I watched as Jane tugged on the sleeves of her outfit for the n-teenth time today… Pulling on the end of her sleeves… Smoothing out her skirt… Patting her hair down… Checking the mirror…
“Are you sure it’s alright?”
I nodded as I held out a cup of green tea for her. “Why are you so worriedly about your outfit, love? We’re only meeting with the interior designer.”
She sighed as she took one last glance at her outfit before walking over to me. Accepting the cup from me, she confessed, “I want to look good, so she won’t think poorly of you for taking in such a shabby-looking fiancee. We’re not meeting with just any designer… You picked the top of the top, the Haraya Maltiem, and I just know that a whole new chain of gossip will come up when people find out that you are moving in with someone like me…”
So she was still feeling insecure about herself…
I had been trying to boost her self-confidence, constantly showering her with compliments and reminding her that she was more than just good enough, but it never seemed to really get through to her.
I cupped her cheek in my hand and gently tilted her head up as I pressed a soft-but-reassuring kiss on her forehead. “My love, you shouldn’t stress yourself out over what others may or may not think of it because none of it matters to me, and it shouldn’t matter to you, either.”
She hummed softly as she leaned into my touch.
My thumb skimmed lightly over her cheek as I watched her melt into my touch. I murmured softly, “I love you just the way you are, Jane.”
Her cheek turned into a light pink hue as she diverted her eyes from feelings of embarrassment. She mumbled quietly, “That’s no fair… You shouldn’t be allowed to be so handsome and so good with your words at the same time… I never get a chance to be the one to make you flustered instead…”
I chuckled softly as I watched her plump lips form an adorable pout.
Pressing one more kiss on her lips, I released her from my hold and reminded her, “The designer will be meeting us at my apartment in about 20 mins, so we better get going if we want to drop off Liam at his lecture and still be on time.”
She nodded quietly as she hurried out of the room in search of the little rascal.
I picked up her purse that she had forgotten on the sofa and went downstairs to wait for them. In just a few minutes, the mother-son pair came clambering down with a light bicker. Liam kept trying to push his mother’s hand away from fiddling with his messy hair, something about how he didn’t even wash his face before playing on his tablet.
He huffed when he reached the bottom of the stairs and bolted behind me to escape from her hold. He grumbled to me, “Why is she being so fussy today? Her period isn’t for another few more weeks.”
I chuckled softly and leaned down to push his loose strand of hair out of the front of his face, quietly responding, “She’s just a bit anxious today because we’re meeting with the interior designer to get our new home furnished.”
He eyed his mother incredulously from the side of me. “I don’t see why that would be enough to stress her out like this, but sure… whatever you say…”
Before he could say anything else that might cause an argument, I quickly draped his coat over him and ushered him out the door, “Come on, it’s time to go.”
As he ran out to the car, I turned around to help Jane put on her coat. Her lips were pressed into a thin line as she anxiously flipped through the content of her purse.
“Darling, your phone and wallet are already in there. You did not forget anything, so please relax.”
She sighed as she gave into me and dropped her purse down to her side, obediently slipping her arms through the sleeves of her coat instead. “I’m sorry… I just can’t seem to calm down…”
I nodded understandingly and pressed a reassuring kiss on the side of her forehead. “It’s alright, Jane. I know that I’m already asking a lot of you… plunging you straight into my world without any time to get used to things… So I’m very grateful that you’re willing to still stay by my side despite everything.”
A small smile appeared on her lips as she leaned into me, wrapping her little arms around me for a light hug. “I do it because I love you too, Achilles. It’s a small price to pay if it means I get to be with you.”
I smiled as the tension in her body started to melt away. I pulled her closer and leaned down to press our lips together.
However, before they could even touch, we were interrupted by a little voice calling out to us from outside, “Can you hurry up? I’m going to be late for my lecture if you keep being so lovey-dovey with Ms. Jane.”
I chuckled softly as Jane’s cheek flared into a rosy color. Before she could try to pull away out of embarrassment, I quickly pecked the corner of her lips.
