24

Lauren Hart
“No, please, I don’t want to go. I don’t like it there. I don’t feel good there. No one is there to play with me. Please.”
Uncontrollable tears flowed down Ryan’s face as he looked up at me, in the eyes, giving me a hopeful look, begging me to stop him from leaving. My heavy heart wept for him, my eyes started to become teary but I ceased the tears inside. I wanted to lock him in my arms and never let him go. But I couldn’t do it as it wasn’t my decision to make.
“Uncle Sean.” Ryan then faced him. “Am I a bad boy? You said you love me then why are you sending me back?”
I saw Sean struggling to answer. It was as though he didn’t have anything to say. I wondered why Ryan had to leave, but again, it wasn’t my place to question. Sean’s pleading gaze met mine and there, I knew that he needed my help.
I let out a sharp breath and pulled up a cheering face; smiled widely and crouched down. “Come here, buddy.”
I wiped his face and grasped his shoulders. “Tell me, buddy, don’t you want to meet grandma? Don’t you miss your grandpa and uncle?”
He vehemently shook his head. “I miss no one but grandma.”
Again, I wondered what Sean’s family had done to Ryan that he didn’t want to go back to them.
Still, I smiled. “Okay, grandma it is. You miss her right? She misses you too and she wants to meet you. Don’t you want to go and meet her?”
“She can visit us here at Uncle Sean’s house.” He whispered as he wiped his face with his tiny palms. Smart boy!
Biting the inside of my cheek I flicked my gaze back to Sean who had been rubbing his forehead. And to be honest, I had never seen him so disturbed before.
I shook my head and again concentrated on Ryan. “What about the school? Your friends; don’t you miss them?”
“I do.” He whispered, his lower lip trembling. Thankfully, I had distracted him from crying.
“Right, you miss them. So, don’t you wanna play with them, study with them?” I asked.
“Can’t I go to school from here?” He asked and I was stunned as to how desperately he wanted to stay.
I chuckled and ruffled his hair. “You can, but then you’ll have to spend two hours daily traveling. You’ll get tired.”
A tear again slipped his innocent, blue eyes. “Why? Why can’t I stay here? Why do I have to leave?”
Oh, god!
“So that I can bring you back to me forever.”
Ryan’s and my head turned sharply to Sean. He kneeled and pulled Ryan in his embrace, then kissed his forehead.
“Forever?” Ryan’s voice was full of hope and astonishment.
Sean chuckled. “Yes, champ. Forever. Do you know why I am sending you back?” He asked to which Ryan shook his head in no. Even I wanted to know.
“So that when you come back you have your big room full of toys. I am working on designing a room for you. When the work on your room will be finished I’ll bring you back to me and never let you go.”
“Never?” Ryan asked back.
“Yes, champ, never…only if you want to stay with me forever.” He added, wiggling his eyebrows.
Ryan gasped while nodding his head in excitement. “I want to. I want to stay with you as you play with me and make me laugh. I get bored at grandpa’s house. But here I never get bored even when you are working.”
I laughed silently. The scene before me was the cutest moment I could imagine. They weren’t aware of it but they made an incredible duo.
“But what about grandma? Will she allow me to stay here?” Ryan asked.
“Don’t worry about her. I’ll talk to her. She won’t say no to me.” Sean reassured him.
“Promise?” Ryan extended his cute, tiny hand to ask for his promise. Sean held his hand and smiled. “I promise.”
All of a sudden Ryan lunged onto him and bounced. “Thank you, uncle Sean, you are the best.” By now, Ryan was laughing in excitement. And I couldn’t be happier to see him happy.
“I love you so much,” Ryan exclaimed loudly to which Sean replied with the same.
Sean pushed him softly and brushed his hair with his hand. “Now, go and wash your face. Tears don’t suit you.”
Ryan nodded his head and ran past me, without even glancing at me. Guess, someone was excited to come back.
I stood up on my feet and Sean did the same.
“I don’t want to pry in your family matters but I hope you didn’t give him false hope,” I mumbled.
“I didn’t,” Sean replied calmly. “I brought him here to make him familiar with me. And now that I know that he wants to stay with me, I’ll do anything to bring him back to me.”
I nodded my head in understanding. Though I wanted to ask about what would happen when Ryan comes back as he would demand my presence, I didn’t utter a word about that. Instead, I decided to talk about the reality of the situation; the reality that had turned me into a gloomy soul since last night when Sean told me about grandma’s call.
“Uh, well…I should pack my bags as well.”
His eyes suddenly turned wide and I swear I saw something strange in his eyes…like unfamiliar emotion. He opened his mouth to speak but he couldn’t form words and before he could I spoke up.
“You know… my work here is done. Our one-week agreement is over so it’s time for me to leave and return to my normal lifestyle.” I fiddled my fingers. He didn’t say a word, nor even looked at me.
