Chapter 2: Mommy Will Not Share Cooties With You

I nodded at Sein to follow me outside to my car but instead he grabbed my hand and started dragging towards opposite direction.

"You are not trying to abduct me, are you?"I asked with a suspicious tone. He just chuckled in amusement and dragged me till we reached a shining Mercedes. After seeing the model my mouth dropped open in astonishment.

"Close your mouth mam, we don't want you to catch flies in your mouth, do we?" he whispered in my ear noticing my eyes which were still wide in amazement, size of saucers actually. I turned towards him and glared darkly with accusing eyes.

"You have a filthy rich car and you still want to join as an assistant chef in a small cafe?" I narrowed my eyes at him placing my hands on my hips.

He sighed and leaned towards me reaching my height and now we are just centimetres apart making my breath hitch in my throat. "I just wanted to experience how it would be to work in a small cafe."

He then stood up straight and shrugged as if its no big deal. And I was breathing rapidly to calm myself as all that time his breath was fanning my face and my stomach was flipping continuously.

"Now shall we go?" he asked my raising his eyebrows for which I merely nodded and bent my head down in embarrassment.

We both hopped into his car and he started making his way to kindergarten. "Wait, how do you know the route to school?" I asked him.

"My nephew goes there, I have to pick him up too. That is the reason why I wanted to accompany you." My face has shown a little disappointment. I don't know why. I just assumed that he wanted to come with me because-I never have thought about it actually.

I just made an 'o' with my mouth and turned towards the direction of window. Then again 'how does he know about which school it is?'

"How do you know my son goes there?" I asked him again.

"Uh that, Marshall said me about your son's school."he said glancing towards me and then turning back to road again. I turned back my head towards window again.

Marshall is none other than Mr. Martinez. Oh so Marshall said everything to him. How dare that old man. And how come Sein is calling Marshall on first name basis, after all he is just a new employee.

"Marshall is my uncle actually." Sein said grabbing my attention. Hearing those words I whipped my head so fast that I am surprised, my neck is still fine.

"Did I wonder out loud?" I queried him smiling weirdly. He nodded rigorously with one of his own weird smiles and turned in the front to avoid accidents. I embarrassed myself in front of a gorgeous person two times today.

"You think I am gorgeous huh?" he smirked not looking at me. I mentally face-palmed saying 'nope'.

"What ever you say amor" he said in his spanish accent making butterflies come to their life in my stomach. Amor is spanish word for love. I just pretended to not know the meaning of the word and kept my mouth shut for the rest of the ride to avoid further embarrassment on my part.

"So what all did Marshall say about me?" I enquired him about the old man.

"That you have a son and are from USA. and you are divorced...."he trailed off looking quite uncomfortable with the choice of his speech.

"Don't worry, I got used to it."I reassured him and kept myself busy by playing a game on my mobile to avoid the awkward situation. I lied again! I lied that I am okay when in reality I can never be.

Once we arrived at the school I saw a small boy who was Ethan's age running towards Sein with joy in his eyes. Sein embraced the boy in his arms and hugged him tightly making the boy giggle. That was cute.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I heard 'mummy'. Ethan. Turning my attention towards Ethan, I was happy to see his dress was clean today unlike other days where it'll be dirty all time.

"Ethan." I said him and hugged him tightly for not getting into fights and keeping his dress tidy today.

"See mummy, I didn't fight today." He said grinning widely at me and gesturing his dress with hand, as to show it was clean. I raised my eyebrows a little with my eyes little wide and nodded at him with a million dollar smile on my face.

"I can see that darling." I murmured in his ear so that only he could hear to what I say.

"So I get an ice cream for hard work right?" He asked with his eyes twinkling with hope. The same eyes when someone proposed me for marriage five years ago. Snapping myself out of the heart wrenching memories I gestured him by blinking my eyes.

"So this is your son I see." Sein said bending to reach Ethan's height. He pinched Ethan's cheeks lightly and called him 'cute'. Mistake.

"I am not cute, Ethan is just handsome and you are ugly mister." Ethan scowled at Sein and moving farther from him. Sein's face portrayed horror and confusion at the same time and he looked at me with questioning gaze. Noticing that Ethan frowned at Sein. He shifted towards Sein slowly when Sein was busy gazing at me and kicked his shin hard. Instantly Sein flinched from pain induced by Ethan's kick.

"Ow what was that for?"Sein winced for which I just stood there watching in amusement by allowing Sein deal with Ethan. I noticed Sein's nephew controlling his laughter at the sight of his uncle getting kicked.

"Never look at my mom like that, I know mummy is beautiful and Ethan gets his good looks from her-I raised my eyebrows as much as I can-. But Ethan did not give you permission to look at her. Understood?" I could not control my laughter by then neither could the boy. I cracked up loudly along with the boy with tears forming at the corner of my eyes.

Sein just nodded with a horrified expression on his face and glared at both me and his nephew for laughing at him. "What did I just say?" Ethan yelled again making Sein cringe a little and we cracked up again.

"I'll just be in the car, come quickly." Sein nodded and scurried away but not before muttering "he's lucky to be kid". That was kind of cute.

"So Anthony lets go." Ethan said to Sein's nephew grabbing his hand. So this is Anthony, the boy about whom Ethan was talking in the morning.