She reflexively gave me a quick peck on the cheek with a light blush before running off toward the car, giving my driver a meek good morning as she hopped into the back with Liam.
In no time at all, we managed to drop Liam off at his last lecture of the semester with a minute spare before making a beeline for my apartment to meet with the interior designer.
Right as we stepped out of the car and toward my apartment building, we surprisingly found the designer arriving just minutes before us.
Haraya was dressed in a pencil skirt with a coat hanging off her shoulders as she made her way over to us with her tablet in hand, clicking her heels with each step. She was a pretty tall for a woman, standing just a half a foot off from me with her heels on and most definitely towering over my little angel.
She greeted with a warm smile, “Rafael, sweetheart, how have you been doing? I’ve only been out of the country for a few months and I came back only to find out that you got engaged all of a sudden.”
Oh yes, did I mention that she happened to be quite a friendly woman who’s booming voice could give my mother a run for her money?
“I’m sure that you knew even before you came back, but yes, I’ve doing quite well,” I replied as I opened the door into the lobby for Jane, not wanting to keep her out in the cold for a moment more than necessary. After Haraya darted in right behind Jane, I closed the door behind me and continued, “How’s your business doing? Still as busy as ever?”
She nodded as patted the snow off her coat. “Of course, you know how I can’t stand staying still.”
I chuckled, nodding in understanding as I eased Jane’s coat off her shoulders and brushed the snow off of it. I introduced Jane to her, “Love, this is Haraya Maltiem. She’s a friend of mine and Benedict’s back from when we were in university. She’s going to help us setup our house.”
Jane nodded meekly as she shyly held out a hand for a shake. “N-nice to meet you, Haraya. I-I’m D-Danary Jane B-Belcalis.”
Haraya smiled as she returned the handshake. “Aren’t you just the cutest little thing! How did you meet this big oaf anyway? He’s not really one to make new friends, much less find a wife by himself.”
I rolled my eyes as I gently nudged the two of them toward the elevator, punching the button for my floor as they continued to chat.
“I-I work for Mr. S-Serman’s company and got assigned to h-help Achilles manage the p-project for h-his new building.”
“Benedict, you say?” Haraya’s face scrunched up in disgust. “I still can’t believe his company is doing so well despite how he is… Is he still keeping up his manwhore antics?”
Jane looked up at me in confusion, probably never realizing how much of a womanizer her boss was.
I awkwardly nodded in reply to Haraya’s question as I unlocked my apartment.
Haraya huffed as she walked into my apartment, “He’s turning 30 soon, just like you. Does he have no shame whoring around at his age like that?”
I chuckled lightly, trying to loosen up the tension in the room, “You know how he is…”
As I gave Jane a mug of hot tea, she asked Haraya, “Are you close to Achilles and Mr. Serman?”
Haraya nodded as she took a sip from her cup of water. “I was one of the few women at our university that weren’t constantly trying to get into those two’s pants, not that it was tough to get into Benedict’s. I guess it sparked Benedict’s interest after constantly getting rejected, but he soon started dragging me out with them wherever they went. After we graduated, we parted ways but still kept in touch with a few messages here and there, not that Rafael responds to any of them anyway.”
I rolled my eyes as I sat down next to Jane on the sofa. “I called you back a few days ago, didn’t I?”
Haraya huffed, “Only because you had something to ask of me.”
“Yes, which I you to focus on now so we can get it done as soon as possible.” I wrapped an arm around Jane’s waist out of habit as I got comfortable in my seat and continued, “I have a business trip that I can’t get out of in a week, so I would like to try to move in by the end of this week. It would make me feel a lot better to know that Jane and Liam are living safely under my protection when I am away. I don’t want to take any risks with the paparazzi and the rising buzz about my new relationship.”
Haraya raised an eyebrow as she took her tablet out of her purse. “Liam? By any chance, would he be the little boy standing next to the two of you at your opening ceremony?”
I nodded. “He’s Jane’s adopted son.”