“Uh, I’d be gone by the time you come back after dropping Ryan. I…I’ll take a taxi and leave and-”
“No!”
I flinched at his sharp tone. Huh? What could have happened to him? I frowned.
“You can’t leave.”
That’s when my heart sped up. I immediately pushed back the dumb and senseless thought that suddenly came running to the front line.
Why would he ask me to stay?
And why would I stay? What reason did I have?
“I mean…” He started, bringing me back to reality.
“I’ll drop you at your place.”
“Uh, no, there’s no need. I came here myself and I can manage to go back. You don’t have to ”
“I said I’ll drop you off at your place. End of discussion.” He said firmly.
“But-” I was again cut off.
“Can’t you listen to me at once? I said you won’t leave until I come back. That’s it.”
“Okay.” I gave up as I knew that we would end up fighting for no reason. And I didn’t want to leave with a fight as my mood was already off.

By noon Ryan’s bags were packed and he was ready to leave. It took a lot of courage for me to pack his bags and dress him up. My heart constricted when I saw his bags being loaded in the car.
I had always thought that there will be no one with whom I would be so attached that it would hurt to see them leave. But the live example was before my eyes. This little kid. It took him only a week to have me connected to him with a strong, invisible string.
There was nothing that could stop him or me from leaving. It had to happen. The least I could do was to see him off cheerfully. And that’s what I did. I pulled up my best happy face.
“Don’t forget to miss me, buddy.” I squeezed his cheek. He was standing near the car with Sean.
“I can never forget you, Lauren.” He grinned and my heart warmed up. “I will be back soon. Wait for me, okay? Uncle Sean, you and I will play a lot of games together.”
What he didn’t know that we would not meet again but I couldn’t shatter his bright hopes.
“Sure buddy, we will.” I had to lie.
He then faced Sean. “Uncle Sean, please bring me back soon. I can’t wait to be with you two again.”
“I too can’t wait to be with you again.” Sean smiled at him. “Now, come on, hop in the car.”
I passed a painful, forced smile and stepped back. Ryan waved at me and sat in the car. Sean walked near me and held my gaze.
“When I return after dropping him I want to see you here.” It was a warning. But I could always play hard.
“What if you don’t find me here?” I raised my eyebrows. Playfulness was evident in my voice.
To my surprise, he stepped closer and closer and closer until we were inches apart. Before I could react, he circled his arm around my waist and pulled me closer. His lips touched my earlobe.
“Trust me, you wouldn’t want to test me, Lauren.” He whispered and left a soft kiss on my earlobe and heat rose to my face. But I held myself from losing in his game and pushed him softly.
I crossed my arms across my chest. “Oh? But I want to test you. Tell me, what would you do?” I was always up for a challenge.
“What do you think I will do?” He imitated my action of crossing hands across his chest.
Something naughty?
What! Where did that come from?
God! Stupid, stupid Lauren. Control your hormones!
“What exactly are you thinking that has turned your face red?”
Pure teasing. That’s what I heard in his voice. And I flushed more.
He chuckled. “Don’t worry, I won’t do things you are imagining…yet.” My eyes turned wide and he smirked.
“I will fire you from your job. Simple.”
I gasped. “You can’t. You don’t have a solid reason to fire me. And above all, you can’t blackmail me anymore!”
He smirked evilly. “You really believe that I need a reason to fire you from my company?”
I squinted my eyes and challenged. “Well, you can’t.”
His smirk got converted into a smile and he shook his head. “You are lucky that now I can’t.”
Now? I wanted to ask him what he meant by that when Ryan yelled.
“Uncle Sean, let’s go.”
Sean gave me a warning look before marching back to the car. Jerk!
Sean started the car and was about to pull off when Ryan stopped him and opening the door he ran to me. He asked me to come to his eye level and when I did what he asked me to, he surprised me by planting a kiss on my cheek.
“See you soon.” He whispered.
I swear my eyes glistened with moisture but I smiled and kissed his forehead. “See you soon, buddy. I will be waiting for you here.”
And that was my final goodbye to him.
As the car started to disappear from my vision, it felt like the sun started to drown, taking the sunshine away from me. Ryan, my sunshine, was now gone. It was hard to see him leave but I had to. I couldn’t miss the last chance to see him.
With a heavy heart, I packed all of my belongings. It’s funny how just a week ago I was regretting my decision to come to stay here, help him, and now here I was…feeling it hard to leave the place.
I thought I would end up dead but I was as lively as I ever could be. The time I spend here with grandma, Ryan, and of course, Sean was precious.
While I waited for Sean to come back, I decided to spend my time roaming around the house the last time. And my first spot was the kitchen; my eyes landed on the particular spot where for the first time I felt his touch, his closeness. A laugh escaped my lips thinking how naive it was of us for thinking that grandma won’t notice us. Well, she did and teased us.
