Chapter 54 — Rising Pride

Clave.

Alone.

Zinnia and I were alone on a Sunday.

Usually, my Sundays would mostly consist of spending time with my family—Draven and Zinnia. We would often do many fun activities. Half of the time we would find something exciting to do outside, and the rest of the time, we would spend it at home, probably just lazying around together or playing board games.

As much as I was missing my champ and was worried that he was with Kavita, being alone with my wife meant I had her all to myself the entire day. I could flirt with her without putting any filter on my mouth.

"We have to go to the shop today, Clave," my wife informed me as soon as I got out of bed to go for a shower. She was sitting in front of the dressing table, drying her hair.

I arched an eyebrow. "Oh, you were serious earlier? I thought you said that just to tell Draven we were busy."

Zinnia shrugged her shoulders. "Actually, we don't have to go if you want. Mom already appointed three new full-time employees, and they started working today. She said she really liked them during their interviews, so she’s feeling hopeful about them."

"They agreed to work on weekends as well?" I inquired curiously. After all, it was hard to find full-timers who were willing to work on weekends.

"Yeah, they are apparently all singles, so they have nothing special to do on the weekends. In exchange, they can get two days off on any of their chosen days in a week," she informed me. As she was about to walk past me to get her phone from the nightstand, I stood up and lightly pulled her toward against my chest, wrapping my arms around her slim waist.

"You lost some weight, Zinnia. You are slimmer now. What's the secret?" I asked, putting a few strands of hair from her face behind her ear.

"Workout," she simply said. "And before you assume anything, it's for physical fitness, not with the intention of getting slimmer," she let out, earning a chuckle from me.

"When have I ever questioned you, kid?" She tried to get out of my grip, but I tightened it while nuzzling my face into her neck, inhaling the fresh fragrance of her shampoo. "However, if you want to show me how much fitter you got, how about you show it in the shower?"

I thought she would deny it, especially considering she just got out of the shower, but her next words surprised me. She trailed a finger from my forehead to my lips and said, "Why not? I don't mind taking a second shower."

"Are you sure? There's no turning back, baby," I whispered into her ear.

She boldly replied, "I don't have to. There are plenty of other positions."

I groaned at her seduction. As I was about to lock my lips with hers, we heard Zinnia's phone chime.

We were about to ignore it until she started getting more notifications.

"Wait a minute," she mumbled and took out her phone.

I was about to free her from my grip to give her privacy as she would check her phone, but she held my hand.

"Stop being such a gentleman," she deadpanned, making me laugh. She unlocked her phone in front of me, and we saw that she got all the texts from Kavita.

Zinnia opened the conversation, only to find Draven's pictures and a few voice messages. She played one by one.

"Mom and Dad, look at this! This ride is so much fun!"

"When I come here with you two, we will enjoy it together. There is a family ride too!"

"I miss you, Mom and Dad. Don't be busy next Sunday, please."

Our hearts melted hearing Draven's innocent pleading voice. He was really missing us and we missed him too, no doubt.

Zinnia just replied with red hearts and sighed. "You are right. He cannot stay away from us. We are his real parents."

I smiled seeing the glow on Zinnia's face. "I told you. He must be giving Kavita a hard time."

"I gave Kavita all the required instructions, so it shouldn't be a problem," she informed me.

All of a sudden, a thought struck my mind. "Zinnia."

"Hmm?"

"Didn't you tell Kavita to not hand over electronics to Draven?" I asked sternly.

Zinnia furrowed her eyebrows. "I told her clearly that we were following no electronics thing for Draven."

"Then how can Draven send us pictures? Kavita already broke the rule. She started making mistakes despite telling her the rules."

I disliked the fact. In fact, I disliked Kavita the day she started hitting on me. I didn't know what changed, but whenever she spotted me after Zinnia officially introduced me to her as her husband, she started to flirt with me.

Kavita would try to get close to me and even try to touch me more than required, and my spy instincts knew very well when someone was being hit. I didn't tell Zinnia yet because Kavita was her friend and it was only two-three times. I always maintained my distance from her, so even if she tried, she wouldn't be able to get close to me anymore.

"It's okay, Clave. It's just a one-time thing. We won't let them have a day out alone the next time," Zinnia assured me, and I nodded my head.

Draven had his iPad, but we didn't want him to spend his whole day on electronics. So we fixed an hour for him every day to give him his iPad.

"Okay, now let's go and take a shower, shall we?" she reminded me with a smirk on her face.

Without speaking anything else, I connected my lips with hers.

We would indeed take one of the best showers today.

###

"The only fun today was the rides. I didn't like Aunt Kavita!" Draven grumbled.

I literally chortled, but my wife immediately shot me a deadly glare.

"Draven, you shouldn't say that. Aunt Kavita loves you," Zinnia tried to reason out as she sat next to him on the couch of the living room.

"Mom, you told me to always speak the truth. I don't like her," my son said innocently.

With an amusing smile, I sat on the other couch and watched my wife trying to put out good words for Kavita. When she failed miserably, she took a deep breath and let out, "Sometimes, when someone loves you, you have to love them back, willingly or unwillingly. It's never good to hurt those who love you."

"Why, Mom?" he asked curiously.

I crossed my arms against my chest and continued listening.

"Imagine, Draven, you love someone a lot and they don't love you back. How will you feel?"

"Very bad," he responded.

Zinnia caressed his hair. "But if they show a little love to you, won't you feel happy?"

"Yes, a lot!"

"There you go. You have your answer, sweetheart," she explained sweetly. "You should always shower people with love, whether they love you or not."

"Okay, Mom. I will keep it in mind."

My chest filled with pride today. Zinnia always won my heart, and I was sure my son would have the same personality when he grew up.