A NOD, THEN SHE KISSED HIS HEAD, "He's so cute and harmless. Doesn't cause trouble. Is the best cat ever. And Ezra also loves him, so, we treat him like our son."
"Any big problems while working, call me and I'll take care of it, okay?"
"Okay, boss. Now go. Take a bath and sleep for a bit. You will probably need it." She opened the door and winked at me, then left.
Only after the elevator left the floor, I relaxed. "She's right. I am a compulsive liar. Just look at the amount of bullshit I fed everyone with yesterday and today," mocking myself, I got up. "God must be judging me so damn much right now," sighing, I went to my bedroom. "Let's take a bath, because I smell like Aaron. And that is definitely not good for my health."
Putting my clothes on the side, I stripped from my underwear and entered huge bathtub filled with warm water. Holding my breath under the water, I drowned myself.
❁ ❁ ❁
The rest of my day yesterday went kind of well. I contacted my manager at Lunar Waters, my resort in Bermuda, in the Caribbean, and talked to him about the fact that he should prepare some things because I will be going there on January 3. And I also told him that my arrival there should be kept a secret, from anyone else, and said I trusted him with that. Marcus always has a soft spot for when I say I trust him, it's adorable and makes it easier to deal with him.
After my night training, I took another bath and ordered a pepperoni pizza, from Pizza Hut, and that was pretty much my dinner. Then I went to my room and began to organize the list of Christmas presents of this year. I also called my artistic contact in Tokyo and asked them to prepared the special action figures I wanted.
With all of that in mind, I only went to sleep 2 am.
By 5 am I was on my feet again. My morning routine went fine as usual. Trained, cooked my breakfast, read a bit, looked over the managers e-mails to see if there were something they needed my help with, then I took another bath, cooked my lunch, and I was finishing the list of groceries to buy while eating a bit of the tiramisu I made earlier.
The Tradition by Halsey was playing on the speaker and I was singing together, in my long panda pajamas, when the bell rang. Tip toeing the dance I made for the song, I went to see who was it, with my phone in hand.
"Take what you want. Take what you can. Take what you please. Don't give a damn," I paused the song and looked in the magic eye,
There were four people. Two tall boys that looked similar to both Aaron and Graham but still different, standing outside my door. One had his hands intertwined to a tall red-head boy, and the tallest of the two brothers had his hand on the waist of a olive-skinned girl who was definitely Indian and surprisingly looked like Priyanka Chopra.
Opening the door, I they looked at me and I looked at them, with my best smile, analyzing them from head to toe, just to be sure. Again, all of them are taller than me, even the girl. "Ethan, Bradley, Luke, and Nithya, right?"
The girl seemed surprised, "Did he told you about us?" Damn, even her voice is richer like Priyanka's.
I nodded, "Of course. Dating is a two ways road. I share information with him about my family, and he shares about his with me," I rolled my shoulders. "But he isn't here right now."
Luke seemed slightly skeptical, "We know."
"We went to his office first," Ethan exclaimed. "He's working on a new project," of course, he is.
The girl grinned, "We are here for you!"
"Oh?" I pressed my lips together, stepped back and opened the door wide, "Then you should come inside. Unless you want to talk to me while standing on the hallway of my apartment." As they came inside, I closed and locked the door behind me. "Have you eaten? I made tiramisu earlier, if you want to we can talk in the kitchen."
"Hm, I love tiramisu," Bradley exclaimed excitedly. "That will be lovely. How can we call you?"
"Thays?" I chuckled. "Well, if you want to be more personal, you can go for Manu, it's how my family calls me. Manu comes from Emmanuelle, my middle name." Turning on my toes, I guided them to the kitchen. "Feel at home," then I took four bowels, four silver spoons, put it in front of them, took the tiramisu out of the fridge and put down. "Eat as much as you want. I always make this, because it's my favorite dessert."
"Thank you, sister-in-law," Ethan smiled and began to serve himself and the others.
"You look like a model I've seen in luxury brands magazines and in some runaways," Nithya mentioned checking me out. "I've been thinking about it since mother-in-law sent your photos with Aaron to our private group."
I tried to look as normal as possible, since she's isn't wrong. But those days are far behind me. "Ella Sasso?"
She nodded. "Yes!"
"I get that a lot."
But she insisted on it, "Do you have like… a snake tattoo in your cleavage?" I do.
"What? You should know that I'm terrified of snakes," I giggled. "And I'm not a model, Nithya, sorry to disappoint. Quite a lot of people compare me to her," then I sat down with my bowel, and put my phone down. "Take it as we being like doppelgangers."
"The model really looks identical to you!"
I turned to Luke, who was obviously backing his girlfriend's suspicious, "That's what having a doppelganger means, you know?! Besides, she's probably taller than I am!"
"Not actually. She's 5'5. And she always used platforms and really high-heels to look taller, and be around 5'10. And you look to be around 5'5."
"Because I am. But again, I'm not a model," seems like being persistently annoying runs in Aaron's family.
"She disappeared of the modeling world 4 years ago. Many newspapers said she was struggling with heavy eating disorders and had to be taken to the hospital. They said it was bulimia. No one knows what actually happened after that, neither where she went to," she kept going and I kept a poker face, doing my best not to show how bothered I was by her stupid comments.
"You moved to New Zealand, 4 years ago, no?"
I blinked at the couple, "I did. But again, that doesn't mean anything. I've told you I am not a damn model already, and you clearly don't believe me. It's really annoying," exasperated, I got up and leaned threw away the tiramisu in my bowel, since my hunger just vanished. "Is this all you came here for? Because you thought I was this problematic model?" That was just a hobby, damn it. People should let it go.
"We actually came here to warn you!"
My eyes went to Luke again, "Warn me?"
"If you use, play with, or break my brother's heart, Thays Emmanuelle Rossetti, we'll make sure to destroy your life. Aaron deserves the best in this world, he already got too hurt from his past relationship, and we won't let that happen again. He's too precious and he deserves to be truly loved."