| 14 | Family time
2119 Words
Damien POV
"Well, there you go, buddy. Now you know what all of us have known for years." Jaxon says, smiling.
She loves me, Paulina truly loves me! What a day to be alive! I make a victory fist in the air before I remember that there are others here and compose myself by clearing my throat. Brody is lying on the floor and holds his stomach, laughing like a crazy person.
"Stop laughing. It's not funny!" I huff and pout like a little child.
"Oh, but it is! You look like that nerdy teenager in movies who gets the girl in the end." Jaxon snickers.
Okay, for someone who kills and hurts people for a living, I much look ridiculous right now. It doesn't matter to me, though, because she loves me! She didn't look happy when she said it, slightly pained, like she don't want to love me the same way I love her.
"What do you think about me bringing her on a date?" I ask, suddenly feeling self-conscious about the whole thing.
"Yes, she loves date-night. Always did, even when we were teenagers and still had to climb into our bedroom windows at night not to get caught." Adrien says in a nostalgic voice.
"Um... Do you- do you think that you can help me plan something?" I ask him shyly.
Adrien squeals like a little girl before he picks something up from his bag. With a slam, he puts a heavy and thick binder on the coffee table. We watch him with quirked eyebrows and wonder why he has a full binder with stuff regarding Paulina. He looks at us, a little confused.
"What? She's my best friend, and I know all about my queen," he states proudly.
"What's in it?" Brody asks with interest, trying to take a sneak peek before Adrien smacks his hand away.
"Everything from her childhood traumas to why she doesn't like Ryan Gosling," he says sadly, and Jaxon gasps. "Yes, I know. She gave me a detailed list of all the stuff that annoys her with him both as an actor and as a person. That was a depressing day... Anyhow, here is everything you need to make her eyes twinkle like the stars in the sky."
"Are you a poet suddenly?" Jaxon teases him.
"Oh, you love it."
"That, I do," he answers and kisses Adrien on the forehead.
They are disgustingly cute; you know those couples who say 'we' when they talk about stuff and can't stay away from each other for an extended period of time? Adrien and Jaxon are that couple. Thankfully, it isn't that bad anymore. It was worse in the beginning when they stopped dating and became partners.
Those fights they had were a pain in my ass. We would have needed Paulina with us then, I don't do 'b***h talk' like they said they needed. I don't gossip either, it's not my thing, and I could barely stand to be in the same room with them for a while. It's gotten better during the years, thank God!
"Thank you for this, Adrien. You've been really helpful." I say and smile.
"Don't talk about it. I have three binders for her wedding too."
"Why do you have binders for everything that includes Paulina?" Jaxon exclaims in a high pitched voice.
"It's important things! Like um... Centerpieces and stuff."
Brody sits down beside me while the couple walks away, probably towards Paulina and the children. I flip the pages one by one, until I suddenly stop to make sure that I read the text right. Yup, this is news to me. Brody looks baffled also.
"Paulina did three abortions and had one miscarriage when she was a teenager? How come she never told me?" I ask myself.
"Well, it isn't really a good topic to start talking about at a date." Brody answers and flips to another page, he starts to laugh.
"Why are you laughing?"
"He even wrote which cup size she has on her bra and which s*x-position she prefers." Brody falls off the couch and laughs.
Paulina walks out to us and looks confused when we slam the binder shut with a thud. Me and Brody try to look as innocent as we can. She look at us closely and down at the cover. Before either one of us can react, Paulina snagged it from the table and opened it on the same page we were looking at. She closes her eyes shut, breathes in, and screams.
"ADRIEN! I SWEAR TO GOD I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"
"What? What is it?" he comes jogging into the room, and when he sees the binder, he gulps. "Ops."
"I can't believe you... Kids, shut your ears. Mommy's going to have to use grown-up words."
"They've closed them!" Jaxon shouts from the other room.
"Adrien..." her nose flares violently. "Ets una puta! Et mataré, tonto! Maleït també. Gallina al cul! Puto cony!"
Me and Brody looks confused. What is she saying? Adrien looks scared, actually, which he never does, not when it comes to her. He probably knows what we all know, don't piss Paulina off because she's going to cut your balls off.
"What is she saying?" Brody asks.
"Oh, she's calling me a w***e, among other things. Her grandma talked Catalan to her when she was little. She knows the language but only uses it when she's dangerously angry." he says, dodging for all the objects Paulina throws at him.
After screaming herself hoarse, using every swear word she can, and throwing three table lamps to pieces, she calms down. She still looks at Adrien with a fatal gaze before smiling softly at him and hugging him. He kisses her on the forehead, and they laugh. Their friendship is weird.
"So, did these fine gentlemen find my cup size interesting?" she asks with a smirk.
