Chapter 6
It took around 45mins for William to finish cooking everything. He took the salmon and cut it into bite-size; he also cut the cherry tomatoes. He took a piece of salmon and tomato and put it on top of a lettuce leaf, poured a little of the white sauce he had prepared and wrapped it and gave it a little ball size, and kept it all together with a toothpick. When he had fifteen of them made he thought it would be enough. He placed them all on a plate and put this one on a tray.
He poured some of the miso soup he also made into a little bowl and placed it on the tray too and headed back to the living room where he found her sleeping.
He frowned wondering if it was normal to sleep this much. He knew it could be a symptom but he didn't know how much sleep was crossing the line of concern. He put the tray on the center table and sat on the sofa she was sleeping on, at the level of her waist. He noticed she was sweating even though the house was not hot.
“No...” she muttered with a frown. “I don't want to...”
She started to squirm so he tried to soothe her back awake.
“Shh, Leah. Wake up, honey,” he whispered to not scare her more than the dream seemed to be doing it.
He ran his hand softly through her forehead to get the sweat off while still talking softly to her until she flinched awake with a gasp and grabbed his hand.
“Shh... Shh... It's ok. It's just me.”
“Liam,” she whispered recognizing him.
His eyebrows twitch a little; he knew she was referring to him but no one had called him like that before, it was always William or just Will, or even Mr. Solace. He liked it though.
“The food is done.”
She grimaced, “I'm not hungry.”
He imagined if she just had a nightmare the last thing she would want was to eat, and he would have accepted it, only if she didn't have these many hours without a proper meal.
“Maybe another day I will take a no for an answer, but not today, babe. I made a soup so it should be easy for you to take.” he signaled to the tray.
She came to a sitting position and saw the food in confusion.
“Miso?”
“I'm pleased to know it looks decent enough to be recognizable.”
“And this?” she asked looking at the lettuce balls in confusion.
“Salmon wraps? I don't know, I improvised with that one.”
She grabbed a ball by the toothpick and ate it. William looked at her chewing and noticed she closed her eyes and had a shiver. He looked down her arms and saw her skin crawled up with goosebumps. His eyes went back to her face where she had a pleased expression while still having her eyes closed, and he could swear he heard her moan quietly.
“Is my food giving you an orgasm?” he said jokingly but he was not sure.
She laughed and covered her mouth to avoid spitting out.
“Almost,” she said after swallowing. “I didn't think you could cook this good.”
“Well, I live alone. I cannot be eating crap all the time.”
“You could hire a chef.”
“Or I could make use of the knowledge my mother got into me by force.” he wrinkled his nose remembering how his mother always told him she was not going to raise a burden for his future wife.
Leah tried to reach for another ball so he reached out and put the tray on her legs. She ate the ball and eyed the soup, took the spoon, and took a little of it. After repeating that four times, he noticed he was smiling when she looked at him shyly as if asking why the hell he was looking at her so intensively.
“Sorry.” he looked away and lay back on the sofa. “It's weird to have someone other than my mother and my three best friends eating what I prepare.”
She continued eating slowly as if testing her stomach and he just looked at her from his position. He was curious as to what she had been dreaming about, but she seems so happy with the food he didn't want to erase that, so he just moved on from it.
“Thank you for the food,” she said as she finished and put the tray back on the table. “Now let's see how long I hold it.”
She rested on the sofa next to him. He was resting his arm across the sofa back so her head ended up on his arm. It was just then that he noticed how close they were sitting. He looked at her having her eyes closed until she frowned and move her head as if there was something wrong. She opened her eyes and looked to the side to see what that firm object under her head was but she got stuck and lost in William's eyes that were closer than she imagined.
William opened his mouth to say something, ask her anything to get to know her better, but English grammar decided to take a rest and escaped from his brain leaving him gaping like a fish while he looked at her. There was something in her eyes and her lips that wrapped him and made him want to kiss her as if he was under a spell. When he started to feel desire running through his body and concentrating in a zone her dog came into view and barked making them both flinch in surprise.
She sat straight removing her head from his arm but he kept his arm in the same place. The dog jumped on the sofa on the other side of her.
“Sorry. I didn't notice I was using you as a pillow.”
“I didn't mind it. You can even do it again.” he tried to touch her forehead to push her down back to the position she had before but he flinched back when the dog reached out to bite him. She chuckled.
