~ "everybody falls in love somehow" ~
Vera's POV
I return home to find Elody and Haven right where I left them, watching Ice Age in the living room. Thankfully, Sean is gone on business again, so having Aria over doesn't stress me out. Plus the girls have been relentlessly asking about her.
I head to the kitchen and begin making an easy meal because today has been an exhausting roller coaster of emotions. I'm very aware that a good amount of the cause behind Aria's depressive episode is me, and I feel horribly guilty about it. But she doesn't know that the only reason I acted off that day was because Sean called me on my lunch break to go off on me about how his Mom isn't a goddamn babysitter and I need to step up and be a better parent. God forbid I have one evening to myself. Anyways, that one phone call really put me in a terrible mood the rest of the day, and I just shut down to cope, resulting in Aria feeling discarded. The plain fact that my shitty coping mechanisms are causing Aria actual pain just puts a knife through my heart. This is what my brain has been saying, I'm too fragile right now to maintain any kind of relationship, but my heart said otherwise.
Before I can overthink any more, the front door opens and I hear Aria kick off her shoes. She walks into the kitchen fresh-faced and smelling heavenly, her hair damp and curlier than ever. She has a pastel blue sweater on over some sweatpants. My heart skips a beat just looking at the girl.
"I was worried you passed out hit your head and died in the shower" I say, getting back to my cooking.
"You're not that lucky." Suddenly I hear little feet padding into the kitchen.
"Aria!!" Elody all but screams. A wide grin spreads across Aria's face as she kneels to the girls' level. Elody rushes over to her and gives her a tight hug that Aria returns. "I MISSED YOU!"
"Aw Elody I missed you too!" My heart is so full just watching how good Aria is with my girls. She even gets little Haven to embrace her, and Haven is the shyest person ever.
"You have to come see my new doll! She comes with a dog too!" And just like that, Aria is dragged off by my girls, leaving me smiling to myself as I cook.
————————————————————————
A couple hours pass, and after everyone eats dinner we all sit and watch some Disney movie. Well, Aria and I watch. Haven has fallen asleep on top of Aria and Elody is sprawled out on the floor, dozed off.
"I think someone wore them out" I say.
"They were very energetic, I think we played for at least two hours."
"They really did miss you. And they don't like a lot of people so you should feel special." Aria smiles and looks at the sleeping Elody. "I think I'm going to put them to bed. I have gifts to wrap and I can't do that with them in here."
"Oh can I do it?"
"Knock yourself out."
Aria carefully gets off the couch, Haven still in her grasp, and moves up the staircase to Haven's room. I sip my wine and try not to smile too much at the sight of the woman I'm basically in love with put my daughter to bed. She comes back down and gently picks up Elody, before bringing her upstairs too.
When she returns, there is a huge smile on her face, which is a rare sight. I get off the couch and finish the rest of my wine, trying desperately to ignore how fast my heart is beating.
"You're good with them" I point out. She runs a hand through her messy hair before saying,
"They're great kids. Almost makes me hate Sean a little less for helping create 'em." I can't help but laugh, even though she's dissing my soon to be ex husband. "Can I help with wrapping? I don't want to go back to my quiet house."
"Sure, I'd like that" I say, and smile in her direction.
She gets situated on the floor while I get the unwrapped gifts from the closet, along with rolls of wrapping paper.
"Now, you do know how to wrap gifts right?" I ask, now sitting next to her with my legs tucked under me.
"I'm not completely incompetent" she says, rolling her brown eyes. "Hey I had a Barbie almost just like this!" Aria digs through the pile of presents I bought for the girls.
"Hey I liked your instagram post from the other night" I say, stifling a laugh. Her face goes white and she quickly scrambled to find her phone.
"What did I post?!" Aria finds her phone and opens the app, and covers her mouth in shock as she looks at the pictures. "I don't even remember taking any of these!"
"Honestly they're good pictures. Minus the one of you on top of some girl..." Her face flushed red and she nervously rubs her neck.