Brody has the sense to look humiliated, and I can bet my cheeks are red with embarrassment. She laughs at us and kisses us on the cheek before she goes to the kitchen to make coffee. Her mood swings may be from hell, but I'll be damned if I didn't love every single one of them.
"Do anyone have a preference for dinner?" she asks and looks in the fridge who Jaxon stocked earlier.
"Oh! Can you please make your special chicken stew? Pretty please?" praying Adrien with big puppy eyes.
She giggles at him and nods. He dances a little dance of joy, and Jaxon laughs at him. Paulina begins to bring out all the ingredients she needs and cut the vegetables quickly and knowledgeable speed. She looks like a cook; this is her element. I walk up to her, and she looks at me questionably.
"Do you need any help?"
"You can peel the carrots if you want," she says with a soft smile.
I nod my head and begin to work. '9 crimes' begin to play from the speakers, and she sings along in the song. She sets every tone perfectly, and her ability to do multiple things simultaneously is amazing. When the song ends, the next one comes on 'heartbreak hotel,' and she sings along again.
She is so beautiful without knowing it. Just such a thing as now that she's standing in front of me and frying the chicken, she's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. She moves over the chicken to a saucepan and pours in more ingredients. The carrots, I have long forgotten.
Paulina turns to me with a confused look, probably wondering why I'm staring at her. Her gaze lands on the pile of carrots that are still untouched. I was distracted by her beauty and only had time to peel two pieces. She chuckles and moves to help me.
It only takes her a few minutes to peel all of them. If I had done that, it would take at least twenty minutes before I would've been done. But since she moves around the kitchen like a pro, I guess she's used to working with food and food preparations.
"Can you be kind and take down the rice? It's in the cabinet above me," she says while stirring the stew.
I open the cabinet and freeze when I feel her petite body against my muscular one. My heart beats hard, and I lose my breathing for a second. This is the effect Paulina has on me. I feel like a horny teenager without a girlfriend. Her breath is ragged, and her eyes closed. She can feel it.
Without thinking about it, I turn her towards me and put my lips on hers. She kisses me back, violently, and her hands hold a firm grip on my hair. One of my hands holds her back head while the other caresses her waist. She nibbles me on the lower lip, and I grunt lowly of pleasure.
"Mommy, why are you kissing daddy?"
She opens her eyes in horror and turns to Watch Fiona. Our daughter looks at us with big questioning eyes, and I find myself glimpsing hope in them. Oh no, this is not good. Neither of us wants Fiona to hope that we'll get together when we're not sure yet.
"Um, you see, baby... Sometimes, mommy's and daddy's kisses to comfort the other. I was in a little pain and sad, but daddy made it all good again." she says and tries to explain it the best she can without revealing too much. "Tell you what. Daddy has been bad and hasn't washed his hands. Can you make sure that everyone does that?"
Fiona looks at me with a stern expression that makes me fight against a laugh. She truly is her mother's daughter, but it will take a few years more until she's as intimidating as Paulina is. I fake being ashamed and pout my lip.
"Let's go, daddy. You've been bad, go and wash those hands, mister!" Fiona says and points at the bathroom.
I do as she says, and when I pass the other three, I give them a 'please play along' look. Fiona is turning this whole 'go and wash those hands' into a witch trial. She's chasing Darby with the toilet brush to make him go inside the bathroom; in the end, he does. Paulina looks smug when we return. She and Fiona high fives.
"That's my good girl, you tell them," she says and puts Fi in her high chair while we just stand there, waiting. "What are you looking at? Sit down and eat."
I sit down beside Fiona and have Brody on my other side. Paulina is sitting opposite me with Caleb at her hand, his mouth is watering by the food on his plate, but he isn't touching it. I look around, and none of the kids do, not even Adrien. What are they waiting for?
"Okay, mommy made the food. Who's going to wash the dishes, and who will put the dishes in the sink afterward?"
Ah, I get it.
"I can wash the dishes," Caleb says, and she smiles at him before kissing him on the crown of his head.
"I'll put away the plates," Noah says, and that was that.
"No! I want to do that!" Darby exclaims, annoyed at his brother.
"Don't start with me, mister. You had earned yourself a time-out for not wash your hands when Fi told you to."
"But she's little! Why do I have to listen to her?" he whines.
"That's another ten minutes."
"But-"
"Do you want another?" Paulina asks with a deadly look.
Darby shakes his head 'no' and sighs with defeat. I know how it feels, buddy, but you can't win against your mother. She's scary as hell sometimes. Paulina indicates that we can begin to eat, and we do. This is one of the best dishes I've ever tasted. Adrien is doing his happy dance in his seat again.
Jaxon, Brody, and Noah discuss who is the best character in 'Star Wars' while Adrien is speaking to the others. Paulina is eating in silence; she looks at me with a warm smile. I return the smile and feel all fuzzy inside. When we sit here altogether, I understand that this is how it's supposed to be. This is family.
- Writer
