• BENNU •
•Bahamas •
"Do you reckon black or white?" Nadine asks me, holding up two dresses on hangers.
"I don't know, you'd look beautiful in both, baby."
I'm not oblivious to her smile but she tries to act all mad and bothered. "Bennu, this is serious! Which one?!"
I go to repeat myself for the thousandth time but my phone rings. I ignore it but Nadine immediately tells me to pick up and that she doesn't mind.
I see that it's my Dad calling which surprise me. He wouldn't really call me on my honeymoon unless it was important.
I accept the call and hold the phone up to my ear. "Hey, Dad. What's up?"
"Morning, Son." He greets since England is 4 hours behind the Maldives. "How's the honeymoon?"
"It's fucking amazing, Dad. We're having a great time."
"Glad to hear, Ben."
"Let's not beat around the bush, why'd you call?" I say into the phone whilst appreciating my beautiful wife perched on the end of the bed. She smiles at me. God, I love her smile.
"Don't freak out." My Dad says bluntly.
"Dad, 3/4 of our family are a bunch of hotheads, including you, so I can't promise anything."
"Fair enough, you're right."
"Jesus, Dad. The suspense is killing me. What is it?"
"I have decided to adopt Thalia." He states plainly into the phone. Acting all calm but I know he's anything but.
I am lost for words. My Dad has never been a impulsive man, so him adopting a 16 year old is not what I was expecting to hear. I could act all bothered about this sudden news but to be honest, I'm really not. Plus if my Wife's best friend is my new sister it might earn me some brownie points.
"Ben?"
"I'm here, Dad. I'm happy. Surprised? Yeah. But I feel like you need this. Fuck knows why, but I think you do. And so does Gio, honestly. He's been telling me about her. Seems like they're real good friends. I'm happy for him. Can't remember the last time he spoke more than 5 words to me."
My Dad sighs into the phone. "You're right. He's always been a quiet kid. This will be good for him."
"Yeah, I'm feeling good about this, Dad. However, husband duty calls. Gotta go."
"Bye, Ben. Have a good night." I can hear my Dads smile through the phone.
The call ends and I turn to look at my dazzling wide. "That sounded important, he okay?" Nadine asks.
"Actually, yeah. So he's adopting Thalia." I just rip the band aid off.
Nadine chokes on air. "Your dad what?!"
I don't repeat myself because I know she heard and that she's just shocked.
Nadine starts smiling like a maniac, " this is amazing! Oh my god, I'm so happy for her." She starts crying happy tears. "That girl fucking deserves this, Ben."
I smile. Happy wife = happy life.
• England •
"Soo how come all your names sound like they're from completely different countries?"Thalia asks as she flips through my comic book.
I spin my chair around, "each one of our names are from different countries. In particular, their favourite countries."
"Ohh, so.. Giovanni is Italian I'm guessing?"
I nod my head. "Matteo Spanish."
"That's cool to be honest. I was confused, I was thinking where the hell does this family come from?" She laughs, shutting the comic book and resting her chin on the palm of her hands. "Where's Bennu's name from?"
I have to think about it for a second because I've never heard anybody else with the same name. "Egypt... I think?"
"That's cool. Nikolai is probably Russian, right?"
"Yeah, pretty sure. Dominique is French. Sounds a bit like a girl which Dom has never forgiven Dad for."
She laughs, "I can imagine."
"I have no idea where the name Axel is from though." I state and she agrees. "This is gonna bother us, isn't it?"
"Really is."
"Let's go ask Dad. And if you're thinking, 'he could just text him',we all made a bet against Matteo. He thinks at some point we'll just text each other when we're in the same house rather than going to their room."
Thalia just laugh as we walk down the stairs. I lead her to where Dad probably is, his office, because T claimed that she forgot already.
We reach the door to the office. "You knock," I whisper to T.
"No thanks, you knock."
"Nah, go on, T." I nudge her, my voice going up an octave.
"Fuck off, you do if. Or are you scared?"
"No, but I think you are."
"I'm not. Stop deflecting."
"I am not, it's -"
"Having a nice chit chat are we?" My Dad says opening the door 3/4 of the way.
"Um, hi! We were just-" Thalia starts but then she kicks my leg indicating I need to finish the lie.
"We were just-"
"Sounds lovely, guys. Come in then." My Dad cuts me off, knowing that we were lying.
We both walk in and sit next to each other on the sofa. My dad takes a seat on the chair opposite us. He looks at us expectantly.
I've forgotten why we're here.
I think Thalia has too because she looks completely baffled.
"You forgotten?" My Dad asks with an expression plastered on his face that is calling us idiots.
"Wait! I remembered. We wanted to know what country you loved so much that you called Axel, Axel."
My Dad starts laughing, can you believe it? "You were whispering about that? God almighty."
Me and Thalia both have blank faces whilst my Dad just laughs at us. "Seriously though, Dad, what country is the name axel from?"
My Dad starts scratching his beard, which means he's going to give us one long explanation. "Dad, we don't need the fully story of how Axel was conceived. Just the name of the country."
"I don't know, there's a few different countries. Like Scandinavia and Germany, and we liked both places." Dad states.
"Scandinavia sounds cool. Wonder where my names from." Thalia says nodding her head in thought.
"Thalia is a Greek name. Me and my Wife had it at the top of our list for girls names in case Gio was a girl. Not surprised he wasn't though, in this family we just can't seem to have girl. I love Greece, probably my favourite place out of the lot."
Thalia smiles at that, "I once did a project on Greece. It looks so fucking nice. When I'm older I definitely wanna go there."
"We'll take you."