“Auntie Ali, wake up.”
I barely heard Shawn’s voice but I surely felt him climb up on top of me and sit on my chest, cutting off my oxygen.
“Shawn, what’s up?” I groaned, trying to roll him off of me and pulling him into my arms. “Auntie has no class or work today and she wants to sleep in so please…”
“No, you have to wake up,” Shawn insisted, trying to wiggle free from embrace. “Seth is here. Remember your friend? With the big red car?”
I forced my eyes open and looked at Shawn who was staring at me with the most serious expression a four-year-old can possibly muster.
“What did you say?”
He put his chubby little hands on each side of my face and gave my cheeks a squeeze. “Your friend Seth is here. With the big red car.”
I blinked. “What is he doing here?”
The boy just shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s downstairs. Come on.”
I groaned and kicked the quilts off. “Fine, I’ll be right down. I just need a minute.”
Shawn jumped off my bed and disappeared out of the door as I dragged myself up and into the jack and jill bathroom that I shared with the two other bedrooms on the second floor.
I washed my face and pulled my hair into as neat a ponytail as I could manage. Then, I grabbed a gray hoodie and put it over the white tank top which I wore with star-print pjs.
When I got downstairs, I found Mama, Abby, Neil, Shawn and Alvin by the breakfast nook with Seth, eating what looked like breakfast overload. There were cardboard trays of croissants and muffins, omelet wraps and bacon strips and sausages.
“Hey, Ali. Good morning,” Seth greeted with a big, bright smile, standing up and beckoning me to the table. “Have some breakfast.”
“Did you bring all of these?” I asked as I sat down and picked up a croissant.
“Yeah,” he answered as he poured me a cup of coffee. “There’s this quaint, little bed and breakfast place just outside of our neighborhood and the old lady there makes the best breakfast ever. She’s famous and she opens breakfast to everybody, not just the people staying there.”
“Thanks.” I picked up the cup he handed me and I took a sip. “What are you doing here anyway?”
“I’m taking you out on a date.”
I nearly spat my coffee out and Mama casually handed me a paper napkin. “You better get ready, Ali. Seth’s been here almost an hour just waiting for you to wake up.”
“But I’m not going anywhere today,” I argued, wiping my mouth. “I plan to stay home and do some cleaning in my room then finish a paper I have due on Monday.”
“And none of those things sound as exciting as a date,” Alvin countered, popping a piece of sausage into his mouth. “Seth’s planning on teaching you to swim too which would be handy ‘coz you are terrified of the water.”
I stared at Alvin with disbelief and a dropped jaw. “I can’t believe you’re letting him abduct me simply because he bribed you with a ridiculously good breakfast.”
Neil snickered. “He’s not abducting you. He did tell us where he’s taking you so come on, don’t be such a party-pooper and go have some fun.”
Abby wiggled her brows at me. “Yeah, Ali. You’re nineteen for God’s sakes. You’re old enough to date.”
My cheeks warmed but I just indignantly got up and picked up another croissant. “I can’t believe you guys would sell me out just because of breakfast. You shame me. I’ll be right back. I’m just going to get dressed.”
Mama chuckled and I went back upstairs to get decent.
A date.
That’s the first time Seth used that word with us. He must be pretty serious.
Well, last night, he seemed pretty serious too but I shouldn’t forget that he is a reputed ladies’ man. Surely it required a certain level of skill to win those women over.
See, in my head it’s quite clear that I have reason to not trust Seth. The better, smarter part of me knows it’s best to stay away. Unfortunately, that better, smarter part of me doesn’t always win.
I put on a pair of casual white cotton capris, a creamy yellow light sweater and white flip-flops with a beaded design on the straps that I made myself.
Alvin mentioned swimming and I’m pretty sure he was kidding but I decided to be on the safe side and packed a vintage, black strapless maillot that I loved so dearly anyway.
Five minutes later, we were getting into his car.
“Why did you bring your laptop with you?” Seth asked curiously, eyeing my bulky old laptop.
I lifted my nose into the air. “So that if I get bored, I can at least get back to my paper.”
He laughed and opened the car door for me. “I promise I’ll try my best to keep you preoccupied.”
“Where are we going anyway?” I asked as we made our way out of Dock Garren. “I don’t even know if I’m appropriately dressed.”
“Don’t worry, you’re dressed just fine,” he assured me with a mysterious smile. “We’re only going to my house.”
My jaw dropped. “And how about your family? You didn’t tell me—“
“Relax, my parents are away on a cruise and my sister lives in London, remember?” he assured me except that it had a different effect—it made my arms fly in cover in front of my chest.
“You mean it’s just going to be you and me there?” I demanded. “I don’t think so, Seth—“
He burst out laughing. “No, silly. The maids will be there of course, minding their own thing. Don’t start getting ideas in your head. I don’t have any evil plans lined up—not yet anyway.”