"Well the next time I drink I will lock my phone in a vault beforehand" she says, tossing her phone besides her. I just laugh and try to get the image of her and that girl out of my head.
About a half hour later, her and I have fallen into a rhythm. We split the gifts into an Elody pile and a Haven pile, and just work our way through our respective presents. Aria even turned on soft Christmas music. Frank Sinatra's version of Christmas hits plays softly through the Alexa. A new storm of snow sweeps through our town, and white flakes fall in front of the big living room window. I can seriously see myself spending every December like this, wrapping presents with her, kissing her outside as snow falls all around us, sipping hot chocolate and watching old Christmas movies together under a warm blanket. My heart....
"Tell me something about yourself that no one else knows" Aria says, breaking the silence. I finish taping a book for Elody, and just chuckle in response. "C'mon! I want to know you" she begs.
"It's embarrassing!"
"Aha! You thought of something!" Aria looks at me expectantly with a stupid smirk. I just shake my head as my cheeks flush.
"Yeah, but I'm not telling you!" No way am I giving this information up, for her to taunt me with for God knows how long.
"Veraaaa" she whines. I grin and keep shaking my head. "Fine." Suddenly, she starts crawling over to me, and boldly parks herself right in front of me. Aria puts one hand on either side of me, and I instinctively lean back onto my elbows. I scan her face, and get hung up on her lips. She straddles my hips, and slowly leans over me, waiting for me to crack. She grabs my wrists and holds them to the ground above my head. Fuck. I have to press my legs together due to the burning in my center. I bite my lip and stare up at her. Aria smirks for a second, then, with no warning, begins attacking my neck with kisses. She finds the spot I'm most ticklish in, and focuses her attention on it as I crack up and writhe under her with laughter. I try to get her back, but she still has my hands bound. I wiggle under her, laughing so hard my stomach starts to hurt. The sensation gets to be too much and I finally give.
"Fine, fine! My full name is Verena Felicity Inez Avila!" I spew out, causing my cheeks to redden. Aria releases my arms, and sits up, still on my waist. She processes for a second, but then bursts out in laughter like it's the funniest damn thing she's ever heard. "Yeah, keep laughing, I dare you!"
"I'm sorry, it's just so unique. Verena Felicity Inez? How did you parents even come up with that?" Her laughter finally dies down and I run my hands over my face.
"They were big Catholics and wanted to name me after Saints, hence Verena..."
"You don't like it? I think it's pretty, Verena Felicity Inez." I playfully smack her on her side and she just giggles before getting off me and lying down so we're shoulder to shoulder.
"Of course I don't like it! It was embarrassing to grow up with!"
"But at least you had your pet dinosaur to protect you, right?" She says, stifling a laugh.
"Hey! Didn't anyone ever teach you to respect your elders?"
We both laugh for a little, as we lay on the ground, the soft glow of our Christmas tree being the only illumination in the room. I roll onto my side and prop myself up with a hand under my head. I just stare at the beautiful girl as she does the same to me. Aria bites her lip, and when she releases it, it's shiny and pink and I can't help myself anymore. I'm quick to grab her soft jaw and mesh our lips together. She doesn't immediately kiss back, probably because of shock, but she soon brushes her tongue against my lips, asking for entrance. I roll on top of her for a better angle. She lets out delicate whimpers as our tongues battle for dominance. Aria has the softest lips I've ever felt in my entire life. She's driving me crazy.
I eventually move down her jaw and onto her neck, definitely leaving an array of bruises. Aria deeply moans and runs her hands through my hair. Never in a million years did I think that I'd be feeling like this at my age. I thought my days of passion were over, until I met her.
Suddenly, I hear little footsteps upstairs moving around, and I quickly sit up. Aria whimpers at the loss of contact and I look over to the stairs. Fuck.
"I gotta go check on Haven, she gets nightmares, I'm sorry..." I say. Aria quickly holds herself up with her elbows and shakes her head.
"It's fine, you go be supermom, I can wait..."
I smile gratefully and kiss her soft lips one more time.
"Mommy!" someone cries out from upstairs. Be a mom, they said. It'll be fun, they said...