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Two weeks later, at a few days over two months, Alex rolled for the first time. He didn’t completely roll, he jerked his b*dy to the side looking at the sound emitting toy I’d kept there and accidentally fell on his tummy. Hence, a ‘roll.’
I, who was grabbing a new onesie for him after bathing him, froze.
The paediatrician had told us that they would begin rolling after three months but he’d just turned two.
Gabriel had grinned so wide, and announced his son was an ‘overachiever‘.
spent
a week explaining to him that it was a one–off, that he didn’t actually mean to roll, it was accidental, but that man was a proud father who wanted to celebrate.
That’s how we found ourselves in the city despite my hundred protests. With the twins both tucked in the backseat in their car seats, strollers packed in the boot and Gabriel driving, we were here at a fancy diner of his choice.
I looked at the twins and then at him. “Are we sure this is a celebration for the babies?”
“No, they’re too young for a celebration,” he grinned, looking up from the menu he had his face buried in. “This celebration is for us.”
“Us?” I control the urge to roll my eyes.
“Yeah. We made something awesome. Actually, two somethings.”
I laugh, cringing. “Only you can say something like that.”
“And it’s pretty here,” he adds. I sigh. Between the top floor diner with glass walls overlooking the city lights and the private section we were left in so that I can have privacy to feed the twins when I need, it was pretty. Pretty… extravagant. Couldn’t fault him there.
After we place our orders, I ask him something I have been meaning to ask for weeks now. “How was your time like? In London?”
He looks at me like he was surprised at the question, and answers while his index finger is still held in Aurora’s little hand. “It was…” He paused, as if he was forcing himself to say the next word, “Lonely.”
“Lonely?”
“You know I rode the subway there instead of taking the car? It’s called the tube there, though.”
“You did?” I asked, ignoring the last part.
“In the early days of our marriage, when I had to go to a meeting and Alister asked me to take you with me, you offered to take the subway instead of bothering me,” he recalled, a gentle smile on his lips.
“I remember.” My expressions mirror his. “The meeting was at Arthur’s and you really didn’t want me there.”
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“Now you know why,” he deadpanned.
“I do,” I giggle, fondly remembering the early months of our marriage, the time where I fell in love with him. “I also remember you called me middle class for wanting to use the subway.”
He sucks in a deep breath to cover the slightly sad smile on his lips. “I used the tube there because I thought if there was a chance you were in London…”
“I’d travel by trains.” I finish his sentence for him and he nods.
“Every company I worked with there, I asked for the list of financial analysts on their team.”
My lips purse. “I didn’t really work a lot,” I murmur, “I was sort of busy being pregnant.”
“I did everything to find you except ch*ck my voicemails,” he joked, and I can’t help but smile at the irony. “I don’t know how I could’ve been so stupid. I guess I never thought you’d change numbers if you wanted to contact me any way.”
“I had to change numbers,” I remind him.
“We’re here now,” He raises his glass of sparkling water, and I raise mine of regular water. I couldn’t have alcohol since I was breast feeding, and someone was giving me company by giving up all the things I couldn’t have. Coffee, by far, was the worst for him.
“We’re here now,” I repeat in a silent acknowledgement of all that we had gone through, and somehow we were still sitting across from each other as a family, which we’ll always be
It was midnight when we were done with dinner. Time passes quickly when you have six months worth of stories to share, and you need to feed your twins in the middle of dinner.
“Are you sure you’re up to driving back for three hours?” I asked Gabriel, noticing how droopy his eyes look when he ignited the car. He had been staying up nights to let me sleep as much as I can, and the twins‘ schedule had been exhausting on both of us. That, and the coffee withdrawal for him.
“Actually, I am quite tired.” He yawns.
“Should I drive?” I offer.
“Aren’t you tired too?”
“This is why driving all the way to the city for just a dinner was a bad idea.”
“I have a place we can stay over for the night,” he reluctantly offers, “If you’re okay with it.”
I eye him, and then the twins who were both awake but not crying. They’d be hungry any time soon though, owing it had been two hours since I fed them. “Are you referring to your house?”
“No.” He shakes his head. “That’s been shut for months now, It’s inhabitable.”
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My eyes widen, “Shut? You had like a million house staffs. What happened to them?”
“They’re not out of jobs, Freckles. I repositioned them at my grandfather’s.”
I nod twice. “Okay then. To this other place where we can spend the night.”
Gabriel conceals a smug smile as he drives off, and the place he was talking about wasn’t as far as I had expected from the main city. It was in a neighbourhood and not isolated, and unlike his previous house, It was also small by about half the size.
I liked it. It was warm and welcoming.
“Come?” Gabriel asked when he noticed me staring a little too much at the huge garden area it had and the wrap–around porch. I followed hum inside the wooden doors to the warm homely passage leading to a living room with Aurora tucked safely in my arms.
“Whose house is this?” I ask Gabriel,
“You like it?”
