The Way You Move

~33~

AMELIA

Daniel and I left our room and he led me through the expansive corridors and up the large staircase of the house. I had realized pretty quickly that his family was a lot richer than I could have imagined. 

This place was insane and thinking that Daniel grew up here was wild. I had no idea how big the property actually was but the main house itself had already looked massive when we had pulled up in the front. Seeing everything from the inside now only confirmed that suspicion: the interior decorating was lovely too. I would have described the style as mostly simplistic and modern with a few nostalgic, expensive looking elements mixed in. I made a mental note to ask Daniel's mom when they had moved there and if it was her that had set everything up so elegantly.

Daniel explained that as the house was built into a hill it looked like the ground floor were mainly guest bedrooms and the ones the family usually spent their time in were upstairs. Hearing voices from not far away I followed him through what must have been the main living room and into the kitchen.

The first one I spotted was Laura who was casually sitting on a counter, dangling her legs and taking a sip out of what looked like a Corona beer bottle.

'Hm,' she gurgled mid-sip as she saw us approach and swallowed after she had put the bottle down.

Peering into some pots that were cooking on the stove were Lorena and Daniel's mother. The two women turned and a large smile spread over my future mother in law's face as we got closer. She hastily wiped her hands on a cloth kitchen towel and stepped around the middle island to greet us.

'Hola hijo,' she gave Daniel two kisses and then looked over to me her two hands still placed in his.

I didn't know what it was about her but I instantly liked her. She was short, even a little shorter than me, but she radiated an exceptional beauty. It was easy to recognize some of Daniel's and Laura's features in her face. She had pronounced cheek bones, perfectly tanned smooth skin and her dark eyes were glistening. Her light brown hair was fastened at the back of her head so it wouldn't fall into her face and her make up was done flawlessly. The smell of her perfume was subtle and penetrating at the same time and her golden bracelets jingled as she stretched her arms out to embrace me.

'You must be Amelia. It's so nice to finally meet you.'

'You too. Thank you so much for having me here. Your home is lovely,' I complimented her.

She smiled and kept looking into my eyes when she replied: 'I'm glad you like it. You must make yourself at home here, Daniel will show you everything.'

Her son nodded. 'Laura and I can give you a tour later. Where's dad?'

'Your father got called into some kind of business meeting. I asked him if he couldn't send someone else but he insisted he needed to take care of it himself. So unfortunately, he won't be able to join us for lunch,' she explained and then looked back at me. 'He apologizes, Amelia. But he promised to be back in time for dinner so you will have a chance to get to know each other then.'

I saw a wave of worry pass over Daniel's face. He must be trying to figure out what was so pressing that his father needed to be there himself. I on the other hand felt a wave of relief sweep through me. It would be easier to meet one parent at a time hopefully. But my anxiety around Daniel's mom had already melted away almost entirely just after the first few minutes.

'I understand,' I offered. 'But dinner sounds great. And we also have a few days after today so I'm sure we'll get a chance to all sit down and chat.'

'You know what would sound even better?' Laura interrupted. 'Lunch! I'm starving, shall we go eat?' She took the last swig of her beer and hopped off the counter to peer into the pots on the stove.