After my tour of the house, Lucian's sisters told me they were going out for gifts for him. I agreed to not tell him and they took turns giving me hugs before they left. Lucian's mother, Mariana, called us in for a late breakfast, but not before telling Lucian how he should've fed me before we left Manhattan.
"I'm just saying, she's a skinny girl, look at her all hungry!" She pointed at me with a spoon. "You're lucky your mama makes some good café con leche."
N/A- In case you're wondering, Café Con Leche is a small breakfast dish from Spain consisting of a small amount of strong espresso coffee with hot frothy milk and magdalenas, lemon-flavored cupcakes or sugary churros.
Lucian and I sat across from each other at a black marble island counter in the kitchen while his father, Diego, sat at the end reading newspaper and magazines. "Yes, you do, mama. Where's Sebastian?"
"I think he's out with your sisters, mijo. It's just us four until they come back. Are you ready for tomorrow? Don't tell me you still don't care about your birthday." When he didn't say anything, she looked at me which meant I was supposed to answer.
"He's warming up to it." I said to her before looking at Lucian with an amused smile.
"Speaking of Lucian, he's told me you're very intelligent." Diego spoke up, putting away his newspaper and looking at me. It was still amazing how much he and Lucian looked alike, he was just older and didn't have dimples. "He's said a lot about you. You've only been together for...."
"Four months." I calculated all on my own. Lucian nodded and added on. "Well, technically, we didn't start dating until after a month of knowing each other, which was at the time I'd hired her." He gave me a rare warm smile.
Mariana had served magdalenas and our coffee, café con leche, and they were very delicious though it was the first time I had it. Diego had to run an errand so then it was just the three of us. Afterwards, Lucian asked if he could go out to see a friend named Marco. Mariana agreed as long as he was back before lunch.
"Be back before lunch, I'm serious Lou. You have a habit of staying out too long." She said, though the Lucian I knew wasn't like that.
"Yes, madre. I promise I'll be back at twelve o'clock. That's in three hours, okay?" He gave her a short hug before walking over to me. "Bye, Peyton." He, again, caught me off guard and kissed my cheek before keeping his lips close to my ear. "Don't let it change anything." He whispered. I nodded and he left the room with his keys in his hands.
I could still feel the spot on my cheek where he kissed me lingering, and it was tingling, it made me blush. "You two are so sweet together. It's obvious you've just started dating. You're very shy around each other." Mariana said.
*****
Lucian kept to his promise and returned at twelve o'clock on the dot. His siblings came back with many bags in their hands and Diego hadn't come back. He said he had a work emergency and he'd have to miss lunch. Lucian's 4 grandparents had came downstairs to meet me and they were hilarious with stories about him. On Diego's side, Lucian's grandparents were named Esteban and Anna. On Mariana's side, Lucian's grandparents were named Felipe and Adria. All four seemed to be in their early seventies.
We spent time in the living room, listening to every story Abuelo Esteban and Abuelo Felipe could possibly remember. Lucian I sat next to each other on one couch while Mariana, Abuela Anna and Abuela Adria sat in another against the wall. Esteban and Felipe were across from us sitting on the arms of a lounging chair.
Lucian and I had slightly gotten used to the idea of fake dating to the point that we were more comfortable with holding hands and having arms around each other sometimes. No kisses, though, except the cheek. And I was very fine with that.
I held his hand in my lap and he didn't seem to be bothered by it. After a while, everyone kind of went into their own conversations with each other. Mariana, Abuela Anna, and Abuela Adria were talking amongst themselves about how happy they were about Lucian having a girlfriend. They looked at us every ten seconds then gushed and giggled.
I moved on to a conversation with Lucian. "This isn't as weird as I thought." I said truthfully, though that didn't mean it wasn't weird at all.
He sighed inaudibly before focusing his hazel grey eyes on me. "I guess you're right. I just wish they didn't say all that stuff about me."
I laughed a little. "The stories weren't that bad. Are you ready to turn 26?"
"Peyton I'm ready to be 98." I chuckled at his words. "Tomorrow is going to be exhausting with the big party and hundreds of family members and loud music. It's just another year in age, I don't know why we need to be so extra about it. Just give wishes and presents and it's all good. I honestly don't want anything I don't need."
"Well at least we care enough to acknowledge your birthday." I squeezed his hand.
