“Ah, you’re finally here! What took you so long? Everyone’s here already. Ugh, never mind. I don’t actually care now that you’re here. Now, where’s my grandbaby?”
“Hello to you too, mother,” I replied sarcastically as I handed off the pie that Jane baked for today’s family dinner and my heavy coat to one of my parent’s butlers.
Turning back around, I opened the front door wider for my two treasures. I grabbed Jane’s hand as I helped her step over the ledge into the house with Liam trailing right behind her, holding onto the edge of her dress for dear life.
Jane gave my mother a soft smile and greeted, “Good evening, Mrs. Cordova. I’m sorry for being late. The seminar for Liam’s class at the lecture hall downtown ran a bit over time.”
“It’s alright, sweetheart. There’s no need to apologize.” My mother eagerly pulled her into the warmth of the house, offering her a small towel to dry her hair from the melting snowfall. “Besides, didn’t I tell you to call me mom already? You don’t need to be so formal when you’re basically already family.”
Jane nodded meekly as she dried the ends of her hair with the warm towel.
I gently nudged her coat off her shoulders, taking her damp clothes from her and leaving her in her adorable light brown dress from before. Passing off the coat to one of the attendants, I then similarly reached down to take Liam’s little coat from him, revealing his adorable semiformal outfit consisting of a white button-up and khakis pants that matched the color of Jane’s dress.
My mother squealed when she caught sight of Liam, making him instinctively hide behind one of my legs in fear of being squished by his soon-to-be grandmother. “Eek, you three are just too cute in your matching outfits. This calls for a picture. Let me grab my phone, and don’t you dare move from your spots.”
I shook my head tiredly as I watched my mother run inside the house without even waiting for our reply. I didn’t even realize that we were all wearing matching outfits, but there was still no reason for her to get so excited about it.
Turning my attention back to Jane, I tenderly slid my arm around her waist, pulling her in closer. “Let’s go, my love. I don’t want you to catch a cold from standing so close to the front door.”
She looked up at me with her bright violet eyes and asked innocently, “But what about the picture? She said that we shouldn’t move.”
I chuckled at her adorably conflicted expression and pressed a reassuring kiss on the side of her temple. “It’s alright. She won’t get mad if we just go a little bit further inside. I’m sure she’ll still take the picture regardless of wherever we may be.”
She bit on her lower lip nervously, nodding mutely before reluctantly giving in my light nudges as I brought her further into the house.
Weaving through a couple of hallways, I eventually reached the dining room with Liam in one hand and Jane in the other. There were more place settings around the table than usual, but I didn’t give it too much thought considering the fact that Benedict had decided to join us for dinner as well.
Jane slipped out of my hold and told me to send my mother to the kitchen if she came looking for her. Then she leaned up onto her tiptoes, motioning for me to lean down for her, and planted a quick peck on my cheek the moment I came down to a reachable height for her before darting off into the kitchen.
My father chuckled as I made my way over to the other guys hanging around the end of the dining table. “That’s an adorable little one. So much so that I find myself a little put off every time I see you with such a bright ray of sunshine.”
I grunted, not appreciating his jabs at me, as I brought Liam forward.
Benedict hummed in agreement as he started to pour out a glass of neat whiskey for me. As he handed me the glass, he added to my father’s comment, “Then you should see them when he comes to pick her up after work from my building. They’re literally the most nauseatingly sweet couple I’ve ever seen before.”
I rolled my eyes as I swirled my glass and took a sip.
My father poured out some apple juice into a similar looking glass and leaned down to hand it to Liam, asking him, “Do they also act like that at home, kiddo?”
Liam’s eyes lit up at the sight of apple juice, but he kept his excitement hidden behind a straight face. Even though I’ve brought him and Jane to my family’s weekly dinners a few times already, he was still be a bit wary of my parents and my younger brother.
He politely accepted the glass with a soft thank you. Looking up at my father, he nodded to his question and added, “He’s much more clingy at home, always holding or kissing Ms. Jane whenever he thinks I’m not looking.”
Embarrassment crept up the back of my neck, not expecting him to out me like that so bluntly.
I quickly downed the rest of my glass in one go, trying to avoid Benedict’s and my father’s snarky looks. Clearing my throat, I tried to change the subject, “Liam, why don’t you tell my father about the new school that you’ll be starting next term? I’m going to go check on your mother, okay?”
He nodded and adorably waved goodbye to me with his little hand before turning his attention back to the others.
Not wanting to waste another minute, I fled to the kitchen in hopes of escaping all their teasing. I let out a sigh in relief once I was out of their earshot as I made my way toward the front entrance of the kitchen. I cracked the door open and peeked inside in search of my adorably tiny fiancee only to find many more women hanging around the island than I originally expected.
“So I heard from my husband that my son hasn’t been using his apartment for the last couple of weeks… By any chance, would you know anything about that?” My mother smirked as she playfully hopped around my fiancee who was diligently slicing up some fruits for later.
A different lady around my mother’s age- I think was her friend Mellisa that she always spoke of-perked up at her words and chimed in, “Oh, I want to know too! Rafael had always been a cold and closed off child, so is he really treating you as sweetly as Helena has been telling me?”
