Sweet Mischief’s Rollercoaster Romance

"No way!" Molly scoffed, not buying it for a second.

Chad shot back, "Have you forgotten how you used to handle your holiday homework in school? Those summer and winter assignments?"

Without missing a beat, Molly replied, "Back then, I had Leo. I never left my projects to the last minute."

"And what about before that? When Dad was working in another city as the mayor, and you didn't know Mia or Leo yet? Every holiday, the night before school started, weren't you bawling under the desk lamp? I stayed up with you all night to finish your homework." "If I don't disappear this time, you'll probably want to sit next to me the day before the deadline, pestering me to burn the midnight oil with you again."

Molly couldn't help but remember those embarrassing moments from her childhood. She'd be writing and crying, with tears mixing with her sniffles.

Chad never found her gross. Whenever he saw her runny nose, he'd grab a tissue and sit on her bed, wiping it away and even dabbing at her tears. "One sapling is $16. How much for three saplings?"

Molly, a mess of tears and snot, sobbed, "Brother, I still haven't finished my English assignment."

"How much for three saplings?"

"I don't know," young Molly wailed, her sleeves soaked from wiping away tears.

Her coughing tugged at Chad's heartstrings. "I told you to start earlier, but you spent your days glued to cartoons, napping in Mom's diner. When I asked you to do your homework, you'd run off to Dad's office to play. The tasks I gave you before I went to camp, you didn't complete a single one. Who's to blame for that?"

"Stop crying; I'm here with you," he reassured.

Molly, while writing and crying again, said, "Brother, my pencil broke. Can you sharpen it for me?"

Whenever his sister worked on her homework, Chad was there, sharpening her pencils. Molly, often distracted, would fiddle with her mechanical pencil, pulling the lead out only to try and stuff it back in.

They'd stay up from dusk till dawn, and the next day, he'd carry her to school, where she'd always fall asleep in the back seat and had to be carried out.

Molly shook her head, feeling guilty. "I'm grown up now. I wouldn't do that anymore."

Chad asked, "If I hadn't disappeared, would you have started your dissertation earlier?"

Molly admitted, "...Yes! If Mia started, I would've too."

"That's because Andre also disappeared. She had no one to lean on, so she started early."

In another bedroom, Mia said, "Let's not get into whether you love me or not. Let's just talk about the dissertation."novelbin

"It was my fault," Andre interrupted.

Mia continued, "I wasn't finished."

"I underestimated your abilities, Mia. Even without me, you could've nailed

the collation. I shouldn't ha

"

Andre, trying to be clever and warm, quipped, "You're buttering me up, aren't you?"

"Do you really think I'm the kind of person who kills with kindness?"

This rhetorical question left Mia puzzled. Her husband, so proud, wouldn't resort to such phony tactics.

"You totally would! In front of your wife, who needs pride?" Mia realized.

Andre started to worry; his wife wasn't so easily tricked anymore.

By a babbling brook, Leo listed out Anya's "offenses," "Sleeping next to the little chubby one at night; kissing the chubby one during the day; last night at the night market, you kissed him at least 12 times. Yesterday at the beach, you kissed him six times; while boating, you wouldn't stop kissing his cheek!"

atleas

Anya, with her hands behind her back, listened intently to her

boyfriend's teasing accusation

Had she really kissed the baby that

much? e

"And that's not counting the times when I wasn't looking." Leo got up, stepping toward Anya with a playful intensity.

Anya backed away, "Chad, I didn't kiss him that much."