The whole day I spent time with his family. Actually, as soon as our conversation ended, Diego came back and dragged Lucian away, and Mariana took me for a walk in the garden behind the house.
She told me about Lucian. Not like everyone else did--telling cute and embarrassing stories. She told me how his brain usually worked, how his emotions worked--everything. She said he had problems with expressing how he felt, and when he was growing up and learned to talk and walk, he never spoke to anyone, and wouldn't even hug his own mother. But he warmed up eventually, and he learned to talk to people because of his psychologist.
She told me to be extremely straightforward when he does something wrong. But extremely kind when he learns his mistakes. Just try not to start a fight, or else he will wind up hurting you. No matter how angry he is or how angry you are, be careful and gentle. She mentioned how he didn't believe in love, and how it's always been like that ever since he learned what being in love meant. It was more like he didn't want to end up like heartbroken people with all that depression and sadness.
"So really, Lucian isn't just...pessimistic. He just has that natural and pure logical way of thinking." I said, just to make sure I understood.
"Si. He cannot help it sometimes if he's super negative. He gets mood swings, but I'm sure by your knowing him for four months, you've already experienced it already?" She chuckled as I nodded as if to say 'tell me about it'. "Anyway, all I'm saying is to be good to him, and he'll be good to you. Is there anything you're keeping from him?"
I stayed silent. "He knows somewhat about it, but he doesn't know all of it."
"Oh, well I suggest you tell him before it's too late. Lucian can smell a lie from a mile away, and once he learns there's a secret being kept, he will stop at nothing to figure it out. So tell him." She said.
I can't, that's the problem. If I do, there's a higher risk of him dying before the age of 30. He will kill Lucian when he learns that Lucian is involved with me. He shouldn't know right now, there's no way.
I temporarily dyed my hair yellowy blonde and got dull blue colored contacts. I had fake freckles across my cheeks and I changed my name to Peyton Riley James. I changed the way I dressed, the places I went, everything. Everything but my personality and memories are different. Noemi Peyton Mauvais-James doesn't technologically exist anymore, the FBI had made sure that every trace of the old me was gone and out of the system.
"Okay." I said, though I didn't intend on actually telling him.
*****
That night, Lucian and I got back in the house at the exact same time. It wasn't until we were about to go to bed that realization hit me like a train.
I couldn't sleep with my contacts in.
If Lucian wakes me up in the morning, I'll open my green eyes and he'll figure me out. So I asked him something. "Do you have a sleeping mask? I kinda can't sleep without one."
He furrowed his eyebrows and searched drawers and his bag. He pulled a sleeping mask from the nightstand drawer and tossed it to me. "Thanks." I walked into the bathroom and closed it. I took out my contacts case and carefully removed my medicinal color contacts, putting them in the case. My vision was now a little blurry, because I had slightly poor vision. I had to wear color contacts that also helped my vision. If I was alone, I'd wear regular contacts.
I pulled the mask on and made sure it shadowed over my eyes before walking out, clutching my contacts case tight in my hand. I quickly placed it in my bag and I got into bed while he was turned around. I pulled the mask over my eyes and slept faced away. He got into bed and it was weird. It's like we tried to stay as far away as we could without falling off.
I scooted back closer to the middle, and so did he. Now our backs were touching, and I was suddenly warm. It stayed that way for the rest of the night.
The next morning, I woke up an hour before he did and carefully put my contacts back in. It was alright to sleep for an hour. It takes two hours for me to fall into a deep sleep. So I fell asleep again. And it was like the hour was really five minutes, it went by so fast. We must've changed positions in the last hour because now we were facing each other and his hand found a way to rest on my waist. We were super close, but we were close enough.
Two seconds after I opened my eyes, he opened his. He blinked slowly, as if he was taking the time to remember everything. He didn't smile, he just stared into my eyes. And I stared into his. Dead yet meaningful silence filled the air. Without looking away, I grasped his forearm to the hand that held onto my waist. He didn't attempt to move his hand away.
I showed a small smile, and almost instantly, he slightly shook his head and moved his hand away before getting out of bed and leaving the room. What's his problem?
I sat up and sighed, grabbing my hairbrush and brushing through my messy hair. I got out of bed and straightened out my pink t-shirt and shorts. After brushing my teeth, I went downstairs and looked around to see if anyone but Lucian was up. No hope. I went into the kitchen and coincidentally, he was there sitting at the island counter with coffee in his hand. He was reading something on his phone, but I knew he knew I was in here. He just chose to ignore my presence.