Jane blushed under their gazes as she trying to keep herself distracted with peeling the apples. “H-He’s been staying with me for the last c-couple of w-weeks… Liam really likes having him around and… I-I get l-lonely when he isn’t with me, so…”
The pair of middle-aged women awed at her words, becoming more and more excited.
“Is he really cute with Liam? I saw that your little boy follows him around him almost everywhere.”
“Do you guys have eat meals together like a family?”
“Oh, Benedict told me that he also never misses picking you up from your office. Does that workaholic actually get off work early to get you pastries before picking you up?”
“Oh yes, I could never imagine her ridge son leaving work early, but he seems to always make an exception when it comes to you.”
“Does that mean you two are sharing a bed?”
Jane’s cheeks turned a deeper shade of red, nearly matching the color of the apples that she was peeling. She stuttered, “U-Um… And he is v-very sweet with Liam. He always t-tries to learn about Liam’s preferences and even a-arranged for Liam to a-attend Princeton as a remote student s-starting in J-January… I-I think Liam thinks of him as a father f-figure… A-Achilles is very caring and always t-thinks about us first…” Her hands started to slip on the peeler as she tried to think of an answer for the last question. ” A-and… a-and… u-um… W-we are s-sharing a b-bed, b-but that’s it… W-we’re t-taking it slowly… A-and…”
I pushed the door open and walked up behind Jane, swiftly taking the half-peeled apple and knife from her hands before she could cut herself. Setting the item down, I protectively wrapped my arm around her from behind and addressed the two overly-energetic women, “Please don’t corner my soon-to-be wife like this. You’re stressing her out and I don’t want her to accidentally cut herself because of this.”
Mellisa’s eyes sparkled, seemingly not comprehending my words, as she turned to my mother and squealed, “He says soon-to-be wife instead of fiancee. Isn’t that just too cute?!”
I sighed as they went off on an a tangent, completely ignoring my words.
Glancing down at Jane, I found her looking up at me with her beautifully violet eyes. She mouthed silently, “Thank you.”
The corner of my lips lifted as I leaned down to press an upside down kiss on her forehead, which only caused another round of squeals to come from the right of us.
“Rafael, you’re basically living with her and already acting like a complete family. Why don’t you just move in together? Then you guys could get working on making me more grand babies and-”
“Mother, please stop.” I warned before she could go any further, not wanting Jane’s cheeks to suddenly burst from how red they had become, “Jane can’t handle being pestered so much like this… But to answer your question, we are planning to move in together. I just finished renovating the old castle just outside the city and will be getting an interior designer on Monday to help us furnish the rest of the place so we can move in by the end of the week before I have to leave for my business trip.”
“Eek, why didn’t you tell me this earlier? I could’ve-”
CRASH!!
A loud orchestra of falling dishes echoed through the kitchen, immediately drawing all of our attentions to the door behind me.
My eyes widened when I found a familiar dark-haired woman standing behind me with a pile of shattered porcelain dishes at her feet. “Cassy?”
I had forgotten that she was Mellisa’s daughter and didn’t consider that she might’ve also came after I first saw Mellisa.
She immediately snapped out of her daze at the sound of my voice and started to pick up the jagged pieces of porcelain off the ground in a panic. She stuttered, “I-I’m s-sorry. I-I d-didn’t mean to b-break your d-dishes. I-I p-promise I’ll pay you b-back for the d-damages a-and I will…”
Unlatching myself from Jane, I kneeled down to take the broken pieces of proclaim out of her hand. “Cassy, please don’t worry about it. You’re going to hurt yourself at this rate and it’s really nothing.”
She stubbornly shook her head, keeping her eyes glued to the ground as she continued to try to pick up the shattered remains. “It’s o-okay. I was j-just being c-clumsy. B-but c-congratulations on y-your e-engagement. I n-never got to tell y-you at t-the gala and now y-you’re a-already m-moving in t-together. Y-you m-must be very happy- Oww!”
She yanked her hand back in a hiss as a beads of blood started to form along a new cut on her finger.
I quickly dropped the pile of broken porcelain and took her hand into my own, squeezing the base of her finger in an attempt to slow the bleeding.
Our mothers worriedly huddled around us, easing us off the ground.
“Rafael, we can handle cleaning these up , so why don’t you take Cassy to the bathroom and help her wrap up her finger? There’s a first aid under the cabinet.”
I nodded, mindlessly agreeing with her instructions.
As I carefully led Cassy out of the kitchen, I glanced back worriedly at Jane who had knelt down to help with cleaning up the jagged piece of porcelain. I pressed my lips into a thin line, not wanting to leave Jane alone, but I had a person with a bleeding finger that I had to take care of first.
I sighed as I led Cassy into the guest bathroom just down the hall, passing the dining room and a couple more random door. I opened the door with my free hand and motioned for Cassy to sit down on the toilet seat. Switching out my fingers that were applying pressure to her bleeding finger with her free hand, I kneeled down underneath the sink and opened the cabinet in search of the supposed first aid kit.
