He stands in front of me, this man who has literally thrown my world upside down, asking me to have tea with our daughter. Our daughter. The tears so evident in his eyes that he wants to give this moment to our daughter. If I wasn’t sure I loved him before, I love him now. This whole day has been out of a dream. It’s been out of a fairy tale, to say the very least. Being swept away in a private plane to my bucket-list destination. Then to have this suite that is four times the size of my apartment, to having a whole closet full of clothes that I would only dream of buying. To walking out to a harp playing for a tea party for a four-year-old. It’s literally the definition of a fairy tale. These things don’t happen, at least I didn’t think they did.
“Okay,” I give in and take a step forward, even though inwardly I cringe thinking about the fact I can’t ever return these shoes.
The pair of shoes that were going to be my gift to myself after I booked fifty clients, are now on my feet. “Oh, there they are,” Markos says, looking at us and smiling. He also has changed into a suit, his hands in his pockets.
“Momma,” Avery says, coming over to me wearing her Cinderella gown, looking like a princess, the sound of her dress swishing along the way. Her hair is softly curled with a new tiara on her head, this one with baby-blue rhinestones to match the dress, obviously. “Look at my glass shoes.”
“They aren’t real glass,” Markos assures me. I chuckle and shake my head as she lifts her big poofy dress to show me the clear plastic shoes. “Vivienne knows someone who—” I laugh because whereas this would have shocked me, I don’t know why I’ve come to expect it.
“Look at them,” Vivienne says, the smile on her face from ear to ear. She also has changed into a beautiful baby-blue lace dress that fits her amazingly. “We should get a family picture.”
“Yes,” Stefano agrees, slipping his hand in mine, “let’s get a family picture.”
I walk with him to the corner of the patio and stand next to him. He places his arm around me, pulling me to his side, with Avery in front of us. Vivienne takes the picture and then I call over one of the people who are setting up this tea party. “Would you mind taking a picture of us?” I then look over at Vivienne. “Come on, Grand-mère,” I say in the best French I can muster. She comes over and stands next to me as Markos goes on the side of Stefano. The five of us smile for the picture. “Now, just the three of you,” I tell Vivienne and Markos as they stand with Avery. Instead of standing behind her, Vivienne gets down to Avery’s level and Markos follows as they hug her in the middle. The picture is so beautiful, I know I’m going to get it framed for her room.
“Now, shall we have tea?” Vivienne asks, clapping her hands as Avery walks over to the table.
“Vivienne,” I call her name softly and she looks over at me. The smile on her face fades as she comes over to me.
“Is everything okay?” she asks me, the worry etched over her face.
Her hands reach for mine. “I just want to thank you,” I say nervously, “for everything you’ve done for us.”
“Oh, Addison.” She smiles. “I’m just thankful you aren’t keeping Avery from me.” She blinks away the tears and all I can do is squeeze her hand.
“I will never keep her away from you,” I say honestly. “My girl deserves all the love in the world.” I look over at Avery, who is sitting in a chair with Markos and Stefano on each side of her as she explains to them how to drink tea. They both hang on to every word she says as if she’s describing how the sun and moon work.
“We would do anything for the two of you,” Vivienne assures me softly and I look back at her. “Nothing can take the place of your mom,” she says gently, “but I’ll be here for you in whatever you need even if it’s to talk about Stefano. Or complain about him. I love my son but no one is perfect.” She tries to make a joke of it, but all I can do is try not to become a blubbering mess in front of her.
I swallow the lump in my throat, breathing out slowly before I answer her, “You’ve known about her for two weeks and you’ve done more than my mother has ever done for us. And she’s known about her for her whole life.”
“Are you guys going to join us?” Markos asks from his seat, holding a teacup with his pinky up. “She’s already eating all the cakes.” I look over at Avery, who has chocolate on her cheek and also whipped cream on her nose. Stefano grabs a napkin and cleans her face and she just smiles at him, the two of them scrunching up their noses at each other.
I stand here while Vivienne walks over to the table and Markos gets up to pull out her chair. She kisses his lips softly before sitting down and grabbing one of the linen napkins to put across her lap. Stefano gets up from his chair and comes over to me, bending his head. “Are you staying here so you don’t scuff the shoes?” he whispers in my ear and I can’t help but chuckle. “Do you want me to carry you there?”
“I’m good,” I reply, looking down and taking a step and then another one. He pulls out the chair for me, just like his father did to his mother. “Thank you,” I say and he bends his head and kisses my lips.
My eyes go big in shock, as he moves over to his own chair. “So we can assume you two are together?” His mother doesn’t skip a beat.
“We are,” Stefano says at the same time as I say, “We haven’t discussed it.”
His parents just look at us. “I remember that,” Markos says and Vivienne just rolls her eyes. “I sent her a fish.”
“Oh, mon dieu.” Oh my goodness. “He sent me a living fish.” She throws her hands up. “Who does that?”
“Well, good news for me.” Markos smiles at her. “I wore her down.”
I can’t help but laugh at him as he tells us the story of her freaking out and returning said fish. My stomach hurts from laughing so hard. Stefano sits rolling his eyes while he leans over and puts his arm over my leg.
I don’t even know how long we sit at the table, but the sun slowly goes down. Avery, of course, is the center of attention as she gets back up and walks with her dress. It’s not long before she comes over and climbs into my lap. “How about we get you a bath?” I ask her, and she just nods.