I just followed the boys to the car and jumped in the passenger seat while the boys settled themselves in the back seat.

"So Why isn't Ethan cute?" Sein asked starting the engine. The boys were too engrossed in their own conversation to be bothered with us. Hearing his question my face to turn crimson.

"so...?"Sein gestured me to speak up.

"Can we go to ice cream parlour?" I asked Sein remembering that I promised Ethan to buy him some ice-cream and to successfully divert Sein's concentration from the topic of 'cute'.

"Sure Amor, but not before you say why isn't the little boy cute."Sein smirked, replying in thick spanish accent making my stomach flutter when he addressed me Amor.

"Oh that....One fine day I was watching a movie and when the main characters kissed I called them cute. The fact I didn't notice was that Ethan stood behind me watching the scene, from then he fixed that people who share their cooties with each other are cute." I rubbed my face with my hands stopping my face from flushing in embarrassment. Sein cracked up by the end of the speech, he was laughing so hard that his knuckles turned white from clutching the steering so tight.

I was blushing by that point. Sein controlled himself from falling off the seat and pinched my cheek muttering "You are cute." This made my blush harder and smile widely.

After 10 minute drive, Sein parked his Mercedes in parking lot of nearby ice cream parlour, and switched off the engine. We all jumped out of car, boys with million dollar smiles on their faces.

We seated ourselves in one of the four seater booths, with me and Sein sitting opposite to Ethan and Anthony. After ordering our favorites, we made a small talk about cafe, Ethan's schooling and cooking while waiting for our orders.

A waiter in her thirties placed our orders on the table , handing a voucher she spoke "There is an offer for lovely families like you, would you like to hear about that?'

My eyes widened when she mentioned family but we aren't a family. "Miss we are not a family." Sein spoke softly from beside me voicing my thoughts out. I nodded my head in confirmation.

"Oh, my apologies, but you all seem like a cute family." she replied making me blush for the second time today.

She moved to other customers and started addressing them politely. "Well that was awkward."Sein chuckled nervously. "It sure was." I agreed with him. Anthony and Ethan were chatting about some new video games Sein brought for Anthony last week.

"Mommy, can I visit Anthony next saturday?" Ethan asked me with his famous puppy dog eyes. "Okay you can" I gave in to his eyes which haunt me daily.

"Can you believe that?My mom agreed." Ethan yelled in enthusiasm and hugged Anthony. Soon they started doing some weird kind of dance as their celebration. Boys are weird.

"So...?" Sein whispered huskily in my ear leaning closer to me. His breath was tickling the skin located near my ear making me breathe rapidly. I jerked my head to my right meeting his eyes which were twinkling mischievously.

"What are you trying to do?"I whispered trying to keep the eye contact.

"Make you feel uneasy." he smirked at me.

"Will you move back." I hissed at him motioning my hand to move before Ethan and Anthony could notice. I was trying to give him the reason, but I just don't feel comfortable if someone comes closer to me, except Samuel. I did not want to reveal my thoughts making the fact more real that Samuel will never come back.

"I'll not."he smirked again placing his soft lips on my cheek. My eyes widened for a second and then frown took over my features. I planned to punch him but before my inspiring thoughts took over me, I heard Sein wince.

"You will not share cooties with my mommy."Ethan yelled grabbing lot of attention from nearby people. I smiled at Ethan tightly and said "Ethan sit with Anthony, I will explain you later."

He contemplated for a second and seated himself beside Anthony who was busy laughing with ice-cream all over his dress. He was throwing daggers at Sein with his eyes whereas Sein was busy eating his ice-cream rapidly and successfully avoiding eye contact with Ethan. I smiled in amusement at Sein as he behaves like a child with his nephew as well as with Ethan. If it was Samuel, he would have scolded Ethan twice for behaving like that. I remember that he is quite short-tempered at times but still my heart warms up at his thought.

"Shall we go?' Sein asked snapping me back to reality. I blinked back the tears in my eyes at the memories. This is just so common for me to remember Samuel at times and avoid the tears prior to them rolling down my eyes. I think of our old memories at least once a day and relish the moments we had together happily. Reaching this level was not at all an easy task for me. I had to move from country to country in search of a job before settling in Madrid. Pregnancy just made the process more difficult for me. If it wasn't for saving in my bank account, I would've been on roads by now.

Sein took my hand in his and lead me out of restaurant towards his car. I observed that the kids were already seated in the car.

"You were lost deep in thought back there. May I ask about what?" Sein asked me, curiosity evident in his tone.

"Maybe when I am comfortable with you and assured that you will not kiss me again."I chuckled trying to brighten up the tense situation.

"I can't assure you that but I want us to hang out together tomorrow, so that we can get close to each other. Tomorrow is saturday and Ethan can stay at Anthony's." he said looking at me from the corner of his eye.

"Is Sein proposing for a date?" I teased him.

"I know we both met today okay, but I want to know more about you." he said and I nodded at him smiling a little. He continued saying "So don't you think it will be good, if we hang out together?"

Looking into his nervous pools of blue, I cracked up laughing.

"That is a yes then?"

"An intelligent person would have understood by now." I yelled sprinting towards the car laughing. I don't remember when I laughed this much.

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