After a few weeks...
"Sister! Do you want me to show you my Dino collection?" Little Anthony asks Evie looking at her with his expressive eyes.
The brunette is sitting next to him on the floor, in a lot of toys. She plays with him. She smiles at her little brother. Now she's feeling like a child playing with her little brother.
Together with them is Nikki, who is sitting on the couch and watching them, smiling. They came to visit them. Her father is not home. He's at work, but he'll be back soon. Her stepmother enters the living room and speaks in a worried tone:
"I'm afraid something happened. I have to go to my sister's house and I'll take Anthony with me."
"No!" The little one protests and stands up and shows his mother an imposing look, folding his little arms. "I want to stay with Evie!"
"Oh, please don't start, Anthony," Mei Lin sighs and puts a hand to her forehead.
"If you trust us enough," Evie says, looking up at her boyfriend, "Nikki and I could stay with Anthony. I have been a babysitter many times. I have a cousin who will have a baby soon. So I know something about children."
Mei Lin looks a little insecure at Evie and especially at Nikki, who smiles sincerely at her.
"Okay," the woman smiles. "I might stay a while... If anything happens... please call me!"
"Okay," Evie smiles and looks at her brother who smiles and continues to play. "I'm sure everything will be fine."
Mei Lin smiles at them once more and says goodbye and leaves. Evie goes and sits on the couch next to Nikki. He puts a hand behind her shoulder and says:
"I don't know how to take care of children."
The brunette rolls her eyes and says:
"It's not that hard. And he's 3 years old. What would you do if there was a baby crying because he had colic?"
"What is this... colic?" Nikki asks completely ignorantly.
Evie rolls her eyes again and shook her head.
"You'll find out when you're going to be dad," she teases him.
"I hope it won't be too soon," he grins, staring into her eyes. "Not that I don't want this to happen with you... Being the mother... but now is not the time."
"Okay," Evie chuckles and quickly kisses him on the lips.
"Hey," Nikki leans back and points her finger at Anthony, "no kisses in front of the child."
"He didn't see anything," Evie chuckles and looks at Anthony, who is still playing with his toys.
Nikki puts his mouth to her ear and whispers to Evie in a seductive voice that makes her shudder:
"You are a very naughty mommy. How I wish I could take you to the bedroom now and give you a punishment."
"Nikki!" Evie winces and pushed him lightly into his chest, but she also laughs.
"What I said?" He giggles and puts a hand around her waist, pulling her closer to him.
"I want to pee!" The boy shouts.
Nikki and Evie turn their heads and see Anthony standing next to them and staring at them.
"Jesus... when did he come to us so quickly?" Nikki asks, looking spooked at the child.
"Okay, Anthony," Evie gets up from the couch and holds out her hand to him. "I'll take you to the bathroom."
"I don't want to go with you!" The boy protests and nods. "I want to go with him!" He points to Nikki.
"With me?" Nikki frowns in bewilderment.
"Yes!" The boy cries. "Evie can't come with me. She's a girl. You are a boy. Come on!"
Evie looks at her boyfriend with an amused face, barely able to refrain from laughing.
Nikki sighs and gets up from the couch and takes his hand and whispers to Evie:
"Your brother is authoritative as you are."
"Hey!" Evie snaps and puts her hands on her hips. "I'm not authoritarian at all!"
Nikki is already walking down the hall with Anthony. She hears Nikki speaking to her brother:
"I hope you know how to wipe yourself."
Evie puts a hand to her mouth and laughs. She leans down on the floor and starts picking toys up when it doesn't take more than a minute and hears the phone ringing. She gets up and goes to the kitchen, because that's where the phone is. She reaches for it, takes the receiver in her hand, puts it to her ear, and says:
"Hello?"
???:"Evie? It's me, Amelie!"
"Oh, girl... Are you okay? Why did you call me? I told you where I was going and how long I was staying," says Evie, feeling nervousness in her cousin's voice, and feeling like something bad had happened.
