Twenty one

Mirabel Ozera
August

I arrived home half an hour after my shift at the library had ended, almost boiling with annoyance and irritation. If it was good manners to punch a royal Moroi in the face, there would have been no stopping me.

William and I had been married for almost four months now. Four months of living together without sharing anything apart from an occasional meal. I didn't mind, I had Gregory. My boy that grew bigger and smarter with every day that passed. My darling boy that looked more and more like Alexei every time he learned a new thing.

William left us alone, unless I asked for his company, and we left him alone with Julia. I had a bedroom for me and Gregory and he shared his with her. A Moroi woman, who probably did this for a living, arrived with a feeder three times a week so that William and I could get some blood. We went grocery shopping together and sometimes we ate at the same time, but otherwise we left each other be just like we agreed on when we decided that we would marry.

However, as normal, there was the damn (I wanted to say something worse, but I had promised to barely even think a bad word so that something wouldn't slip out and Gregory would hear it) Moroi who thought that they were better than anyone else.

Many were polite, asking how William and I were doing and how we were enjoying married life, but I could see the look in their eyes as they asked if my son was well. Some Royals didn't even bother to be hide their disdain, asking with a supercilious look how my Dhampir son was doing.

But what had me boiling over the edge happened during my lunch break. I was grabbing something quick to eat at the bistros by the entrance to the library when I heard two older women, I didn't know them and I was unsure of their names but they were royals, trying to talk discreetly about me. They were standing in line, while I had grabbed an empty table to finish my sandwich and coffee.
I wasn't sure if they were even trying to be discreet, for I could clearly hear my name in combination with "Dhampir","child" and "poor girl". I wasn't sure how I managed to contain myself, apart from mentally imagining myself giving them a straightforward and well-remembered speech on that my relationship with my boyfriend being none of their business and that they surely must live pitiful lives if they had nothing more exciting to gossip about.

However, I wasn't really the confrontal type. At least not when I had nothing to gain. So I drank my coffee a little more fiercely that before, burning my tongue in the process, and refused to give the older ladies as much as a glance.

I could see them looking at me, undoubtedly giving a pitiful glance to 'the poor girl who had a baby out of marriage and with a Dhampir to top it all off. Surely, that's not a respectable path for a royal Moroi woman?'

Well, fuck you too.

I left the bistro shortly after they had, leaving half of my sandwich and the bottom of my coffee. I'd lost my appetite. I just wanted to go home and hug Gregory, his hugs and kisses would make everything good again.

The first thing that I heard when I closed the front door was the constant blabbering of Gregory learning that he can make sounds and the sound of his chubby hands smacking the wooden floor as he crawled across the floor towards the door.

"Hi Maggie!" I yelled to the nanny. She wasn't older than 19 years old, Margaret or Maggie as she asked us to call her, and had been a great asset to me as when William and I moved here. She was human, I didn't see a reason why she had to be Moroi or Dhampir. I had given the explanation that William and I weren't really happy in our marriage but that we still lived together for financial reasons and she didn't ask any questions about it.

"Hi!" Maggie called back and I could hear her approach from around the corner where mine and Gregory's room was. Finally, his crawling got him far enough so that he could see me in the hallway. His face lit up in a smile, a very drooling smile, and his dark brown eyes shimmered from seeing me again. His black hair was getting long, the fringe almost hanging down to his eyes. Immediately, he sat down on his padded bottom to hold his arms out towards me.

"Hi darling!" I smiled at him and picked him up, placing him on my hip. "Did you have a good day with Maggie?"

Gregory turned his torso to point to her. "Ada!"

Maggie rolled her eyes and gave me an understanding smile. That was his word for anything, apart from the blabbering that he did just to fill the silence.

"Has he eaten well today?" I asked.

She nodded. "Oh yes, he finished all the formula and also ate two boiled eggs and some yoghurt. He might not be so hungry tonight."

"He will", I assured her. "The night-snack is the favourite."

Since he was getting big, I had started to wean him off the breastfeeding. Now, he was eating something soft or boiled along with some formula and only breastfed before sleeping. Soon, I would have to give that up too. My boy was getting big.

"Has he taken a nap?"

"Only the morning nap, he didn't want to sleep after that", Maggie said while she put on her coat and boots.

"Have a good night, I'll see your tomorrow", I said, waving exaggeratedly at her in an attempt to make Gregory mimic my movement. He did something similar, flapping his hand in a goodbye.

"Ada!"

Maggie waved back at him with a wide smile and closed the door behind her.

I kissed Gregory's chubby cheek and rubbed my nose against his. "How about some fruit?"

I didn't get a proper response, but he was clearly happy about the prospect of eating when I placed him in his chair. He was happily banging his hands against the chair's table as I grabbed the cutting-board and a knife from the kitchen drawer and began to slice up some pear and banana.

