#mccnlightw

alfie: cynthia my sweet sister

the road to success was never easy, however raf never sought success - it just found him. on what was supposed to be the night he celebrated his birthday, raf instead found himself working himself to the bone in his restaurant because another ‘renowned’ critic had decided to pay it a visit. for the most part raf didn’t care, but with his sous chef and other chefs begging for his presence - he ended up (begrudgingly) cancelling his plans to effectively do his job, and naturally he wasn’t happy about it. by the time one in the morning came along, he had only just walked out of his restaurant with three new burns to add to his growing collection.

the only thing that made it all better was seeing lizzie waiting for him when he got out. immediately he started to complain. “i don’t know what i was thinking opening a restaurant. i knew that shit wasn’t easy but i did it anyway. we’ve had like, four critics come in in the past month, for why?” he looked over at her and stopped himself from smiling when he looked at her description. “i’m sorry i’m moaning again, but i’m fucking annoyed. anyway, did you enjoy your free meal and drinks on the house while you were waiting though?”

ANDRE: what if i told you i'm sitting on your front porch with a bottle of wine?

WYNTER: i'd ask you what type of wine

WYNTER: i'd also ask who invited you over because i don't recall doing that

ANDRE: i guess my company doesn't interest you any more

alfie: bro

“cynthia i have a question for you.” alfie poured cindy some tea from the steaming pot, before pouring his own like the gentleman that he was before settling it down on the small china plate it belonged. alfie had spent a total of six months in london on his study abroad, and as a result he naturally became a great lover of afternoon tea. unfortunately for him there were few places outside of the uk that offered afternoon tea worth eating, but when raf opened his restaurant alfie knew that his time had come.

fortunately for alfie, raf had a particular soft spot for his sister and his wife (something that silently both disturbed and intrigued alfie), so when he called his old school chum/former drug dealer/friend(?) asking for a quiet restaurant and afternoon tea so he could speak to his sister, he obliged with a grunt and no questions. 

so the pair sat in the corner with the sound of delicate italian music playing in the background so they could talk in peace. “when you sent over those ideas for yessica’s wardrobe did you use sarah palin as an inspiration or is the resemblance accidental?” 

it wasn’t often gianna found herself irritated with lizzie. considering lizzie’s personality demanded a constant dedication to keeping calm in her presence, growing up with a brother like rafaele and a sister like noemi, meant that gianna had patience for days. but when the woman went the building where she thought lizzie worked in and asked for her, only to be met with a blank stare followed by, 

‘miss nicholson left the company - rather abruptly i might add - two weeks ago.’,

gianna let out a sigh as deep as the mariana trench. it didn’t surprise gianna when she was told where she now worked either. so gianna travelled an obscene distance to her brother’s restaurant which she had only visited once. it wasn’t that gianna disliked her brother but he irritated her so frequently and easily she preferred to just keep her distance. when she opened the door to his restaurant and noticed the bustle of people on their lunch break enjoying food she had grown up eating, she couldn’t help but smile a little. her small moment of peace was interrupted when she spotted the small blonde head of lizzie sat at the bar doing something which suspiciously looked like maths. her heels clicked on the tiled floor and only ceased when gianna slammed her bag on the bar table to get lizzie’s attention.

the younger woman looked at her expectantly, but if there was anything gianna learned about lizzie during the years they lived together, it was to not expect her to say the first word. “so when were you going to tell me you quit your well paying, legitimate, respectful job to work for my delinquent brother?” it was at that moment that raf made his appearance, “you called?” he spoke with an easy smile on his face and humour in his voice, and this was enough to set her off. gianna waved her hand in the air and switched to their mother tongue immediately so the full force of her annoyance could be felt, “what are you doing here rafaele? it’s lunchtime! make us some lunch!” and with that he snorted and left the pair of them to talk. “hm?”

noemie had lived a quintessential millennial life with her one bedroom apartment, comfortable job and great circle of friends. however, with the current drama in her life, she knew if the opportunity ever arose, she could have sold the rights to her life to any television studio and they’d turn it into an award winning show. it was no secret that nursing had it’s ups and downs but as of late her life had been full of a lot more downs. she didn’t think a routine health check up on one of her colleagues would spiral into so much chaos, nor did she think it would end in his (perhaps ex) girlfriend cornering her as she left work, threatening to beat her up as she yelled every expletive and threat under the sun.

that had happened only a few hours earlier, and the shock of watching a girl physically pulled away from you hadn’t worn off, so she sat in her living area with a large glass of wine in her hand and an episode of seinfeld playing silently in the background. she did pay attention to the show, she was just contemplating a lot of things at once when the doorbell rang. she jumped up a little, nearly spilling her wine. she looked at her phone to see if someone had messaged her, but nothing came up.

looking through the peephole, she let out a sigh of relief when she saw jarel, opening the door, she leaned against the frame, a concerned look on her face.  “it’s so late. is everything okay jarel?”

for a moment he thought she had fucked up, that she had done something bad - but the thought left his mind as quickly as it came - lizzie was a lot of things, she was chaotic, she was aggressive and she was hedonistic but she wasn’t an idiot. but her behaviour troubled him, a lot more than he’d care to admit. so when she pulled away from his grasp he naturally assumed the worst had happened, he wasn’t sure what the worst was but he felt like he was about to find out. “lizzie what happened? just fucking tell me.” 

at first he didn’t understand what she had said, it was the singular ‘i’m’ that threw him off. or maybe it was the fact that he simply didn’t want to believe what was coming out of her mouth. “you’re pregn-” the words stopped in his throat before the word could fully form. if lizzie was pregnant, that could only mean one thing - and it meant that the kid was his. they had never specified their relationship, never felt the need to define it - and they had never referred to each other as partners or boyfriend and girlfriend - god forbid. but with a baby in the mix, he could feel the shift in their relationship instantly and he didn’t know how he felt about it.

and when lizzie admitted that she couldn’t do it, or at least she couldn’t deal with the prospect of their kid entering their own hellscape they were forced to fight out of, raf pulled away from her. can’t and won’t were too different things and he wasn’t entirely sure which one she meant. he had moved away from her, putting a considerable amount of distance between the two of them. he need time to adjust, to understand.