Amelie: "Evie... Please... Could you come to me?"
"At your place? What happened?"
Amelie: "I'm not home, Ev. I am in the hospital... An hour ago I was bleeding and went to the hospital."
"Oh my God!" Evie exclaims, panicked and shocked. "The baby! Did something happen to the baby? Are you ok?"
Amelie: "We're both fine. The bleeding stopped. But I'm alone... And something else happened... I'd like for you to come here..."
"Oh, I'm coming Amelie. Ok? Calm down. I'll come as soon as I can."
Evie hangs up the call. She sighs, now wondering what happened to her cousin. Something bad as the tone of her voice seemed. But she told her she and the baby were okay. Amelie is 3 months pregnant now. She needs to take good care of herself and her baby.
Visibly puzzled, she leaves the kitchen and goes to the living room where Nikki and Anthony are there. The boy plays quietly with his toys and Nikki looks at him and then his gaze moves to his girlfriend.
"Something intervened," says Evie and sighs deeply.
"What happened?" Nikki looks at her worriedly.
"Something happened to Amelie. I have to go to the hospital. To be with her."
"Oh, okay? What exactly happened?"
"Something was wrong with the pregnancy, but now she and her baby are ok. But I have to get to her. She sounded very sad and wanted to tell me something else. So... I'm afraid you have to be alone with Anthony."
"What the hell?" Nikki asks in surprise and looks at Anthony, who is grinning at him. "Evie," he says, looking at his girlfriend now, "I told you I'm not a babysitter. I don't know how to take care of a child."
"Sorry. But I really have to go. It's not that hard. You've already been to the bathroom with Anthony. It is not difficult."
"He wanted to pee on me!" Nikki complains and extends his hand to the giggling little boy.
"He's only 3 years old, Nikki," Evie sighs and puts a hand to her forehead. "What can he do to you? To set you on fire?"
"Don't give him such ideas," Nikki looks at Evie irritated.
"Ok. I have to go. I'll be back as soon as I can."
Nikki can't tell her girlfriend anything anymore that she goes to Anthony quickly, says goodbye to him and goes to him too, and kisses him on the lips quickly and leaves the house.
"Now what?" Nikki asks about the boy who is still playing. "Hmm... Maybe Evie is right. How hard can it be? He looks so quiet now," he says, and Anthony looks up at him and throws a wooden toy at him, almost hitting him on the head. "I'll take my words back," he sighs.
Evie gets out of the house and takes her car's keys out of her purse and opens the car door, which she closed it when she arrived here. Quickly she turns on the car. She thinks about Amelie. What the hell is this all about now? Did something happen between her and Tommy again? She will soon find out.
In the meantime, about half an hour passes and Anthony take Nikki to his room. The little one goes to bed and asks Nikki to take a book from his mini library.
"Okay," Nikki says and takes a book from there and goes and sits on the chair next to the boy and opens the book and starts reading it.
But Anthony doesn't let him read any more and takes the book and throws it away. Nikki is really upset by his behavior.
"Not this book!" The little one says and gets out of bed and goes to the mini library, picks up a book from there and gives it to Nikki. "This one!" He says bluntly.
Nikki looks curiously at the book and discovers that it is in another language. It's not in English. It's probably in Mandarin. Evie told him Anthony is bilingual. He speaks both English and Mandarin. But now what the hell is he doing? He doesn't know a word of this language and Anthony seems to be getting impatient.
"Hey, Anthony," Nikki closes the book and smiles broadly at him. "How about choosing another book to read?"
"Bù! Wǒ yào zhège! Dú!*"
Nikki doesn't understand what the little one said, but he realizes it's not good. He tries to put the book aside, but Anthony gets up and throws his teddy bear in his head.
"Now what the hell am I doing?" He sighs praying that Evie will come back as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, after a while, driving, Evie arrives at the hospital. She gets out of the car immediately and goes to the hospital. She reaches inside, goes to the reception and asks the receptionist:
"Hi! Can you tell me where Amelie Martin is hospitalized?"
