To what do I owe this visit?

TWELVE

"Are you still dating that baby?" The voice speaking was Alicia's. Marissa looked up at her from the table where she sat, holding a fabric.

"Excuse me?" Marissa asked calmly.

Alicia shifted her weight from one foot to another as she rested on the wall, staring at Marissa square in the face, with her arms folded.

"You're with Justin am I right?Justin Rivers?"

"Yes I am. But why did you call him that?" Marissa's forehead creased slightly.

"Isn't that what he is?" Alicia replied with a smirk forming on her lips."I was with him a couple of months and I know exactly what he is like"

"Couple of months you say?" Marissa echoed."I've been with him for well over a year and trust me, I know everything already."

"You do know I'm his ex girlfriend right?"

"Of course. He told me himself."

Marissa's tone was very cool. She focused more on the material she was working on.

"What did he tell you about me?" Alicia's eyes danced about in curiosity.

"We don't discuss past experiences. So there is clearly nothing to say about you." Marissa replied with a shrug of indifference.

Alicia scoffed, unable to make out a proper sentence at first.

"Well enjoy the moment while you still can. You'd leave him at the end of the day" she managed.

"Its totally my personal business ma'am.I know what to do" Marissa said stealing a glance at her with a quick smile as well. Alicia forced a smile back.

"Be finished with that in the next twenty minutes. I'll be back to check it out. It better be perfect"

Her heels clicked on the tiled floor as she strutted out and closed the door behind her a little too firmly. Marissa sighed.

What was her problem? After all she dumped him, so why was there any fuss? Or maybe she hadn't found a man to measure up to Justin.Even till then.

Justin tapped his car key on the car trunk slowly while he checked his phone. Marissa hadn't responded to his message yet. He however decided to go into the building. Suddenly, he bumped face first into a lady and a couple of documents she was holding almost fell out of her hands. He helped steady her by the shoulders.

"Are you okay Miss? I'm so sorry.." he quickly apologized before realizing who it was.

"Justin?" Alicia called a bit surprised, placing her palm on her forehead. "What on earth are you doing here?"

"I came to pick up my girlfriend, Marissa" he responded.

"Ohhh... Well its so nice to see you again. We haven't really had a conversation since God knows when"

Her eyes stared at him.

"Since you dumped my ass?"

"Oh come on Justin," she laughed nervously. "Well er.. It wasn't really healthy to keep in touch you know, you're really irresistible."

"You still left me no matter how charming I was Alicia,isn't that right?" He looked at her like he was beginning to get bored of the conversation.

"You know why I left you Justin. I still did love you but I couldn't cope."

Why was she talking about love? They hadn't had any interaction in person since the breakup. Justin didn't come here for that.

"That's okay. Its all in the past now. Have you seen Marissa anywhere? She told me you're her head designer"

A sour look crossed Alicia's face for a moment before she hastily replaced it with a small smile. Truth was, she had been recently stalking Justin's account since she found out he was with Marissa.

And Justin was a social media person. He gave updates from time to time and would always flaunt Marissa for the whole world to see.

It somehow affected Alicia the kind of audience they got. How large they were and how supportive too. These people didn't know what happened behind closed doors.

She also wondered if Justin had changed and that's why Marissa still stuck with him till then. But she also knew a Mama's boy like Justin could not ever change. Or did he go for therapy or something? Because she knew very well Karen didn't die.

Justin looked as handsome as ever. God, those dimples. He was smiling. Wait why was he smiling suddenly?

Then she heard Marissa's voice and came back to reality.

"Hi Nena," he moved past Alicia and bent over to embrace Marissa. She had a hint of smile and surprise on her face.

"Dimples,to what do I owe this visit?"

"I'm not visiting you silly, I came to pick you up from work today." he said draping his arm over her shoulders.

"But you've never done that because you're always so busy from work and our workplaces are in two opposite directions" she replied, her eyes not breaking from his.

"I felt like picking up my baby from work so I did. Anything wrong with that?" He gave her a playful smile. Alicia cleared her throat suddenly drawing their attention.

"Nice seeing you again Justin. Marissa, see you tomorrow at work."

"Goodbye." Marissa and Justin both waved at her as she walked away.

"What were you two talking about?" asked Marissa as she placed her hand on Justin's waist while they walked together to the car.

"Nothing important."

He carefully held the car door open for her and she got in. He sprinted to the driver's seat and the engine roared the moment he turned the key in.

"Now that you're here, we might as well go somewhere," Marissa was saying as she pulled out something from her handbag, revealing two movie tickets.

"What are those?" he queried.

"Tickets to The Terminals. It doesn't start till another hour but we could just go home and freshen up first"

"Nena," Justin called with a pleased smile. "You don't enjoy watching movies like these."

"But you do. So I'm gonna watch it with you"

Still smiling, he placed a quick kiss on her cheek. "Gracias."

She smiled back at him. "Of course. Now drive already"

The movie had just ended when Justin received a text from Karen asking him to come over. She was about to prepare one of his favorites for dinner.

"Nena,what do you think about some little bonding time with Mom?"

"Huh?"

"She wants to cook dinner and I figured maybe you two could spend sometime together and do some cooking."

Marissa was a bit unsure. Karen's presence made her uncomfortable. But she remembered Zora's advice of not shutting her out completely.

Besides, if she was going to be Justin's wife someday, their paths had to cross somehow. She just had to give it a try so she nodded and smiled reassuringly at Justin.

Karen wasn't very happy to see that Marissa tagged along but she pretended that she wasn't affected. Especially when Justin suggested that they cook together.

Marissa nervously wore one of the aprons and Justin helped tie it at her back.

"You'll do great," he said placing a kiss on her temple briefly. She smiled at him weakly and then walked over to face her nightmare in the kitchen.

"Have you ever made this before?" Karen asked as she tossed the chicken wings with oil and seasonings inside in a large bowl. She was about to make buffalo wings and sweet potato fries.

"Yes I have." Marissa responded quietly.

"Just watch me and do not be an inconvenience in here. I do not like people in my kitchen" Karen stated crossly.

Oh wow. How was she going to help her out if she didn't even want her there? Was she to stand still like a mannequin?

"Maybe I can make dessert?" Marissa suggested.

"Its brownies for dessert.Can you handle that?"

"Of course. I love making brownies" Marissa replied her.

"Get to work then."

At least she allowed her make dessert. She was really good at making them but silently hoped she didn't screw up as Karen had her eagle's eyes around her.

Marissa tried to make small talk a whole lot of times just to get them to talk about something but Karen either ignored or hushed her saying it was wrong to keep talking while cooking.

Marissa got pretty frustrated and wanted it all to end. And then, while she was about to add some hot water into the brownie mix,she almost spilled some on Karen's legs by mistake.

"How clumsy can you be! You want to burn my skin don't you?" She flared up.