Chapter 143

“I never knew you were such a chicken.” I gasped as I pulled Christian’s arm. We had planned on telling my dad the news, but he had a change of mind and refuses to leave the house.

“I’m not a chicken. I just don’t feel like seeing your parents.” Christian explained. “And why isn’t Siena here? I miss her.”

“Because your daughter is starting to get on my nerves.” I joked and pushed him aside so I could walk in fault.” I further. “I can’t wait to move back here and leave my dirt all over the house again. This is all your sighed.

Christian chuckled and wrapped his hand around my wrist. “Is this a way of you calling me a chicken again?”

“Maybe.” I shrugged. “I mean, I can tell my family myself-but that wouldn’t make you look good. If you don’t want to say anything, that’s fine. You just need you there for support. All I need you to do is to remain as silent as a statue.”

“I will.” Christian smiled and wrapped his arms around my waist. “From now on, I’ll live as a statue and do everything you tell me to do,” Christian spoke as he leaned in closer.

“Statues can’t talk, and they can’t kiss people.” I laughed at the confused look on his face and took a step back. “I see you found your sense of humor,” Christian commented. “If there was one thing I didn’t miss it had to be your bad jokes.”

“That’s cute, but I’m not coming back home yet.” I chuckled. “I’m not moving back until you throw away the bed, renovate the room and promise me that we’ll look into a couples counselor.”

“Sure,” Christian spoke and lowered his head. It was still a sensitive subject, and it was an awkward and maybe even embarrassing thing to discuss, but it had to be said. I would absolutely not sleep in that bed. “I’ll get it done as soon as possible.”

prove “Thanks.” I smiled. The sooner he could get all of this done, the sooner I could go back home and everyone wrong. Siena and I were here to stay. I could tell that he did not agree with the counselor, but he made a promise to himself to do everything he could to get me back home, including agreeing to these terms.

“Christian, what happened between us can never happen again.” I reminded him. “Siena is a baby, so that she won’t remember anything, but she won’t be a baby forever, this can never happen again.”

“I understand.” Christian nodded. “It won’t happen again.”

“Great.” I smiled. “Now remove that sad look from your face. You’re ruining the mood.”

Maybe Christian couldn’t see any issues, but I did-and him not being able to discuss his mistakes would only cause more problems in the future which was why therapy would be for the best. Even though I wanted to be with him, I still had so many unanswered questions.

“Can I ask you something?” Christian asked. “Can you please tell me what made you change your You didn’t want to get back together, and you didn’t want to come back home-

mind?

“Your mom,” I spoke. Christian deserved to know the truth, so I was going to give it to him. “Your mom got on my nerves and told me that I wasn’t made for this life, but I’m not going anywhere-I’m here to stay.”

“If there’s one thing I hate, it has to be people telling me what I can and can’t do.”

“So you don’t really want to be with me?” Christian worried. His insecurities were slowly getting on my nerves, and it hadn’t even been a few days. “I do want to be with you. I forced a smile onto my face. “If you don’t want me here, that’s fine-we can do that-”

“No!” Christian stopped me from talking. “I want you back home, and I don’t really care about the reason. It was just a question.”

Seeing how desperate he was made me feel sorry. “It’s not only because of that, but it’s also because I love you. You know that.”

“I said a lot of things to you, and I didn’t mean any of them-I love you.”

“I love you too.” Christian smiled. “You already know that, but it’s nice to hear it from your mouth.”

“You’re hurting my feelings,” I spoke, offended. “I used to tell you that every single day and you only said it back after a few months!”

“Fine, then I won’t say it.” Christian rolled his eyes. I was only joking around, but he took everything too serious, and it was so easy to get on his nerves. “I’m sorry, I’ll definitely have to work on that”

Christian promised. I was glad that he could at least acknowledge his rude tone. That was a progress. “Let me again.”

try “I forgot to mention it, but you look extra beautiful day.” Christian complimented me and pulled me in closer. His words made my heart flutter, and I did not realize how much I missed those words.

Christian was the king of sarcastic and backhanded compliments, so hearing something like that made me weak. “Beautiful? I didn’t even put on any make-up today.” I blushed. The truth was that I picked out the prettiest clothes and the prettiest hairstyle, and I did it all for him. He knew, “Do you remember the first compliment I ever gave you?” Christian asked. I went through the scenario in my head and remembered how awkward it had been. It was after Emmanuella’s house tour, when Christian came home earlier than expected.

