Echoes of Unrequited Love

Chapter 200

The Yearwood family hung out at the diner for almost another half hour.

They did ask me a bit about work during that time, and when they heard I was working on my own project, the old folks warmed up a bit.

When it seemed like we had chatted enough, Aaron indicated he had other things to do, so Darren and I walked the aunt and uncle to the parking lot.

I thought the show was finally over, but out of the blue, Nancy caught me off guard by saying, *The old man’s invited a troupe from Willowdale to perform at home. Ms. March, why don’t you join us?”

I was so thrown for a loop that I was at a loss for words.

Playing a part at the diner is one thing, but setting foot in the Yearwood family’s house? That’s way out of my league.

Darren picked up on my SOS signal and made an excuse, “Xaviera’s family is still in the hospital, so she’s got to take care of the patient first.”

“Which hospital?” Nancy asked with curiosity, looking at me. “I often take lunch with the wives of the bigwigs from the top–tler hospitals; maybe I could pull some strings for you.”

Yearwood.” I declined promptly, “everything’s been taken care of.”

all sorted, then come over this weekend with Darren to listen to the performance,” Nancy insisted patiently, “Darren really stuck his neck out for you with the old

then I heard him say, “Alright, Aaron, Nancy, the

car, I finally breathed

our cutthroat CEO will get cold feet,” Darren teased.

“I didn’t give us away just now, did I?”

said with a gentle look, while giving

a living legend from

Darren being serious and even a bit stiff, getting showered with his compliments out of the blue kind of caught me off guard and cracked me

the hospital; just as I went to make a call, I realized that I had left my

back

spotted Cecilia standing not far off: she looked pale and seemingly down in the dumps.

weren’t exacto chummy, I was about to walk away

and heard her say cheerity, “Xaviera’s got some serious game, huh? With just a bit

smiling as she spoke; if you were to go by her expression alone, you would never guess that such snarky