CHAPTER 25

“Where is she?”
“She is with mother right now. She brought them for you and I’m glad that they came at the right time,” he said and wiped the oil at the corner of her mouth.
“Thanks, I’m very hungry.”
“I can tell and by the way you look beautiful.”
“Thank you,” she said and took another one, “aren’t you eating?”
“I will eat later. Right now, I will just watch you eat and make sure you are no longer upset with me.”
“I’m not and you know it.”
“If you aren’t anymore, then go with me and meet my friend. You never saw him before, right?’
“No, I haven’t. I would love to meet him.”
“That’s my girl.”
She finished the plate of dumplings and left the room with her husband.
It had worked, he smiled to himself as he held Talia’s hand walking to the hall where his friends were gathered mingling while they waited for the party to begin.
When he arrived in the hall there was a bit of silence but they both didn’t care and went to where Jasper was. When he saw him, he stood up and walked towards them.
“Talia, meet Jasper. He is a close friend of mine and Jasper this is Talia,” he made the introductions.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” Jasper said brightly while stretching his hand to Talia and he shook his head.
That was a great mistake; Talia would be seeing everything now.
Talia gladly accepted the handshake and said, “it’s a pleasure too. I would love to hear more about your friend here.”
“Whatever you want to know I will tell you,” Jasper responded quickly.
“And I should warn you, the girl you have a crush on she is here. You might have a chance if you start early.”
“How do you know that?” Jasper asked full of confusion and Neal patted his friend on the back and said, “all the best.”
While they were talking to Jasper his sisters in law made their way to where they were standing and he wondered if they were here to harass his wife after their last encounter.
“We meet again,” Talia said with a smile on her face.
He watched as the two duchesses responded nicely this time.
“We are sorry about earlier. We shouldn’t have done that.”
“I’m used to it,” Talia responded.
“But how did you do that?”
“It’s a secret and I promise I will never do it again. So, I apologize,” Talia said and Neal looked at her.
Was his wife apologizing right now? What was she thinking?
“It’s okay, I hope next time we will have only good memories. And speaking of that, Neal do you mind if we steal your wife for a moment?”
“No problem, just don’t make her upset,” he said.
“We won’t dare for the second time,” they said.
Talia left with the two duchess and wondered what they were up to again.
“So, she can do things for real?”
“She can, I told you.”
“So, where is Alice?”
“I haven’t seen her yet,” Neal replied and looked around and saw Alice entering the door.
“She is really here,” Jasper said with his mouth wide open.
“She is. Now go and talk to her, you never know things might be for the better,” he said and ushered his friend away.
After Jasper left Neal made his way to where his brothers were standing.
“I can see you have made up with your wife.”
“Indeed, I have.”
“I can’t believe she did that to our wives,” his older brother Henry said.
“I can’t believe they badmouthed her when she was listening. She has a nasty temper,” Neal said.
“They just learned their lesson now. I believe they will be best friends from now,” Jack his immediate brother said laughing.
“So, is it true that Chloe freaked out on her?” Henry asked.
“Yes, she did and it was pretty bad.”
“Women, I really don’t understand them sometimes. At least you have found yourself a woman who can tolerate anything otherwise if it was for my wife, I wouldn’t know what would happen at the end of the day,” Jack said and they all laughed.
It wasn’t everyday he gets to meet and talk with his brothers like this. Since they were older than him, they moved out of the palace a long time ago to fulfill their duties. Unless there was an important occasion, they would not meet each other.
As time passed by the King his father and mother walked in and they all showed respect to them. He saw his wife entering the hall with the duchesses unharmed and he guessed everything was still okay.