PRT 367- “Engagement of Jupiter”
“Mina, calm down. I’m sure he
didn’t mean it.” I said into the phone.
“I can’t lose him Lita, I just can’t.” Mina cried.
“You still haven’t told me what
happened to make him so mad. It must have been serious for him to even bring up
breaking off the engagement.”
“I don’t want to say.”
“Mina, I can’t advise you if I
don’t know the whole story.”
“Promise not to hate me.”
“You’re one of my best friends
Min, I could never hate you.”
Mina sighed, “I made a deal with
Nemesis.”
“YOU WHAT?!” I cried.
“See, you hate me.”
“No, no…I don’t hate you. I was
just surprised. What deal did you make?”
“Nemesis said she’d have Hotaru heal the injuries Michelle inflicted if I leaked
some pictures to the press.”
“Oh no…the pictures of Jon and
“Yes.”
“Mina, how could you do that to
them? I know you’re mad at
“Nothing she doesn’t deserve.
She’s the one involved with a married man, not me.”
“My
god…Mina…that was really a horrible thing to do. So that’s why Adam walked out?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, not to be cold, but I can’t
say I fully blame him. Michelle is his friend whether you like it or not and
what you did was pretty mean.”
“In case you forgotten she’s the
one that beat me up.”
“Don’t start. You both are at
fault for that. You two need to end this stupid war before one
of you kills the other. I can’t believe you’d even consider making a deal with
Nemesis.”
“I did what I had to. Now I have
to figure out how to get Adam to forgive me.”
“Honestly, unless you talk things
out with
“I have nothing to say to
Michelle. Adam loves me, he’ll come back. He has to.”
I sighed, “I have to go Mina…I’ll
talk to you later.”
“Are you coming to
“Can’t. Too much work at the bakery.”
“Oh, ok. Well, I’ll call you soon.
Bye.”
“Bye.”
I hung up the phone and sighed.
This was bad. I was in the bedroom using that phone. I stood up and went into
the living room. Andrew was sitting on the sofa watching TV. I plopped down
next to him and buried my head in his chest.
“Li? What’s wrong?” he asked.
I tilted my head up to look at
him, “Adam left Mina.”
“What? Why?”
“She made a deal with Nemesis.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah.”
“What kind of deal?”
“Well, you know those pictures of
Jon and
“Yeah.”
“Mina was the leak.”
“What? Are you serious?”
“Yup.”
“Oh wow. That’s horrible.”
“I know. I guess she told Adam and
he told her she wasn’t the woman he fell in love with and he walked out.”
“I can’t say I fully blame him.”
I sighed, “Neither do I. But
Michelle isn’t fully innocent in this either. She’s being just as impossible as
Mina.”
“Yeah, but to do something like
this…”
“I know. It’s bad. Very bad.”
“Are you ok?”
“I guess.”
“Are you going to tell
“Nope. I’m not getting in the middle of this. No
way.”
“Probably a good
idea.”
“I gotta
get out of here.”
“OK. Where do you want to go?” Andrew
asked.
“Hmm…you know I haven’t scoped out
Sugar Babies in awhile. Let’s go there.”
“Sounds good.”
Sugar Babies was the bakery that
Val Meladeo, Holly’s older sister, owned. Now, don’t
get me wrong, I liked Val a lot and she was a great baker…but Sugar Babies was
also my main competition so I had to keep and eye on what Val was doing so I
could keep up. Val did the same. She came into Lita’s
Treats from time to time to see what I was doing. It was friendly but it was
still competition.
We went to Sugar Babies and found
a table. This is one thing Val had on me and probably always would. She
actually had a sitting area in her bakery, like a restaurant. You could sit
down and have someone bring you a cupcake or whatever. I just had a counter.
Now, I also had Andrew’s restaurant connected to my bakery so I had that going
for me.
Anyway, we had a seat and Val’s
business partner Lauren (who was less of a partner and more of a subordinate)
came to take our order.
“Well look who it is.” Lauren
said.
“Hi Lauren. Just here for a snack. What’s
your special today?” I asked.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Yeah, I would. That’s why I
asked.”
Around this time Val came out of
the kitchen and saw me. She walked over to our table, “Lita,
hey…is Lauren giving you a hard time? I’m sorry.” She said.
“It’s fine.” I said.
“Don’t be nice to her. She’s the
enemy.” Lauren said.
Val shook her head, “Friendly
competition. We discussed this. It looks like table 5 needs more lemonade. Go
take care of them.”
“Fine…but I’m watching you.”
Lauren said looking at me before she walked away.
“I’m so sorry.” Val said.
“It’s not a problem. Really. I was just asking Lauren what your special was
today.” I replied.
“Apple dumpling
cupcakes.”
“Seriously? Apple dumpling cupcakes? Sounds interesting. I’d like to try it.”
“Sure. And what can I get you
Andrew?”
“I’d like a blueberry muffin.” He
answered.
“OK, coming right up.” Val said as
she walked away.
“She’s experimenting with cupcake
flavors again.” I said.
“So what are you going to do?”
Andrew asked.
“Not sure yet. Maybe I can experiment with donut flavors. She still
doesn’t serve donuts.”
“That’s true.”
I nodded, “That’s what I’ll do.
I’ll come up with 5 specialty donut flavors.”