"What did I do?" I asked.
He kept his gaze at his phone. "Nothing."
I sighed. "Is there something wrong?"
"No."
"Lucian--"
"Peyton, I am fine. There's nothing wrong." He broke into a smile, finally looking up at me. Is he bipolar?
I started to grin, walking around the counter to stand next to him. "Good. Happy birthday."
He kept his smile. "Thank you." His mother walked in and I pecked his cheek for the first time, which surprisingly made him release a deep chuckle.
"You two are so cute." She commented, turning on the oven. But he stopped her.
"Wait, mama. You need a break, I'll go downtown and get everyone breakfast from the cafe--"
"Oh no, Lucian. It's your birthday, I'm cooking." She states and he shrugged. "Plus, you're not getting out of the house that easily. You're gonna stay from the start of the party till the end."
He groaned, and just as he does that, Diego walks in with several magazines and drops them right in front of Lucian. "What is this?"
"You tell me."
I looked at the front covers, and they were dating back to four months ago in order to today. There were pictures of Lucian alone, Lucian with his old PA, Lucian alone, A picture of me, Lucian and I, Lucian and I, then us at the airport. All in order in a magazine timeline.
I looked at Diego, then it clicked in my brain. It must've clicked in Lucian's brain too, because he instantly widened his eyes. Diego clenched his jaw just like Lucian does. "Mhm. You see, there is no news of you two four months ago. Peyton doesn't come into the picture until a month later, around the time you said you hired her, which turned out to be true. So what's the lie?"
"So what? I lied about how long we've been dating. We started dating after I hired her. But that doesn't mean this is Sierra all over again. And the reason the press doesn't know, is because it's too much to have people bombarding us with even more bullshit."
"Language." Mariana said, not even looking at him. She was too busy cooking.
"Why did you lie in the first place?" Diego asked.
"Because you're so quick to jump to conclusions and you assume things without knowing all the facts."
"Hm, I wonder who else is like that?" I muttered sarcastically and he looked at me as to say 'you're so not helping'. I chuckled. "It's not like I'm lying." I nudged his shoulder and he shook his head, holding back a smile.
"Well anyways, I need you to come with me to the--"
"Thank God, okay let's go." Lucian quickly stood up.
"You don't even know where we're--"
"I don't care as long as I'm no where near this house today." Wow, he really doesn't like birthday parties. Mariana turned around with a scoff in disbelief. "Bye, Peyton." He placed a hand on the back of my head and kissed my temple.
"Bye, happy birthday." I said and he said goodbye to his mother before heading out with Diego. I looked at Mariana. "I guess he really hates parties."
"My, I'll never understand why." She chuckled. "And by the way, you don't have to be scared."
I was lost. "What do you mean?"
"Don't be afraid to kiss him in front of us. We don't care, we're just happy he's happy." She assured, and I was still confused. When she saw the obvious look on my face, she clarified more. "Just go ahead and kiss him already. It's obvious you want to. I know you two aren't really together. Did you think he got his 'people reading' from his father? Oh no, his father couldn't tell happy from sad. Don't worry, I won't tell a soul."
"Oh. Thanks. I'm just here to make sure he doesn't lose it." I laughed a little at the idea.
"But it's obvious that you like him."
"What? No." I denied. No, I do not.
"You do. It's so very obvious you to kiss him. Just do it." She pushed. "I'd very much like to see the outcome. But trust me, he won't get mad. Knowing my Lucian and the way he is around you, he will not be mad. He'll go crazy over it but he won't get mad."
She was so sure that I wanted to kiss Lucian, that I started to believe it myself. What if I do kiss him? I'd also like to see the outcome. But what's so bizarre--why am I giving this any thought in the first place? He's my boss.
Abuela Anna and Abuela Adria walked in. "What's this about kissing?" Oh God.
"Peyton here is denying the fact that she wants to kiss our little Lou." Mariana said and I silently groaned.
Abuela Anna gasped with delight. "Oh Peyton! You absolutely should! It would make his day!"
Yeah, make his day a thousand times worse.
"I can't." I shook my head.
"Do it. See what happens. He may like it, he may hate it. Despite what you think, you'll truly never know until you see for yourself." Abuela Adria said in a classic 'old person of wisdom' voice.
"Okay..." I trailed. This is not a good idea.
_______________________________________
Bye, loves!
- Kenleigh