“It’s the time difference,” Vivienne observes. “It’s nine o’clock for her.”
The five of us walk inside. “Give me a kiss.” Vivienne squats down in front of her. “How about tomorrow we take you to see some puppies?”
“Um,” I say nervously, “absolutely not.” My tone is sharp. “No pets allowed in our place.”
“We are going to visit one of my places,” Markos explains, “there is a puppy class early in the morning.”
“Can I go see the puppies?” Avery looks at me and I just nod my head.
“We’ll call you tomorrow when she wakes up,” Stefano says to his parents, who just nod at us. They walk out of the room with their arms locked around each other.
“They could stay here,” I say when Stefano closes the door and then glares at me. “What? It’s a three-bedroom suite. I can share with Avery.”
“You can share yourself in my bed is what you can do,” he grumbles and then walks back toward where the two bedrooms are. “I’ll get the bath going,” he tells me and side by side we get Avery ready for bed. By the time her head hits the pillow, her eyes are already closed, no matter how she fights it. I look down at her in the middle of a king-size bed, looking like a real princess in a big bed.
Stefano slips his hand in mine, pulling me out of the room and then heading to the master bedroom. “Are you tired?” he asks me as he leans down to kiss my neck, making me smile. I don’t have a chance to answer him before his mouth covers mine. Needless to say, I do slide into bed, with him of course, since he wrapped me in his arms and refused to let me go. I was going to wait for him to fall asleep and then slip out, but sleep took me first.
I feel a soft kiss from beside me as the bed goes down. My eyes struggle to open. “Baby,” Stefano says softly, as he pushes the hair away from my face. My eyes flicker open and I see Stefano and it looks like he’s already dressed.
“What time is it?” I ask, stretching my arms from out of the covers.
“It’s almost five,” he answers me. “My parents just came and got Avery.”
“What?” I ask, so confused. “Why?”
“One, she’s been up since three thirty,” he tells me, and I just look at him. How did I not hear any of this? “Three hour time change is a killer. She is going with my parents to have pancakes.”
“It’s five a.m.,” I repeat, getting up on one elbow.
“Can you get dressed?” he asks me. “The car is going to be downstairs in about ten minutes.” He leans forward. “It’s a surprise.” I glare at him. “Okay, fine, we are going to watch the sunrise at a special spot.” My eyes go big, and my heart speeds up. “So can you be ready?”
“Yes,” I mumble, pushing him away from me. “Move.” I push him again, walking to the bathroom and washing my face and brushing my teeth. Going to the walk-in closet, I wonder if I should just wear the outfit I came here in. Instead, I grab a pair of jeans off the hanger and look for the price tag, but of course it’s not on them. I slide my legs in the jeans and then just grab a white short-sleeved crop top that sits right about the waist, showing a little bit of skin. I bend to snatch up my shoes before walking back out to see Stefano sitting on the bed, waiting for me. When he hears me, he looks up, and my feet move to stand in front of him. “I’m ready,” I tell him and he lifts his hands to grip my hips, pulling me to him.
I put my hands on his shoulders, looking down at him, my hair falling to the front. He tilts his head back. “You are so beautiful.” His voice is a whisper, and if I wasn’t looking at him, I don’t know if I would have heard it. “You take my breath away.” I lean down and softly kiss his lips. I have no choice but to do this to keep my lips busy, because if they aren’t, I would say things I shouldn’t. I would tell him, watching him be a father to our daughter has been the most beautiful thing I’ve seen. I would tell him the minute he kissed me again all these years later, it was just like it was back on the first day. I would tell him I am hopelessly in love with him, just the thought of me admitting that to him scares me more than I can ever imagine. “Let’s go,” he urges softly, getting up and slipping his hand into mine. We take the elevator down to the lobby where it is eerily quiet, the person behind the desk looking up and smiling at us.
The driver sees us and opens the back door of the black car. “Good morning,” I tell him as I get into the car. The city is still pitched in darkness. Stefano gets into the car beside me, both of us quiet as we make our way over to the bridge.
“Here we are,” the driver announces, stopping the car and getting out to open my door. I step out and I feel like I’m one among the clouds. The top of the bridge sticks out from the clouds, the two red lights at the top of the bridge blinking.
I literally catch my breath for how beautiful it is. The driver is telling Stefano where to go, but all I can do is look out into the city in the distance, the lights trying to cut through the thick fog. Stefano leads me over to the lookout point, which is a big rock. A couple of other people also have the same plan we do. Stefano sits down on the rock and pulls me down to sit in the middle of his legs. “This is—” I press my back to his chest as he wraps his arms around me, his head next to mine, looking out. “This has to be one of the best moments of my life,” I declare softly, turning my face to look at him. “Thank you.” I kiss his cheek and then look out into the distance and watch the black sky turn a soft golden color. The sun peeks out slowly at first and then moves higher and higher in the sky. And the higher it gets, the more the fog fades away on the horizon, and the lights in the distance slowly dim. I don’t know how long we sit here, the both of us not saying a word and just taking it in. Both of us are in our own thoughts. I wish I knew what he was thinking. I wish I knew what was going to happen now. I wish all these things while I secretly tell him and the universe, I hope he stays with us.