Her eyes widened. “Son? But you look so young, Jane! How old are you even?”
Jane meekly replied in a small whisper, “23…”
“23?! But he looks like he’s almost 7 already?!”
Jane leaned into me, shying away from the loud woman. “H-he’s actually o-only 5… I-I met him 3 y-years a-ago when I f-first moved to New York a-and he’s been with me e-ever since.”
I calmly rubbed circled on her waist and pulled her closer to me. “Haraya, please stop shouting inside my apartment. You’re making Jane nervous.”
“Oh… sorry…” Haraya sheepishly fiddled with an end of her hair. “I was just curious because you made sure to keep all info about the kid off the internet.”
Jane looked up at me curiously at her words.
I sighed and explained, “I just don’t want people to bombard him. He’s still too young to be exposed to such things, and I don’t want him to live in fear of the media. But I do plan to take him in as one of my own, and I would appreciate it if you stopped asking questions about him until we’re ready to let people know more.”
Haraya nodded understandingly as she fell quiet. She pulled up a couple of files from her tablet and laid them out on the table. “I looked over the blueprints of the house you sent me and would like to start off with knowing how you plan to sections of the house. Given how it is built, I think it would be best to give each of the 3 towers separate purposes and divide up the rest of the house by its 4 floors.”
Silence fell as I waited for Jane to scan over the blueprints.
Although I was the one who called Haraya over to help design the interior of our new home, I wanted Jane to make all the actual decisions because it was still technically under her name at the end of the day.
After a few minutes passed, Jane leaned back into my arms and sat quietly for a few more minutes before looking up at me in confusion when I continued to stay silent.
I raised an eyebrow, questioning her confused look.
“D-don’t you have things that you want to tell Haraya about how to design the house?”
I shook my head and gently nudged her out of her hiding spot. “I’m leaving it up to you. All I want is for the color violet to be one of our central colors.”
“B-But-”
“Love, I gave the house to you. It’s your property, and I want you to choose how you want it.”
She nodded hesitantly as she turned her attention back to Haraya. Timidly creeping out from my side, she started explaining her ideas to Haraya, albeit with a bit of a stutter here and there.
I remained silent as I watched her talk to Haraya, learning about her preferences as she explained her thought processes.
She planned to make the top floor the main living space for the three of us, wanting all of our bedrooms to stay on the same floor. Then she wanted to give me the entirety of the third floor to act as my home office, but I managed to make her compromise to splitting the floor with me such that she would also set up a study near mine. The second floor was then completely given to Liam as his own space for conducting his study and experiments, which I had no qualms about. The lowest floor would contain all the normal things like the kitchen, living room, dining room, and guest bedrooms.
The last thing she had to do was to divide up the towers.
She originally wanted to give each of us a tower, but I told her I didn’t need one, and she then also confessed that she didn’t particularly need one either. But at the same time, there was no way that Liam could use all three of them by himself, even if he did have a lot of projects.
Jane’s forehead scrunched up into deep creases as she thought hard about it, unable to come up with a good use for those rooms.
As I gently rubbed the crease lines away, Haraya spoke up and offered, “Why don’t we just set up one as a laboratory for Liam and leave the others empty for when you have more children in the future? Then each of your children can have a private tower to set up as they please.”
Jane immediately blushed at her words. “F-future ch-children?”
Not seeing what was wrong, Haraya cocked her head to the side and asked, “Are you not planning to have more children in the future? I know that Liam already looks a lot like the two of you despite not being your biological child, but I thought you might want more of those little cuties around in the future.”
Jane pulled up her collar in an attempt to hide her embarrassment and stuttered, “I-I… u-um… b-but… R-Rafael and I-I…”
I could practically see her brain combusting at the thought.
I chuckled softly and lightly squeezed her side, “Darling, there’s no need to be so embarrassed. Haraya is just teasing you, but I think it would be a good idea even if we don’t have more children in the future. We could just keep it as extra storage rooms or as empty rooms that you could use as a get-away for some peace and quiet.”
