Vince’s POV
My heart beats heavily in my chest when the doorbell rings.
I quickly remove the apron and adjust my shirt before walking to the door.
I open the door to see Fernando standing outside with a wide grin on his face. A bouquet is in his right hand, and his left hand is inside his pants pocket.
“What…”
He pushes past me as he enters the penthouse.
The people I was expecting were Annette and Tessa, not Fernando.
“Vicente suddenly became a romanticist overnight. It’s still hard to believe you know,” he glance around the kitchen counter.
I just finished preparing a meal for Tessa and Annette. There is also a cake with candlelight on the counter.
Fernando tries to lift the cover from the plate of the meal I just dished out, and I slap his hand away.
“Ouch!”
“Why the hell are you here? Where is Tessa?”
He smirks. “Theresa asked me to come in her place. Do you mind?”
I roll my eyes at him. Tessa wouldn’t do that. We had a deal. She was to find a way to bring Annette her without her suspecting a thing.
I never told her to tell Fernando. He isn’t invited to the party.
Before I can reply to him, the doorbell rings again, and my heart beats wildly again. I ignore him and rush to the door.
I don’t need to look through the peephole to know it’s Tessa and Ann. I hear their murmurs from outside, and I open the door to see a blindfold over Annette’s face.
Tessa winks at me.
“I saw that,” Fernando mutters from behind him.
Tessa rolls her eyes at him.
“Tes, where are we? Isn’t that Fernando’s voice? What’s the surprise?” Ann demands with curiosity, her blindfolded face darting around as Tessa helps her into the penthouse without a word.
I pick up the cake and place it right in front of Annette as Tessa comes to a halt. I signal to her to pull off the blindfold, and she did.
Annette lowers her head, probably to adjust her eyes to the bright light in the penthouse. When she hoists her head up, she first sees the cake with the inscription- Happy Birthday, Annette. I love you.”
A gasp leaves her mouth.
Then she clamps her hands over her mouth before twirling around to meet my gaze.
With a sniffle, she rushes into my arms, and Tessa claps with excitement.
Suddenly, they begin to sing the happy birthday song for her as she slowly pulls away from me.
I join in.
“Happy birthday, babe,” I finish, staring at her beautiful face.
“Thank you, everyone,” she appreciates before hugging Tessa and finally Fernando.
“Now, make a wish and blow out the candle lights,” Tessa reminds her. Ann turns back to the cake. She shuts her eyes for a second with her mouth moving before her eyes flutter open again as she blows out the candles.
We clap. But my mind was on what she must have wished for. I’m curious.
I signal to Tessa again, and she disappears into the room. Shortly after, she returns us with a box. She stretches it at Annette, who lifts an eyebrow at me.
I urge her to go ahead.
She places the black box on the counter and pulls on the silver ribbon. She lifts the lid off. Her gaze falls on the first gift in a well-packaged transparent leather.
She lifts it, her jaws dropping.
“Vince? My favourite authors? How did you know?” She questions, watching me.
I only shrug.
There is more to come.
She pouts and then turns back to the box. There is a smartwatch and a box of jewelry.
When she opens the box, she gasps again, and Tessa helps her put it on. The diamond necklace looks good on her, complimenting the blue fabric dress she has on.
Tears swell up in her eyes.
Then, finally, she sees the last item-a card.
I bite my lips nervously. I really do not know how to break this to her, which is why I decided to do it this way.
She opens it and reads.
Confusion dawns upon her expression. Before she can ask anything, I decide to explain the situation to her first.
“It’s an award. You won a cooking competition online and they need you to attend the event slated for next week to get the award,” I explain to her, but her confusion doesn’t clear off.
Tessa chips in. “The good news is this will give you both online and physical presence and your dreams can eventually come true.”
“What are you two talking about?” She demands with a full-blown curiosity. “A cooking competition? I never participated in any cooking competition so I don’t know what this is about.”
Silence falls.
Tessa and I are the only ones who know about this. Fernando is oblivious, but senses the tension and doesn’t say a word.
Annette looks from me to Tessa, expecting more explanations, but none is forthcoming.
I really do not know how she is going to take this.
“Vicente, how did this happen? Is this a mistake or something and why is it coming in a box like the rest of the gifts?”
Because it’s a gift from me to you, I want to say to her, but the look on her face stops me.
“Tessa?” She turns to Tessa, who feigns a smile. When I told Tessa about it, she told me Ann wouldn’t take it lightly, which is why we decided to put it in the box as a gift.
“Well, the thing is we actually helped…”
“Helped? Someone did this on my behalf?”
Tessa nods, looking scared already. I expect Ann to burst into anger, but she remains silent.
She keeps pinponging her eyes between us, leaving Fernando out.
Finally, she drops the card. “Then go give whoever it is. It’s not mine because I didn’t participate in any competition, and I don’t have any intentions of doing so even in the future. I didn’t even finish my training in the academy. I’m not competent enough…”
“No. You are. You’ve always been a good cook, Ann. You just don’t know it.” Tessa objects, but Ann is way too angry to agree with her.
“No, Tessa. This isn’t what I did so you don’t expect me to accept it. It feels fake. I won’t be confident of my skills. I can’t take it.”
There is another moment of silence between us.
“I agree with Annette. If I were in her shoes, I wouldn’t accept something like that too,” Fernando says, and I throw him a cold glare. “I think this card should be given to whoever participated in the cooking competition on her behalf. He or she deserves the entitlement that comes with the effort.”
Tessa glances at me briefly before looking away. Fernando notices and gasps.
“Don’t tell it’s Tessa,” he utters with his mouth hanging open.
“What?” Ann exclaims. “No, it’s not. Tessa is not a good cook.”
“You don’t need to rub that in my face, do you?” Tessa jokes, trying to light up the mood a bit but it isn’t working.
There is a look of pure curiosity and anger in Annette’s eyes. The more I stand in silence, watching all the emotions cross her face, the more frightened I am to reveal the truth because I have no idea how she would react.
She is already reacting badly to the idea of getting an award when she didn’t do anything to deserve it.
I just felt like doing something to make up for ruining her chances at the academy. Even though after the kidnap, she decided to stop going all by herself, I still blame myself partially for it.
It’s her dream.
And I want to make that come true. That is what I need to do to make her happy.
“If it isn’t Tessa, then who did that for you?” Fernando questions, looking as curious as Ann.
Tessa looks away to avoid giving the information away.
Instantly, Annette’s eyes dart to me, and realization dawns on her. Before she can say anything, I beat her to it. “It’s me.”
It takes a while for her to exclaim alongside Fernando. “What?!”
“It’s me,” I repeat. “I did it. For you.”
“What?!” She exclaims again, this time loudly, with resentment filling every inch of her expression.