CHAPTER 28 - Round 1
When Christian opens his eyes the next morning, it takes him a few seconds to figure out where he is. There, in Ana's room, the curtains are half open, with a ray of sun shining through the window. As he turns his head to the left, there she is, Ana, his girlfriend, sleeping next to him. "His girlfriend", he would love to be able to announce it to the whole world, but for now, he can live with the idea of keeping it to himself. She is so beautiful. She is on her side, turned towards him. He looks at her for a few minutes, admiring her.
Suddenly, Christian realizes that he has no idea what time it is. As he turns around towards the other side of the bed, to reach for his phone on the bedside table, he stops dead, not believing his eyes.
There, on the floor, is his son, Teddy, his back turned to him, playing with his Legos. The little boy is actually very focused building a Lego dinosaur. Christian quickly checks the time, it is 6am. Teddy never wakes up that early. Sometimes, he wakes up during the night when he is sick or if the thunder scares him, but it is very unusual.
Christian carefully gets out of the bed, in silence. There, in his flannel pajamas, he sits on the floor, next to his son.
"Daddy!" Teddy says in a voice a little too loud for Christian's liking. Christian puts his finger on his mouth to signal to his son to talk in a lower tone. "Daddy, do you want to play with me?"
"Teddy buddy, let's get out of here, we will let Ana sleep a little longer."
Teddy gets up, places his Legos back in the box, and follows his father out of Ana's bedroom.
Christian is slightly amused by the whole situation, but he knows that it is very likely to freak Ana out when she finds out.
Once in the corridor, Christian tells his son "Let's put this back in your bedroom and we will go downstairs." After checking that Phoebe is still sound asleep in her bedroom, he leads the way towards the kitchen downstairs.
"Teddy buddy, what do you think about preparing breakfast for the girls? We can bring it to bed if we hurry a little, Ana usually wakes up thirty minutes from now." Christian proposes, not sure how to address the fact that his son just found him in bed with his nanny. What is going on right now in his little boy's head? Christian cannot help thinking.
"Yes Daddy, I want to help" Teddy volunteers, so naturally that Christian wonders if the little even realized what just happened.
"Sure, can you peel the oranges?" Christian asks, placing six oranges on a big bowl on the table.
"Yes!" And with that, Teddy sits down on one of the chair to rid the citrus fruit of its skin. Christian grabs a big bin to collect the useless skin. As Teddy's fingers are a bit too weak to start digging, Christian helps his son by doing it with a knife.
"Ok, great, when you are done, I will put them in the juice extractor, then you can push the button." The little boy nods vividly "Okay, now, what should I do?" Christian asks himself out loud, obviously not very comfortable in this room without Ana "What do you think, would they like pancakes?" he then remembers the pan with four pancake shapes that Ana sometimes uses. That's what Phoebe used when they prepared breakfast together two weeks ago. He takes it from the overhead cupboard, and places it on the stove.
"Yes, Ana's favorite is banana." Teddy replies enthusiastically.
Christian frowns "Well, I am not sure I can do it buddy. Let me see… How did Phoebe do it that time?"
"You just add bananas to the batter, Daddy, it is easy." Teddy says matter-of-factly.
Christian remembers why he is doing it; for his girls, to make them happy "Okay, I will try. Gosh, this seems so easy when Gail, Ana and Phoebe do it."
"It is easy Daddy. You can do it." Teddy says with a toothless smile.
Christian smiles back "Thanks for the cheering words, buddy, I appreciate."
As Christian places the salt, flour, eggs, milk, butter, bananas and oil on the table, Teddy is ready with the oranges. Christian then takes them and puts it in the extractor. After a few seconds, it is all done.
As Teddy carefully pours it in glasses, he asks "Daddy?"
"Yes buddy." Christian answers, focused on spreading the flour in the mixing bowl, as it is said on the recipe he found on the internet.
"Is Ana going to be my mommy?" Teddy asks out of the blue.
Okay, he did notice that his father was in his nanny's bed this morning after all. Christian tries to behave as naturally as possible; he simply asks back "Would you like that?"
"Yes." Teddy simply says.
"Well, for the moment, Ana and Daddy are getting to know each other. Daddy likes Ana very much, and Ana likes Daddy. And we both love you and your sister so very much, you know that?
"Yes." Teddy is now done pouring.
"Well done, buddy" Christian says, acknowledging Teddy's work. Then back to the main conversation "And you like Ana, don't you?" Now that he has poured the milk and the oil in another bowl, he grabs the eggs.
"Yes, I like her like this." And he opens his arms as wide as a six-year old can. "She is the nicest and the most beautiful woman in the entire World."
"You are so right, son. When we go back up there, Ana and I will talk to you, and then to your sister. You can ask any question you want. Okay, Teddy?"
"Yes Daddy." The little boy smiles.
"Care to crack the eggs?" Christian asks, knowing that the little boy loves doing that.
"Yeah!" Teddy goes closer to his father to do it.
They go on preparing the rest of the breakfast and place it on a tray for Ana. At his father's request, Teddy grabs a rose in a vase and places it on the tray.