To be honest, I was disappointed in myself. How could I get attached to a place when I knew I had to leave shortly?
I sighed and cut my “tour of remembrance” short and closed myself in the room which I had got the habit of calling it mine. How foolish of me!
Finally, after almost two hours, Sean returned.
“It’s good that you listened to me for the first time.” He taunted.
“It’s not the first time, Sean. I am your P. A, remember? I have to always work on your commands.” I replied.
“That’s not what I am talking about and you know that.”
Yeah, I knew. It was strange how a week had changed things between us.
The annoying, handsome jerk was still annoying yet he managed to hit the soft spot of my heart…that was specifically reserved for him and only him.
And I was sure of one thing…our strictly professional relationship wasn’t professional anymore. And it was just because of him; I had no hand in that. He kissed me. Not once or twice but freaking four times.
“We shall leave now,” I said and dragged my bags out of my room. Sean took them from me and dragged them with him.
When we were in the car the atmosphere became awkwardly silent which was making me hard to breathe. He kept his gaze fixed on the road while I kept looking outside the window. The tension was making me a corpse. I had to start a conversation to lighten the tension and that’s what I did.
“You must be happy that I am leaving for good.” I raised an eyebrow at him. His eyebrows curled in a deep furrow. “What do you mean by that?”
“You know…I gave you troubles… unintentionally I may add. And you did say that you find me annoying. Now that I am leaving, you’ll be back to your peaceful…and gloomy lifestyle.” I passed a tight smile.
“Gloomy? FYI, My life isn’t gloomy. And yes, you are annoying and YOU ARE MY TROUBLE, that’s for sure.” He chuckled teasingly and I narrowed my eyes at him.
He flicked his eyes at me. “What? I said nothing but the truth. And about your first question; you are not leaving me for good. You are my P. A, remember?”
How effortlessly threw my words back at me! He was enjoying it.
“Not for long as you always keep on threatening me to fire me, remember?” I shot back.
Instead of replying he laughed and again fixed his eyes on the road. By now, I was used to his smiling and laughing face. I had no idea that this grim man could ever laugh heartily. I could watch him laugh for hours. My eyes longed to see him smile.
“Don’t. Don’t go there, Lauren. You’ll end up falling for him. Later don’t blame me for not warning you.” My inner self spoke up.
What problem does my inner self have with me?
I groaned audibly, scolding my inner self for speaking the truth at the wrong time.
“What happened?” Sean asked in concern.
Uh oh, concern. This wasn’t good.
“Umm…nothing. I…I was thinking about Ryan. I mean…what will happen when you bring him back? He surely will ask for me.”
Ugh! Why I had to bring this up? Why couldn’t I remain quiet for a while? It was a question I had been asking myself, but it was irrelevant on my part as it was Sean’s concern, not mine.
“We’ll think about it when the time comes. For now, you are free.”
We? For now? What did he mean by that? Don’t tell me he was planning to pull me into his problems again!
Before I could question him, he stopped the car and spoke up.
“And we’re here.”
Huh? Already? Why I felt bad about it?
“Oh, okay.” Forgetting the question, it didn’t take me long to open the door and step out. Sean helped me take out the bags and dropped them on my doorstep.
“Uh, thank you for dropping me,” I looked at him and saw him struggling to say something. I didn’t know what was it or what was stopping him. Or did he want to stay for a while? No, he couldn’t.
“Uh, I would have invited you in but you know the rules.” I chuckled sheepishly.
“Oh, I know that and I don’t want to disturb you.” He then rubbed the back of his neck. “I…actually, uh, you were of great help so I…”
Unknown fear surged inside me. I knew where it was going.
No, don’t do it. Let it slide. Let me see you as an arrogant, annoying, and selfish jerk. Don’t make me not dislike you.
“I wanted to thank you.”
That’s it. I was gone…for good.
“N…no, you don’t have to ”
“I have to. I haven’t done it properly yet.” He suddenly stepped into my safe zone and I couldn’t step back. It was the effect he had on me. He could hypnotize me with one soft look.
He grabbed my hands and pulled me closer, not caring about the surroundings as if we were standing in some lonely place.
“Thank you for helping me in the most extreme situation. Truthfully, I wouldn’t have done it without you.”
I wouldn’t have done it without you.
I gulped hard because then and there I knew this particular moment changed everything. This moment was more meaningful than the kisses we had shared.
He leaned forward and I tried to step back but he held the back of my neck and focused on my forehead.
No. No. Please, not this. Anything but this. I prayed.
And there, he did it. He kissed my forehead.
“Take care. See you at work.”
And he left.
He left me standing at my doorstep with mixed feelings about him.