Paulita has not yet started school and is playing at home with her little brother.
When Estrella Berrocal went upstairs to check on the children, she saw Paulita rocking gently in her crib while the nanny sat there laughing at the siblings.
Paulita said proudly: “Estrella, my brother is asleep. I put him to sleep.
Estrella Berrocal stroked the little boy’s head and looked at it with affection: “It looks like Paulita will be able to take care of him without me having to worry about him”.
The nanny interjected： “Yes, ma’am, it saves me a lot of effort to have Paulita at home, watching her little brother all the time…. Paulita is such a good boy.”
“Yes, our Paulita knows what she’s doing.”
Estrella Berrocal knelt down, hugged Paulita and kissed her.
Paulita saw the notice Estrella Berrocal was holding and asked: “Estrella, what is this?
“This, my wedding dress design, has been shortlisted for the competition, but I don’t know who submitted it to me.”
Paulita murmured and asked, “Will it be daddy?”.
“I think so, too. Ask him when he comes back.”
After all, she had only shown her manuscripts to Adán Rouco and, besides, who else but Adán Rouco would have the time to help her with them?
I wanted to share the good news with him when he returned in the evening.
Estrella Berrocal gently rocks the cradle in which the baby sleeps soundly.
Paulita leaned over and looked at her brother, “Estrella, let’s give her a nickname!”.
Estrella Berrocal thought for a moment, smiled and said, “Paulita for my sister, Esteban for my brother?”.
Paulita giggled twice: “From now on you will be called Lucio!
…
In the evening, Adán Rouco returned from work.
Estrella Berrocal followed him into the studio and handed him a tray of fruit.
Adán Rouco frowns slightly: “Right now I don’t want to eat fruit”.
“So what do you want to eat?” Estrella Berrocal looked at him with wide eyes.
Adán Rouco lifted her up and sat her in his arms: “Why so solicitous, have you done something wrong?
Estrella Berrocal blushed: “What could I have done wrong? I’m a good woman now, okay?”.
“So you have something to tell me?”
Estrella Berrocal sat in his arms, adjusted her sitting position and was about to share the good news that her design had been shortlisted when Adán Rouco commented on her weight.
“It’s true that it weighs a lot more.”
“…”
Estrella Berrocal was about to share the news with him, but upon hearing it, she pulled her hands away from his waist and said with mild annoyance, “Then I won’t sit on your lap! I’ll save you from breaking your leg.”
He said, about to get up, but was restrained by the man’s large hand, “So serious?”
“Mr. Adam, don’t you know that a woman’s weight is a woman’s dignity?”.
Adán Rouco raised an eyebrow in disapproval, “Then I won’t call you fat anymore.”
“… What do you mean you’re not going to call me fatter, I’m fat now!”.
The man’s dark eyes, watching her, commented objectively, “It’s true you’re not fat, you’re plump at best. You’re plump at best.”
Estrella Berrocal almost spat out a mouthful of blood.
Forget it, I can’t be bothered with a straight man, or I’ll be asking for it.
“Tell me the truth, have you done something without telling me?”.
Adán Rouco did not remember for a moment, “What is it?”.
Estrella Berrocal didn’t bother to beat around the bush and said, “Did you help me submit my design to the fashion contest?”.
Adam Rouco was slightly stunned and his dark eyes shone with relief, “You were shortlisted?”
Estrella Berrocal took the notification letter out of her pocket and unfolded it before Adán Rouco’s eyes. “Damn it … look at her!”.
Adán Rouco looked at the notification and his thin lips curved: “It’s true”.
“Adam, why did you help me with my submission?”.
“I think I’ve always had a good eye, and even though I’ve never studied art or design, I have a hunch that your design must not be that bad.”
Her tone was light, but confident, and it was because of her that Estrella Berrocal was so happy that she gave her a bear hug.
“Adam, thank you for pitching me and believing in me so much. But … you didn’t help me with my presentation because the organizers have connections with the Rouco Group and that’s why I was shortlisted, right?”
Estrella Berrocal looked distrustfully at Adán Rouco and the man raised his hand and slapped him on the forehead: “What are you thinking? I don’t even know the organizers and the presentation was made in your name, even if they knew me, they wouldn’t know that Estrella Berrocal is my wife. ”
“Ah, that’s right.” Estrella Berrocal carefully kept the prescreening notice.
“When is the repetition?”
“The letter said next Friday, but the format of the retake has changed, so you have to bring your work in person to present and elaborate.”
Adán Rouco nodded slightly: “I will accompany you on Friday”.
Estrella Berrocal asked, amused, “Aren’t you working on Friday? I’ll go alone, I’ve been selected for the preliminary round, it’s not going to be easy for the final round, you’ll be there and I’ll be humiliated if I’m eliminated.”
“You don’t have to be embarrassed in front of me.”
Estrella Berrocal made fun of him, got off his lap and told him: “Of course a straight guy like you doesn’t understand the fear of showing failure in front of the one you love the most. Hey, you don’t understand even if I tell you, the rematch is next Friday, then I haven’t drawn my new design yet, I won’t talk to you anymore, you work, I have to think about the design”.
She had just turned around to leave when she was embraced from behind by the man.
“Why are you holding me back? I’m going to work on the design.”
The man’s low, magnetic voice rang in her ears: “Mrs. Rouco, you don’t have to be afraid to fail in front of the man you love the most, because no matter how many times you fail, Mr. Adán will believe in you unconditionally, he will support and sustain you”.
Estrella Berrocal’s heart softened at the tip, sweet and creamy like fermenting honey: “But I also don’t want to betray their trust and support in me. I also want to show them that the woman Adán Rouco married is still two-faced and not a foodie.”
The man couldn’t help but overhear her tone, “Who dares to say you’re a foodie?”.
Estrella Berrocal bit her lip, rattled her fingers and murmured, “Well, they’ll think it even if they don’t say it.”
“It’s not like they’re eating their family’s dry food, it’s none of their business.”
Estrella Berrocal turned to him with a bright-eyed smile, slipped her arm around his neck and kissed him on tiptoe. “So, if I get eliminated, I might have to go home and eat dry food.”
“Mr. Adam has the most dry rice here, Mrs. Rouco can eat all she wants. But when the rematch is over, doesn’t Mrs. Rouco have to think much about our wedding?”
The old man had already mentioned it several times, but at that time Estrella Berrocal was not yet out of recovery, and now that she is, this wedding cannot be postponed any longer.
Adán Rouco is a public figure, and sooner or later, Ms.
“But now I’m so fat that my wedding dress won’t fit, I want to wait until I’m thinner.”