As Christian said, he was gone before I awoke, I leisurely stretch and rotate my feet and find my ankles feel a lot better than yesterday. I make a mental note to get Christian do that as often as possible. The comfy clothes go on again as I am not going in to work today but I have plenty to do. I am so thankful to Sophia who has managed to pass me only the things she feels she can't take care of or are urgent and need my attention.
Breakfast is simple multigrain cereal, milk and orange juice. I am just finishing when my blackberry rings, I pick it up and answer without checking the number and my heart sinks a little when I hear my Mom on the other end
"Ana, is that you?" immediately I feel annoyed
"Yes Mom, it's me"
"Oh good I just wanted to tell you that the lawyer that Christian recommended has sorted Franks little problem, I can't tell you how stressful this whole thing has been on me. I am sure the neighbours are having a good gossip about it, I feel shame whenever I walk out of the front door" she goes on "I mean I am sure Mrs Lewis from number 2077 was talking to Mrs Franklyn the other day filling her in on details"
"Oh" I don't know what else to say.
"Is that all you can say Ana?" she continues "It's been very distressing and all you can say is oh!"
"It must be hard Mom" is all I can muster.
"You have no idea, I have contacted my therapist for a little chat soon" she informs me.
"That's good, perhaps she can help" poor woman I don't envy her therapist.
"Anyways darling, must dash, am having brunch at the tennis club soon and I must go and get ready"
"Bye Mom" and I put the phone down, I feel exhausted and I am sure my blood pressure has risen a few points after that. I exhale and rest my head back against the back of the sofa.
The phone rings again, I check the number and thank goodness it's Kate.
"Hi Kate" I say cheerfully
"Hi sweetie, how are you?" she asks.
"Just had Mom on the phone" I don't need to say anything else; Kate knows what she is like.
"That good huh?" she says
"Yep, didn't even get a how are you? This time" I tell her and find myself feeling hurt by that.
"I'm sorry sweetie" she consoles.
"It's ok, I should be used to her by now, just every now and again it gets under my skin" I explain "but changing the topic, I am sooo looking forward to Friday, yummy food and great company"
"Oh me too Ana, me too. Do you need me to bring anything?" she asks.
"Just yourself, Elliot and an overnight bag is all"
"What are we going to do after we eat, I don't really want to watch tele, shall I bring some games over?"
"That sounds good" I tell her "I have playing cards so we must be able to create some laughs"
"Ok, anyway sweetie, chin up and think of Friday" she ends enthusiastically.
"I will, I will, bye" I put the phone down feeling a little brighter and pick up the first document in the pile from the table when the phone rings again. I curse under my breath about being interrupted before answering.
"Hello!" I say a little tersely allowing my irritation to spill over.
"It's me Ana, you sound annoyed, is everything alright?" Christian's sexy voice begins to relax me almost instantaneously.
"It is now" my voice softens "What's up honey?"
"Baby, do you know a Jack Hyde?" he questions
"I know of him" I begin "He worked at SIP but I am not sure which department or position though and I believe he left under a cloud, rumour was he was a groper, I hear the occasional grumbles but he left not long before I started so never met him personally"
"Anything else you can tell me baby?" he asks.
"Don't think so, why?" I feel nervous
"He was disguised as Jack Green to come and see you. You took the position he had been applying for but kept getting refused promotion due to personnel issues" Christian tells me.
"Personnel issues = groping female staff?" I snigger at the way indiscretions are cover up with certain terms.
"You got it baby. We can't link him to Elena in anyway, he has a few arrests for minor crimes but it seems too coincidental to me" he sounds concerned.
"Well at least we know who he is and can keep an eye on his movements, I assume all of security have his details?" not sure why I asked that really as I know full well Christian will have put a tail on him the moment he suspected something didn't add up.
"Of course" is all he replies "But I must go, I have a meeting in ten minutes, love you" and the phone goes quiet.
Right, down to work, I immerse myself and look up to find Gail proffering lunch at me, I glance at my watch and see I have been concentrating for two hours so the break is much needed. I get up, stretching, rotating my ankles and I have to stifle a yawn. I head to the bathroom use the loo and to splash some cool water on my face before tucking into the bruschetta and tea Gail has prepared.
The trouble with stopping, eating and relaxing is I find it extremely hard to get back into the right frame of mind to knuckle down again so I flick through the television channels, I stop on the news channel but that seems very depressing with reports of bush fires caused by arsonists, pile up on the freeway and a shooting, ugh, I continue changing the channels until I come around to a repeat of Frasier before the inevitable happens and I fall asleep on the sofa.
