Chapter 16 #2
For a few minutes I remained silent, processing the pros and cons of going to his house.
I knew that Aurora had already seen us together, so if we showed ourselves as we had been doing and it was just for that night, it didn’t seem harmful for the little one.
The question was, harmful for me? And that was another story, but I didn’t analyze it much and heard myself saying:
“Alright. What time do you want me to be there? Because Aurora eats dinner early and it’s already seven.”
“Right now Delia is giving her a bath and I’m about to take a shower too, but we can have dinner as soon as you arrive. Can you leave now?” he asked, and his voice revealed the joy my response had caused him.
“That’s fine, I’ll leave in ten minutes. Would you like me to bring anything?”
“You don’t need to bring anything. Thank you, ‘Sweet,’ for everything.”
“See you in a bit,” I said, and ended the call knowing I was getting myself into something that would surely destroy me.
Half an hour later I was on my way to his house feeling extremely nervous.
Why was I? I wasn’t entirely sure, I think it was a combination of things.
Having dinner at his house, the three of us together, knowing he wanted to talk to me—in short, every time I thought about it my stomach churned with anxiety and nerves.
I arrived at the gate and the security person opened it without asking me anything because they already knew me.
I parked in the large garden and got out of the car.
When I went to knock on the door, I noticed my hands were shaking, but I took a deep breath, summoning the necessary courage, and knocked.
I thought one of his employees would open the door, but it was he himself who appeared before me as the door opened. How handsome he was!
“Hello, William. Am I very late?” I asked, just to say something, because I couldn’t process anything more intelligent.
“Not at all, Aurora is waiting for you anxiously. Come in,” he said, and stepped aside so I could enter the house.
In any other case, I would have greeted him with a kiss on the cheek, but I really didn’t know how to greet him in his house, so I walked past him without doing or saying anything.
I hadn’t taken two steps when I felt his hand gripping my arm to stop me.
He made me turn around and, to my surprise, gave me a delicate kiss on the lips.
“Aurora is in the living room. If you want, go to her and I’ll let Delia know she can serve dinner,” he said, with a sly smile, because the damn man knew perfectly well that with that kiss he had not only surprised me but had completely destabilized me.
“Alright, thank you,” I said, walking quickly toward the living room.
Aurora was concentrating on coloring a book and didn’t hear me arrive. I stood at the door watching her affectionately; that little one had already taken over my heart.
“How is Princess Aurora doing?”
She lifted her little head and looked at me. A big smile lit up her face and she came running to me as fast as her little legs would allow.
“Devon!”
I took her in my arms and we melted into a tight hug. The little one laughed while I gave her kisses on her chubby cheeks.
“Were you coloring?”
“Yes. Let’s color,” she said, laughing and pushing to make me put her down on the floor.
“First show me what you were doing,” I suggested, to calm her down a bit.
We sat on a couch with her on my lap and she explained what she had colored.
I told her she was quite the artist and she laughed, explaining that she had colored the princess blue because it was her favorite color.
She also showed me other princesses that were together, telling me they were her and me.
We both laughed and she wouldn’t stop talking.
Being with Aurora eased my nervousness a little.
“We can go to the table now,” I heard him say from the doorway, and his voice made me shiver again.
I stood up and, holding hands, we headed to the dining room table.
Seeing him standing there, watching us seriously, shook my nerves with a new emotion.
As we passed by him, Aurora stretched out her little hand for her father to take it, which he did, and so we walked, the three of us together with Aurora in the middle.
I was about to let go of her little hand, but I looked at her and saw her smiling with such happiness that I couldn’t do it.
When I looked at William to get an idea of what he thought about this situation, I was surprised because I saw him looking at me naturally, as if this situation were the most normal thing in the world.
When we reached the kitchen, Delia looked at us and, I don’t know if it was her face marked by surprise, but I couldn’t resist anymore and gently let go of Aurora’s hand.
“Hello, Delia; how have you been?” I greeted her.
“Very well, doctor. How are you?”
“Very well. I came to dinner because I promised Aurora,” I said, to make it clear that it was for her and not for her father, although that wasn’t entirely true.