“He won't bite you... I think. He just doesn't like people touching me.”
“Well... too late, buddy.” he looked at it, it seemed like a mix of Australian Shepherd with something else. “What's its name?”
“Demon.”
“Ah, so from what part of hell did this Demon come from?”
She pushed him jokingly and the dog moved its head toward her hand as if to tell her to touch him instead of the stranger. She chuckled and started to pet him.
“I found him near a park. I asked around if it had an owner but everybody said he was a street dog they fed sometimes. So I took him to a vet and got him ready to take him home.”
“And why 'Demon'?”
“I was gonna call him something simple like Fido, but the way he reacted to everyone but me was what made me rename him like that.”
“So, jealous and troublemaker... that doesn't sound good, buddy.”
Demon looked at him a growled a little. William backed further into the sofa but saw Leah grabbing Demon's face as if she was pinching its cheeks.
“Don't.”
Demon completely forgot about William and fell belly up on her lap asking for some caress on its belly. It looked as if he was melting for her and William couldn't blame him considering how his brain melted before just by looking into her eyes for more than three seconds.
William felt his cellphone vibrate and took it to see his mother was calling. He sat straight in fear, he could only hope none of the guys' mouths had gone loose with his mother, he wanted to tell her himself. He picked up the call and stood up.
“Mother.” he greeted.
“My dear, how have you been?”
“Good and you?”
“Fine, but missing you. I was around the area and decided to visit but you are not home.”
“No, I'm not.”
“Hanging out with the guys?”
“I– no. Not tonight.”
“Then, where are you? You don't tend to go out often.” she paused. “Don't tell me you are already with a woman so soon after what happened with that crazy one you've been dealing with.”
He turned to look at Leah and found her looking at him, she seemed to have been looking at his ass as her eyes were on his crotch area when he turned which caused her to look at him in surprise as if she had been caught mischieving.
“No... I– I'll go in a moment, mom. You can wait if you want.” he hung before she could continue her interrogation. “I have to go.” he sighed. “Let me clean this.” he took the tray and went to the kitchen to clean what he had left dirty.
There wasn't much since he used to clean everything while cooking, as soon as he was done using it. She was standing in the kitchen just looking at him do his thing. When he finished he dried his hands with a towel and got close to her.
“Now I do have to go.” she accompanied him to the door. “I'll be checking on how are you doing, ok?”
She nodded and looked as if she wanted to say something. He waited, so she sighed.
“Let me know when you get home. And, thanks again for the food.”
“My pleasure. And I will.” he smiled and kissed her forehead. “Have a good night, honey.”
William had arrived home and didn't see his mother around; she later had messaged him saying she was buying some ice cream while she waited for him. He opened the door for her when she arrived and let her in. He sat in the living room with her.
“As you don't have time to visit me I decided to visit you. But you still have time to go out, I see.”
He scratched his neck a little embarrassed.
“Sorry, mom. I had to take some documents to someone.”
“Oh, I thought you were dating someone.”
“Did you talk with Max?” William looked at her with narrowed eyes, suspecting she got that idea because of Max.
“No, why?” She looked at him with surprise. “Are you really dating someone?”
“No, I'm not.”
“Then, why did you think I talked with Max? That only means he would tell me something you don't want me to know and at the moment we were just talking about you dating.”
“I'm not dating her, mom.”
“But there is someone.” she looked interested and wary at the same time. “I thought you were not going to date after what happened with Samantha.”
“You don't want me to move on?”
“Of course I do, honey.” she crossed her legs and got a magazine from her purse. “I just think it's soon. That crazy woman could still be lurking around. What if she hurts your girl?”
William got chills just by thinking about it.
“I'll make sure that doesn't happen.”
His mother looked at him, pressing her tongue against her inner cheek, crossed her legs, and change a page from the magazine without looking at it.
“I said 'your girl' and you didn't contradict me.”
“Yeah, but we are not–”
“Yeah, you are not dating, whatever.” she interrupted, and read her magazine. “Is this 'not dating' serious enough for you to introduce her?”
“Maybe. Eventually.”
“So this 'not dating' is serious enough to become 'dating' and introduce her, I see.” she kept reading and changing the pages.
He decided to tell her now. Why wait?
“I met her on my birthday. It was just one night but she got pregnant,” he said quickly without removing his eyes from her face.
Her eyes widened and looked at him in shock. She closed the magazine and turned her whole body toward him.
