Serena

After speaking to Danny, I still hadn't really made any contact with Liam.

I also received no more messages or heard from the others, that they had been contacted by him. I could only imagine that Liam had concluded I wasn't going to see him all too soon.

I knew it was unfair of me to do this to him, since he had no idea why I was avoiding him, but I felt after everything, I was allowed my moment of selfishness.

Luckily, I now had the festive season to distract me from my thoughts and with Christmas soon approaching, I had no time to wallow within my own sadness.

"Are you sure?" Elias asked, as we were stood in the middle of the street, most likely looking like lost tourists.

Every year a Christmas Market was held, where the whole street is decorated with lights and ornaments, nothing short of a place where Santa would like to visit.

This year, I decided I wanted to be a part of it.

It was something I had been preparing for a while and earlier this year, before all the drama, I had already began preparing.

"Well, it seems like the best way around it," I said, scrunching up my face a little. "I've sorted out all the permits, paperwork and everything, I just need to confirm positioning and all."

I never realised that to be involved in a Christmas market, there was so much paperwork included. I honestly thought it was more of a, 'I want to participate', and the committee would be like 'okay'.

"But is this the best location?" Elias asked, his scrutinising gaze looking at the location we were at.

"Elias, I swear," I groaned, looking at him exasperated, as he returned my look with innocence. "They've given us three choices, that's more than anyone else. The Christmas market is the best thing for us, we need to decide," I told him.

The market was incredibly popular with people and especially small businesses, like mine, who wanted to gain some exposure.

One of the members of the committee had bought her wedding dress from me and so she was nice and gave me a choice of the spaces I wanted, rather than just assigning me one.

"Okay, then this one," Elias nodded, pointing to the space we were stood across from.

It was a centre space and would probably be near other popular stalls. It could help us attract more attention and more money.

"Sure?" I turned to Elias.

He'd changed his mind five times already and we had walked space to space, I couldn't be asked for him to change his mind once again.

Elias turned to me and shook his head. "No, don't ask me like that. Now I don't know," he said in a panicked voice.

I need to remember never to ask him for help to make a decision.

"Elias, you're-" I was about to go off, but was interrupted by my name being shouted.

"Serena!"

I turned to see where the very familiar voice was coming from and no sooner did I feel a little body crash into mine, causing me to stumble back a little.

I let out a little 'oomph' sound as Bea wrapped her around around my waist, hugging me tightly, as if she were afraid to let go.

I smiled down at her, stroking back her hair.

"Bumblebee," I couldn't help the grin that had spread on my face, as I said her name.

She pulled away from me and looked up. Her big green eyes shining under the intense light of the sun, a lot like gems.

"Buzz buzz," she said, her little button nose wrinkling slightly.

The little greeting tugged at my heartstrings and I instantly melted.

Crouching down to Bea's height, I was leaning on my ankles, trying to keep my balance steady from underneath me.

"I thought you forgot about me," she said, her lips quivering ever so slightly.

She looked so sad, it broke my heart.

Not only was I being unfair towards Liam, I was also hurting Bea and in my selfish ways, I had forgotten about her being completely innocent in all of this.

I gently cupped her face. "No, darling, I'd never ever forget about you. I've just been really busy," I told her.

She pouted, looking hurt, but before she could say anything more, another voice interrupted us...

"Too busy to see me?" Liam's voice asked, sounding accusatory.

I closed my eyes momentarily hearing his voice.

Despite his words saying something else, all it did was remind me of his words from the night of the party.

His words that had led to a kiss.

Finally opening my eyes, I tilted my head up a little to see Liam starting down at me, a hardened expression on his face.

"Liam," my voice came out as a whisper, the cold breeze just carrying it through.

His name left a bittersweet taste on my tongue, yet one which I craved for.

I stood up straighter, as Bea clutched my hand, and Liam's eyes never left mine.

"I-" my throat felt dry as I spoke, causing me to take a harsh gulp.

He didn't wait for me to speak, instead he asked the question I'm sure he wanted the answer to for a long time.

"Where have you been?" He asked me, gritting out the question from between his teeth it seemed.

His intense gaze nearly made me flinch, but I kept myself composed.

"I've been busy with work and then moving," I replied, trying to keep my voice as steady as possible.

My answer was not one Liam was all too happy with clearly, and instead, I saw his jaw clench.

"So all my calls, messages, they never got to you?" He questioned. "Or when I spoke to Arya, Sara or even Danny, none of them told you about it?"