“Sounds good…can I be the taste
tester?”
“Of course. I’ll need someone to sample during experimentation.”
“Fun.” Andrew smiled as I heard a blast coming from outside,
“What was that?”
I frowned, “I’d bet my last donut
that it was Nemesis.”
“You should go. I’ll cover for
you.”
I nodded, “Be back.”
“Be careful.”
“Always.” I said as I kissed Andrew and ran out.
I ran towards the blast,
transforming as I did.
“Jupiter Spirit
Power!”
I found Nemesis a few blocks away.
She appeared to randomly be blowing things up.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
I asked as I took a fighting stance in front of her.
“Just showing these meager
Earthlings the power I possess.” Nemesis replied.
I rolled my eyes, “Right. Of course. How about I show you the power I possess? Jupiter
Thunder Clap, ZAP!”
Nemesis jumped over my attack,
“Haven’t you learned by now Jupiter? I can’t be defeated.”
“I know what you’re up to Nemesis.
You’re trying to escalate the Sailor War between the Inners and Outers by
making sure Saturn and Venus can’t make up. I know Venus made a deal with you.”
“Yes, and it obviously worked…I
don’t see Saturn anywhere. She must be working on damage control.”
“It was a despicable thing to do.”
“And?”
“It won’t work. Eventually Venus
and Saturn will remember they are best friends and work this out.”
“You really think they will
forgive each other when I’m finished? They will be so bitter towards each other
they’ll never make up.”
“I’m not going to let you ruin our
team.”
“You’re not one team anymore
Princess, there are three Sailor teams, the inners, outers, and me. Take a
guess who will be victorious.”
“Not you, that’s for sure.”
“I wouldn’t count on that.”
“History says you’ll never win.
This isn’t the first time we’ve fought Nemosions.”
“You mean the Black Moon Clan? Not
real Nemosions. Prince Diamond isn’t really Nemesis royalty, he’s a rebel that gets lucky in the future.”
“Yeah, ever consider he gets the
throne because your bloodline ends with you?”
“Not a chance.”
“Awfully smug
for a woman who obviously doesn’t hold on to the throne. Saturn and Pluto fight off their rebels…can’t say the same
for you I guess.”
“The future is ours to shape. When
I’m done my bloodline will rule the whole Milky Way galaxy. Diamond will never
have a chance to take power.”
“The way I see it, you’re one
princess taking on every other power in the galaxy. Even if you had a proper
army, so do we. Nemesis is so small that your armies
can’t compare to all of ours. Face it Nemesis, you’re fighting a losing
battle.”
Nemesis narrowed her eyes, “You
think so? We’ll see how confident you are when you’re begging for your life. I
will win this.” She said as she vanished.
I sighed, “I know this wasn’t over
but I’d obviously struck a nerve. That was good, for now.”
I went back to Sugar Babies and
sat with Andrew. My cupcake was waiting for me.
“Oh wow, this is good.” I said as
I took a bite.
“Thanks.” Val said as she walked
over.
“I must admit, you are a
formidable opponent.”
“As are you. We easily have the two best bakeries in town.”
“Without a
doubt.” I agreed, “You and Vic should
come to the restaurant for dinner one night on us. We’d be happy to have you.”
“Absolutely.” Andrew agreed.
“Ok, that sounds really nice.
Thanks.” Val said.
After we finished eating and talking
to Val we went home. I went to the kitchen to start working on my donuts and
Andrew followed. He liked watching me bake.
“So I take it you took care of
Nemesis?” He asked.
“More or less.” I said.
“Did the others show up?”
“No, just me.”
“You took her out single
handedly?”
“Not really. I just messed with
her emotions. She’s very defensive about her throne and place as royalty. I
just reminded her that the Black Moon Clan was from the future and Prince
Diamond evidently takes the throne from her bloodline.”
“You made her insecure. Nice
strategy.”
“I thought so.”
“You realize that could backfire,
right? I mean, you could make her more determined and dangerous.”
“Nemesis is dangerous anyway.
Until we find her weakness we just have to keep pushing back her attacks in
anyway we can. The fact she knows our identities and we don’t know hers gives
her the advantage anyway.”
“You guys still don’t know who she
is?”
“Not a clue.”
“That’s what you guys need to be
focusing on.”
“I think Trista
is still working on that.”
“Can you trust her?”
“Yeah. Of all the Outers she’s the one I do still trust.”
“I hope you’re right.”
I nodded.
“Li?”
“Yeah?”
“You know how much I love you,
right?”
I smiled, “Of course I do. I love
you too.”
“Promise me you’ll be careful with
Nemesis. I have a bad feeling about her.”
I nodded, “I promise.”
And in that moment, as I looked
into his eyes, I realized just how much I did love Andrew. This was the man I
wanted to be with forever. I’d always wanted to get married. Why was I so
scared to commit fully to Andrew? He’d proven himself so many times and I did
trust him.
“Yes.” I said.
“Yes what?” he asked.
“If the proposal
still stands, yes.”
“What? You mean,
marriage?”
“Yes, yes. Ask me again.”
“Lita
Stevens, will you marry me?”
“Yes!” I cried.
“Oh god,
finally!” Andrew pulled me into his
arms and hugged me tight.
I knew I made the right choice. I
wanted to be Andrew’s wife and it was about time I got over my fears and made
the leap.