"Ana, Ana, wake up" I don't recognise the voice
"Leave me alone, I need to sleep longer" I say irritated
"Ana, wake up, it's Jack" Jack who? I think
"Who are you? And what do you want?" I ask.
"I've come to get you Ana" says the voice and my breathing increases.
"Where are we going? I query.
"You want to come home with me, don't you?"
"No I don't, I want to sleep thank you" I retort.
"You took something from me Ana" the voice hardens
"What did I take from you?"
"My job" Come's the reply.
"What job?" I ask
"Assistant Editor at SIP" He snarls.
"I didn't take it from you, I earned it; you left"
"You took it from me bitch and you are going to pay for that" he shouts
"Get away from me Jack or I will call the police" I shout back.
"Hahaha, police, what can they do for you Ana?" his voice increases in volume making me jump.
"Stay away from me, I am warning you, I will call security" I start to shake.
"What, your rich boyfriend and his bunch of goons?"
"I have had enough of this, get out of my house….NOW!" I scream "Christian, CHRISTIAN!"
"BABY! Wake up" my shoulders are being shaken.
"Whaaat? Huh, Christian is that you?" I wearily say.
"Yes its Christian, baby what's going on?" I practically throw myself into his arms.
"Oh it was so scary, Jack Hyde threatened me" I start to cry.
"You were dreaming baby, just a bad dream. I won't let anyone ever hurt you" Christian comforts me.
"It felt so real and horrible" I sob. Christian gently rocks me until I feel calmer. I stifle another yawn.
"Have you eaten baby?" Christian asks and I shake my head, he gets up and goes to the kitchen, returning a short while later with some toast and jam and a cup of tea which is gratefully received.
"What time is it?" I ask between mouthfuls
He checks his watch "coming up to 7pm pumpkin"
"Oh my, I slept for a long time, I wanted to get more work done than I did" the disappointment is obvious.
"It's ok, don't fret about it baby" he soothes again "Would you like me to run a bath?"
"Mm mm, that would be lovely" he takes my hand and leads me to the bedroom. Before long the aroma of Vanilla and strawberry come wafting from the bathroom. Christian signals me to come and in the bathroom he has lit candles all over the room, soft classical music playing in the background and best of all he strips off and climbs in the bath and waits for me to join him.
I sink down into the water; it feels luxurious, instantly relaxing and extremely familiar when Christian wraps his arms around me. I close my eyes and allow my mind to go blank. Christian is gently soaping me all over. It is intensely sensual and relaxing but I unfortunately allow my thoughts to come flooding back into my mind.
"Christian, I know I should leave this until later but it has started to play on my mind and I need to say something" I start.
"Its ok baby, what's on your mind?" he asks tenderly
"Well, I know it's probably a bit sudden to say this and it may come as a surprise but I want to get married before the babies arrive" I exhale.
"Oh" he looks surprised "I assumed you would want to wait until after the babies arrive, I thought you would like some intimate venue with family and friends maybe in the summer?"
"I would be lying if I said I hadn't thought that but I want us to be married and our name to be the same on the birth certificates and…well...it just seems the right thing to do. I want our children to know we were properly together but am I being silly?" I say.
"No you are not being silly baby so what would you like to do?" he gets out of the bath, wraps a bath sheet around his waist and offers his hands out to assist me.
"I don't know, I thought maybe we could go to the Civic Centre with Elliot and Kate as witnesses and then have a blessing after the babies are here with everyone invited" I am thinking out loud.
"If it is that important to you baby we can do it, would you like to have the blessing at my parent's house? I know they would be so enthusiastic to accommodate us, they have some space for guests to stay and we can get details of local hotels with vacancies" he continues "We would get some fantastic photographs around the lake and we will have the twins with us too" his eyes glaze over as he thinks about his children.
"That sounds perfect Christian, are you sure your parents wouldn't mind, it will be a huge undertaking for them" I am concerned it will be too much.
"I will call and find out but I am sure they would be offended if we didn't ask" he affectionately says.
"Ok, shall I make some enquires with the Civic Offices for dates? And then we could chat to Elliot and Kate on Friday" I suggest.
"Sounds good to me baby, now I think you need to go to bed and rest" I don't argue with that.
We lay next to each other face to face, Christian puts his hand on my swollen belly and it's as if they know its daddy feeling for their movement as a torrent of kicks and punches follow every sentence or song from him. The trouble is I have to get up and use the bathroom after they have finished doing the daddy aerobics workout but after that I drift off into a peaceful sleep, dreaming about weddings, babies and the rests of our lives together…
A/N: Thank you for your continuing support.