His questions were legitimate and I knew that. I wasn't really accustomed to avoiding someone like this and I knew that I was doing a poor job.

The worst part - I hadn't exactly figured out what I was going to say to Liam when I saw him.

I wasn't expecting to bump into him like this.

"I-it was just hard replying to you with everything else going on," I stammered through my answer rather unconvincingly, even to myself.

Liam let out a harsh, mocking kind of laugh, that had me clench my free hand into a fist.

"Seriously?" He questioned, as his laughter died out and when I didn't answer, he shook his head. "You're a terrible liar."

I would've replied, but instead Bea took a step forward, squeezing my hand.

"Serena's not a liar," she told Liam, defending me, despite not even knowing what was going on.

My heart warmed at her actions.

She stood in a protective stance, not even caring that it was her own Dad that she was defending me against. She believed me over him and it was so sweet.

Liam looked down at Bea and I saw his lips twitch upwards ever so slightly, before he covered it up with not a hard expression again, but one of despair.

"Will you just tell me what I've done?" He pleaded. "I know I've messed up somehow, will you please tell me how, so I can correct it?"

I almost gave into his plea. Almost.

I looked around, seeing the people pass by, and when I turned my head towards the left, I saw Elias looking at me with the most confused expression.

Crap, I forgot his was there.

"This isn't the time," I told Liam, reminding him of the setting that we were in.

Not that I wanted to have this conversation in any kind of setting, or ever, for that matter.

Liam's expression turned cold. "No. it is, since I can't seem to get a hold of you and so randomly bumping into you, is all I have."

"Liam, please, I-" I began to say. I really didn't want to have this conversation with him, especially on the street like this with Bea and Elias just watching us.

He was breaking my resolve and I couldn't have that.

Before Liam or I could say anything further, I saw Emma and Peter walk towards us, a surprise smile on their face.

"Serena, dear." Emma greeted me, pulling me into a hug.

"Hi. Emma. Peter." I hugged her back, wrapping one arm around her, since Bea continued to hold onto the other one.

The two of them were wrapped up warm for winter and clearly doing their Christmas shopping, as Peter carried all bags.

"Oh, it's always so good to see you," Emma said, after pulling back from the hug.

Her eyes then looked past me, just over my shoulder. "Who's this?" She asked.

I turned and saw Elias looking at me with a lost expression on his face.

"Oh. right. This is Elias. He manages the my cake store next to the boutique," I told Emma and Peter, and he gave them a polite nod.

"Elias, you've met Liam and Bea, and these are his parents, Emma and Peter." I introduced them.

Liam and Bea had both come to the cake shop previously, when things were good between us, and Elias was always so cheerful when serving Bea.

"Oo, he's French," Emma said, looking quite excited as if she were meeting a celebrity.

The corner of Elias' lips turned upwards into a smirk, as he noticed the glee in Emma's voice.

He took a step forward, bowing a little. "Why yes, mademoiselle," he winked, and I was honestly quite surprised but this.

He usually flirts with customers in the shops, so the winking wasn't all that new, but with Emma? I hadn't expected that.

When I looked back towards Emma, I saw Peter giving Elias a stern, disapproving look.

"Madam, actually," he corrected Elias, who then finally noticed the glare Peter was sending his way.

Emma smacked Peter's chest. "If he wants to call me mademoiselle, let him," she told him, and then looked back to Elias with a smile.

Peter narrowed his eyes. "I got my eye on you French fry," he warned.

I wasn't even sure what just happened here.

Feeling a tug on my hand, I looked down at Bea who was smiling up at me.

"When can we start on the bumblebee cupcake?" She asked me, reminding me that during our little trip, I had pitched her the idea of her own cupcake.

Immediately I felt bad for not following through my words sooner.

"It's going to have to be after Christmas, Bea. There's just so much going on right now," I frowned at her. "Is that okay?" I asked cautiously, since I didn't want to upset her further.

Instead of looking sad as I thought she would, Bea just grinned up at me. "Yup. We should have Christmas cookies anyway," she remarked, causing a slight chuckle to bubble out of me.

"I will have them ready for when you come to the shop. chérie." Elias said and Bea turned her heads towards him.

"Yummy," she said, giving him a toothy grin.

As Bea spoke, my eyes glanced towards Liam and I was left a little stunned to see he was already looking at me.

He wasn't saying anything, but his eyes were.

