“I’ll take you to Belize, however often you want to go. And maybe we could find that Island and make out own postcard.” I said to her.
The following day, I woke up to the soft feel of her body against mine. It was not every day she spent the night with me, but I cherished the days when she did.
I knew she wanted to maintain some distance between us because she was still very cautious about this thing between us. I had passed the cautious stage, and I was past falling for her.
She was at the forefront of my thoughts at all times, and I could already picture a future with her. Of course, I could not tell her all this because I was afraid to scare her away. I knew she cared for me, maybe even loved me too, but I also knew that she feared something, and her fear made her hold back. I would not push her until she was ready.
When she moved slightly against me, I lean down and pressed my lips to her forehead. The movement woke her from sleep, and she was smiling when I looked back down into her eyes.
“Good morning, beautiful,” I said, returning her smile.
“Good morning, handsome.”
“I’m sorry I woke you up.”
“It’s all right.”
Even though I’d woken up with a raging hard-on for her. We lay there together in each other’s arms in comfortable silence. There was no rush to be anywhere, and we both did not feel the need to fill the silence with random chit-chat.
We did not lose the intimacy of the moment, and I knew I’d never had the connection I had with this woman, with anyone else, and I doubt that I ever would.
I was about to say something when there was a hurried rap on my bedroom door. We both turned to it at the same time because we knew Alba did not come to knock unless it was absolutely important.
“Mr. Christian?” Her voice was also hurried, and I knew immediately that something was wrong.
“Yes, Alba?”
“It’s your mother. She’s just arrived at the house.” Alba said, and I heard her retreating footsteps before I could say anything in reply.
Vanessa and I turned to face each other, with a mirror of shock on both our faces.
Fuck.
Chapter 21
Vanessa
ColleenHenley-Fitzgeraldwasnothinglike her son. She was cold and the biggest snob I’d ever met.
Okay, so she was a lot like Christian had been to me when I first began working for him, but this was different. I hoped that maybe it had just been an initial response to someone she thought was a stranger. She referred to me as the help on our first meeting until I corrected her; I was her son’s nurse.
Then she just went on and treated me as the help, anyway. And this was no initial response. It was the second day of her visit, and she was still referring to me as Valerie, even though I’d corrected her twice already. The second time, she called me Vanya. I knew then that she did it intentionally.
She was also being unnecessarily rude to me. I talked to Christian about this, and we agreed not to say anything for now. However, he admitted that he did not care what she thought. I could see their relationship was not a close one. So I felt telling her about us when we both had not fully understood what ‘us’ meant would only complicate things.
The day she arrived, after I snuck out of Christian’s room that morning, I tried to keep my distance from both my boss and his mother, but I noticed they’d been in his office for an extended period. I never asked him what they talked about, even when he came into my room to spend the night the next day, though I very much wanted to.
Last night, he asked me to join them at dinner, but I refused, of course. Colleen scared me a little if I was being honest, and I could tell she was protective of Christian. Their relationship was not typical, and she was not even affectionate towards her son, but I could tell she loved him, even though she had an odd way of showing it.
Alba begged me to help her serve and I could tell Christian was not too happy with me serving them, but I did not mind it.
“She scares me too, you know,” Alba said beside me, and I startled slightly.
I was standing in front of the glass window inside the house that overlooked the expansive garden space now covered in snow. Colleen stood a few feet away from the flower bed, and she was talking to someone on the phone for the better part of thirty minutes, all the while making gestures with her hands as she spoke heatedly.
“She terrifies me,” I said to Alba, which made her laugh.
“She’s not as bad as you think. Although being a mother isn’t her best suit. She loves Christian but loves herself more. If you ask me, she has no business being a mother.”