Chapter nineteen
When I opened the door after another day at school, my grandmother wasn't sitting in the same place, which caught my attention and made me drop my bag to chase her around the house.
“Grandma!”
“I'm here.”
“What do you think you're doing?” I put my hands on my waist and looked at her with a serious expression when I found her in the kitchen fiddling with the pans.
“Our dinner.”
“Why didn't you wait for me to do it?”
“I was feeling in a good mood and thought it would be a good idea. You're already so tired every day, darling.”
“I can finish...” I tried to get closer, but she held out her hand for me to move away.
“I may be old, but I can still handle the kitchen.”
“But...”
“Take a shower, Helena. Change your clothes and rest.”
“Okay.” I nodded in agreement. “But you have to promise to be very careful not to burn yourself.”
“I got it.”
“Grandma...”
“I promise. Just go!”
“Okay.” I laughed as I left the kitchen.
I went to the bathroom, put my clothes aside, and allowed myself a moment to relax. The week was over again. And over those days, I had managed to stop thinking about the twins' father. I never saw him again, and every day that followed, it was the driver who was there. They said goodbye to me, but I didn't say a word to the guy, who seemed very serious. What was I going to do? Ask him about his boss. No way!
It was for the best. If I never saw Thomas Lennox again, I could forget that arrogant lawyer and everything that had happened the week before.
My life would be exactly the same again.
I finished my shower and was heading to my room, wrapped in a towel, when my grandmother shouted from the living room.
“Helena, there's a handsome man waiting for you.”
“Handsome man?” I asked low enough so that she couldn't hear me or answer me.
I hurried to my room and put on a sweatshirt because it was the first thing I found.
As soon as I stepped into the living room, I was startled. Of all the people in the world and the guys I knew, the last one I expected to see sitting in my grandmother's armchair was Thomas. He lowered his eyes, and those two blue pools completely disconcerted me.
“What are you doing here?” It took a while before I could muster the breath to question him.
“Hello, Helena.”
“How did you find out where I live?”
“Did I leave you at the door, or did you forget?”
“But I don't remember telling you where my apartment was.” I clenched my teeth so hard that my jaws ached.
“A very nice neighbor in the lobby helped me with that.”
“Gossip,” I grumbled.
“Poor thing. She was very kind.”
“Go away!” I indicated the door.
“Helena.” My grandmother scolded me.
“That guy had better stay far away from here.”
“I thought I'd take you to dinner. How would you like to have something to eat with me? Do you like Asian cuisine, or do you prefer something more Italian?”
“Are you deaf?”
“Excuse me, sir. I didn't teach my granddaughter to be so impudent.” Grandma gave me a nasty look, but if she'd ever dreamed of what that asshole had proposed, she wouldn't have defended him like that.
“You should be with your daughters.”
“The nanny is watching them for me.”
“On a Friday night?”
“That's what I pay her for.”
“Of course.” I snorted. “I know that the girls' tuition covers part of my salary, but my employment contract doesn't include being visited by their asshole father in my house. So please leave!”
“We didn't get off to a good start.”
“You bet they won't.”
“I'd like to correct a mistake if you'd like to talk to me.”
“I've already made it clear that I don't want to.”
“The twins would like us to get along.”
“I can't believe you resorted to that argument.” I crossed my arms to show my irritation even more.
“I always use all the ones I have at my disposal.”
“He's such an asshole.” I rolled my eyes.
“Helena, go with him.”
“No, Grandma. You even cooked dinner.”
“You can eat it tomorrow. I'm sure it's not even that good.”
I stared at Thomas, and he stared back at me. I imagined that we would be at an impasse, so I ended up agreeing.
“I choose where we go.”
“Okay.”
I went back to the bedroom and just grabbed my cell phone and a small wallet, not even bothering to change so that he wouldn't imagine that I had any intention of reconsidering that indecent proposal. I might even accept an apology, but only because the twins were very important to me.
I left my room, and we walked down the stairs in silence until we reached the building's road. He pointed out the luxury sedan in which he had already given me a lift, but this time, I wasn't going to take any risks by getting into the car.
“Let's walk.”
“But why?”
“The snack bar is just around the corner.”
There were other places worse than Boby's diner to take a guy like that, but I thought a bit of fast food and small tables would be enough for one night, as well as being around people who knew me; after all, I'd been going there since I was a kid.
