We are currently at Sea Life Aquarium! Oh my god! Help me out from this excitement! A few days ago, Ayden made a decision to have a date with me. For the whole week. I asked him if we can do that since we're supposed to be busy with the investigation cases. You know, the break-in and stalking issues. But Ayden said 'I'll take care of it', and pleaded with me not to worry about it.
I am worried about it.
The truth is, I don't know what he meant by he will take care of it. And he hasn't gone to work since then, instead, he is taking me out on several dates. We went to Harry Potter Theme Park the other day. I don't even watch Harry Potter, but we went there and god, I want to go there again. And we went to the Manchester Art Gallery. It's so cool! We went to Chetham's Library and now we're here.
Not to mention he has bought me a lot of clothes lately. And I've been wearing one of them today. I wore a yellow t-shirt, matched with a denim jumper, shorts, an oversize white shirt as outerwear. He asked me to wear a red beret since he thought I would look cute. I put it on as he said.
Since I still get a bit anxious to show some part of my skin, and my jumper looks rather short, I put on a tight height stocking, to match with the new sneakers that Ayden bought me. White Converse, ankle cut. I smell like new clothing (of course I'm joking).
On the other hand, he wore a cream silk shirt that I bought him, he looked fancy. He matched it up with a pair of black ripped jeans, as he wore some earrings that I bought for him. He refused to put it on just now, but I insisted.
He tucked his hair like he always does, behind his ear, and he wears some necklace too. I walked around and looked up and down, and left to right. I feel like a six years old kid, who just knew there was a world like this on earth.
Until I stand right in front of the shark tank. Wow. I can't help but squeal and look at Ayden, excited! He just smiled at me, holding my hand tight.
"You like it?" he asked, half-whispered. And I nodded. I love it! And I know he knew the fact I love it.
"I'm sorry that I can only take you around here for a date. I'll take you to Kaiyukan, Osaka Kaiyukan Aquarium. I used to go there for my assignment project, it was way better than this. I'm sure you're going to love it even more. They have blue sharks there."
I looked at him, excited just to hear that. "Can I look at the photos then?"
"Yeah, I'll show you soon. I think I still have them somewhere in my house," he said, wrapping his hand on my shoulder. "Shall we go eat our lunch?"
"What are we going to eat?" I asked him genuinely, and he smirked, leading me to follow his steps out from the aquarium.
"Fish," he said, and I just gasped. I didn't want to sound dramatic but now I feel bad for all of the fish if we're going to eat fish since we're at the aquarium right now. And how can he say that in front of the fishes? What if they heard him?
"No way…" I said, speechless.
"I'm just kidding. We're eating Thai's. You love Thai food."
Oh god, tell me the reason why not I fall in love with this man. He makes it hard for me to keep one space empty since he keeps filling my heart with love day by day. And today is the best day ever.
We both walked to the car with a smile like a fool. But he suddenly grabbed my hand with a grin. "I need to loo," he said, grabbing my hand softly as we headed to the bathroom.
We stopped at the bench and he told me to sit there while he did his business. Most of the people who wait are parents, but some of them are young people who are waiting for their partners.
I couldn't help but smile. Today is the best day. This week is the best day! Ever. We go out and have a date. It's the best!
I wish we could do this every day. But of course, when he is free from work, apparently, he is free from work.
Now I wonder if everything is alright since Leah's video.
Not long after that, Ayden came out and we went out to his car. The weather is great too.
And thus, we went for Thai's.
Tell me now, can I feel this way every day, without a single disaster? Because I am so comfy with the things I have now.
And! Today is also the best day ever.
----
Yesterday was great, and today Ayden went to his office and I started with my work. I started to arrange some spinach quiche on the table since Diana's coming over. She wanted to eat it. And I'm excited to see her too.
As the doorbell rang, I quickly ran to the door and here she is, standing right in front of me, with Mac's paper bag.
"Is Mac single?" I asked, stepping aside, allowing her to get in. She let out a soft chuckle and nodded.
"Yes! I know we were both taken, but if I could, I want to marry him." She said exactly what I wanted to say.
"I thought you wanted to marry Nick," I said.
She looked at me with a smirk. "I thought you wanted to marry Nick!" she made sure she pressed 'you' when she said that. Bold and italic.
"Can I marry both of them?" I asked as we both stepped to the kitchen, settle down on the dining table.
"No...but it is possible for the foursome." She winked. I'm confused. What's that?
"Four what?" I asked. She let out a laugh and pushed Mac's paper bag to me. Yummy!
"Foursome! Come on, you are twenty-six!" I still didn't catch it. "We could share and swap! Foursome!"
I am buffering. But all I said was, "I'm not sharing anyone with you for sure."