"Floor 3, room 20," the receptionist quickly answers looking at the screen.
"Thank you," Evie smiles weakly and leaves.
After taking the elevator and walking down the hall, she finds the room where Amelie is. She knocks and goes inside. Amelie is lying in bed with a pale face and seems to have cried.
"Amelie?" Evie speedily walks to her cousin and sits down on the chair next to her bed and shakes her hand. "What happened to you? You look like hell..."
"Evie... Oh God... how glad I am to see you..." Amelie bursts into tears.
"Hey, girl," Evie is holding her. "Stop crying. Please. It hurts the baby. What happened?"
Amelie stops crying, wipes away her tears and tells her cousin:
"Before I was bleeding, I had an argument with Tommy."
"Oh again?" Evie rolls her eyes and grimaces. "What is it now?"
"He's dating someone else, Evie. A certain Heather Locklear. He told me that he loves her... and... Oh, Evie! How stupid I could be! How could I believe there could be something between us?"
"I'm sorry, Am," Evie sighs and pats her on the back. "But now think about the baby. Did Tommy come to the hospital?"
"I didn't tell him what happened," Amelie says sullenly.
"Oh, my... I know you're mad at him, but you have to tell him what happened. It's his child too. That is if he wants to be part of this child's life."
"He said he wants to... He wants to be around this kid. He will take full responsibility."
"And that's good," Evie smiles. "Everything will be alright. Ok? I'll be with you. With your baby. You just said you wanted me to be the baby's godmother."
"I really want to," Amelie smiles at her. "Thank you, Ev. Thanks for everything. You came so far to me."
"Anything for you," Evie smiles and remembers that Nikki is with her brother now, wondering what they're both doing on their own.
In a few hours, Evie returns to her father's house. She can't see Mei Lin's car or Jack's. So they haven't arrived yet and Nikki is the only one staying with Anthony. She enters the house and is amazed by the complete silence.
"Hello? Boys? I've arrived!"
Quiet again. She goes in the living room, in the kitchen and even in the bathroom. She can't find them. So she goes up the stairs. She arrives at his brother's door. She opens the door and almost bursts out laughing when he sees Nikki and Anthony. They both sleep. Anthony in his bed and Nikki in the armchair by the bed. He wakes up when he hears the door open and sees Evie. The brunette walks up to him and sits on his lap and asks him:
"Did you manage to put him to sleep easily?"
"God, Evie," Nikki is complaining to her girlfriend, having a tired face. "He wanted me to read his books in Mandarin and of course I didn't know that damn language. So he threw toys at me. Fortunately, an idea came to me and I sang a Motley Crue song and he fell asleep immediately. When he will grow up, he will be a true Motley Crue fan."
Evie puts her hand to her mouth, covering her laughter. And Nikki chuckles slightly, reaching for her waist, pulling her closer to him and kissing her on the temple.
"What was Amelie doing?" He asks.
"Not very well," Evie sighs, the happiness disappearing from her face. "She and the baby are fine. But she and Tommy argued again. He's dating someone else now."
"I'm so sorry..."
"Amelie will be fine. Don't worry," Evie smiles at him. "I'll take care of her and my godchild."
Evie says this and kisses Nikki briefly on the lips and looks again at her brother who is sleeping without any worries.
Evie enjoys this moment. She, Nikki and her family together. Everything looks great. What could go wrong? She and Nikki love each other so much. She hopes this is not an illusion. As was the case with her cousin. But her relationship with Nikki seems different. It works much better than Amelie and Tommy's. She hopes she will not be wrong.
Unfortunately, Evie has no idea that dark times are coming for her and Nikki in the future. And she, and he, has no idea what will happen. Everything seems beautiful so far.
Bù! Wǒ yào zhège! Dú = No! I want this! Read*