“Mh–hm.” I say, sitting on the couch, admiring my surroundings, the modern furniture with a traditional touch that still looked intricately designed, but at least it was not right out of a Vogue magazine.
Gabriel sits across from me, Alex placed down on the couch.
“Do you know the best part of this house?” He asked, and I shake my head. “Let me tell you.” The grin that spreads on his – lips is smug, and he calls out. “Luna?”
The door to one of the shut rooms opens and Luna walks out, a bigger grin on her lips.
“Luna is the best part of this
best part of this house?” I joke before turning to her. “What’re you even doing her?”
“I’m here to take care of the babies while Sir shows you around.”
“What?” I blink, as she takes little Aurora from my hand and sits next to Alex. “Go!”
I reluctantly put my hand in Gabriel’s extended one, and let him take me through the house- the master bedroom with a his and her wardrobe, the kitchen with a rustic brick wall and open counter, an extra room, a room that is uncharacteristically empty, and then gold rimmed stairs leading to the roof with a telescope.
Unable to take the way my heart was beating rapidly, I finally question him when we get back to the wrap around porch. “Gabriel,” I whisper, stopping him at the entrance of the house. “Please tell me this house isn’t yours?”
“What, you aren’t impressed by all of this?”
“I am too impressed.” I say, almost fearfully.
“This house isn’t mine,” he says, and I release the breath I didn’t know I was holding. “Did you not see the name at the entrance?”
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I shake my head and even though I didn’t want to walk anymore, I let him take me to the gate, where the wall of the house.
had a name engraved on it.
Sophia.
My mouth hung open. “What?”
“It’s yours.” He says, promises, turning me to him. “This is your house, made exactly the way you wanted your dream house. to be. And I left a room blank because I knew you would want to paint the twins‘ room yourself. Oh, and, I didn’t add a last name because even though we aren’t legally divorced yet, I am not going to keep you trapped with me if you don’t want to be.
I shake my head, not quite understanding where this was going.
“Sophia, I am going to tell you what I should’ve told you months ago.” His hand hold my shivering ones in his firmly. “I never thought I would tell this to anyone. When I was with you in Italy, I used to look at you sleep and just admire you, the way each freckle of yours, faint as it is, stands out to me. I often wondered what would’ve happened if we both didn’t get tied down into this marriage, because it was a contract, it was meant to serve a purpose. But the truth is, even if we wouldn’t have met like that, I would have still fallen for you just the same because there is no power made in this universe that could keep you hidden from me, except maybe death itself. And even in death, I would haunt you. I would haunt you the same way you have haunted my mind, my b*dy, my soul since the past year and half.”
When he pauses, I feel tears filling in my eyes.
“The first thing I noticed when I saw you at the hospital is that you still wear my ring. Despite thinking we were divorced, you wore it. So I carried this, the ring you left for me, every day with me and I thought I’d wear it the day I feel worthy of being your husband.” His hand squeezes mine as he removes the band I had bought for him all those months ago, the one with my initials engraved on the underside. “But I soon realised, I don’t get to decide that. You do. So, Sophia Baker, you bewitched me. Love would be too small a word to describe what I feel for you, but still let me tell you in mundane words, I am irrevocably in love with you. And I am here today, begging you to be my wife again. This is your house and I am begging you to let me make a place in your life the way you made a place in mine; but that decision is solely yours. If you wish to part, I will love you from afar the way you thought you had to love me, and if you let me, I will be loud with my words but louder with my actions for every day from now till death do us apart.”
I sniff, taking my hands away from his to wipe away the traitor tears that had flown off. I take a step towards him, encircling my hand around his neck and he quickly puts his on the small of my back, holding me steady and close.
My nose almost touches his.
“You can wear that ring,” I whispered, the smile I was wearing was so big that it hurt my ears.
He pulls away slightly to look at me. “Does that mean you’ll give me a chance?”
I
“One chance,” I condition, “And that’s only because I love you too. More than the stars in the night sky and light in the universe, I love you.”
“Say it again,” he grins as I grab the ring from him and slip it in his finger.
“I love you.” I repeat, biting my lower lip, the hair of my neck standing when he intertwines our hands, both our rings shining
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In the darkness.
“Can I k*ss you now?”
“I’d be pretty mad if you didn’t,” I tease, and he immediately places his lips above mine.
“f**k,” he growls, and then proceeds to k*ss me like this was the first time he ever had, eagerly, passionately, drunkenly, hungrily, and mostly, affectionately, pulling away only because I was gasping for air.
When he rested his forehead on mine, I could sense how much he wanted more, how much he wanted to pin me right to this wall and show me how much he had missed me in the time we spent apart, but instead, he just smiles.
“Let’s go?” He whispers, “It’s Alex and Aurora’s sleep time.”
I nod, my cheeks a little red. Gabriel being a doting father was something that I’ll never get enough of, something that’ll always turn me on,
“And after they sleep, I’m going to have you all to myself. All night long.” He promises and my giggles echo in the walls of our new home that we were both going to fill with happy memories and a lot of love, together, for the rest of our lives.
