Chapter 98

“There you guys are!” Johnny waited for our arrival and whistled before one of the waitresses came over. “Her coat” He spoke “You look different when you work I laughed at him. I knew he managed the restaurant under the Lamberti name, but seeing the usually soft Johnny cosplay a strict manager made me laugh. “You look like a true Lamberti” Christian agreed.

“I’m so happy the two of you chose to be here on this special day.” Johnny placed his hand on my back and led us to the balcony of the restaurant. “Special? It’s just dinner. I laughed at him.

“A special dinner. Johnny shrugged his shoulder and pulled out a chair for me. “Wow, how did you know I like pink?” I asked him as I took in the beautiful scenery. Johnny pointed at Christian and nodded his head. “He almost threatened me to make sure everything was pink, baby pink.”

“Anyway, please enjoy your dinner.” He politely spoke before he left and gave us privacy. “He’s scaring me, I want him to turn back into Johnny.” I laughed while the waitress brought over our food.

“Hamburger and fries?” I spoke with my mouth wide opened and looked at the dishes I for once actually knew the name of. I had already prepared myself for the worst, but as always Christian was extremely thoughtful.

“I know you like this kind of crap, so,” Christian spoke with a slight blush on his face. “Seeing you happy makes me happy, you should know that by now.”

“Since when did you became romantic?” I giggled and grabbed his hand over the table. Christian leaned forward and brushed my hair to the side. “Since I have to share you with your twin brother…

every day!” He rolled his eyes at the last word.

“Come on, don’t be like that-Beau and I have a lot of catching up to do.” I reminded him. “And besides that, you’re usually working so what do you want us to do?”

“I know and I’m sorry.” Christian sighed as an awkward silence followed right after. I was just joking, but he took it to the heart.

“Don’t be, you make enough time for me and Siena and everything you do is for her, I’m really proud of you.” I squeezed his hand.

“All of this is making me sick, we weren’t like this in the past.” Christian gagged and removed his hand. “Don’t be like that, it’s called being a healthy couple.”

“Now you say something nice to me, try it.” I pushed him and ate my fries while I waited for his compliment. “I don’t ever say this to you, but I think you’re an amazing mom and I wouldn’t want anyone else to be the mother of my child.” He confessed.

“Come again?” I frowned my eyebrow as the food literally dropped from my mouth. “You’ve been really nice these past few months, it’s scaring me.”

“The thing that’s scares me is how I used to treat you in the past. That’s what scares me.” Christian sighed. I felt bad at my choice of words and did not want to ruin the date.

“Let me pour you a glass of champagne, for peace.” I offered Christian and reached out to grab the bottle, but he grabbed my wrist to stop me from doing so.

“I don’t drink anymore, you know that.” He spoke and grabbed the bottle from my hands. “The only champagne-looking drink I’ll touch is fizzy soda”

“Right, my bad” 1 apologized and focused my attention back on the food. Hearing he stopped drinking and smoking made me feel relieved, especially after seeing Lucio’s faith. In my perfect world Christian, Siena, and I would be a family for a very long time and I intended to keep it that way.

“You stuff food in your mouth when you eat. Christian chuckled. “Well, they don’t call me squirrel for nothing.” I spoke as I continued to munch my food “Cute, Siena has your cheeks. He commented.

Actually other than Christian’s eyes she mostly had everything from me. “I’m glad we could do this before you focus on school,” Christian smiled.

That was right, school. It was something I really wanted and had been looking into, but after a change of mind. I decided that I just wanted to take care of Siena first. “Don’t worry, I have more than enough time for you.” I teased him.

“Do you already know what you want to do?” Christian asked.

That was a really good question. Did I?

.

“My first thought was to finish dance, but everyone in my family are business people and lawyers, so I feel like I would embarrass my parents even more.” I sighed and thought about Beau who was highly educated despite being mistreated by the Garcia’s. What was my excuse?

“I don’t want you to feel pressured, you should do whatever you want to do-if you want to dance you should do that or if you want to follow into your siblings’ footsteps you should do that, or if you want to sit home and shop all day, you should do that.” Christian encouraged me. His character development was something I never got tired of Rather than being the overprotective baby daddy he used to be, he had changed and let me live my life as I pleased. “I graduated high school on the verge with exactly an one point zero removed from failing, so it will probably be hard for me to achieve what they’ve achieved.” I sighed.

“That’s not true!” Christian spoke to my defense. “You can do it, don’t be so insecure-I’ll even be your tutor if you need one!”

“I’ll hold you to that.” I smiled at him. It was amazing to see how he was willing to step up to help me.