They were peering into my eyes and searching my soul for the answers he wanted, ones that I couldn't give to him without probably breaking down.

"What are you guys doing here?" Peter then asked, snapping my out of my staring match with Liam.

I cleared my throat, smiling towards him. "There's going to be a Christmas market here and I'm planning to have my own little stall for the first time," I said, trying to sound as cheerful as I could.

"Really?" Emma asked.

I nodded at her. "Yeah, Elias is going to whip up some treats for us to sell-" I said, looking towards him as he nodded, and then faced Emma again, "-and then the money will go to charity."

"Charity? You're not going to keep it for your business?" Peter questioned.

I shook my head. "I think it would be better to give it to charity. There's a small children's shelter nearby, and I think they deserve presents too, so I'm going to donate it all there."

I wanted to do something good with the money and the shops were doing okay right now, so the money wouldn't really be needed in the business, unless for a few fixes that needed to be done.

The children's shelter seemed like a good place for the money to go, and it was an unanimous decision between everyone at the boutique and cake shop.

"That's very noble of you, dear." Emma smiled at me, gently touching my cheek.

"I'm even going to help in the baking," I told her.

All their faces then looked a little skeptical and it was Liam who broke the silence.

"You don't bake," he stated.

Trust him to point that out.

First thing he says that's not about me avoiding him and it ends up being that.

"Don't I know it," I heard Elias mutter from beside me and I smacked his arm.

"I have my mother's carrot cake recipe. I'm going to make the little muffins like she did," I said.

Every time I went to visit my Mum and Dad, we'd always bake it together, to the point I could do it by myself without my Mum's supervision.

"Well then, I'll definitely be visiting your stall," Emma smiled at me.

"I'll keep a separate batch for you," I winked at her, causing her to laugh, only to be interrupted by Peter's fake cough.

It was clear what he was angling towards. "You too, Peter." I added and he grinned at me.

Another fake cough then came and I looked down to see Bea smiling up towards me.

"For the whole Hunter family," I said and they all chuckled.

Emma placed her hand on my arm, looking like she just remembered something or had an idea.

"Oh, Serena dear, you must come to Christmas dinner," she told me, and my eyes widened.

Why must she come up with ideas like this?

"I, um..." I hesitated, quickly trying to think up why I must not come to their Christmas dinner.

Emma, however, didn't give me much of a chance to speak. "I'm inviting Zara and Mark as well. It'll be so much fun," she clapped her hands.

I smiled politely, but shook my head gently anyway. "I don't think-" I began to say, but felt a tug on my hand.

"Please, Serena. It's Christmas," Bea said, jutting out her bottom lip.

"Bea, I..." it was so hard to say no to her, but I didn't want to give her a false promise either.

"Please?" She asked again.

Her cheeks and nose were slightly reddened from the cold and it was making her so much cuter, and things so much harder for me.

Emma placed her hand on my arm again, giving it a slight squeeze.

"Is everything all right? Or did you have other plans already?" She asked tentatively.

"We wouldn't want to double book you," Peter laughed.

I hadn't replied and thankfully, as if sending my reluctance, Elias spoke up. "Um, Serena, we need to go book the market stuff," he interrupted us.

"Right," I looked back at him and gave him a grateful look. "I'm really sorry, but I have to run," I told Emma.

I heard Liam let out a snort, but I ignored it, not wanting to get into it with him.

"Oh well, let us know if you can make it. I'll give Zara and Mark a call today," Emma said, giving me a hug.

"I'll let you know," I told her, but knew that I really didn't want to go, even if my parents were going to be there.

I crouched down to hug Bea, as she tilted her head up slightly.

"You won't be too busy again, will you?" She asked me, a hopeful expression on her face, clearly wanting me to say no.

I wrapped my arms around her, hugging her close to my body, her her arms circled my neck, tucking her face into my hair.

"I'm sorry, Bea. I'm so sorry. I promise, I won't ever stay away for that long ever again. I love you, darling." I told her.

"I love you too," she mumbled, tightening her hold on me, as I smiled.

I was so happy she didn't hate me for not seeing her too.

"Serena, we need-" I heard Liam's voice begin to say, and I pulled back from the hug from Bea and looked at him.

"I'm sorry, I have to go," I cut him off.

With one last glance, I sped off with Elias right behind me and I mentally chanted to myself to not look back.

Liam was actually right about one thing, I am a liar.