Please, Call Me Auntie

Proposition

Thane

Avia: Latin for Grandma.

“Avia, what are you doing here this early?” I asked when I saw her sitting at the table having breakfast.

“ What? I can't come to see my grandson anymore?” She asks, and from her tone, I know she has something on her mind.

As I poured some orange juice, I avoided eye contact at all costs. “ No, ma’am. It's very early for you to be out.” Taking a sip, I said, “ I was just worried about your health.”

Slapping her hands on the table, she says, “ Worry about yourself!” Sighing, she says, “Look at the mess that your dear nephew has created. “

I stayed quiet, holding the glass of juice and avoiding eye contact. It was too early for me to be suck into this drama, and she wasn't done speaking her mind.

“ If it were back in my days, I would've whipped that boy into shape in no time,” she said, shaking her head in disappointment.

Still, I hold my tongue, knowing Avia, there is a reason she came here, not to talk about Jasper. Finally, she turns toward me and says, “ You are thirty. When will you get married and give me some Grandchildren?”

Ah, there it was, the reason for this morning's breakfast.

“I'm not interested in marriage, Avia,” I told her.

It's like I told her I robbed a bank; the way she reacted, I thought I sent her to an early grave. Quickly retracting my words, I say, “ Not now, at least.”

“If it's not now, when will it be?” She asks, “ When I'm dead, is that it?”

I took her hands and said, “ Avia, you know how much I hate it when you talk like that. You are still young, and there's time to see your grandchild.”

Pulling her hands away, she slapped me over the head. “ Time? Time is what you don't have” Poking me on the side of the head she goes “ Don't think I don't know you still have feelings for Soraya.”

I spilled the drink out just as I took a sip. With a wide eye, I stared at her. There are no words to describe the shock I felt at that moment. After all these years, I thought I had hidden my feelings well, but Avia saw right through me.

With shaky hands, I put my cup down and said, “ Avia, I don't know what you're talking about.”

Getting on her feet, she took her cane and said, “ I won't speak more about this matter. One thing I would say is if you plan on making a move, make sure it's the right one.” She got quiet for a second before saying, “God knows that Soraya deserves better than your Nephew.” With that, she left, leaving me frozen in my seat.

I couldn't stomach finishing my breakfast, as I was too shocked to enjoy it. Pushing away from the table, I got up and went to the car, where Erick was waiting. “We're going to the office,” I told him as soon as I got in the car.

“ Yes, Sir.”

We drove there in silence. I was still trying to figure out where I had slipped up to have Avia notice my feelings for her. Did she discover what I had planned, or was it just her guessing? Maybe she suggested I move because she wants our family to make up for Jasper’s mistakes. There were so many questions, yet with no answers. When we pulled into the parking lot, I had a headache forming at the back of my head. I leave the car and walk straight into the building to my elevator, not waiting for Erick. I need some Tynol before I go to any meeting.

Five minutes after I arrived at the office, I heard Erick running after me, “Sir, your nephew is here.”

Why? What does he want now?

“ Let him in,” I told Erick.

I could see he was fuming the second he walked into my office, guessing he was here for the wedding. “ Uncle, you have to let me cancel the wedding, there is no way that im going to marry that woman.” He was complaining.

“That woman was someone you spent five years with. Does that mean anything to you?” I ask him with a trace of anger.

“ Uncle, you don't understand what she did. There’s no way I will go through the wedding,” he says.

“What you do is not my problem, but the wedding stays, and that's final,” I told him, warning him.

Puffing and whining like the spoiled brat he grew up to be, he left my office, guessing to cry to his mother. I was about to take a deep breath when the Shaw Heir walked in like he owned the place. What’s with those young people thinking they could parade around here like it's nobody’s business?

Still, I entertained him. “ What did I do to own the pleasure of this visit?” I got out from behind the desk and leaned on it while blocking the chair from him. He had no reason to sit; he wouldn't be here long.

“ You need to drop out of the running for the Land. " This is not a statement but a demand.

Still wet behind the ears, this punk thinks he can order me around.” Kid, it's all war and fair in business, not cowardly.”

Angrily, he pointed a finger at my face, “I'm not a kid. I'm the Shaw Heir, with my family behind me. You can't win this bid.”

Hence, he was proving my point by throwing a tantrum, grabbing my finger, and making a show of squeezing it. “ Not gonna happen,” I signaled for Erick to show him out.

On his way out, he yelled, “ You will regret that, my family will make you pay!!”

Yeah, I regret many things in my life, and this isn't one of them, not in the least. I will be waiting for Shaw.

It was lunchtime when I returned to my quiet office, only for Erick to announce that I had a visitor, when you, the boss, couldn't get a moment's peace.

“ Tell whoever it is I'm not here,” I say to him with a tired look.

Erick looked around nervously, saying,” I don't think that's a good idea.”

Before I could have a chance to ask him why, she walks into the office looking like an Angel descended on earth to torture me in her white dress and long curly hair flowing, the noise from her slapping her hands on the desk got me out of my daze and took me straight to the last time she was in the office.

“ Why?” She asks getting up close to my face giving me a perfect view of those plum lips, reminding me of how they were wrapped around my… stopping myself from going down to the rabbit hole with my d**k already getting stiff against my zipper just from that single thought, clearing my throat “ What can I do for you?”

“ You can let me cancel the wedding with your nephew; that's what you can do for me,” she said before sitting in the chair across from me.

“ I can't do that,” I told her, and I could see that she was going to get angry, so I quickly said, “Despite what Jasper did to you, as the head of the family, I need to make sure that the Kline still has a face in this town, in other words the wedding stays as plan”

She got quiet for a minute lost in her thoughts I figure she needed a minute to come up with an argument but I wasn't expecting for her to say the most outrageous thing.

“ Then let's get married.”