I sat down on one of the padded benches near the wall, and he pulled up a chair in front of me, moving his head from one side to the other to examine the place. His expression alternated between curiosity and fear very quickly.
“Are you sure you want to eat here?”
“Yes.”
“We can go somewhere... better.”
“Do you think the diner where I've spent my whole life isn't good enough for you? If that's the case, you can look elsewhere; I'm fine here.”
“That's not what I said.”
“That's what I understood.” I shrugged.
“Are you angry with me?”
“Do you think so?” I leaned towards him, clenching my teeth even harder.
“I must apologize.”
“You certainly should.” I looked from side to side, noticing who might be listening, and I lowered my voice so that the other people in the diner wouldn't hear what I was going to say next. “What went through your arrogant, rich Manhattan head to think that I could be a prostitute? I'm very proud to be a teacher to your daughters and other children. I don't sell myself to guys like you or anyone else.”
“It's more about me than about you.”
“Ah, of course.” My tone was mocking, and I wasn't taking the man's words seriously.
I still thought it was ridiculous that we were there. As much as I'd been thinking about that asshole all week, I'd only accepted the invitation because of my grandmother's insistence, who didn't know what had happened before or after the nightclub.
“Helena...” He grabbed my hand, which was on the table, and completely dismantled the tough, aggressive posture I was trying to maintain.
“Why are you doing this?”
“I didn't want to offend her.”
“It was a great way to try.”
“After the twins' mother died...”
“There's no need to make excuses,” I interrupted.
“It's the truth. I swore to myself that I wouldn't get involved like that again to avoid the pain.”
“I'm sorry...” As much as it could have been a mouthful, thinking about how painful it was to lose someone like that disarmed me. “The girls miss their mother.” That was a certainty that I'd had for a long time, and at that moment, it slipped out of my mouth.
“They miss a mother,” he corrected me.
“Why are you saying that?”
“When Daphne died, they were too young to even remember her. My mother and sister try to stay close, but it's not the same.”
“I wanted it to be different for them.”
“Me too.” He fumbled and pulled something out of his pocket, opening a drawing in front of me. “It's you.”
“I know. They made one of those for me too.”
“They think you're perfect.”
“I'm just the teacher.”
“It could be more than that.” He stared at me so deeply that it made my heart race. But I wouldn't let myself get carried away that easily, no matter how much I loved his daughters.
“A drawing of the twins isn't going to make me reconsider your proposal, Mr. Lennox.”
“I shouldn't have offered money.”
“He offered and was Scrooged.”
“I think you're beautiful, and I thought we could have an evening. I'm just getting used to it...” He regretted it in mid-sentence and stopped talking. “I'm sorry.”
“Do you ask this kind of question to every woman you find interesting?”
“No.”
“Good thing, too, or maybe his skills as a lawyer wouldn't have been enough to get rid of the beautiful lawsuit.”
“Can we start again?”
“Start what again?”
He held out his hand and puffed out his chest.
“Nice to meet you, I'm Thomas Lennox.”
I stared at his palm stretched out towards me and pondered for a moment. I wanted to reject the length, but in the end, I gave in.
“Helena Price.” I squeezed my hand.
“It's a pleasure to meet you.” He gave a smile that ended up making me smile back.
As much anger as I wanted to feel towards that man, I couldn't, and it wasn't exactly because of the twins.
I pulled my hand back when I realized that my palm was getting sweaty, and the whole moment was becoming disconcerting.
“Where is the menu?” He turned from side to side, looking. “No waiter has come to take our orders yet.”
“Waiter?” I giggled. “We go to the counter, place our orders there, pay, and they shout our names when it's ready for us to pick up.”
“Ah!” He looked surprised.
“Never been to a cafeteria?”
“Will it be terrible if I say no?”
“Let's just say I was hoping for something like this.” My laughter became more intense. Men like him were certainly used to having everything in their hands.
“Do you recommend any dishes?” He stood up, straightening his fancy suit.
“The house combo. It comes with a burger, fries, and a medium soft drink.”
“Are you going to order this one?”
“I'd rather swap the soft drink for a milkshake.”
“And you can be that thin?”
“Looking after ten children takes a lot of energy.”
“Oh, I can imagine. Those two alone are enough to drive me crazy sometimes.”
I felt like saying that he was doing a good job with them, but I thought it best not to comment. I preferred it when he put his ego aside.