I slapped his arm but he just laughed harder.
“Why do you still live at home anyway?” I asked. “I live at home ‘coz I can’t afford a place of my own. You, on the other hand, can pretty much do whatever you want.”
“I thought about it but with my sister away and my parents always travelling, it feels like I’m living on my own anyway,” he answered with a shrug. “Except that I don’t have to clean my own toilet or pay my own utility bills. I know, I’m pretty lazy that way but it’s practical too. My parents are already paying to have the house taken care of. I just chose not spend on a place of my own and save that money instead.”
I smirked and narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re just saying that ‘coz you know that’s what I want to hear you say.”
“No, I mean it,” he insisted. “I’m grateful for my family’s fortune but it doesn’t mean I don’t want to make my own. Dad always said that a man can only measure to his merit his own hard-earned success and not his inheritance. I don’t plan on disappointing him or myself for that matter.”
“That’s good to hear,” I said with a casual shrug although I turned my face away to hide a smile from him.
Fifteen minutes later, we entered through the grand gates of the prestigious community Century Hill where the richest of Ballard reside in sprawling mansions and spans of private and lushly landscaped acreages.
I’ve seen tons of feature photos on it but I’ve actually never been here. I never had a reason.
I started feeling a little uneasy at the reminder of how different mine and Seth’s worlds are. I thought making him step into Dock Garren was the big test but I guess I never considered how I’d fare stepping into this luxurious world that he’s part of.
“You look nervous,” he observed with a slight grin as we pulled into the long, winding driveway.
“I look fine. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I dismissed it with a roll of my eyes although I quickly drew my breath in when the canopy of tall trees revealed the house which was a sprawling Italian villa with the traditional flat tile roof, the arched windows, multiple levels and the warm earth tones that gleamed under the bright sun as it sat primly on what seemed like a four-acre piece of immaculately landscaped land. In the middle of the courtyard was a large, breathtaking water fountain, just a few meters away from where we’d pulled over.
I still couldn’t shut my mouth close as I got off the car, my eyes hardly able to catch up with me as I took in the scene around me. I went to rich schools but I didn’t have a lot of rich friends. Both Liam and Ria’s families are well off but neither of them were ever up to the Wallace’s caliber.
“Hey,” I heard Seth call to me softly and I found my way back to him.
He smiled and touched my chin, his other hand cupping my left elbow. “Don’t be nervous. It’s all material. I’m still the same, annoying Seth you would gladly beat the daylights out of and would happily let you.”
I pursed my lips, trying to suppress a smile. “I didn’t know you’d let me.”
He grinned and shrugged as we started our way towards the door. “Only on one condition.”
“What?”
“That you’d kiss every bruise away.”
I rolled my eyes and made a barfing gesture to which he laughed. “You so wish.”
He put an arm around my shoulders and softly murmured in my ear. “I do.”
***
“This is not pasta, Seth. This is now mush,” I told him as I rescued the pasta pot that boiled over after we forgot that the burner was still on. I opened it up and saw that the noodles were too soft and soggy.
Seth looked up from the red bell pepper he was chopping up and gave me a guilty look.
We were in the kitchen, trying to make some type of pasta to snack on after biking around the neighborhood and we were trying to copy some ridiculously complicated recipe we found on the internet.
I insisted we cook it ourselves but I found out too late that Seth was no culinary master and that this kitchen had too many high-tech gadgets and commercial appliances that were beyond me.
I drained the noodles and scraped them to a bowl.
“Uhm, Ali. I think your sauce is burning,” Seth said, nodding to the sauce pan behind me.
I whipped around and saw the smoke coming out from the pan. The tomato sauce had dried out and burned while waiting for the peppers and olives that Seth was still working on.
I grabbed the pan, jumped back after I slightly burned my fingertips with the hot handle and searched for the pot holder I had mindlessly misplaced in the vast gourmet kitchen we don’t deserve to cook in.
Seth came to my rescue with the pot holder and he grabbed the pan and dumped it in the sink as I tried hard to wave off the smoke.
Then the smoke detector went off and a minute later, we were drenched with water coming from the sprinklers.
Seth ran to the back of the kitchen where a large walk in pantry was and turned off the alarm and water.
He slowly emerged, his expression crestfallen.
He had let the maids go on a day off when we arrived and nobody else was home.
I looked at him, as drenched as I was, looking like a poor, wet puppy.
“I’m so sorry,” he started, scratching his head. “I guess I should’ve looked into, uhm, how our kitchen actually works. I forgot that you could delay the sprinklers. They’re on a one-minute default when no one is home.”
I smiled and shook the water out of my hair. “Maybe some Jell-O pudding then we can mop the kitchen dry?”