“Yes.” I nodded. “You told me I could wear a trash bag and still look pretty.”

That comment was stuck in my head because it his first compliment. It was a huge difference from the comment he used to make before that.

“I meant it.” Christian smiled and leaned in closer. I was on the verge of making another statue joke, but before I could do that, he connected his lips with mine and pulled me in closer. I wasn’t supposed to kiss him back. I planned on giving him a hard time so he would learn his lesson, but I could not push him away. My body wouldn’t let me.

“Wait.” I gasped as I pulled away from the kiss. “You need to stop manipulating me. You’re still on probation.”

“Probation?” Christian asked. “That’s fine. I can live with that.” He smiled. He brought his hand to my cheek and rested his forehead against mine.

“I know you don’t want to hear it, but I love you, and I hate the color of your dress. I don’t like yellow-but somehow you’ve still managed to make it look good, and after Siena, you are the most beautiful person I’ve ever laid my eyes on.”

His words shocked me and were yet again, another proof that we didn’t know much about each other. “Do you really hate yellow?” I asked as I looked down at my dress. If I had known that from the start, I would’ve picked out something else. “There’s actually still so much we don’t even know about each other”

“So? There’s not much to know.” Christian mumbled. “I love you, and you love me. That’s all we need to know” Christian spoke as he pulled me to the sofa.

“It’s not that easy. It’s actually bothering me.” I confessed. If we were going to do things differently and talk about our feelings, there was no point hiding it.

“Is it?” Christian frowned. “In that case, we’ll have to fix that.”

“What was your first impression of me?” Christian suddenly asked. His question came as a surprise because I never thought he cared about little things like that. “First impression? Didn’t we already had this talk before?”

“I thought you were handsome, attractive but you also scared me a bit,” I admitted. Saying it was love, at first sight, would’ve been a complete lie, but I was no different from the other girls at the club and was desperate for his attention. If he stood in the left corner, I would walk to the left corner; and if it were the right corner. I would would walk to the right corner. “I scared you?” Christian sighed.

“Why do people always say the same thing?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I guess it’s your sarcastic behavior and the cold look on your face, but you’re not like that. You’re just demanding and rude, but you’ve changed a lot.” I told him.

“Could also be the Lamberti thing or the mafia thing.” I spoke, sarcastic, knowing it was probably the second conclusion.

“You fell in love with the old me,” Christian spoke. “So, who do you like more? The old Christian or the new Christian?”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself.” I chuckled. “I said you’ve changed a lot, not completely. You’re still a Lamberti and you’re still demanding and rude-you’ve just toned it down a bit.”

“I see.” Christian laughed. “Do you want to hear my first impression, or are you not that interested?”

He asked.

“No, I want to know.” I immediately spoke. I did not like the old me and was expecting the worse, but curiosity got the best of me.

“I was confused,” Christian told me. “I was confused because you looked so different from the other girls. Whenever you were not working, you were so shy, quiet, awkward.”

“My brothers and I used to make fun of you, actually everyone used to make fun of you-but we did it because you took our interest.” Christian smiled. “You looked so awkward and innocent, so I wanted to find out more about you-”

“So you dragged me to your office as some social experiment?” I spoke with a sad pout on my face, but Christian shook his head and reached for my hand.

“I didn’t drag you there-you were eyeing me the entire night. You were always looking at me with those eyes.” Christian explained. “You had this innocent look on your face and this funny nickname.”

“Squirrel.” I huffed. “I think I was interested in you because you were the only one who never called me that. You always called me by my name.”

“That’s because you have a name,” Christian spoke. “What kind of man compares a woman to an animal, a mammal too as if it couldn’t get any worse.”

“Right?” I agreed. “It’s so funny you ask me that because you called me an animal when I attacked Gina.” I spoke and giggled at the flustered look on Christian’s face. “I-I did, didn’t I?”

“Don’t worry about it anymore. I just want to forget about the past.” I spoke, “Speaking of the past, do you think my eyes have changed?”

Christian leaned in closer to take a look at my eyes and shrugged his shoulders. “No? They’re still the same color, right?”

“I really hope Siena turns out smarter than the both of us.” I giggled. “I didn’t mean my eye color, stupid. I meant the look in my eyes.”