Clearly the banana was a favorite, small pieces of pear lay abandoned or mushed on the plate. Eventually, he would grab the pear pieces, crush them a little more in his squeezed hand and offer them to me. I didn't want to hurt him but I didn't want to eat it either so I thanked him with a smile and hid the pieces in a napkin.

When they clock closed in on 9, Gregory was still not giving any signs of being tired. He was happily crawling around on the floor, tossing his colorful blocks away and then chasing after them again.

I would be happy if I had just an ounce of his energy when I came home from work. He spent his entire day playing, tossing, chasing, crawling, pulling himself up with help from the furniture, sleep like a rock during the nights and then play just as much the next day. I wished that I could do that.

"Mirabel?" William asked, knocking lightly on the doorframe to the living room to get my attention. "I'm making coffee, would you like a cup?"

"Yeah, sure", I said. "I'll just put Gregory to bed."

William nodded. "Do so, I -", his eyes suddenly widened and he stretched out his hand as if he tried to catch something. I followed the movement of his eyes and noticed the reason for why his whole face twisted into a grimace a little too late.

Gregory, that - I almost called him a bad word -had crawled over to the small table by the sofa. With his newly acquired skills, meaning pulling himself up by the help of the furniture, he had grabbed a very good hold of the tablecloth on the side-table. Unfortunately, the cloth didn't stay put and everything on top of it followed it down onto the floor.

In slow motion, I watched how the glass vase crashed into a thousand pieces on the floor, water spilling out all over all floor and soaked up by Gregory's pants. The notepad and the pencil hit him in the head, causing his face to wrinkle up and then burst out in a loud cry.

"Oh shit!" I exclaimed, my "good language" promise completely forgotten as I felt my heart hammer from seeing my boy surrounded by glass and flowers. Hadn't it been dangerous for him (as soon as he started to crawl or even more, he could cut himself), I would have thought that the scenery could made a beautiful picture.

"I'll get a broom!" William said and vanished from the doorway.

Before Gregory had any chance of moving and cutting his small little hands on the glass, I jumped up in the sofa and snatched him from the floor, gently kissing his head to calm him down.

When he had stopped crying, I made a quick search to see if he was hurt. He was wet from the flower-water but unharmed.

"Time to change into pajamas, little guy", I mumbled. "You got yourself all wet."

William returned with a broomstick and some paper towels as I left the living room. I gave him an apologetic look. "You don't have to take care of that, I'll fix it as soon as I have put him to bed."

"It's fine", William smiled. "I had nothing else to do anyway."

"Well, you could have figured it out something more fun to do" I said, rolling my eyes a little. "I'll put him to bed quickly and then I'll help you with the rest."

"Don't worry about it", he assured me.

An hour later, Curious George of the house had been washed and changed into his pajamas. After a late snack, he went out like a light.

William had closely swept and vacuumed the entire living room floor to eliminate every little piece of glass from the broken vase.

"You didn't have to do this", I told William again as he put the vacuum-cleaner back into the broom cupboard. "But thanks, it was very nice of you."

"No problem, I'm happy to help out", he smiled. "You had enough to handle on your own."

"I'll buy you a new vase, I'll see if I can find one that looks almost the same."

"IKEA", William laughed. "He made it easy for you. He couldn't have picked a better vase to pull down."

"That's something", I mumbled. "I think I'll skip the coffee tonight, otherwise I won't be able to sleep."

William closed the cupboard door and glanced at me, his blue eyes hinting at a slight disappointment. "Another evening, then."

I narrowed my eyebrows. "I thought that we were supposed to leave each other alone?"

William's lips curved into a smile and he shrugged his shoulders casually. "We are… but that doesn't mean that I don't get hungry for company when Julia is not here. It's an odd feeling to trip around each other when we are living in the same house."

I began to wonder where this was going. Things hadn't been difficult these past four months and our agreement had worked out fine. That was the point of it, stick to the agreement and we could try to figure out our lives.

There was no saying in how this situation could escalate if we began to hang out for "just a cup of coffee". I didn't say that it was or would ever be romantic, but we risked getting to know each other if I could put it that way.

The more we hung out, the more feelings we would put into this… relationship. If we put feelings into this, we might start fighting. And I wasn't going to live in the same house as someone I only fought with.

However, I nodded to William's response. "Another evening."

As I stepped inside the bedroom, I heard the vibrations from my phone lying on the bedspread. Rapidly, I grabbed it from my bed before it woke Gregory up. I didn't recognize the number, I wasn't even sure if it was American.

"Hello?" I asked in a low voice and snuck a peak at my son. He was still sleeping calmly. No one answered in the other line.

"Ehm… hello?" I asked again, even moving the phone from my ear to make sure that the person hadn't hung up.

Finally, someone answered. "H-hi. It's Alexei."

Cliffhanger! I LOVE to end a chapter with them!

I keep wanting to put chapters up with a few days inbetween because I really want you all to keep reading! I have to restrain myself!

Hope that you like it! Any thoughts about the chapter, please review and let me know!

Love, Zeraphime