Leo was leaning against the balcony as he faced towards the house holding an ice pack over his knuckles.
He straightened a little as Selena walked over to him with a glass of wine and put it aside near a table.
She looked beautiful as always and was glowing with her visibly growing belly.
' Which month are you in now, anyways,' asked Leo rubbing her belly.
Selena smiled at him and said 'I am completing my seventh month.'
'Thankfully no twins this time, since i already have a pair.'
'And i though you and Adam were planning on having your own army of babies, well three is not a bad number i suppose,' said Leo.
'Hearing that from a guy who couldn't concentrate on a relationship sure is interesting.'
'It's good to see you here, though very bazare! You always show up when you are least expected or maybe in her case your timing is always unprecedented,' said Selena pointing at Zara.
Leo kept quite looking at Zara who was playing inside with the kids.
She seemed to get along better with kids and more open and friendlier. More than that she was laughing, he had never seen her laugh like that especially after what happened.
'How is Adam?'asked Leo
"He is fine, he is on a business trip. But will be home day after tomorrow. He would love to meet you.'
'I am sure,' said Selena
'Yup, right !' said Leo as he shook his head.
'We spoke in the morning, couldn't have made it in time without his help.'
The thing was Leo and Adam were friends before he dated Salena but ever since he married Selena and shifted back, they started speaking less and less.
But Leo understood the awkwardness between them and knew that if he were in Adam's shoes he might as well be a little withdrawn or get busy in raising family. He liked their couple and was happy to see the life they had built together. Maybe he and Selena were meant to be just the way they were at present, that is each others well wishers.
They finally walked inside and joined the rest and
the kids ran to Leo.
'Selena, can you please lend me Adam's trousers. You see Aly's hound peed on me,' said Leo a bit irritated as he remembered the embarrassment inflicted upon by the dogs.
' Hi, pick me up.' said Salena's daughter who looked like mini Adam.
Leo looked down at her who looked at him with a straight face and arms in the air gesturing him to lift her, so he picked her up and she just stared at him and said
' You are pretty, will you marry me and be my prince?'
Aly and Zara giggled at what May said to Leo who was a little taken aback.
Leo didn't know what to say to the little girl and that's when Aly took her to the dogs in order to distract the kid.
'I suppose she is like me, I also asked you out and you had the same expression back then,' said Selena making Leo a bit more uncomfortable.
'If anything, she is like Adam asking around people to marry him,' smirked Leo. And that earned him a scowl and a punch on his arm by Selena.
'I will just go and get you a trouser,' said Selena and called out to Zara as she went to her room.
'Zara, there is some white wine in the fridge if you want more.'
Leo looked at Zara who was looking around away from him and standing awkwardly.
He figured he could speak with her while he was waiting, 'Shall i get you some wine? 'asked Leo
'Yes, thank you,' came the soft reply.
'So you shifted to Zagreb, recently?'
He asked while he poured the wine for both of them.
'Yeah, well I decided to take a sabbatical for some time and it seemed like a good option to move here while i figure out what I want to do in my line of work,' she said while she sipping her wine.
Leo kept looking at her movements and was observing her like she was some design he wished to copy in a canvas. But he tried his best that his movements were not obvious.
'What about you? Aly told me that you too are in the Art world and our senior form Saint Martin's,' said Zara.
'I was there briefly. I too took a a sabbatical in between school and college.'
'Now I have my own company and a list of companies which manage art related exhibitions all over Europe and some other related work ,' he said.
He kept making a direct eye contact with her and she kept avoiding his gaze. He could see a hint of unease in her body language.
'Okay, Interesting,' said Zara sipping her wine.
'But i used to paint before, now not so much.' Truth being something, he did not have the heart to paint.
'Hey Leo you should see Zara's work, she is quite the genius,' said Aly from the background who was playing with May.
'I would like to see your work ,'said Leo as a matter of fact.
Fact being he had seen her work, her work was the reason he took notice of her in the first place. It was quite unusual but needed more maturity because at the time she was just a student. But it had been a while and he wanted to see if her work had changed since the last time he saw it.
'I work at Aly's studio since he doesn't work there anymore, so let me know when you want to see. I will show you some of the newest painting and sketches i am working on,' she said.
'I am busy tomorrow but i can swing by the day after tomorrow or Wednesday.'
'Can i have your number? '
'That way I can plan up a visit to your studio,' said Leo.
'Sure,' replied Zara.
Leo left timely, as the days exhaustion had caught up to him and while he checked into his room, he changed out of Adam's pants which were a little tight and got into his bed.
Suddenly he heard a knock on the door and saw through the peep hole that it was Ash.
Leo opened the door and let her in, she came and sat on the chair opposite to him and after five minutes she finally asked,'How is he?'
'I didn't meet him, only Selena and the children,' said he.
They both kept quite for another minute and Ash finally spoke rather quietly.
'It's still hard for me to forget him, how did you get over Selena?'
'Does it not bother you thinking of them together?'
'It could have been my life you know, me with kids and living like that with Adam?'
'I guess, part of me will always be jealous of her, i know we weren't meant to be together but i can't help wonder sometimes how it would be like. If they both hadn't entered our life,' exhaled Ash.
'Don't you wonder Leo, ' asked Ash again looking a little teary eyed at him.
Leo didn't respond immediately but just looked at her for a moment so that he could gather his thoughts and said,
'I cannot answer for you Ash, but you are my friend and i will tell you that we need to go forward.'
'I am not going to wait around for things to happen and watch others, and neither should you.' said Leo
They stayed quite for few minute and then Leo said, 'The kid asked me to marry her,'
And Ash started laughing and so did Leo.
'I should get going, i shall see you for coffee in the morning. We have a long day ahead.'
'Night,' said Leo as he went back to his bed and took out Zara's number on his phone and added a star to her name and turned off the light and felt relieved that he got her number.