"Oh god! She's not innocent but yet so innocent? How is that possible?!" she looked up, acting like she was praying to god. So it's something pervy.
I smirked. "How's Jade? How's the baby?"
"Jade's fine, he is awesome! I can't believe that you said he used to be a crybaby! And the baby is super awesome!"
He is still a crybaby. And whatever she means by awesome, I wish I never knew.
"How's Ayden?"
"Always shining and shimmering. He didn't know the word 'decent'. He even looked hot in a t-shirt. Everything is great! I have fun." I said.
"How are you?" she asked, already taking a bite on her quiche.
"Mentally?"
"Mentally. And heart."
"Anxious about how good my life was. So far, it's good. But I can't help getting anxious about how good my life is right now. What if...what if something happened? And I haven't heard anything about you know what. Which makes me even more anxious."
"Henry?" she asked, scrunched her nose with a frown.
"Uh-huh."
"Nothing yet? It's been a week!"
"Rich people, Dee. Rich people. And Ayden said he will handle things. And you know what's more?"
She scrunched her nose again, "What?"
"He gave me these." she glanced at my ears, frowning. "It's a tracker. In case something happened to me, so he could trace me up."
"Uhh, I'm sorry, what? Tracker? What? Why?" she obviously is not having it. "It's creepy! He's overprotecting! He already changed the lift system where we need to enter a passcode to the penthouse, which is great! A tracker? Why? Would he have kidnapped you or something?"
I just shrugged. Knowing how crazy Henry was, maybe. But now I think Ayden is crazy too.
"You didn't say anything."
"We fought. I said it's an act of paranoia and he said he was just being cautious. He even said, Jade said it's fine to do so, so you're fiancé accomplice."
"Your brother! He didn't tell me that!"
I laughed, chewing into my Belgian Waff Wich. "Both of them are crazy. Overprotective and Ayden is another level of it."
"You bet, Jade is no different than him. He forbid me from driving and walking, or even do anything. I think they are both crazy." She smiles faintly. Nodding. We both ate our food. At this point, I'm seriously going to marry Mac over Ayden.
I stared at my Waff Wich and looked up to Diana, leaning forward for whisperers.
"Should we run away? From the two of them?" I whispered. And Diana leaned forward too.
"And marry Mac Steven instead?" she asked.
"Nick seems fit! He has a new haircut now. The other day, I went to his restaurant. You know what happened?"
Diana already let out a giggle. "What?"
"He comes out from the kitchen to meet me. Ayden was super jealous, I mean yeah. But you know what Nick said?"
"What?" she was already excited to know. She was biting her lips, leaning even more.
"He said, 'hey honey, damn, you look different, Maddie! You look stunning, where's my other girlfriend, Dee?' He said that!"
And Diana laughed and squealed hard! Really hard. She was bright red and I let out a giggle.
"No!!!! Did he say that? In front of your boyfriend? Damn!!! Nicholas Pram, you really do something!"
"I was so anxious when Ayden gave his jealous smiles. I thought I might die."
"What does he do?"
"He was sulking after that. I have to give him ten kisses that day."
"Eiuw…" she said, as she finished her quiche. "Should we go see, Nicholas freaking Pram?"
"Shall we? I mean, we can go for lunch."
We both smiled and laughed.
"Ah, I want to show you my new room. We called it 'Sulking room'. I have few photographers to show you. Or you want to see Ayden's personal 'Realm'."
Diana laughed, slamming the table as he heard what I said.
"Sulking room? Realm? What the fuck is that?" she blurted, but soon later, she covered her mouth as her eyes looked down to her stomach, rubbing it gently. "Mama sorry, baby. Mama cursed, huh?"
I smiled mockingly.
"I want to see Ayden's Realm first!" she said. And I finished my waffles and moved to the sink. She came next and washed her hands too.
"Let's go upstairs. It's so cool." We went upstairs and walked to the last room. There's a sign on the door, said Ayden's Realm. We hand wrote it and tape it on. She glances at the first door and bursts into a laugh as she sees 'Sulking room' written on the door.
"Ready?"
"Yeah!" she said, excitedly. And as I opened the door, we both fall into the impression that we are in a gallery. It's all white, there are three huge windows to let the sunlight up the whole room. The curtain was thin, white.
The wall was decorated with semi medium-sized frames, and some of them were small-sized frames.
"Wow! Hold on, some of them were you!" She moved around the room, staring into the first photo on the left. It was the one called 'Morning'. The first photo that he took, without my permission, but yet he was bold enough to put it on the exhibition.
"Okay, this is pretty. Like it's just a square frame kinda photo, with only half of your face showing. I mean is this counted as half? But it's really beautiful. And is this the natural lighting? Did he touch up?" she asked. And I shrugged.