“So tell me about your day, did those girls let you live?” Christian tried to get some information out of me. He disliked them just as much as I did and told me on multiple occasions that I didn’t have to hang out with them, but Cesca was right. Me hanging out with them came in his best interest and gave both of us a good name.

“Well, I’m here so.” I scoffed. “I didn’t know the true meaning of gossiping until I met them. I laughed while Christian agreed.

“Did you know that Vince used to join them? He loved the attention and often dragged me along. I didn’t like it though, it was like I was waiting for them to jump me on top of me.” Christian spoke with a sad smile on his face. He never said it, but it was obvious that there was still some kind of feeling of guilt towards Vince’s state-but it was not his fault. Other than Fabio, no one else was to blame.

“We should visit him so you can tell me some more about that,” I told Christian. “And by the way, what’s this thing about a new family?”

“Don’t mention it.” Christian rolled his eyes. “Let’s keep today a happy day.”

“Is it really that bad? Do you think they want what you have?” I wondered. Christian placed his hand on top of mine and shook his head. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure they’ll leave this place within no time.”

“I accidentally hit on someone today.” I suddenly blurted out. Christian gave me a surprised look before he burst out laughing. “Did you? Am I not enough for you?”

“It was completely unintentional, but I told him I was taken,” I spoke with a shy smile on my face.

“Serena, take off your ring.” Christian suddenly requested. I looked down at the big diamond around my finger before I looked at him. “I-I told you it was unintentional?” I spoke confused. Perhaps I did push it.

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad-just take it off for me.” Christian chuckled and stood up from his seat as I followed his instructions and removed the ring from my finger.

“Now get up.” Christian stuck out his hand. “Me?” I asked. Christian grabbed my hand and pulled me from the chair. “Do you see anyone else here?”

“N-no, just me.” I stammered as I wondered what was about to come. “What are you doing?”

“Something I should’ve done a long time ago.” Christian smiled before he pulled out a box and got down on one knee. It took me a second to realize what was happening, but he was finally fulfilling the promise he made me.

“Is this one of your stupid games again? Because I’m not laughing!” I told him as tears threatened to spill from my eyes. “It’s not, listen.” He smiled.

“I told you that I will marry you one day, and only you because there’s no one like you.” He spoke.

Hearing words like that from Christian were golden and something I knew I wouldn’t experience every day, but I learned to accept it and was okay with it. After all actions spoke louder than words.

“I don’t really think I deserve to do this, and I don’t deserve to be with you, but you make my life complete, you make me a better person and there is no one else I want to be with.” Christian continued and opened the box as my eyes traveled to the diamond ring inside of it.

“I love you so much and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you. You, me, Siena, and our six other children.” Christian spoke and gave me a look as if he was waiting for me to correct him, and usually, I would’ve-but this time I wiped away all my tears and felt overwhelmed. “I’ve never had the opportunity to properly ask you this.”

“Serena, will you marry m-”

“Yes! Yes, I will!” I flew in his arms and pulled him into a tight hug. “You’re so easy, just how I remembered.” He pulled one of his typical Christian jokes, but they weren’t anything new to me anymore.

“You have to put the ring on my finger!” I managed to get out of his grip and stood up before I stuck out my hand. “Yes, if you’ll calm down.” He smiled and gently grabbed my hand as he slipped the ring around my finger.

“This one is even bigger than the other one.” I gasped at the ring. “It is, isn’t it? I expect someone to buy the same ring for my Siena.” He smiled as he pulled me down to the floor. “It’s our Siena, she’s not only yours,” I told him.

The fact that he was even considering Siena getting married was already something for the books.

He wouldn’t even let anyone hold her.

“What are you doing, people are staring at us?” I tried to get out of his grip, but all he did was pull me in closer “Huh? Why I’m not tickling you?” He asked before his hands connected with my stomach.

“You’re so childish!” I spoke in between giggles and tried to push him off me. “Ow, act your age!” I cracked as he tickled me even harder.

The questioning look people were giving us through the window was enough to make me laugh even harder. It was nice to see him so shameless and carefree, but sometimes it backfired.

The moment the door to the balcony opened, we both stopped what we were doing and he pushed me off him so he could face Johnny. “Don’t mind us,” Christian laughed, but after seeing the serious look on Johnny’s face that smile had immediately disappeared. “Johnny, what’s wrong?”

“Christian…it’s uncle Lucio, he uh…” Johnny spoke with a terrified look on his face. Just by the tone in his voice, I could tell that whatever he was going to share, it wouldn’t be any good.

Christian got up from the floor and stuck out his hand so he could pull me up with him. “What is it?

Tell me!” He spoke in a hurry.

“Your dad, he collapsed.”