Christmas time – one year later…
(Zane POV)
"See you later, guys!" I said before waving goodbye to Sofia, Harry and Wayne since they'll be spending their Christmas Eve with their mom. It's the deal that Eloise made with Orville. The kids will be at her place during Christmas Eve and they'll be spending Christmas day with Orville and me.
"Give Joanna a kiss for me." I hollered.
"Will do!" Wayne replied.
I continued making Christmas cookies for our midnight dinner later when Orville came down stairs.
"The kids left already?"
"Yep!"
"Oh…well, then I guess it's safe to say if we can…you know." Orville said as he wrapped his arms around my waist and began caressing me. He nuzzled my neck which tickled me slightly. He began breathing against my ear and moaning my name.
"Orville, not here and I have a lot of things to do." I complained.
"Fine!"
He sat at the stool to watch me work. It didn't take long for me notice the deafening silence between us in the kitchen afterwards. No one was saying anything at all until…
"Zane?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry!"
"For what?" I looked at him, confused.
"I should have been there for you. I should have been the one who protected you from Ari that night." His voice was getting a little bit shaky.
"Orville, it's not your fault. Stop blaming yourself. It's over and done with. Here I am, happy, alive and well with my love." I smiled.
"I feel ashamed though. If the invisible entity who keeps protecting you from danger wasn't there that time, God knows what could have happened to you. I could never forgive myself and look at myself the same way had you been killed." Orville began letting his emotions out.
I came to him and gave him the hug that always manages to soothe him.
"It destroys me everyday. I keep beating myself up in the head for not being there for you. Oh Zane, please forgive me." He cried.
"Shhh! I love you, Orville and I don't want you to blame yourself over and over. It's not anybody's fault. No one wants that to happen and we shouldn't linger on the past and what ifs. It will just eat at you. The best thing we can do is to just look forward to the present because that's the only thing that matters right now."
"I love you too, Zane!" He kissed me on top of my head.
"Now, can you stop crying already? It's Christmas Eve, we're supposed to be enjoying the day." I said.
"Right."
"Here, make yourself useful!" I joked as I handed him the silverwares for him to set the table. He took it before complying with the task I gave him.
"Are you going to be making Christmas turkey?" He asked.
"I think I am but I'm pretty scared."
"Why?" Orville asked.
"Because your kids obviously has high expectations of the turkey since Eloise makes a killer turkey every Christmas according to them. I hope I might surpass hers."
"Pff!" Orville snickered.
"What's so funny?"
"Don't tell the kids about this but Eloise lies about that all the time."
"What do you mean? Lied about what?"
"She has never even made a Christmas turkey before. It was always prepared by our brigade of chefs but she just likes to claim that she was the one making it in order to impress the kids."
"Oh! Well, I guess I consider that less competition."
A huge sigh of relief came over me after hearing that. If ever the kids would prefer the turkey "cooked by their mom" over mine, it would not upset me that much anymore because I know there's no shame losing to a group of professional chefs. At least, I have the legitimate talent of cooking turkey for Christmas even though I am not that experienced in making savory food.
"Alright, cookies are in the oven." I said after just putting them in.
"Great, how many more desserts to go?"
"Three more to go. I still have to make the Christmas flan, tiramisu and strawberry shortcake."
"You got this, love." Orville cheered.
"Of course, I got this. I am Zane for god's sake, I can do anything."
It's just so astounding to me how my level of confidence continuously progress everyday. I hope this confidence doesn't turn into cockiness though. However, come to think of it, after everything I have been through, maybe I do really have the right to be cocky.
Yes, I definitely have.
-FIN-