Chapter 50: Part II
After everyone had wished me birthday - which, by the way, I still couldn't believe it arrived so soon - I was whisked away by Terrence for a few minutes for a hot and heavy quickie at the excuse of getting me changed out of my clothes.
We were out in record time: our clothes were in proper places but my flushed cheeks betrayed and were a telltale sign that we were up to no good back in my room. My babies, oblivious to the reason behind the sudden snickers in the room, reached for me and grinned.
"Did you two miss me?" I cooed the moment I reached them. I kissed their cheeks when Allie came over to me and teased, "No, they enjoyed their time with Jenny and Allie, didn't you?"
I rolled my eyes, "Of course they missed their mommy!"
"Whatever." She grinned and winked, "No trace of chocolate cake left, Liz. Terrence seems to have a really skilled tongue."
"Allie!" My face flamed in embarrassment, the main reason being that I knew she wasn't wrong.
We didn't have a food fight, because all of us - especially Jenny - were completely against wasting food. We'd rather eat it up than have it all on the floor only for it to end up in the dustbin, later.
I completely agreed with her. The only person I ever had a food fight with was Terrence, and only because I got to lick all the food and sauces off him while he did the same to me. And then, there was Xavier's birthday party, too.
The kids still managed to enjoy the private little party that everyone had organised for me.
"Terrence did all of it, you know? And this entire party and decorations, all has been organised today itself."
I raised a brow at Allie, who was sipping her drink as she leant against the table watching the kids dance on 'I like to Move it!' from the movie Madagascar. Aria and Jonah's daughter, Johannah, was growing into a cherubic beauty, and always claimed Ryan's entire attention whenever she was around. Ryan literally dragged his walker towards Aria, who was holding Johannah and making her dance.
"I asked him, yesterday, what he was getting you for your birthday. He became completely frantic, you know, and cursed you a lot for not telling him about it. It was kind of a last moment surprise party, completely organised by Terrence, well...using my idea and some of Aaron's help."
I nodded, a cheeky smile spreading on my face as warmth bloomed in my chest. This guy was going to be the death of me, surely.
"Alyssa." Terrence's arms wrapped around me and he kissed my forehead, making me melt in his embrace the way he always did. "I still didn't wish you Happy Birthday." He pecked my lips.
I chuckled, "You, of course, wished me, so many times, if I need to remind you."
"Of course, Terrence," Came Victor's voice as he gave him a teasing wink. "We all heard how many times you wished her, especially the last one which was quite loud."
Lucy giggled, "And Lisa's replies weren't unheard. We heard how happy you were when he wished you time and again."
I hid my face in Terrence's chest. Ever since I had lost my chastity to him, everyone seemed to have lost all the topics of conversations to talk about. They only teased Terrence and me, time and again. But then, even we weren't innocent: We screwed each other's brains out even if we just had fifteen minutes alone with each other.
Allie stayed with me, even after everyone disappeared off to give the kids some company. My charming little babies were enjoying their time in the walkers, and I could still see the wall, behind them, full of colourful scribbles.
"Did you even tell him that you love him?" Allie asked me.
I shook my head.
"Still waiting for the right time?"
I nodded, this time.
She sighed. "Well, you shouldn't... Wait, I mean. Raine and Ryan are six months old already, and all you two have been doing is fuck each other like rabbits. The year is going to come to an end soon, and do you know what that means?"
I nodded again, "Larissa and Vincent Powers will be back, soon."
"Yes," she said. "It's not going to be easy, then. Things are going to get complicated and you are definitely not going to get time for love confessions."
"I'll wait if I have to," I paused, "The thing is: I always feel like I'm in some kind of a fantasyland, dreaming continuously that the Hero is in love with me, I'm in love with him, we are walking through thick and thin together and all the cliché stuff like that. What I always seem to ignore is that our entire story revolves around the twins. We met because of the babies, we came together because of them...I sometimes think we even got attracted to each other because of them. See it this way, we had to live under the same roof because of the twins, and him being a man and me being a woman, we just had to be together. I am just stuck with the 'what if's. What if this is just the honeymoon phase of our relationship and one day, when the kids are a older, he will get bored? Or even worse, he realises that he had mistaken gratitude and attraction for love?"
Allie, instead of being a comforting best friend, rolled her eyes, "I still can't believe that you are insecure about this even though the two of you had sorted this issue out, like ages ago."
"I'm just trying to be realistic. I don't want to push Terrence into doing something he doesn't want to do, yet. I don't even know how his father is going to react." I explained.
"You're actually worried if he disapproves of your relationship with Terrence, or are you worried about his reaction to the situation regarding the twins."
I huffed, "The situation regarding the twins." I stated, "After all, everything that we do and we are is about them. The making and breaking of our entire relationship seems to depend on them."
"Then don't." Allie shrugged.
"What?"
"Don't let them be the factor on which your relationship depends. You and Terrence are both mature and fully grown adults. You don't need two babies to pull and push you, in and out of a relationship. Whatever the end will be, you both will be in it together."
I sighed. It wasn't as easy as she claimed. It was better to talk about something else.
"Speaking of relationships..." I tried to change the conversation, "Are you still in touch with Darren?"
"Yes. We talk, here and there. He found a girl." She shrugged, looking nonchalant.
It really didn't affect her.
I turned to her, "I know I really haven't been a good best friend to you lately, but it has been bugging me with so much curiosity lately."
"What?"
