"Where did you disappear to this morning?" Xander drops his suitcase on the dining table chair and then approaches Cara from behind, placing his hands on her growing baby bump as he places a kiss on her neck. "I love seeing your face when I wake"
Cara stops arranging the napkins on the dining table and turns to her handsome distraction with a bright smile on her face. "Hey," She mutters before capturing his lips into hers. Slow, soft, and brief, the kiss is a perfect way to start both their mornings
"I was inspired to make breakfast, told the kitchen staff to take the morning off," Cara says as she adjusts his collar.
"You know, you can't always be giving my staff days off. I pay them for a reason." Xander walks over to the chair where he dropped his suitcase.
"Same thing I told her," Jonathan appears from nowhere with Xander's suit.
"Well, some people actually take the day off." Cara rolls her eyes at Jonathan's direction.
"I don't need a day off,"
Xander collects the suit from Jonathan's hands, and then he begins to wear it.
"I bet what you have prepared is mouth-watering, but I have a meeting this morning. I am so sorry." He approaches a pouting Cara and places a light kiss on her cheeks.
"Wait," Cara calls out to Xander who has already picked his briefcase and is ready to leave. Cara walks to the kitchen, then back to the dining with a food jar. She walks to him and stretches it forward with the cutest smile.
"What's this?" Xander looks down at her hand in utter confusion.
"I packed lunch for you," She says, a smile still on her face.
"You are joking right?" Xander says slightly amused.
"Why would I be?"
Xander burst into laughter. He tries to control it seeing that Cara's smile as turned to a frown.
She begins to feel dumb holding the food jar out for him and Cara doesn't like looking dumb. "Keep laughing, I'll pour the hot food on you." Cara frowns.
"I am sorry," Xander tries to control himself, he takes the food jar from her. "Thank you." He places a kiss on her lips before leaving the room.
"Why do I feel stupid?" Cara turns to Jonathan who has been watching the pair.
"Don't, that was a cute gesture," Jonathan says with a straight face.
Cara always wonders if this man has any other facial expression.
"Then why was he laughing?"
"It's foreign to him. No one packs lunch for anyone in this house." Jonathan says as he walks out of the dining to the sitting room.
Just then Cara sees where her curious self can gain more information about Alexander Black.
"You really do know him don't you?" Cara follows him into the sitting room.
"Of course, I have been working here since he was a child."
Cara decides to hit the nail on the head since Jonathan is a man with lots of work to do. Cara walks in front of him to halt his movement.
"Need anything, Madam Cara?"
"How was he like when he was with Liza?"
"That information is something I won't be able to provide," Jonathan says as he shifts to the left to make way for him to leave but Cara blocks him.
"Come on," Cara urges, "You were here when they were together, I am sure there's something you can say."
When Xander told Cara that Liza cheated, she had been trying to get him to talk more about it but he has been shutting her down. She just wants to know what was in the dynamics of their relationship that makes Liza so confident that they are meant to be.
What if they are actually not meant to be and Cara is just a roadblock?
"I shouldn't," Jonathan says sternly as he attempts to leave again through the right but Cara beats him to it.
"Whatever you say can't be worse than what's going on in my mind." Cara insists.
~~~
Cara played the pregnancy card and so many others before Jonathan cracked. He hates that she is so persistent.
"Liza was there for Alexander when he needed her the most, the time his parents died. Xavier search for solace in alcohol drinks, Alexander had Liza. She fixed him the best way she knew how by helping him channel his grief towards taking over his father's company. He did just that and today he is more successful than his father."
Now Cara gets it, she gets where Liza's confidence is coming from. How can she compete with that? The history they have together.
"You shouldn't be asking how Alexander was when he with Liza. You should ask how he was before he lost his parents."
Cara pauses for a while before she speaks, "How was he then?"
"He was ambitious and intelligent as he is now but then, he laughed when jokes were told, he smiled, he always looked after his twin and he even played music..."
Cara cuts Jonatan off, "Xander, music?" She says in surprise as she laughs.
"Yes, there was a piano just right here in the sitting room." He gestures to the space in the sitting room. "He learned to play it from his mum."
"I would have loved to see that." Cara smiles,
Jonathan stands up from the couch where they were sitting, "After their death, he had it removed and placed in the attic"
"You shouldn't be worried about Liza because the Xander I see now, laughs when jokes are told and smile a lot and that's all you and the babies you are carrying," Jonathan says before he walks out.
Cara can swear she saw him smile which makes her smile in return.
~~~
"What are we celebrating again?" Dianne asks her friend who's swaying out of rhythm to a song playing on her iTunes.
"To Alexander leaving his little curly-haired bitch," Liza smiles as she empties her bottle of wine.
"You might want to take a pause on the celebration," Dianne says as she stares at a picture that will definitely piss her friend off.
"What?" Liza says as she walks up to her friend who's lying on the couch.
Dianne zooms in on the picture she intends on showing Liza before handing her phone to Liza. Liza's expectation comes crashing frown when she sees a picture of Cara and Xander kissing in front of the restaurant.
"Ughhhh," Liza screams as she sends the phone flying across the room.
"What the hell?" Dianne sits up, "That's my phone." She rushes to the corner of the room where the phone is to check if it's in good condition.
Fortunately, just a cracked screen guard.
"Why do you like running my joy?" Liza yells at Dianne.
"I am trying to wake your ass up. You are becoming obsessed and it's not a good look on you." Dianne yells equally. "You guys had something special but you fucked up, so let him go. Have a little self-respect and let him be happy."
"I make him happy, he needs me," Liza argues.
"Not anymore." Dianne says, "Look Jason's friends have been trying to ask you out, stop being hostile to them. You'll never know, you might fall in love again." Dianne shrugs.
"I don't want to date your boyfriend's crackhead friends." Liza spits.
Dianne shakes her head because it's no use, she's talking to a brick wall.
Now Liza knows that getting rid of Cara won't be easy, "Too bad, I used to be a strong advocate for women supporting women." Liza mutters to herself, as she already knows her next line of action.
~~~
"Great, you are back." Cara claps in excitement ambushing Xander at the door as he comes back for work.
"What's going on?" Xander asks with a half-smile on his face.
"I have a surprise for you," Cara says grabbing his hand and leads him into the sitting room.
"Ta da," Cara yells as they get into the sitting room. Her hands gesture at the piano she had Marco and a few staff help her carry, back to the position where Jonathan said it used to be.
To Cara it adds beauty more to the sitting room, it never should have been removed.
Xander's steps become slower as memories that involve the piano comes rushing into his mind.
Cara walks over to the piano and pats it, "A little birdie told me you played back in the days, want to play something for me?" Cara urges.
Xander looks at the excited woman near the piano and then back at the piano with a frown on his face. "Put it back where you found it," Xander says sternly before walking away.
Cara stands there in utter confusion as she tries to process what just happened.
~~~