An exquisite looking girl three or four-year old girl wearing a cute baby pink pajamas ran down the stairs excitedly into Nina's arms. Her nanny chased helplessly after her as she exhorted the little girl to stop running.
Nina's heart had been suspended the moment she saw her daughter rushing down the stairs without care for her safety was finally able to be put back into place.
The nanny finally arriving downstairs greeted Nina and Selena respectfully before saying remorsefully to Nina, "I am sorry, Young Mistress. I couldn't control Little Miss".
Nina waved her hand so that the nanny could stand to the side, she was awfully familiar with her daughter's temper so she couldn't blame her nanny for not exactly doing her job.
As she stared down at the little girl in her arms, she chided her seriously,
"Emma, how many times have I warned you not to run on the stairs? What if you slipped? You aren't taking my words seriously, are you?"
Little Emma rubbed her face fondly on her mother's body as her muffled but coquettish voice came out, "I am sorry, mommy. I won't do it again but it was all because I missed you so so much".
Nina's face wrinkled into a frown, "You still dare make excuses? And weren't we together all day yesterday before your dad and I left for a banquet at night? How come you made it sound as if I had been away from home for months or years?"
Little Emma raised her face from Nina's hug as her ocean blue eyes inherited from her dad stared into her mother's warm brown ones, she then slightly tilted her face cutely to the side before answering her mother seriously, "But mommy, I didn't see you before I went to bed yesterday! It's been a WHOLE night!".
Nina looked dumbstruck at her daughter, completely confounded at her words, the worst part was that she actually found her words reasonable!
A chuckle suddenly sounded out, two identical faces turned to the direction it came from. Selena chuckled once more when she saw both of them staring directly at her with a similar expression that seemed to say, "What seems so funny?"
"Sorry, I really just find it funny."
Pausing for a bit, she made another soft chuckle before continuing by imitating Little Emma's voice, "But its been a WHOLE night!"
Her small face wrinkled into a frown, Little Emma assumed adult tone with her arms on her little hips, "Aunt Selena! You are being naughty again, I am being serious here you know"
Selena gave her a serious nod as she tried to suppress her laughter but you could tell from the mirth in her eyes that she still found the matter funny.
"You didn't even notice your Aunt Selena since you missed your mommy so much. I must have lost favor", She said with a dramatic sigh at the end as she slyly looked at Little Emma with her side eye.
And just like she expected, Little Emma who had been interrupted was distracted by her aunt who seemed sad. She pittered over to her in her pink rabbit slippers and gently wrapped her arms around her as she said in her supposedly adult voice,
"Aunt, don't be sad. Emma did not intentionally ignore you".
Selena contentedly hugged the fragrant little girl in her arms and buried her face in her arms.
Nina elegantly crossed her legs as leaned back against the sofa as she smilingly watched her daughter and bestie hugging fondly beside her.
She asked curiously but teasingly, "Selena, since you love children so much, when do you and Ryan plan to get married and make me an aunt and let Emma have a younger sibling to play with?"
Selena froze slightly in Emma's arms at her question, a bitter smile then appeared on her face as she raised her head to face her.
Nina was shocked at the bitter smile on her friend's face because as she could be said to be the person most familiar with Selena.
Her relaxed posture could no longer be found. She questioned with a solemn tone,
"What is happening?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know?", Nina looked incredulous at her answer then remembering that Emma was still around, she concealed her anxiety and waved towards her daughter,
"Emma! Come here honey", Emma shifted towards her mom as she looked curiously between the two adults, intuitively feeling that something was wrong.
"..Mommy...", She softly called out.
"Sweetheart, Mommy and your aunt Selena have to discuss something very important right now, so can you go upstairs with your nanny to take a bath and wait till mommy is done to take you out to play?"
Little Emma brightened up as she asked her mother excitedly," Are we going to the amusement park? !"
"Is that where you want to go?"
Emma nodded quickly like a little chick pecking at its food before answering,
"Yes mommy! I didn't get to play enough the last time we went there!"
"Then amusement park it is. So be a good girl and go take a bath and dress up nicely, okay?"
"Okay mommy! Emma will wait for you~ And Aunt Selena too."
Nina watched as Emma followed her nanny upstairs then turned her body sideways to face Selena.
"Now can you tell me what you meant by 'you don't know' ?"
Selena smiled bitterly at her as haze gathered in her eyes then she blinked and the haze disappeared as if it never existed in the first place.
"It's really not a big deal. It's just that Ryan doesn't seem ready to marry me," she said in an indifferent tone.
Nina paused digesting what she just heard before structuring her words carefully as she asked in a cautious tone,
"Is this what he told you? I mean have you discussed this with him?"
"I didn't have to discuss this with him because over the years after you and Brian simultaneously got married, I began hinting covertly and secretly to him that I am also ready to settle down. This doesn't mean that I am doing this just to go with the flow but you are also aware of how much I love kids and always wanted to have my own warm family one day. But it's funny that just when I am ready to achieve this dream of mine, my partner just isn't ready to fulfill it."
Selena leaned against the sofa, weariness evident on her face.
Nina looked at her and didn't even know what to do or where to start from. Comfort her? She couldn't do it because Brian and her were the people most aware of Selena's deep desire to have her own family. Different from Selena, Her and Brian knew the warmth of family before being brought to the orphanage.
Her mother had died of dytocia after which her father also died in a car accident when she was three. And Brian's parents both died in the same car accident that killed Nina's dad when he was eight. But compared to them, Selena has being in the orphanage since she was a baby, they heard that she was abandoned in front of the orphanage when she was barely three months old.
And even though the three of them grew up together and can be said to be closer than an actual family, she still craved the family affection that came from blood ties.
So her strong desire for her own family could be understood.