"Okay, so do we have everything? Banana pancakes, check. Butter, check. Strawberry jam, check. Bread, check. Orange juice, check. Rose, check. And last but not least, tea for the lady. We will come back to prepare Phoebe's. We have some time before she wakes up." Christian declares.
Christian knows that Ana fell asleep in her pajamas, so he hopes she will be okay with the two men entering her room. Technically, these two men were already in her room thirty minutes ago, but she is not aware of it, at least for the Teddy part. Christian is holding the tray, with Teddy opening the door for him.
"Ana." Christian whispers as he comes closer to the bed. He resists calling her darling, like he now knows she enjoys. Not yet, but hopefully, quite soon.
"Ana" Teddy tries to whisper but his voice is definitely louder than Christian's. He is standing next to her, on the other side of the bed, where she is turned now. "Ana" he repeats, bending down with his face next to Ana's.
Ana finally reacts. She stretches and smiles when she sees Christian's face then Teddy's. She sits up on the bed when she realizes that Christian is holding a tray.
"Where is Phoebe?" She asks, her eyes still half close, as she stretches her arms.
"Well, good morning to you too" Christian teases.
"Oh yes, where are my manners? Good morning Christian, good morning Teddy." She says smiling widely.
"Still asleep. This little one woke up early this morning." Christian answers.
"Oh really?" She asks, running her fingers through Teddy's hair, as he is now sitting next to her on the bed.
"Yes. When Teddy could not find me in my room, he came here and sat next to the bed, waiting for us to wake up." Christian answers, wanting Ana to know the situation.
"Oh really?" She repeats but in a tone that betrays both her understanding and her unease with regards to the situation. Teddy remains quite next to her.
"Help yourself, we prepared this just for you." Christian says in a tone aiming at making her understanding that everything is fine.
"I prepared the orange juice. And I cracked the eggs. And I picked up the rose." Teddy says enthusiastically.
"Are these banana pancakes?" Ana asks with delight.
"Yes. I told Daddy these are your favorite." The youngest Grey says.
"Well you are so right, I love it. Thank you." Then to Christian who is now sitting on the chair by the bed. "Did you bake it Christian?"
"Yes. Are you doubting my talents as a chef?" He asks teasingly.
"No, I am sure this is delicious. Thank you so much about this, you are the best." She says to the two men in the room. "Oh God, this is delicious, well done Christian." She says after having a bite.
"I am hungry too." Teddy says, looking towards the tray with want.
Ana moves a little to her right, to leave some more room for Teddy. "Teddy why don't you sit down here, under the covers, with me, and have some?"
Teddy complies, and Ana cuts some pieces of pancakes for him. "Do you want some, Christian?" Ana asks, placing her hand on the top of the cover on Christian's side, clearly inviting Christian to join them on the bed.
"Yes, thank you." He says, smiling, as he takes his place. "Ana, I told Teddy that we would talk to him and answer any question he has."
"Okay." Ana answers, unsure, looking at Christian intently.
"As we were preparing breakfast, Teddy asked me if you were going to become his new mommy. I told him that we both like each other, and we both like him, and his sister very much. And that for now, we are getting to know each other." Christian reports the beginning of the exchange earlier in the kitchen.
"And what do you think about it Teddy?" Ana asks carefully, looking at the little boy. "Are you okay if your daddy and I become boyfriend and girlfriend?"
Christian and Ana then gaze at each other, both enjoying these two words being said out loud for the first time.
"Does it mean that you will stay with us forever? Even after Gail is back?" Teddy asks quietly.
"Well, even if I were not your father's girlfriend, I would always be there in your life and we could always spend time together, you, your sister and I. You know that, we are friends now." Teddy nods, smiling. "But being your father's girlfriend means that we will probably spend even more time together, the four of us. Would you like that?"
"Yes!" The little boy answer enthusiastically. Then he turns to his father "Will you be sleeping in Ana's bedroom every night, Daddy?" Ana looks in Christian's direction, blushing, amused and eager to hear what Christian will say extricate himself from this delicate question.
Christian coughs a little before answering "Well, we haven't talked about it. So I don't really know son. Let's ask Ana."
Coward, Ana can't help thinking. He smirks as Teddy looks at Ana, waiting for some answer. "I guess sometimes we will both sleep here, and sometimes we will both sleep in your daddy's bedroom. And sometimes, your daddy will be in his bedroom and I will be in my bedroom. Would you feel more comfortable if we told you every night where you can find Daddy?"
"Yes. Because when there is the storm with thunder and lightnings, sometimes I am scared and Daddy says I can go and sleep with him." Always ask a child why he asks a question… Ana can't help thinking.
"Then we will buddy." Christian answers, feeling much more relaxed now.
"Boys, this breakfast is the best I ever had in my whole life!" Ana says as she is finishing the last banana pancake and sipping her English Breakfast tea.
"Thank you my lady, this is for all the amazing meals we are blessed to eat every day. Right Teddy?"
"Yes." The little boy simply confirms.
"Ana, take your time to prepare yourself. Teddy and I have another breakfast in bed to prepare, for miss Phoebe. He grabs the tray and as the little boy is out of range, he adds "that was easier than I had expected." He smiles, relieved, and Ana smiles back. "One down, one to go. Well done, Darling." And with that he leaves the room.