemma. “This is my husband's younger brother, Quinton”

They shook hands before Quinton signaled that he was going to pay for his collection, the exact time frame Madison's phone started ringing

“I have to take this. You'll find me in the car, alright?”, she looked at Troy, and he gave a short nod.

“It was nice to meet you again Layla”, she whispered before talking on her phone and I nodded while waving goodbye. My gaze returned to Troy again as we awkwardly looked at each other, and we started laughing for no reason.

“We have to meet and catch up cause it seems we have a lot to talk about”, he searched inside his pocket. “Here's my card, call me when you have time okay?”

“Okay sure”, I smiled at him while accepting the card from him. “I'll definitely hit you up”

“I'll look forward to that”, he smiled genuinely, and I nodded at him. Tina silently yawned.

“Well, that's my cue. It was nice seeing you again, Layla”, he smiled down at me and I gave a little wave goodbye to him and Tina, watching both of them exiting the store and walking to the car Madison was waiting for them in. I turned to notice Quinton having this suspicious smile on his face as if he was questioning my actions with his eyes.

“What?”, I asked him, and he shrugged his shoulders

“Nothing”, he whistled suspiciously

“So....an old friend huh?”, he asked while wiggling his eyebrows playfully as we walked to the car and I laughed

“Want to talk about it?”, he opened the car door for me

“Maybe another time, on one condition”, I stood at the car door, and he nodded his head

“Strawberry milkshake”, I grinned and he chuckled

“Say no more”, he closed the door for me and walked to the other side