Unexpected Attraction

Episode2

I shrugged and shifted closer to her underneath the duvet to wrap my arms around her, at least having her soft body pressed into mine would help reduce the tension. I also pushed the suspicions behind my mind because she had been a very good mother figure to my daughter and had filled up the space of my late wife so that I didn’t have to worry if my child was okay whenever I was not around. She’ll probably let me know if it was important, so I planted a kiss on her earlobe and drifted off to sleep. It was the most beautiful night ever.

This morning, as I cuddle her curvaceous waist, reminiscing the memories of last night and inhaling the sweet woody fragrance from her lovely body, the faint beeps jolt me back to reality. It’s Alice’s phone again, and I almost let it be, thinking it’s an alarm. But the beeps keep coming, so I have to stretch my hands so I can turn it off.

I pick up the phone to switch to silent mode when something catches my attention. Something that leads to the opening of a huge can of worms.

Already sitting up and with shaky hands, I glance through her goddamn phone, my eyes almost popping out of their sockets at the content of the messages I am reading. I’m swallowing the anger brewing inside me like a cup of hot coffee, but the last message pricked something inside me and I shove the sleeping petite form beside me so hard that she jolts out of sleep, her eyes snapping open in shock.

“M…Mario what’s wrong?” She inquires with an alarmed expression, her curly lashes flapping fast.

“What’s wrong?” I feel my head exploding and if I wasn’t raised to not hit a woman, I would have launched at her that instant.

I raise the phone to her face, waving the screen slowly as shock and fear spread across her oval-shaped face.

“I..I’m..oh s**t, f**k Jake!” She mutters in a defeated voice, tears pooling in her eyes that instant, too.

“What the hell are you saying, Alice? I’m f*****g asking you what these damn messages mean! And who’s Jake?” I am out of bed now, the phone tightly clutching in my palm as I rummage for my shorts from the pile of our clothes lying carelessly on the floor. I find it and slip into it noiselessly.

She gets out of bed also, the tears still trickling down her eyes in large torrents. “I will never think of hurting Amelia. Mario, at least not after I’ve gotten to know you both and fallen for you guys. It’s just that…” she sniffs back as if she is contemplating on what to say and just when I’m about to ask why she is suddenly mute, she continues.

“It’s just that Jake has me in a tight corner and I dare not go against his orders.” Her whole body is quivering as she says this.

“Who is this motherfucker to you, and what has it got to do with texting you to end my daughter’s life in her sleep? Alice, why are you plotting to kill my child?!!” I take a step forward just as she takes one backward.

“He’s…he…he is my boyfriend and…

“He asked me to do it.” Her reply sounds weird and stupid.

The spacious room suddenly feels small as my insides feel choked and tightened, the air is finding it hard to flow freely inside me. Looking at the young woman before me—the one who was just my babysitter until I started to get attracted to her— telling me how she isn’t only a spy, but a murderer, is enough reason to choke me.

I don’t know how to feel or how to react because the pains of losing my dear wife just months back from a robbery at the mall where she went to grab groceries with our five years old daughter are still stabbing me in the chest like nail-being driven into wood and now finding someone out there sent an assassin in the guise of a sitter to kill my daughter is making me madder.

“And where is this boyfriend of yours?” My voice doesn’t sound like mine, it doesn't have that soft and slurry timbre I normally speak with, this one is dry and firm, straight to the point kinda.

Alice blinks in futile attempts to stop her tears before answering.

“He..he..he’d kill me if I shared his address.” She hugs her arms around her slender body with her mouth pouted as she says this. Currently, I feel like grabbing her neck and strangling the life outta her.

“Daddy! Alice! Who’s gonna read me my bedtime stories tonight?” My daughter’s voice breaks into our conversation abruptly. We both turn to see my ginger color haired daughter run into the room without even knocking. Her hair is braided into mini twists that are falling all over her face as she moves.

‘shoot! My daughter just walked in on her daddy and her sitter half-n***d inside the bedroom. Mario, what sorta dad are you?’ My subconscious jeers at me.

Amelia stops in front of us and has her green eyes fixated on us, her little hands on her waist as she examines Alice from me to Alice who is trying to hide her tears, those fake b****y tears.

“Daddy, is Alice crying? Did she hurt herself while playing?” Her question sounds so innocent, with how her brows curve in concern.

I quickly wrap my white towel around my waist and plant a kiss on Amelia’s forehead. “Baby, I think Alice got herself hurt. Just go to your room, Daddy will take care of this mess okay?” But my curious daughter isn’t convinced about my response. “But Daddy, why are the both of you n***d?” She asks, her tiny lips hanging open like a letter O.