“You got her pregnant?” she asked incredulous, knowing how much he protected himself against that, and asked cautiously, “Are you sure is yours?”
William chuckled without humor. That was never a question his mother would make before Samantha. Since he was young she always told him if he had sex with a girl and then she later came to him and told him she was pregnant and it was his then he had to be responsible and be with her through the pregnancy at least until he was able to confirm if the baby was his. When Samantha came into his life and tried to monopolize him, even faking a pregnancy, Celia, his mother, had come to realize some women would make anything to be in a good position even if it meant hurting someone else. So, now she took any woman near him with a grain of salt.
He thought her question through; Leah didn't seem to be trying to use him, she even lived a lifestyle as good as his. And most importantly, she didn't look like she was looking to get pregnant.
“Yes, I'm sure. She looks like a good person, too.”
His mother arched an eyebrow, skeptical. She opened her magazine again.
“Go ahead as if you are walking on a cord 100m high, with no cushion to soften the fall.”
“I don't think I could survive even with the cushion,” he murmured.
“Well, even more reasons to be careful.” she kept looking through the magazine. “What has Max thought about her?”
“He was also skeptical but I think she passed his tests without realizing,” he said remembering a call he got from him after he got out of her house, where he asked for her and got a little worried when he told him she was not eating well.
“Is she pretty?”
“Very.”
She shook her head as if it was a normal thing for them to fall for a pretty face.
“Well, at least my grandchild will not be ugly.” she kept passing the pages as if she was not satisfied with what she was seeing. “And when will I meet her?”
“Mom, chill.” she scoffed. “I've barely known for four days. At least let the idea sink in before we start introducing families.”
“I think you want to sink many things.” he blushed, he didn't know if she was talking about his member entering Leah, but he didn't want to voice it out.
“Whatever, mom. It's not like you will never meet her, just not right away. Relax, there's a lot of time. Like seven months.” He stood up. “Do you want something to drink or eat?”
“Give me some water first; I still have some ice cream.”
William got in the kitchen and got a glass of water for her and juice for him. In the living room, he put the glasses on the center table and when he was about to sit he saw a photo in the magazine, but his mother passed the page too fast for him to confirm what he saw.
“What the hell?”
He sat and passed two pages back without taking the magazine from his mother's hands. When he found the photo again he just looked at it in disbelief.
“It's her.”
“Who?”
“Leah.” he pointed at the photo where Leah was smirking at the camera, wearing the same dress he saw her with on his birthday.
“The girl you got pregnant?” he nodded. “You got Leah Monroe pregnant?” she asked in disbelief.
“You know her?”
“She is the founder and CEO of Lumily.” the name sounded familiar to him but he wasn't sure why. Celia shook her head exasperated. “Lumily is a cosmetic brand, William. You even got me a few products some months ago when I told you to get them for me.”
He remembered his mother asking for the favor as it had been hard for her to get them through the regular channels. He just talked with his assistant and she had got them for him in a couple of days. More than that, he didn't know.
“Are the products good?”
“'Good' he says,” she muttered for herself and then feinted hitting him with the magazine. “They are like a bottled miracle. Look at me, don't I look amazing?”
She raised her face for him to look better. She wasn't wearing makeup and her skin did look somehow healthier than before.
“Yes, you do, but I didn't notice it because you always look amazing, mom.”
She smiled and blushed a little with the compliment. William was the spitting image of his mother. Dark hair, more straight than curly, blue eyes, a long fine nose, and a square face.
“I didn't know she was famous.”
“Not quite. She is very reserved. Everybody thought someone else was the CEO because he was always the face of the company but that day she was presented as the brain behind everything. She looked very uncomfortable the whole night so it might be the last time we see her in any other event.”
“Were you present?”
“Yes. It was a fundraising party to donate to schools. I think she was the one who donated the most.” her eyes widened again as she just realized. “Oh my God, you got her pregnant.”
“Is it a bad thing?”
“Oh, no. She looks like a really good person, but when I tell you she doesn't like attention, I'm not kidding. You are more known than her, everywhere you go there's always someone pointing a camera at you.” she pouted. “I don't know if you two will ever be serious; I don't think she is the type of person to give up her privacy for you.”
William grimaced looking at the photo. He was not really thinking about dating her, they could both raise a child without having to be in a relationship, but he didn't quite like that the option was completely out of the window.
“Let's first see how everything goes, mom.”