"Why did you and Darren break up? Wasn't everything going all rainbows and sunshine in your relationship? I mean...you could have easily done the long-distance thing."
"We weren't that serious about each other." She shrugged again, and this time I really wanted to tear off her shoulders. She had been shrugging a lot, lately.
"What do you mean?" My complete attention was directed towards her, now.
"Well, we both were finding solace in someone else, for healing our broken hearts. He already knew about Aaron and how I still felt about him. Before he left, he confessed about still being in love with some other girl. The only reason he liked me so much was that I reminded him of her way too much."
"Oh." I had been a really pathetic best friend, if I was getting to know about this three months later.
"Don't feel bad," she reassured, "I never told you because I never thought that it was something that you really needed to know. And anyways, I told you that he found a girl, right?"
I nodded.
"Yeah, well she is the one he had been in love with all along. Now he's doing his best to win her back. So he frequently asks me for advice." She grinned.
"And you don't feel...uh...jealous?" I looked at her carefully for any hidden feelings.
Nope. Nada. Nothing.
She laughed, "Not surprising, but no. I don't feel anything at all. In fact, I feel like motivating him more and more so that he is finally happy."
I sighed again, "What happened that day? The day when you and Aaron were babysitting Raine and Ryan together?"
She let out a wry laugh again, "Why this interrogation, all of a sudden?"
"I don't know. You two have been behaving even more awkwardly since that particular day." I shrugged.
"Nothing happened, and I guess that's the problem here. It was all fine until he asked me about Grampa was doing, and I went into full on sobbing mode. He comforted me, actually did and did his best to make me feel better. Didn't cross any limits at all. But maybe that's what I had wanted - I wanted him to cross the boundaries. I wanted him to kiss me. I wanted us to go back to the way were all those years ago."
I was about to say something to her when she cracked a grin all of a sudden, "Look at lover boy, over there."
When I followed her gaze to find Terrence, my breath caught in my throat.
Terrence had seated himself on the grand piano that I had just noticed. The smile he sent my way made my heart skip a beat. His beautiful gaze held a little nervousness, yet, the moment his fingers touched the keys, he closed his beautiful blue eyes and smiled.
I was already in a trance when he lilting tones began as his fingers danced across the keys. The tune soon became familiar and I realised that he was going to sing 'Over and over again' by Nathan Sykes.
*"From the way you smile,
To the way you look,
You capture me,
Unlike no other."
My cheeks lifted up into a wide smile.
*"From the first hello,
Yeah, that's all it took,
And suddenly,
We had each other."
Terrence opened his eyes, gazing straight at me.
*"And I won't leave you,
Always be true,
One plus one, four for life,
Over and over again."
Four? I chuckled.
*"So don't ever think I need more,
I got the ones to live for,
No one else will do,
Yeah, I'm telling you,
Just put your heart in my hands..."
So much love. Oh my...so much love in his eyes that I could faint.
*"I promise it won't get broken,
We'll never forget this moment,
It will stay brand new,
'Cause I'll love you,
Over and over again.
Over and over again."
He closed his eyes again as his body swayed with the music.
*"From the heat of night,
To the break of day,
I'll keep you safe,
And hold you forever."
*"And the sparks will fly,
They will never fade,
'Cause every day,
Gets better and better."
*"And I won't leave you,
Always be true,
One plus one, four(maybe more?) for life...
Over and over again."
He wanted more? More babies?
*"So don't ever think I need more,
I've got the ones to live for,
No one else will do,
Yeah, I'm telling you,
Just put your heart in my hands..."
*"I promise it won't get broken,
We'll never forget this moment,
It will stay brand new,
'Cause I'll love you,
Over and over again.
*Over and over again.
*Girl when I'm with you
I lose track of time,
When I'm without you
You're stuck on my mind,
*Be all you need
'Til the day that I die,
I'll love you...
Over and over again."
I nearly squealed out, my finger laced in front of me.
God, I loved this guy so much!
*"So don't ever think I need more,
I've got the one to live for,
No one else will do,
Yeah, I'm telling you,
Just put your heart in my hands...
*Promise it won't get broken,
We'll never forget this moment,
It will stay brand new,
'Cause I'll love you,
Over and over again.
*Over and over again.
*Over and over again."
The room was silent when Terrence had finished the last chords, but my heart - damn, my heart - it was beating so fast, so loud, and my emotions were all over the place.
I was going to cry - I was so happy.
I knew my face was flushed and I was probably looking like a lunatic as Terrence slowly strolled towards me with a nervous smile on his face.
Oh, but slow strolling wasn't enough for me.
I sprinted towards him and sprang onto him, not caring that there were ten other people, including innocent babies, who were witnessing it. The moment I was in his arms, I crashed my lips against his, and poured all that I had in the kiss. I couldn't breathe, my heart skipped a lot of beats, but I didn't care. I let our kiss take me to new heights and new beginnings and I let my earlier apprehensions out of the house with a polite kick on the ass.
"I love you, I love you, I'm so in love with you, Terrence! And I've been bubbling with the need to tell you, but today...today..."
He put his fingers to my lips and scowled, "Stop it, now. I was supposed to say that first. You could've said 'I love you, too' after I confessed. Come on! It's the standard, and you're the birthday girl! I'm supposed to be the one to get down on my knees and confess my undying love to you."
"Alright, alright. Say it, I won't interrupt."
He grinned and took in a deep breath before yelling loud enough that it echoed in the entire house,
"I'm in love with you, Alyssa!"