Forced to Love

Chapter 12

"Thank you" I walk towards Mari and hug her. When I pull away I see her face is covered in confusion, Lucas seems lost too. I chuckle and hold her arms. "Thank you for putting back mom's little house," I say and her eyes widen as she finally figured what I meant.

"Oh my boy, you are thanking the wrong person here," she says and now I'm the one confused.

She chuckles at my expression but soon clarifies things. "Aria is the one who glued it back. Oh, she worked for days on fixing it. She felt so bad about breaking it that she couldn't give up on trying to put it back together. Just this morning she was finally done".

All I can do is stare at her as this information is making its way into my brain. I can't believe she did that. For me. "Where is she?" I ask finally out of my daze.

"She is in her room" Mari smiles at me and I immediately turn around and go to her room. 

I knock on her door and a second later a quiet 'come in' is heard from the other side. I twist the door handle and open the door to find her on her bed with a book in her hands. She looks up at me and I see her eyes widen a little.

"Thank you," I say almost in a whisper. I don't know why I'm suddenly out of breath but she just doesn't know how much that little house means to me.

"For what?" she asked confused, her eyebrows furrowed a little.

"For fixing the model house in my office" I explain and realization washes her face. "O-oh, you don't need to thank me for that. I was the one who broke it after all" she says and looks down at her book while playing with her fingers.

"Yeah but you also fixed it and that means something to me, so um..." I stop midsentence, not sure if I should ask her what's on my mind. I want to thank her in some way that is not only with words.

She looks at me again and waits for me to continue. "Would you like to go out for dinner with me tonight?" I ask and scratch my neck. I don't know why am I so nervous but I want to do something for her and maybe I can tell her why that little house is important to me. For some reason I want her to get to know me, the real me, and I want to get to know her.

"Um, sure" she nods but I can see she is unsure of this. She probably wonders what happened to me to act like this. But I want to change that, I want this to be normal for her, and I want for our not-so-good past to be left behind.

"Great. You should get ready then. I'll wait for you downstairs". I tell her before leaving her room so she can get ready.

"Oh, there you are! Come on man, dinner is ready. I'm starving". Lucas exclaims and walks towards the dining room table. 

"Aria and I won't be joining you guys. We are going out for dinner". I turn around to tell Mari but I find her smirking. I furrow my eyebrows and watch her carefully. "Oh that's alright. You two just have fun" she smiles and brings the plates to the dining table.

"Well that means more for me" Lucas claps his hands. "And besides, I get to spend some time with this lovely lady" he smiles sweetly at Mari who is now blushing but still hits him with the kitchen towel in her hand.

I laugh at the two but then turn around when I hear Aria approaching. She is wearing a simple black dress that comes a little above her knees with black open heels that are not too tall but just enough.

"Is this okay?" she shows her outfit as if asking if it's a good outfit for where I'm taking her.

"It's perfect" I smile at her and she gives me a small smile in return making warmth spread through my chest. She is so beautiful when she smiles.