From Here, To Eternity

005

Hours Later

I'm in his office, sitting next to him on the sofa as we are working on our project.

I see the door open and Violet walks in with Melanie walking alongside her.

"Look who's here?", she says.

Melanie runs to me and throws her arms around me.

"Hiiiiii!." , she says happily and I smile brightly seeing her face.

"Hi, sweety",  I say as I kiss her on her cheek.

I look up to see Mr Perawat gazing at me and Mel.

"Sorry.",  I mumble realizing I might have disturbed him, "I'll leave her outside with Violet."

I try to get up but a hand stops me. Mr Perawat immediately pulls away his hand realizing what he's done.

He clears his throat and says, "It's okay, let her be here."

"How are you Melanie?", he asks her smiling.

I have a feeling Mr Perawat likes kids which I could never have expected.

"I'm well." , she says shyly.

"How was school?", he asks her as he smiles.

I can't believe he's actually making conversation with her. He was awfully quite the whole time after the meeting ended.

"It was good. You know I've drawn a picture in my art class!  Do you want to see it?", she asks excitedly.

Looks like Mel likes Mr Perawat.

"Sure, I would like to see it.", he says.

"Melanie, you can show it later, we're a little busy baby."

I say knowing that he might be irritated that his work is lagging behind.

"It's alright.", he assures me with a smile.

I nod and look at Mel who is already fishing out her drawing book from her schoolbag.

She holds the book and opens the picture and my heart drops at the sight of it.

"It's papa and me.", she says excitedly pointing at a figure of a tall man with brown hair aka me and a small girl with black hair beside him, both  holding each others' hands. Tears fill my eyes unknowingly and I realize a tear has escaped and I look away and wipe it before he can see it.

"You draw very well, Melanie", he says inspecting the drawing.

"Thank you", she says shyly giggling.

Melanie goes to sit in the opposite sofa coloring a book while I look at Mr Perawat not sure how to say it.

"Thank you, and I'm sorry if this is an inconvenience to you." , I say looking down at my hands.

"It's alright, Mister Prachaya. Nothing to apologise for", he says by leaning a bit towards me reassuring that he isn't bothered. I smile as we both continue with the work.

Evening

"I'm more excited about cupcakes than Mel is and I'm not even embarrassed" , I hear Jane say , making me chuckle.

I am treating her to a dinner because I have officially completed two months of working at my new job. Not a big deal, but with how Jane has helped me all the while, this is the least I could do.

"Papaa, can I get a cupcake?", Mel asks.

"Yes. How about we go to that bakery across the road? It sells the best cupcakes right?" I ask Jane.