“You too,” he said and gave me a fatherly smile. “And don’t be nervous. She will have to be stupid not to love you.”
Ned was gone and I looked at Aria standing a few feet away from the house waiting for me. “Ready?” she asked and started walking away.
I ran after her and grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her towards me. Then I planted a deep and passionate kiss on her mouth. Not sexual, as much as it was sweet. I opened her mouth only slightly and caressed her tongue softly while also stroking her hair with my right hand.
After a few seconds I pulled away and whispered softly into her ears, “Listen, Aria. I am not going to let anything bad happen to your family, okay? Your mother will be fine no matter what. I promise you that.”
Her eyes began tearing up and she kissed me back with fiery passion. She held on to my shoulder so tight I thought her nails were going to dig through my skin. When she pulled away, she gazed at me with amazing intensity and said something that shook the ground from underneath me.
“I love you, Zayden,” she whispered audibly. “I love you.”
I knew I was supposed to respond right away, more importantly, I was supposed to say it back wasn’t I? But for some reason, I couldn’t move or speak or do anything whatsoever. She loved me? What did she mean she loved me?
The back of my hand was shaking slightly in shock and I wasn’t quite sure what to do next. This was not something I was expecting, nor was I prepared for it in anyway. I had gotten myself into a relationship without thinking too much about it and I was only just realizing how deep I had managed to get myself in. She was most certainly waiting for me to respond to her confession with a very particular answer. I opened my mouth in an attempt to try to say it back but felt physically incapable so I closed it again.
Why was she choosing this particular moment to tell me she loved me above all else? She had so many other opportunities. Hell, if she really felt the way she said, perhaps that evening in my balcony when I had the whole place decorated for her would have been a more suitable opportunity. Yet she had chosen now. Didn’t this mean it was entirely possible that she felt more gratitude than love and she was merely confusing two separate positive emotions?
Had I not been paying her mother’s hospital bills – and had I not said what I had said about not worrying about her mother’s finances just now – would she have still felt that she was in love with me? In fact, would she have ever even given me the time of the day if I wasn’t paying her mother’s medical bills? If it wasn’t for the contract?
I remembered when I used to hit on her before the contract came into play: she always casually laughed off my advances – something that frustrated me endlessly – never even coming close to so much as going on a date with me. There was no way I could be sure whether her love was genuine and until such a time, I could not bring myself to say it back. Or until a time at least when I knew for sure that my words were genuine too. Instead, I just kissed her softly on the mouth one more time, looked at her earnestly and said, “Let’s go inside, baby.”
---
As we walked inside the tiny house holding hands, Aria’s mood had shifted slightly, perhaps because I hadn’t said ‘I love you’ back. I was determined to take her mind off it and have a decent evening with her and her mother.
When her mom saw us she looked delighted. She was not as old as I had imagined in my head; in fact, she didn’t look very old as all so she must have had Aria when she was young. Aria looked a lot like her mom too. They were almost a splitting image of each other.
She ran to hug Aria and they embraced for quite a while, in which time I surveyed the paintings on the wall. They all looked old and worn out. In fact, everything in this house looked like it was ready for a replacement about a few years ago. Perhaps I ought to have brought some presents…decorations for the house. If it was getting foreclosed though, then it hardly mattered. Maybe I could help her buy a new place altogether, but in Aria’s name.
After welcoming her daughter, Aria’s mother gave me a swift onceover without any expressions on her fac and then smiled heartily. “You must be Zayden,” she said and then hugged me, making me feel slightly uncomfortable. I wasn’t particularly programmed to accept random hugs, but I shrugged and let it happen.
“Nice too finally meet you, Molly,” I said when she broke away.
“You too Zayden!” she exclaimed. “I hope you are hungry! I have been cooking all day. Not sure if you’re a big fan of steak or—”
“I’m sure whatever you made is fine and I can’t wait.” I smiled at her before she nervously babbled some more. “I hope you like wine.”
Chapter 4
Aria
I was glad to notice that thus far this dinner hadn’t been a complete disaster, something I was extremely worried about, considering the rather strong personalities of both parties that were currently meeting. Other than that little voice inside my head that was worried that Zayden hadn’t said he loved me back when I had made my confession, there was practically nothing about this night that wasn’t pleasurable.
While my mom prepared the dinner table, I entertained Zayden with some of the scrabble that I had promised, which my mom joined as the last of the roasted vegetables were finishing up in the oven. Naturally, my mom won the game and Zayden had the least amount of points because of trying to spell things that were made up words. The good thing was how eased and relaxed he seemed during the whole ordeal. It was something so simple that he never seemed to get a chance to enjoy and I felt glad to be able to give him what was missing from his seemingly perfect life.
Once dinner was ready, we sat on the small four-occupancy dining table, which my mom had obviously bought since our last visit. Perhaps it was in exchange for our large mahogany table, which was glaringly missing. I felt an odd sort of a discomfort in my chest as I took my seat across of Zayden and tried hard not to catch anybody’s eyes.
My mom had put together an elaborate dinner for somebody in her economic stature. Enormous Porter-House Steaks that appeared grilled to perfection, a plate full of spicy and crunchy looking shrimp, mashed potatoes cooked with gouda – perhaps one of my all time favorites growing up from all of my mom’s cooking – and an assortment of roasted vegetables. In addition, there was a whole side for dessert with various fruits, chocolate ice-cream cake, apple pie, and cookie dough ice cream.
“Mom, you really went all out,” I gasped and noticed even Zayden seemed to be impressed, which I supposed was her intention.
She shrugged, although her smile gave away that she was rather pleased with herself. “It was no big deal, really. Just threw some things together hastily. Eat up!”
As I started eating the delicious food, I forgot all about the pressure that was supposed to be present in the current situation, where I was introducing my boyfriend to my mother. For the first time since my high-school prom date, I remembered suddenly. No wonder she had gone out of her way with this dinner. Or perhaps it was the little side fact that the guy was spending sixty thousand dollars to help her out, I realized stupidly.
This wasn’t about meeting my boyfriend at all. This was about feeding a nice meal to the guy who was helping her out as a token of appreciation. For some reason, that made me feel sad, so I focused all my attention on the juicy steak that was filling all my senses.
“Mmm,” I heard Zayden moan, telling me that he was equally impressed with dinner, which was an accomplishment given that he had an international super-chef at his beck and call twenty-four seven.