Song recomndation: Lamha Tera ra from Zanjeer. I admit I don’t know what the lyrics an but I found it in the ntioned movie and I found it so romantic I listened to it on repeat while writing this Chapter.
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Angel hurried back to his friend and hugged her, kissed her cheek and giggled at sothing she said, before returning to his mother and holding her hand. Her heart lted. In all the years of Angel’s life, she had never seen him so happy. He waved goodbye to his friend, who promised to bring him snacks the next day and since Angel wanted to do the sa but couldn’t express it, Avery made a ntal note to include a snack for her in Angel’s bento box the next day.
The boy reluctantly entered the car with her and climbed onto the seat to see his disappearing friend from the back, and she couldn’t help wanting to hug him. Luckily, Mabella was ho and would have a word with him once they arrived.
"Baby, what did you learn today?"
Hearing her question, he climbed down and sat upright, then opened his bag pack and took out a book to show her. He flipped to a page where he had painted an orange and a strawberry. He knew what the fruits looked like but the little guy had painted the orange red and the strawberry orange. This was not a mistake and she had to hold back a laugh. Was this his way of expressing displeasure?
"Did you do this because I left?" She asked, and he nodded sadly. She picked him up onto his lap and kissed him. "Baby, I love you very much and you know that. It’s just that I cannot spend the whole day with you. Adults need to work to be able to afford a living while children need to go to school to figure out their way through life. However, this doesn’t an I love you any less when we are away from each other."
He tugged her, a gesture she had learned to understand. "I’m sorry. I cannot co to class with you because I’m not a student. The school does not allow it. But on the bright side, once in a while the school holds parent-child events. Daddy and I will gladly join you on those."
Finally pacified, he thought deeply as he stared at the wrongly-colored fruits in his book. Decisively, he took out a blank book, drew the fruits and painted them correctly before showing them to her "That’s my good boy. They look delicious." She was not lying. He didn’t make any errors that would be expected of kids his age. She had to admit it freaked her out before but after learning how particular he was about so things, she realized it might just be one of his skills.
Damon had just gotten ho when they arrived, so he ditched the grocery he had bought on the nearest coffee table to greet them.
"My two favorite people have arrived!" He took Angel from Avery’s arms to hug him and kissed her on the lips.
She would have berated him if Mabella didn’t interrupt. "Hey, what about ? Didn’t you say I was your favorite human?" She whined.
"That was before I t the love of my life and had a son." He blasted her, but Avery felt the bombshell more than Mabella probably did. She reached for the grocery bag with a forced laugh.
"I’ll make dinner. What were you planning on cooking?"
"Your favorite mutton."
"On it." She dashed to the kitchen and she didn’t rember how much she hated mutton until she had taken out all the ingredients. He was ssing with her, which only ant he knew why she had run away. Luckily, she wasn’t planning on staying for long. She prepared the ingredients as fast as she could and breezed through the al, and only when she tasted the sugary vegetables did she realize what she had done.
"Shit." She cursed, realizing belatedly that she had mistaken sugar for salt. Angel was quite picky with his food. There was no way he was eating any of this.
Probably having heard her curse, Damon was in the kitchen re seconds later, leaning against the door to mock. "Putting labels aside, salt does look a lot like sugar. Only that it’s more...well, salty."
She facepald at his distorted pun. "That’s appropriate. What was I thinking?"
"You were finding ways to get away from ." He called her out for her reaction to his words earlier, making her want to die in embarrassnt. Luckily, he knew when to stop. He took his place beside her. "Let’s see what we can save. We can use other ingredients to drown the taste without making it feel like a saline sugary solution."
She wanted to barf at the thought of that. What was he going to do?
"Why don’t you play with Angel in the anti? Mabella is a bit busy." He dismissed her, but not because Mabella was busy. In fact, it didn’t have anything to do with Angel. She was awkward around him and he was saving her from the grief. She gladly left the kitchen.
It wasn’t long before he set the table, having rescued all the food. She took a taste doubtfully and was srized and curious at the sa ti. "How did you do it?"
"It’s a secret." He winked and stole a kiss to get her mind off it. In truth, only the vegetables had been seasoned with sugar, which he had disposed of and replaced. The at had sohow survived this tragic fate but there was no way he was letting her know that. There was finally sothing that made her look at him like he was a culinary guru. She called Mabella and Angel to the table but after serving their portions, she couldn’t bring herself to take a single bite.
"Babe, you have to eat." He coaxed her. That was the breaking point for her.
"Stop it, will you? I’m already having a bad ti coping with this."
"Coping with how happy we are?" He squinted his eyes. "You must really have a bad ti with that."
"You know that’s not what I an." She snuck a peek at her son and was once again relieved that he couldn’t think about anything else while he ate. His attention was fully on his food like it was sacred and he probably didn’t hear the adults beside him, let alone register their sudden argunt.
Even then, Mabella must be feeling awkward, stuck between two adults who sohow couldn’t solve their problems without arguing in the presence of their five-year-old. "Mabella, I’m..."
"Please ignore . I don’t exist." She waved her words off and continued eating with surprising calm. "On second thought, treat as a couples therapist. I don’t charge much per session."
She appreciated the fact that Mabella was trying to make light of the situation and giving them a leeway at the sa ti but so things had to be faced sooner or later. Knowing she may talk about this with Mabella anyway, she faced Damon. "What you want is clear and we both know I am not ready for it. And although I told you this, you have been trying to push through my boundaries despite knowing it made uncomfortable."
"I’m sorry, what exactly are you waiting for?" He challenged her.
"I don’t know, okay? That’s what makes it more complicated so leave alone!" She tried not to yell but it ca off as a restrained growl anyway, and she was once again relieved when Angel didn’t hear it.
"Okay." He shrugged.
"Okay?" She blinked in confusion.
"What do you expect to do? Tie you up and have you change your mind?" He shot back, to which she innocently shook her head. "Good. I would rather use that chance to do other things."
By the ti she figured out what he had just implied, Mabella was clapping at them happily. "If only every couple I counseled fought like you two. Have you ever found an argunt cute?"
Since when could an argunt be considered cute? Besides, "You were a couples counselor? Just how many fields of psychology have you practiced?"
Mabella counted with her fingers and gave up. "Too many. I wanted to understand myself better."
Initially, she had wanted to use Mabella’s words to change the topic but now she was genuinely interested in her story. "If all you wanted was to understand yourself, why didn’t you simply visit a shrink?"
"I did. None of them offered the kind of understanding I wanted. They were all barely scratches on the surface so I did what any good businessperson would do if they encountered the sa problem over and over—create a solution for themselves and others."
"Did you finally get what you were looking for?" She asked in concern. Who would have thought Mabella had that kind of void inside her?
"I did. It turns out all I wanted all along is the worst thing I could wish for." She ate a piece of carrot before dropping the bomb. "One of my patients."
Avery’s jaw dropped while Damon nearly choked on his food. And when they finally understood who exactly Mabella was talking about, they turned to her in disbelief.
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