***
An hour later, we were sitting on the now-drying marble floor of the kitchen which was now mostly gleaming clean after we wiped it down with half a dozen microfiber cloths that Seth found in the kitchen linen closet.
We’ve scraped the pots clean and they’re now hanging dry from the pot rack.
“This isn’t exactly what I’d planned on but this actually kind of works,” Seth said as he spooned into a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream. There were a bunch of fancy stuff in the fridge but they mostly required some type of cooking and we decided we weren’t touching the stove again so ice cream it was for us.
I grinned and licked my spoon. “Not what I’d imagined doing on what should’ve been my relaxing day off either.”
He scoffed. “You mean on what could’ve been your boring day off.”
I raised a brow at him. “Hey, I have a job and I’m getting a double degree so forgive me if I’m looking forward to a day when I don’t have to deal with either.”
“I know,” he answered with an understanding smile. “I honestly don’t know how you manage.”
I shrugged. “You just do. You adapt, you get used to it and you just automatically function—it’s a true characteristic of nature’s creatures. I just try not to think about it so I don’t notice what I’m doing to myself. That’s why I get annoyed when someone like you points it out.”
“What do you mean someone like me?”
“Someone like you—someone who doesn’t get it. Okay, fine, I know you do. But other people born into privilege don’t and they like to give advice to just chill and have fun and it makes me want to whack them hard in the head,” I answered, feeling a little frustrated yet worried that Seth may take offense in my blabbering.
His honestly amused expression remained. “I guess they are just like you in a way—they adapt to what their environment is, they get used to it and they just automatically function. It’s totally relative. The only difference is the environment that shapes what their adaptation needs are.”
I opened my mouth to argue and I was pretty sure I had some smart thing to say but I caught Seth’s crooked grin and my words dissolved in resignation. He had a pretty valid point.
“Come on,” he said, getting up and putting down his empty ice cream bowl down. He extended a hand at me and pulled me up on my feet. “It’s nice and shady and warm. Let’s jump into the pool.”
I stopped in my tracks. “Uhm. I don’t know if that’s a good idea. You heard what Alvin said earlier, right? He was not kidding when he said I’m terrified of the water.”
He grabbed my hand and pulled me out to their magnificent, resort-like outdoor space in the back where a large infinity pool was the center piece, surrounded with lounge chairs and palm trees.
“Did you bring a suit?” Seth asked as he grabbed some clean towels that were rolled and stocked in a teak linen cabinet by the pool side. “If you didn’t, my sister has a bunch of never-been-used swimsuits in her bedroom. You could say she’s a bit of a shopper.”
I grinned and shook my head. “No, I’m fine. I brought my own because I’m a girl scout.”
“Too bad you won’t need it,” he said before suddenly grabbing me and jumping into the pool with me dragged right behind him.
Water rushed all around me and in panic I forgot to paddle my arms around or kick my legs but a strong pair of arms quickly wrapped around my waist to pull me up to the surface.
“Seth, you moron!” I screamed at him right after I gulped some air back into my lungs. “Are you trying to kill me?!”
He just laughed and kept me floating. “I just wanted to see if you were truly not able to swim or you just don’t think you can swim. It’s something your body knows how to do subconsciously. It just needs to be triggered to the surface.”
“Well, I guess we now both know I really can’t swim!” I screamed back, wiping the water from my eyes and face. “Thanks for trying to drown me to prove a theory!”
“Aww, don’t be such a baby,” he said before pulling me on the arm and dragging me through the water. “Just relax and let your body lift itself up so it can float.”
“Can we just stay at the shallow part of the pool?” I begged as I tried to relax my jittery legs and make them feel light enough to be buoyant all the while gripping Seth’s hands like a lifeline. “I can’t touch the floor with my toes. How deep is this? Twelve feet?”
“No.”
“Seth! I demand that we stay in the shallow part of the pool!”
He shook his head like an adult talking to a child. “Nope. You’re just going to have to trust me.”
I looked at him and found that his green eyes were amused and… crinkling happy.
Trust him.
Trust him?
Sounds like trouble but in a flash of clarify, I realized I really didn’t care.
***
I opened my eyes and I quickly squinted as they adjusted to the light.
Or make that the bright white ceilings now that my vision’s come to focus.
Did I drown and die?
I heard the sound of computer keys typing so I was relieved to realize that I haven’t. I don’t think God Facebooks.
I rolled my head slowly to my side and saw the outline of Seth’s back clad in a gray shirt as he sat on the edge of this king-sized day bed in the middle of this beautiful and vast sunroom, hunched over the laptop table we’d wheeled in earlier.
It was probably late in the afternoon based on the pale yellow light coming through the windows now. It was probably about five in the evening—magic hour—just when the world momentarily gets colored in this lovely shade of gold as the sun sets.
Outside it was raining lightly. Raindrops clung to the glass windows and the palm trees glistened with under the light.
