Chapter 35 #2
“You better not do anything more than kiss,” Mom says, pointing a fork at Ollie. “The only person I want to give me grandkids right now is Annalise.”
I nearly choke on my food, and Maddox laughs next to me. “Mami, you need to slow down. We just started dating again.”
“My mom said the exact same thing when I called her earlier to tell her about us.” Maddox chuckles, shaking his head.
“Don’t listen to them,” Abuelo says, waving his hand. “Focus on your careers first. Babies can wait. But when it does happen, you two will have beautiful babies.”
“We would, wouldn’t we?” Maddox kisses me on the cheek and I melt into a puddle.
Having kids isn’t something I’m opposed to. I’ve always pictured having them with Maddox one day.
However, I don’t see myself being a mom for at least another decade. I want to succeed in my career and continue to build a life with Maddox first. When the day does come, I already know Maddox will make an amazing dad.
Over the next week, all of my free time is spent preparing for the soft launch of my online store. After work, I go over to Mom’s house to finish working on my clothes. Maddox had offered me one of his empty rooms, but I didn’t want to invade his place.
With Ivy’s help, I created an Instagram for my shop and started posting sneak peeks of the clothing.
She gave me a bunch of tips on marketing and ideas for content creation.
My account currently has around a hundred followers, and although it’s not a huge amount, seeing people commenting about how pretty my clothes are warms my heart.
Maddox begged me to let him give me a shoutout on his Instagram—which would probably give me a huge boost, since he has over twenty million followers—but I told him this is something I want to do on my own.
“I’m so excited for you to launch your shop tonight. You know, I’ll be the first customer. I need to get my hands on that pink two-piece set.” Ivy smiles and takes a sip out of her taro tea.
We stopped by Boba Guys after lunch, and now we’re heading back to the office.
“Thank you, Ivy. I really appreciate all your support.”
“You’re welcome, queen. Don’t forget about me once Thorny Roses blows up.”
Rolling my eyes, I take a sip of my strawberry matcha latte. “I’m not going to forget about you. And I doubt it’ll blow up.”
“Sure it will. What are your plans for next week?”
Dauntless will be closed for a week for spring break, so I’m able to get a break from Veronica and her antics.
“I plan on utilizing that time off to make more clothes for my shop.”
“Are you doing anything for your birthday?”
“I don’t have anything planned.” I shrug. “Probably just gonna have dinner with my family.”
“And some birthday sex?” Ivy says, wiggling her brows.
Shaking my head, I sip the rest of my drink and toss it in a nearby trash can.
I fully plan on having birthday sex.
Ivy doesn’t know about Maddox and me yet, but I think she’s suspicious, since she’s caught us staring at each other multiple times.
Veronica left Reginald in charge of the collaboration with Maddox. According to Maddox, he’s a much better designer than Trang, but Maddox still isn’t completely satisfied. He said the designs are nice, but they aren’t him. They lack his personality.
After Trang got pulled from the collaboration, I sketched a few designs—T-shirts, windbreakers, hoodies—that matched his vibes and incorporated his Japanese culture.
I haven’t shown him the designs yet, because I know if he showed Veronica, she would shut it down as soon as she learned who designed them.
No matter what I do, she will never think I’m deserving of becoming a fashion designer. I hope one day I’ll be able to prove her wrong.
“Why am I being blindfolded?” I ask as Maddox ties a black scarf around my eyes. “Are you going to tie me up, too?” My lips curve into a suggestive smile.
A deep laugh rumbles through him. “I plan on doing that later, love. You can’t see anything, right?”
“Nope. It’s pitch black. Please make sure I don’t bump into anything.”
“I won’t.” Taking my hand, he leads me through his house.
We turn left and walk a few steps before coming to a halt. Maddox unties the scarf and my heart skitters when I see what’s before me.
He’s completely transformed one of his empty rooms into an office space for me. The room is probably the size of my apartment, and is painted a sage-green color with a pastel-pink accent wall.
In the back is a desk with a top-of-the-line sewing machine, and hanging on the wall behind it is the name of my brand—Thorny Roses—in neon letters. It has everything I could ever want—a rack to place my rolls of fabric, a drawer to organize my threads, and so much more.
It even has a brand-new Kamado Tech desktop so I can use it to fulfill my online orders, and a massage chair for when I need a break.
“Happy early birthday, Rosie.” He smiles.
Throwing my hands around his neck, I kiss him. “Thank you, Maddox! I love it so much. Gosh, you’re the best boyfriend ever.”
“Boyfriend, huh?” Maddox’s face flushes to an adorable shade of pink, and he flashes his dimpled smile. “Is that your way of telling me you want us to be official?”
I laugh and squeeze him tighter. “Maddox Masashi Kamado, will you be my boyfriend? Again?”
“I would love to.” He lifts me up and kisses me tenderly, carrying me out of the room.
“Is my boyfriend taking me to his bedroom to fuck me while I’m blindfolded?”
“I do plan on fucking my girlfriend. But she needs to open her next gifts first.”
“Gifts? As in plural?” I stare at him, wide-eyed. “Maddox, you have given me more than enough.”
“You deserve the world, Rosie.”
We enter his bedroom and he sets me down on the ground.
On the floor is a bag from Dior and a beautiful mocha-colored luggage set with a matching weekender and toiletry bag.
“Maddox, you didn’t!” I pull the box from the Dior bag and open it. Inside is the white Lady Dior bag I’ve been eyeing for the longest time.
“Open the luggage,” Maddox says, nodding toward it.
Crouching down, I unzip the luggage and find that it’s full of swimsuits and beautiful outfits—perfect for a tropical vacation, all neatly folded.
“Remember how we talked about visiting Hawaii one day?”
“Yeah, I do.”
We were supposed to plan a trip to Hawaii during winter break of our first year of college, but we never got a chance to.
“We leave in a couple of hours,” Maddox says, smiling.
“What? People on the plane will recognize you!”
“They won’t.” He grins. “Because we’re gonna take my private jet.”