Love the Second Time Around Novel

She went missing when | needed her yesterday, and now she wakesup so early in the morning? I’m going to

give her a piece of my mind!

“Hey, Liliana! Are you with Nicholas right now?”

Wow... | haven't been hfor a whole night, and the first thing she does is ask about Nicholas instead of my

safety? Unbelievable!

“Look, I'm going to hang up if you don’t have anything important to tell me. I'm really tired and need a bit more

sleep.”

“You won't be sleeping once you see what's on Twitter, especially on Nicholas’ account! Hurry up and check it

out! Oh, and make sure to stay where you are! Don’t go anywhere, or | won't be able to save you in time!”

Although | was still confused as to what was going on, Shannon's anxious tone had gotten rid of my sleepiness

completely.

| have a very bad feeling about this...

| thought to myself as | stared at the Twitter icon on my phone for quite a while after hanging up.

Eventually, | mustered the courage and tapped on it, only to be greeted by a Tweet that read: Famous Superstar

Gets Into A Brawl For The Woman He Loves!

It becclear tothat someone must've gotten pictures of Nicholas’ fight with Dominic yesterday.

With that in mind, | could more or less figure out what the content would be and didn’t bother reading the rest of

the posts.

| then pulled up Nicholas’ Twitter account, and to say | was surprised would be an understatement.

Nicholas had lost a huge amount of fans because of me, and to make matters worse, a lot of them turned into

haters and swore to boycott him from then on.

| tossed my phone aside in shock and ran out of the bedroom without even fixing my messy hair.

His bedroom was empty, so | ran downstairs and saw him talking on the phone.

Upon taking a few steps closer, | could hear him saying, “Don’t worry, this is all temporary. Give it stime,

people will forget all about it. Tell the director that I'll take two days off. Yes, that'll be all. Bye.”

“What are you doing up so early? Don’t you want to get a little more sleep?” Nicholas asked when he saw me

standing behind him.

| shook my head. “No, | was woken up by Shannon's call. Nicholas, the Twitter posts...”

Nicholas cutoff by placing a finger over my lips as he said, “Have you forgotten what we agreed upon

yesterday? No more thanking me, remember? Since we're friends, | don’t want you apologizing toeither.”

| knew it was really bad timing and all, but | found myself being distracted by the scent on Nicholas’ finger.

Dominic only reeks of tobacco and nothing else, but this... There's a hint of sweetness in its fragrance... He

doesn’t smell like any guy I've ever met! Wait... No, this isn’t what I should be thinking about right now! Snap out

of it, Liliana!

With that in mind, | recollected my thoughts and pulled his finger away from my lips.

“What good would apologizing do anyway? | was going to ask you what we should do next. Have you checked

your Twitter account? Do you see the number of fans you've lost? Also, you said you would be taking two days

off work, right? Is it because this incident has affected the filming process? What are we going to do?”

“It's not that serious, Liliana. Just give it stand let it die down for a bit. Now isn’t the tto make

public explanations, especially with this wound on my face. This is the reason why | chose to take a few days off

work.”

Nicholas then paused for a moment and gave it sthought before continuing, “I'll just have Scarlett help me

out once this dies down after two days. Don’t worry, Liliana. I'll make sure to take care of this as best as | can to

minimize its impact on you.”

“I'm just a nobody, so stop worrying about me! If anything, you should be more worried about yourself! Are you

sure you can handle this? | don’t want it affecting your career in the future!” | exclaimed while frantically waving

my arms.

Nicholas flasheda confident smile and said, “Relax, I've been in the entertainment industry for over ten

years now. Handling this sort of thing is a piece of cake! Though, you should probably stay here for the next two

days. | will need your cooperation with something when the tcomes.”

Although | had no idea what Nicholas was planning on doing, | knew for sure that | couldn't possibly handle this

on my own. As such, doing as he says was the only way to avoid causing him any further trouble.

| gave Shannon another call afterward to brief her on the arrangements for the next two days.

Nicholas also hadremind her to stay has much as possible to avoid bumping into journalists outside.

Lastly, I told her to stay in touch at all times before hanging up.

This time, however, | wasn't afraid of the journalists callingas | had downloaded an application on my phone

to block all calls from unknown numbers.

Jake cover during lunchtwith a bunch of grocery bags in hand.

He let out a cold snort when he saw me, only to look all distressed and pained when he saw Nicholas’ face.

“Oh, my! You poor thing! Look at you! Your handsface has been wounded! Nic, did you really get into a fight

with someone? Are you hurt anywhere else? Show me!”

Nicholas brushed his hands off and said calmly, “I'm fine, so stop overreacting, will you?”

“You call this fine? There's a cut on your lip! Oh, it hurtsso much to see you like this!”

Unable to stand it anymore, | raised my hand and said, “I'm sorry that Nicholas got hurt because of me, but I've

already treated his wound, so it'll heal very soon!”

| thought Jake would go easier onafter hearing my honest confession, but that wasn’t the case. Instead, the

look in Jake's eyes grew increasingly furious as he glared at me.

If looks could kill, I would probably have died ten times over in that instant.

“From this moment on, you are not allowed to canywhere near Nic! You've brought him nothing but trouble

ever since you two met! You should stay as far away as possible from him!”

What he said was right, and | could only rub my nose awkwardly in response.

“What are you saying, Jake? Liliana is my friend!” Nicholas sounded a little angry.

“Friend? She is more like a jinx!” Jake said while glaring atin disdain.

Nicholas looked really mad when he heard that. “Jake!”

“Fine! I'll shut up, okay? Calm down, Nic! You must be hungry, right? | bought you a lot of ingredients! Let me

make you something to eat!” Jake gave in immediately.

“I'll do it myself.” Nicholas refused Jake's offer.

“What? Did you just say you're going to make lunch yourself? You mean, you can cook?” Jake exclaimed in

surprise.

His reaction surprisedas well. Has Nicholas never cooked in front of him?