I slowly pulled myself up and came up behind Seth on the bed, my chin pressed against his right shoulder.
“What are you still doing?” I asked.
“I’m just typing up the rest of the stuff you wrote down for this report,” he answered, raising the notebook where I’d originally scribbled some parts of my report.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said, grabbing the notebook away from him and dropping it to the floor. “It’s not due until next week. Get back in the bed.”
He smiled and slid back on the bed next to me with a good foot between us.
“Your cheeks are very pink,” he said.
I rolled my eyes. “So are yours. It’s called sunburn.”
“You have to admit that was fun. You can now float and paddle a few feet forward.”
“Nothing that can really save my life if a boat capsizes and we’re stranded in the middle of the ocean.”
He shrugged. “You can swim well enough to get to a floating plank that you can hang on to until help arrives.”
I smiled. “Thanks, I guess. Now go to sleep.”
“Okay,” he agreed and I closed my eyes.
Five seconds later, I opened them and saw that he was staring at me.
“Close your eyes.”
He closed his eyes but this time I was the one who kept staring.
He grinned, his eyes still shut.
“I can’t sleep if you’re staring at me, Ali.”
“I’m not staring at all. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I answered, closing my eyes again.
I couldn’t suppress a smile.
It’s the littlest things but Seth may have just found a long-hidden path to my heart.
***
When we got up it was already dark, the sky clear and now studded with a billion stars.
I had asked if he wanted to drive out and get dinner somewhere but he said he had a surprise and when we came out to the garden by the pool, there was a lavish dinner spread out complete with candlelight, luxurious red table cloths, crystal dishes and gorgeous flower settings adorning corners.
There were servers dressed in formal serving us wine and each course, and romantic music floated from what sounded like a piano in the background.
I was so overwhelmed that I barely found my voice throughout the dinner.
“Are you okay?” he asked, reaching to touch my hand from across the table. We were just having the last of the red wine.
I nodded as casually as I could. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just…”
“Surprised?” he supplied with a lopsided smile.
I rolled my eyes and smirked. “A little bit. You never struck me as the romantic kind.”
He shrugged. “I’m not so it must be you who’s responsible for all this.”
I was pretty sure my cheeks turned red and I just quickly looked down on my plate. “I don’t even know what… what this is.”
He squeezed my hand gently. “I like to think it’s the beginning.”
Somewhere inside of me my heart soared and crashed and tried to fling itself out of my ribcage. It’s pulling itself in all sorts of directions that I had to draw in a deep breath to soothe it back in place.
He got up and picked something up from the corner of the steps hidden from my view.
“I know these are your favorites,” he said, handing me a huge bouquet of orange tiger lilies, some of them still buds and some in full glorious bloom. “I did my research this time.”
“Wow,” I breathed in, cradling them to my side and brushing my nose against a petal. “They’re lovely. Thank you.”
“I’m glad you like them.”
I put the bouquet down on the table and made my own move to step closer to him. “Thank you. Not just for the flowers but for this entire day. It was… perfect.”
He smiled, his eyes twinkling. “It wasn’t in a lot of ways but I’m glad that you gave it a chance.”
His hands found mine and he gently pulled me close, his forehead touching my own.
“Ali. I’m going to kiss you.”
It wasn’t a question.
I don’t think I would’ve said no if he’d asked.
All I know is that the moment his lips softly pressed against mine, the world stilled except for the wild beating of my heart.
I lost feeling of all my limbs and for a second, my knees buckled but he easily steadied me, his arms encircling my waist and pulling me closer to him.
The kiss deepened and with each second that passed, I felt like I was drowning like I never have before—washed over by wave after wave of emotions, making my heart spin out of control that I thought it would burst out of me.
The revelation was startling—I never realized how much I held back until this flood of emotions broke through the barriers I had surrounded myself all these years so I could easily live in oblivion about how I felt.
Why I hid—the reasons are simple and obvious.
It was easier than confronting the possibility of disappointment and heartbreak or the pressure of making different decisions from the ones you’ve already made before falling in love.
Did I really think I could avoid it forever?
And of all people, did I ever expect to find it with Seth?
“Thanks again for coming with me today,” he said with one of those quiet, heartbreaker smiles of his as he pulled up in front of my house. “Do you want me to walk you up to the door?”
I smiled back. “No, I can take it from here. I’m pretty sure my family’s already spying on us from the windows.”
He laughed and leaned forward to press a soft kiss on my mouth. “Okay then. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
My knees have regained their strength but my mind was still a blur as I watched Seth drive away into the night.
The evening breeze was quite warm and the street was surprisingly quiet and empty.
I smiled.
Then I grinned.
Then I giggled a little bit to myself.
I think that at some point, in all the time I’ve spent with Seth, when I wasn’t watching, love happened.