Cassy shifted uncomfortably in her seat as an awkward silence fell over us.
But my mind was elsewhere, more worried about my clumsy little girl who was picking up a bunch of dangerous broken pieces of ceramic.
“Um… Rafael? Are you angry with me?”
I let out a low hum in negation as I pulled out the kit from the back of the cabinet.
“O-oh, o-okay…”
I set the kit down on the counter and silently rummaged for the disinfectant and one of the larger bandages.
“Um… Rafael?”
I let out a soft hum in question as I pulled out a roll of bandages.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“… Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. My head was just… elsewhere I guess…”
She nodded quietly.
I carefully dabbed a cotton ball soaked in disinfectant solution on her cut, eliciting a sharp hiss from her.
She laughed softly in attempt to ease the pain. “This kind of reminds me of when we were younger. You would always get stuck helping me fix my wounds since I was always getting into trouble as a child.”
She knew me from when we were younger?
I didn’t really like my childhood so I tried not to think about it often. Her words didn’t really spark any sense of familiarity within, but I also couldn’t bring myself to tell her that I didn’t remember her at all.
So I nodded along and lied, “Right, you were quite a clumsy child… You should try to be more careful in the future… It wouldn’t do you any good to be constantly injuring yourself like this…”
She nodded with a soft smile on her lips, but her hand, the one that I wasn’t treating and was sitting in her lap, tightened into a fist.
Not thinking much of it, I finished wrapping her finger in the bandage and straightened back up right as there was a knock on the door. A small voice called out, “Are you done, Mr. Rafael? Ms. Jane told me to come tell you that they setting up the table for dinner now.”
Surprised to find Liam waiting for me, I quickly placed the items back into the box and called out in reply, “I’ll be right out, Liam. Can you make sure your mother doesn’t overwork herself? You know how she can be…”
“Okay, Mr. Rafael!” he chirped. The light pitter-patter of his footsteps faded off as he went in search of his mother.
A small smile unconsciously spread across my face, imaging how amusing it looked whenever that little five-year-old scolded Jane as if he was her parent and not the other way around.
Breaking me out of my thoughts, a soft voice to my right mumbled, “She has a child… How could I forgot about that…”
I raised an eyebrow in question.
Probably not expecting me to have heard her words, Cassy immediately replied, “I-I don’t mean a-anything bad by that. I-It’s just a tad s-surprising, but it’s g-good that you get along w-well with him.”
“It’s wasn’t always like this… He threatened to call the police on me when we first met, but he warmed up to me over time.” A warmth bloomed in my chest as I reminisced on all the time I spend with Liam, bonding over our shared protectiveness over Jane and desire to stay by her side. “Even if he’s a bit different from other kids, he’s honestly the best kid I could ever get.”
She nodded with a small smile as she lowered her eyes, fiddling with her fingers in her lap. “I’m glad… You seem so much happier than before… More full of life unlike before…”
A broad smile spread across my face as an image of Jane’s adorable grin flashed across my mind. “She’s the light of my life… The missing piece of my life that I never knew I was missing until she came along…”
“Not many people get to be with the one they love…” She gave me a bright closed-eyed smile. “But you’re a lucky one! I’m so happy that the gods gave you a happily ever after. You deserve it after everything you’ve been through.”
Her smile was so bright and her words were so upbeat, but it felt like she didn’t mean it for some reason.
Her body seemed tense and her hands were curled into fists. And yet, she still had a big smile plastered across her face.
I didn’t want to doubt her words since she was one of the few people who I considered as a friend, but I also knew that I didn’t actually know much about Cassy. I didn’t have any idea about the thoughts fluttering about her mind or any inkling of how she might feel.
I didn’t know what to say in reply except for a strained, “… Thank you… Cassy…”
The air seemed to drop after my words, but her smile never left her face. She lightly chirped, “You should probably head back to your fiancee now. I’m just going to finish freshening up in here before I join you.”
I nodded mutely as I opened the door and stepped out. I hesitantly glanced back at her but she only smiled at me.
Was she…
“Mr. Rafael, the weird man is trying to steal your spot next to Ms. Jane,” called out Liam from the dining room down the hallway.
Benedict’s voice shouted, “Hey! Don’t call me that, kid! I’ll have you know that all the ladies love me and find me very pretty.”
“Pretty annoying…,” Liam retorted in a flat tone, earning a high pitched screech from my fully-grown man-child of a friend.
I chuckled lightly as I closed the door behind me and started to make my way toward the dining room, completely forgetting about the the conversation from just before. Rounding the corner into the dining room, I was met with the most chaotic sight in my life.
Liam standing on one of the chair and dangling a familiar looking phone right over a pitcher of water.
Benedict in a state of panic as he tried to reason with his tormentor.
Jane frantically trying to talk Liam down.
My mother taking picture of the entire event, making no attempts to stop the situation from escalating.
My father and brother sitting off the side, sipping at their glasses without another care in the world.
It was a disastrous sight, but these were the people that I treasured most in my life and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
This was my family.