“In that case, yes,” Christian pointed out. “You lost that innocent look in your eyes. You look more confident, sometimes a bit evil-but that’s because you became stronger.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that. I always wanted you to be more confident.”

Those words reminded me of Faith, Luna, and Olivia. That’s what they used to tell me all the time.

We had completely grown apart and moved on with our lives in such a short time. “You’re thinking about your friends, aren’t you?” Christian read my mind. “You might not believe me, but I already know you.”

“I know what you like and what you dislike, your dreams, hobby’s, ambitions…I know everything “I guess you do because I was thinking about them.” I smiled. “I was thinking about how much we grew apart. They didn’t even call me to ask how I’m doing or how Siena is doing.”

“You know, the phone works both ways,” Christian commented. “You don’t know what they’re going through, and they don’t know what you’re going through because you guys don’t communicate.”

www Christian’s words made sense. I had so much to say about them, but I wasn’t any better. I knew how much they were struggling, and despite being loaded nowadays, I just sat there and did nothing. I wasn’t being a good friend at all.

“Look at you being a therapist. I thought you didn’t like therapy.”

“You’ve been nice for a very long time now. I’m scared.” I smiled, but deep down, I was grateful. I wanted our relationship to work out and I wanted things to be different. I stared into Christian’s eyes while he stared right back into mine. We stared at each other for minutes, without either one of us saying a word, but the silence was nice.

“Don’t you think Siena deserves siblings?” Christian suddenly brought up. “A few brothers and sisters.”

“We just got back together.” I reminded him. Besides that, I had already decided that Siena would not only be my first child but also my last child. “But we’re never breaking up again.” Christian shrugged.

“Unless you plan on pushing out those babies, I don’t really think that’s your decision to make.” I chuckled. Siena couldn’t even crawl yet and I didn’t want to go through another scary experience again. It all happened in one year, and I was still traumatized.

“You’re right. That’s not up to me.” Christian spoke. “But I saw the look on your face when Isobel told you she was having twins. Don’t you want twins?”

“Two little Christians, maybe they’ll look like me this time.” Christian added.

“You’re supposed to encourage me, not scare me away!” I laughed at the thought of two little Christians running around. “I’m serious. Don’t you want to have a big family?” Christian asked. “We can even adopt children in the future.”

“True.” I sighed. “But for now, it’s for the best if we live in the present.”

“Sure, if that’s what you want, we’ll do that.” Christian agreed. “Statues don’t have opinions, so I’ll agree with you for now.”

“Good,” I spoke, relieved. “What do you want me to do about Dario?” I asked. We had yet to discuss the issue with his uncle or whatever or whoever could be behind that vault, and it still scared the crap out of 1.

I still had nightmares and couldn’t even think clearly. “I know I told you we’d discuss it today, but not now,” Christian spoke. “Today is our day.”

“Then when?” I asked. “Because I’m meeting him in a couple of days, and now that we know that he might be twisted, I don’t know if it’s the best thing to get him angry-

I still stood by my point that Dario had the right intentions, but I wasn’t crazy and wouldn’t bring myself into any kind of danger anymore. Fabio Garcia was more than enough.

“I know,” Christian spoke. “I have a plan, and Marc and is coming over in a few days, and we’ll discuss it then.” He explained. “Today is our day. I just want to enjoy our time together, no baby, no Dario-just us.”

“But I thought you missed Siena?” I teased him.

Christian pulled me in closer and rested my head against his chest. “Tell me what you want. Do you want me to make your food? Watch a movie? Tell me.”

“All of those,” I spoke with a bright smile on my face. “I want you to make me some food, give me a massage, and I to watch a movie.”

“Sure.” Christian agreed. “I’ll do whatever you want me to do.”

“Whatever I want you to do?” I asked as confirmation. The best thing to do would be to tell my family to stop behaving like a bunch of toddlers. Emilio and Christian could be in the same room without killing each other, so the others should also be able to do that. What I truly wanted was both Christian and my family.

“How about you come over tomorrow so we can tell my dad and my brothers to stop bothering us?”

“Tomorrow?” Christian gulped. “Come on. You told me you would work along!”

“Yes, fine.” Christian laughed. “If that’s really what you want, I’ll fix things with your family tomorrow.”