Jane nodded slowly as she leaned into my side. Her grip tightened on the side of my shirt as she started to curl up next to me, something that she often did whenever she started to get a bit too tired.
Addressing Haraya, I asked in Jane’s place, “Is there anything else you need to know?”
She hummed softly as she scanned over all the information we had given her so far. “You said that I had free reign to decorate the place as I see fit as long as it isn’t too flashy… So I guess the only other thing I would like to know is what color you want your house to be centered around. I know you already said you wanted to color violet, but are there any other colors?”
Jane perked up slightly at the question and softly added, “Silver but with a m-more light grayish color.”
Haraya hesitated but nodded anyway. As she wrote it down, she mindlessly mumbled, “You two must really be quite infatuated with each other to pick colors that match each other’s eyes.”
Jane didn’t really notice her words since she was starting to drift off, probably tired from all the decision-making, but I had no trouble catching her words.
My cheeks immediately heated up, feeling embarrassed from having my underlying intentions caught. My arms tightened around Jane as I instinctively pulled her closer to me for comfort.
Trying to change the subject, I asked Haraya, “Do you think you can get it fully furnished in two days’ time? I’ll give you free rein to my card so you can give as many helpers as possible to finish it within that time frame.”
She grinned, “Time’s not a problem when you’re stuffed to the brim with cash! I’m so excited about this project. I rarely get to have such freedom to choose as I please and with no budget on top of that!”
Eying her warily, I added, “I would like to believe that you won’t try to drain me of all my money, but now I’m not so sure…”
She laughed at my words and waved me off. “I’m just joking. You know that I wouldn’t do that. Besides…” She walked closer to us and leaned down to get a closer look at my sleeping fiancee. “I’m just surprised that you even want to get married… You’ve always been so abstinent that you might as well have been a monk.”
I rolled my eyes, brushing off her words as I started to wrap my coat around Jane.
She continued as her eyes raked over Jane’s little figure, “You have no clue how shocked I was when I saw that picture of you kissing her in front of all the paparazzi at the opening ceremony. I nearly fell out of my chair when I was having my breakfast at a cafe in France. I mean… you even went as far as turning one of the world’s most famous cuts of diamond in her engagement ring. Does she even know that she has more than a million dollars sitting on her finger?”
“No… and you’re not going to tell her either. She’ll force me to take it back if she ever finds out,”
She held her hands up in mocking surrender, “I never said that I would… Just wanted to tease you for a bit.”
I grunted incoherently in reply as I shifted Jane into my lap.
“I should at least be allowed that much. I mean, you didn’t even have the courtesy to at least invite me to your wedding.”
“… We’re not married yet…”
“…”
“…”
“But you’re wearing a ring…”
I sighed, “It’s complicated, but the ring is a family heirloom that Jane gave me when we first got together…”
She deadpanned, “You know that you’re doing things backward, right? It is supposed to start with dating, then moving in together, and then exchanging rings… Not whatever you got going on.”
“Hey! It’s just how things happened to pan out, and it works for us.” I abruptly stood up with Jane in my arms. “And now, if you’ll excuse us, we need to go pick up Liam from his lecture now. And if any questions come up while you’re setting up the house, just call either one of us. We’re both taking the week off from work to move in.”
Her eyes almost instantly started to sparkle, and I just knew what she was going to coo about after having much experience with my chaotic mother.
“Yes, yes, I, Rafael Achilles Cordova, the workaholic, am taking a week off from work to move in with my new fiancee. If you just want to gossip about me, can you please leave me alone and do it with Benedict and my mother instead.”
She pouted and swiftly turned away from me, grumbling something under her breath. Probably just a bunch of curses at me.
Glancing at my watch, I hurriedly made my way out of the apartment as the long needle started to reach the top. It was time to get my other angel before we needed to go somewhere else.
I was always kept busy between my two little angels, but at least I managed to finish one thing for today and I couldn’t wait for the moment where I could finally move in with them.