"I don't know," I said nonchalantly. And she moved to the next one, laughing.
"Oh my god! Your first outdoor date, right? This is pretty cool, Maddie! Super cool!" She keeps moving, looking at the photographs. "Wow, even the bees look super cool. How does he do the closed upshot? Expensive camera?" She looked back, smiling.
"Expensive camera, talent. I think." I said proudly.
"This one is my favourite. Like how does he see the bees? I think he just zoomed it in, but dude, this is cool! Hold on, you guys went to the Harry Potter theme park?"
She was amazed by every single photographer that has been hanged in Ayden's Realm.
"Mini gallery, nice! Let's go to your Sulking Room."
"Let's go!" And we went to my room, and she was already laughing. When I opened the door, she just gasped.
"Girl, this is a bit aesthetic!" She said, looking at my mini gallery. With Ayden's photographs. I preferred the view photography, the building, the flowers, and some of the pictures that I took. By myself. It's a bit unfair for him to take my photo because I didn't. So I tried to take some, more likely, not really good.
"My favourites are these two!" I said proudly, the Rainbow After Tomorrow, and Ayden's half of his face because I snapped it by accident. Even though it's a little blurry, it shows his nose, his huge smiles, and his dimples, his neck.
"Haha, the heck is this?" She laughed at that blurry photo.
"I almost dropped his camera, so he laughed. Somehow, I snapped it by accident, and when we saw it, we just burst into laughter. And I want to keep it framed because I love his smiles and laughter. So whenever I was upset and went upstairs, I would stare into the photos and realise. Ah, we need to solve this shit and talk. Because if we don't talk, I will miss all of his smiles and laughter."
She was smiling, nodding to my explanation. She already read the description on the rainbow one.
"This one just tells me that if I have a hard time, it just will be for a while. A better day will come."
"Genius! Did you write this one or did he write it?"
"He wrote it."
She stepped to another drawing and keep smiling.
"Ah, by the way, Maddie. I have another gift for you. You can hang it on your wall. Let's step down now." She quickly grabbed my hand and lead us down.
She pushed me to sit on the sofa while she went to the kitchen, grabbed her tote bag and went back to the living room.
She stood in front of me, smiling.
"So, as you know, I love to draw!" And I started to laugh. Because I know how she loves to draw and how ugly it looks. She has no talent!
"I drew something for you!" She said as she took out an A4 size frame. Oh no!
"Oh my god!" I laughed but was excited to see her drawing.
"I don't know how it turned out. I asked Jade so many times about it, that he cried! So I wonder if you're going to like it or not." She said,
I frowned but was still smiling. Did Jade cry because of it? Oh my god! Is it a doodle? I mean she always drew a doodle, but what kind of drawing makes almighty Jade cry? Cried crying or crying because of laughing?
"Ready?" she asked, and I nodded. A bit nervous. And she flipped the frame toward me. I was smiling. What the hell…
Hm?
I looked at Diana and looked back at the frame. I could feel my smile was gone. My heart started thumping harder.
"Did you like it? Does it look okay? I tried so hard to draw this, you better like it!"
"Dee...is that…" I can't talk. I felt like I want to cry. She smiles. Faintly.
"I asked Jade for the details. He said he would never forget how he looked. He's an angel, he said. And I want to give it as a gift to you. So when you're feeling down, you can look at this photo as the reason why you keep moving."
"You...draw it?" I'm having a hard time talking. My eyes stuck into that drawing. She gave it to me and sat next to me. I stared into the portrait. Caressing the portrait. The smiles. The eyes. The small nose. The thin brows. The long lashes. The small hands. It's him.
"Khai?" I said, choked. I...miss him. I forgot how he looked like. Is this how he looked like? I looked at Diana and she nodded.
"Jade said he will never forget him. His angel."
And my eyes are back to the frame. My heart sunk, deep, as my memory dug deeper, searching for the memory. Trying to remember how warm he is.
The pain from giving birth. The feelings when I heard him crying for the first time. The tears fell when I touched him for the first time. His scents, his voice, his heartbeat. His small hands, his small feet. His babbles. His laughter. His smile.
How my days turned brighter. My angel. I hugged the frame into my chest and cried. Oh god! Oh god!
Finally...Something for me to remember. To remember how he looks. Diana rubbed my back softly.
And I cried even harder.
My baby. My baby. My baby.
And I remember how he laughed at every single thing I did. And how he slept right away when I sang him a lullaby. And how he makes my days easier.
It is always hard at night, but I have him. To be stronger. I have him.
I clenched into the frame deeper, as closed as I could to my heart. If I could, I want to sink it into my heart.
My baby.