(Soundtrack: "Why Wait" – Shakira)
Angelina laid the blanket over her sleeping beauty daughter. After she gently kissed her on the forehead, she turned off the light and went back to downstairs where her father was drinking a cup of tea, reading his newspaper.
She started pacing back and forth in front of him uneasily. Richard lowered his reading glasses and stared at her.
"Angelina, could you please stop doing this? It makes me dizzy when I see you pacing up and down the room. Aurah is home, safe and sound. You need to calm down now."
Angelina stopped. She put her hands to her sides. "Calm down? Tell me, dad, how can I? My daughter…" She sucked in a hard breath. "My intelligent, talented, pretty and well-educated daughter fell in love with a British peasant!"
Richard laughed up his sleeve. "Peasant? Since when a cockney* is denominated as peasant?"
"Oh, please, don't be funny! I heard his accent. He's not even a native Londoner. Only God knows which village of England he came from!"
"You know, I could be a peasant by some standards," Richard nonchalantly replied. "Before I met your mother, I was just a poor, silly boy who came from a small town of Canada to New York to study genetics. I had nothing but my high school diploma in my hand. Your mom was a student in the best school of Manhattan and I was working in a video store make ends meet."
Angelina raised her hand like a traffic police. "Ahh, please, don't start telling this story again, dad! I've heard it a million times from you and mom. I can't believe that you compare yourself to him. You're a respectable, successful scientist."
"And he is a computer genius."
"He is a fortune hunter!"
Richard put his newspaper to a side, assuming on serious air. "Honey, I honestly don't think that he's after money," he said.
"Why don't you understand me? He's not good enough for Aurah!"
"If you had asked me in the past, I would have told you that Samuel Cornick was not good enough for you. But it wouldn't stop you from loving him, would it?"
Angelina paused. She sat on the couch with a sigh, throwing her feet over the edge.
"He's a werewolf; she's a half-vampire. They might end up at each other's throat in the first fight they make."
"I don't think so," Richard shrugged. "Not on Samuel's watch, at least."
"They're so different from each other," Angelina desperately said, feeling that she's running out of reasons. "Aurah had a happy, healthy childhood. She's overprotected. She hasn't seen the cruel face of the world, yet. But this boy-"She paused for a moment. "He's damaged. I know his story. I investigated him. He had some unpleasant experiences as a child. What if he breaks her heart?"
"So, let Aurah see the the real world while she was healing his soul." Richard winsomely said. " If you investigated him, you must have seen that each time he fell, he always pulled through with no one's help and stood on his own feet." When Richard paused to take a breath, he suddenly frowned as if something crossed his mind. "Besides," he said, crossing his arms. "I don't think that Samuel Cornick had any unpleasant childhood experiences. But he broke your heart anyway. He let you go and didn't keep the track of you when you said you were pregnant with his baby! How will you respond to that?"
Angelina's face flushed with frustration. She couldn't say anything since she had no response to that.
"Give the boy a break, Angelina! Let them love each other."
"What do you suggest?" She put her hand on her forehead. She sounded tired.
"Invite him to breakfast for tomorrow morning. We thank him for rescuing Aurah and we try to understand their future plans for each other." He winked at her.
"Okay, I will." Angelina sighed. "I'm going to call him now and I'm going to sleep. If I can sleep, of course!" She bent on his father and placed a kiss good night on his cheek.
"Good night, honey," Richard said, smiling. "May God help you, Benjamin," he muttered to himself after Angelina went upstairs.
*Cockney : The term used for working-class Londoners. (Please, check out Wikipedia for further information)