Authors: Claire Adams
When Aria looked like she was about to
laugh at me, I would have done just about anything to not embarrass her like
that again.
When we finally got close to her mother’s
house, I recognized it immediately because of the huge banner in front of house
that read: “FORECLOSED PROPERTY. OWNED BY BANK. CALL 1-800-DEBT FOR MORE
INFORMATION.”
I looked at Aria but she pretended that we
hadn’t just seen the sign. As Ned pulled over she quietly hopped out of the
limo.
“Park this as far away from her mom’s
house as possible,” I instructed Ned. “Make sure there is no way she sees it.
Feel free to drive it around town if you want.” I handed him two hundred
dollars. “For dinner. Thanks for making this long drive.”
“Don’t be silly, Zay, I’m literally just
doing my job,” he said, taking the cash, probably because it was much easier
than arguing with me that he was never in a million years going to spend
two-hundred-dollars on dinner. “But don’t worry, Aria’s mom will never see the
limo. Just text me about where I should pick you guys up from. Maybe I will
send a taxi to get you there. I don’t suppose you would like walking very far
in the middle of nowhere.”
“We will see. I will keep you posted. You
have a good evening, Ned.”
“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.
“Let’s open the wine, shall we?” Mom’s
voice pulled me out of my foodgasm.
“What?” I felt a little disoriented for a
moment.
“The wine your boyfriend so nicely bought
for me, shall we open it then?” She smiled.
I looked at Zayden, who seemed as
blown-away from the dinner as I was and he nodded. “Sure, if you would like.
It’s yours to do with as you please.” He smiled.
By the time she returned with the freshly
opened bottle of wine, we had managed to help ourselves to third servings of
everything on the table.
“Molly,” Zayden sighed at last. “You don’t
suppose you would be interested in a career as a chef, would you?”
I knew immediately what he was suggesting,
so I gave Zayden a stern look that was meant to read “Not another word!” But
mom just giggled, thinking of it as just a stray compliment.
“It’s nothing. Aria is a really good cook,
too. I’m sure you’ve had her cooking plenty of times. The mashed potatoes and
gouda, at the very least!”
I looked intensely at the marks on the new
dining table, aware of Zayden’s amused gaze. “No, actually,” I heard him say
from beside me. “I have not quite had the pleasure of eating Aria’s cooking
just yet. But if tonight is any indication of what I was missing, then I have
to say I am very disappointed you never invited me for dinner.”
My mom looked at me reproachfully.
“Sweetheart, that’s not very nice, especially since you told me he made you
dinner the other night.”
“He grilled,” I said automatically.
Feeling kind of guilty I added, “Yes, he did, and I was planning to invite him
over this weekend but then we decided to come see you instead. Would you have
rather we not?”
“Of
course not!” she exclaimed. “I am happy you guys decided to pay me a visit. I
was going crazy all by myself. This wine is amazing, by the way,” she added,
sipping on the red in her glass. “The best I have ever had. Is it foreign or
can I find it locally?”
I glanced at Zayden, who looked slightly
uncomfortable and unsure how to answer. “It’s…it’s a special kind of wine that
I got directly from the Vineyard. Limited edition, they only make it this time
of the year and you have to be a member to—”
“Wow, that sounds really fancy,” my mom
said, looking at me quizzically.
“It’s no big deal.” Zayden shrugged. “I
can get you a whole case. It might take a couple of weeks though. I was going
to bring a case tonight, but wasn’t sure if you would like it.”
“Just out of curiosity, Zayden,” my mom
said, still looking at me as though searching for some kind of an answer. “What
exactly do you do for a living?”
Zayden opened his mouth to answer, but
before he could produce a sound, I chimed in, “He works with me, mom. I told
you remember?” I smiled nervously and then looked at Zayden, hoping he could
pick up on my cues.
“Yes, of course I remember,” my mom
chuckled. “But don’t be silly, Aria. You work in a pretty large branch of a
huge bank chain. There are certainly many, many things to be done there. I am
just curious as to what exactly working with you entails here?”
Grabbing the opportunity of Zayden
chewing, his mouth too full to speak, I immediately jumped to answer, “He’s a
loan officer!”
From the look of perplexed curiosity in
Zayden’s face, to that of looming anger in my mother, I realized that this
dinner was starting to get closer to what I had imagined it would be like in
the first place. I wanted to carve a hole under the table and disappear
forever.
“Since when do we lie to each other,
Aria?” my mom asked after a few minutes of maddening silence.
“I’m not lying! He works with me at the
bank.”
“I believe that. But somebody who rides
over here in a limousine with a driver and talks of exclusive memberships to
fancy Vineyards and can produce an entire case of better wine than I had ever
tasted in my life, is not a loan officer. It would be nice if you gave me the
slightest bit of credit, Aria. I know I got us into a big pile of mess
financially, but I am not stupid.”