“It’s a pleasure to have you here, you should come more often. But, please sit down so I can serve dinner,” she indicated, and it seemed to me that her comment had been made with a certain playfulness, which made my cheeks blush.
William seated Aurora in her chair and sat beside her. I preferred to sit across from him so that he would be the one taking care of his daughter, but the little boss had other plans.
“I want to be with Devon.”
“You should have dinner next to your father, don’t forget that he missed you very much and it’s been days since you had dinner together,” I explained.
“It’s not a problem,” William said, and he seemed sincere to me.
“For me, it is, because you are her father,” I stated, then I turned to Aurora and added, “If you insist on changing seats, I’ll have to leave because the right thing is for you to sit next to your dad.”
William gave me a beautiful smile that I assumed was one of gratitude, but while we were looking at each other, we heard Aurora’s voice with a comment that left me paralyzed and darkened William’s face.
“And you are my mommy.”
“That’s not true, princess,” I hurried to say, and then added, “We already talked about this and I explained that I’m not your mommy, I’m just a friend who loves you very much,” I said, reminding her what I had told her at my place, because I didn’t want her father to think I had made her believe such nonsense.
“But I want you to be my mommy,” insisted the little demon.
“Devon can’t be your mommy because you have a mommy, she’s not with us because she died, but she will always be your mother,” he pointed out, looking at her seriously.
“But I want Divon,” she insisted.
“I love you very much, but I’m not and won’t be your mommy, though that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends and play together.”
Delia was very timely arriving at that moment with another employee to serve us dinner.
Aurora didn’t insist on that topic and neither did we say anything more.
To avoid having to clarify that issue again, I started talking about what we had done those days, and that got Aurora excited about telling him everything and forgetting about the mommy topic.
The conversation extended, not only during dinner, but we also spent some time at the table after eating.
It was already very late when William decided it was time for his daughter to go to bed and that he would accompany her.
Once again Aurora put me in an awkward situation.
“I’m going with Divon. I want Divon to read me a book.”
“It’s better if you go with your dad. Good night, princess,” I said goodbye, giving her a kiss on the cheek.
“Daddy, I want Divon to come,” she said, seeing that she wasn’t going to convince me.
“Devon, would you join us?” he asked, surprising me again by including me in such an intimate moment between father and daughter.
“Actually, I need to go,” I replied, because I didn’t want to keep being in the middle; this situation was making me feel more uncomfortable by the minute.
“It’s just a few minutes, she usually falls asleep quickly,” he said, and I knew that was true, but I still wanted to leave.
“It’s just that...” I began to say.
“Let’s go, Divon,” said Aurora, interrupting me and taking my hand to drag me to her bedroom.
The little one wouldn’t let go of me, I suppose out of fear that I would leave and, as was customary when she was at my home, I helped her take off her clothes and put on her nightgown.
She chose the book she wanted us to read to her and climbed into bed with contagious joy.
Seeing that William occupied the armchair next to the bed, I sat down next to Aurora.
I handed the book to her father and she took my hand.
William began reading while Aurora looked at me and smiled; he had barely read a page when her little eyes began to close.
I signaled to her father to let him know she was already asleep, and he put the book on the nightstand and stood up with a captivating smile.
Why was he smiling at me in such an irresistible way?
And, as if that smile wasn’t enough to knock me out, he stretched out his hand asking for mine in an invitation that was too tempting.
With many doubts, I placed my hand in his and he immediately pulled me to leave Aurora’s bedroom.
He closed the door and we began walking toward the end of the hallway.
I remembered perfectly that he had told me the room located there was his bedroom, but behaving as if I couldn’t put two and two together, I asked:
“Where are we going?”
“To my bedroom,” he responded naturally without stopping, but I did stop, forcing him to look at me.
“We can’t go there,” I stated firmly, or so I thought.
“We can and we will. I need to talk to you and I want privacy.”
“It’s not right for me to enter your bedroom.”
“Why not?” he asked, looking at me seriously.
“Your employees are here and...”