Christian
Soft…warm….bright. Slowly I wake myself with a groan and squeeze my pillow tighter. Mmmmm it smells like Ana. Hoping to God that this is not some kind of cruel trick of the mind, I open my eyes and see that she is indeed here in my arms again. She is on her normal right side of the bed, well what would have been her normal side of the bed if she did live here. I looked at the clock and saw that it was nine o'clock. Jeez this girl always had a away about her.
I do not want to move. I want to stay here forever. I roll closer to her and hug her harder to me, effectively waking her. She has her funny bedhead. She looked so cute heavy eyed and flushed from sleep.
"Morning" she grumbles in her sexy morning voice.
"Oh good morning my Ana" I have to say I feel very flowery today. She brings out all the affection I have for normal human beings.
She gives me a sad smile and says "We are going to have to talk Christian"
I knew she was going to say that but I was really hoping that she would have waited until after breakfast. I look down at her and just nod. I know we both have a lot to talk about. I never wanted to hurt her but we spent also a lot of time apart and I want to fix that.
She stands up and immediately starts walking out of the room. I follow close behind and see that she is starting a kettle of tea. Oh her and her tea. Ray always gave it to her to make her feel better. Although I was never a fan of morning tea I always thought it was funny that they didn't like coffee.
I see Gail and Taylor rush into the room. They were most likely watching the monitors. Gail does that to know when I am in the kitchen wanting something to eat. Taylor is always there to just run down my day. I guess that they need something to do.
"Morning Taylor, Gail" I say as I sit down at the island.
Ana turns quickly around and blushes. She now realizes that she is just walking around in her underwear and my shirt. Speaking of which I really don't like her being seen this exposed in front of another man.
"Ana I have some sweats in my top drawer in my room if you want to put them on" I mumble over the island. She quickly nods and goes back to my bedroom.
"Gail I do believe you have weekends off" I say as I start a pot of coffee. This is one of the maybe five things I know how to do in a kitchen.
"Yes sir but my sister was busy this weekend. So I thought that since I really didn't do anything yesterday that I could be of service today." She said. Reasonable excuse I must admit.
Ana makes her way over to us. Wow she is swimming in my clothes. I cover my laugh with a cough.
"Oh hush you" she says as she serves herself a cup of tea.
"Taylor was are my plans for today?" I ask while waiting for my coffee.
"Well sir you have two phone meetings to hash out logistics with the shipments coming from Taiwan and after that you have nothing else pressing." He says evenly
"Any threats?" I always do have a few crazies who either hate me, capitalism or stalkers.
"Well sir, there was one inquirer about Miss err Mrs. Umm. Anastasia. The Seattle Nooz spotted the two of you holding hands and they have a few pictures on their website. They want a statement." He sounded confused about the name situation.
"Okay. Well…." I look over at Ana. That is another thing we have to talk about. "We will continue this later and Gail, Ana and I have control over breakfast so we are all good"
Both Gail and Taylor leave me and Ana alone and now it's time for the hard part
"Well Christian let's begin with something easier to explain. Why haven't you seen your family in years?" she sits down next to me.
Damn that is a hard question to answer. She is pulling no punches. "Well there really isn't a clear answer. I love my family, I truly do. My father never forgave me for dropping out of Harvard. I guess he believed I would try and become a lawyer like him. But I guess what it really comes down to is, I never wanted them to see me without you. You were always there to make me better and they knew it. The Steele family always made me feel normal and stable."
"Have you ever actually talked to your family about this? Or did you just assume that they wouldn't like the real you that we have seen?" she always has a point.
"I wasn't in the right mind to talk to them Ana. I knew if I told them why I wasn't with you they would judge me. I know it was my fault that you were gone. I just didn't need them to tell me that too." I hung my head in shame.
"Elliot told me you see your mother every once in a while. How does she feel?" wow she wants everything from me.
"Well I only see my mom once every other month. It takes about that long to finally goad me into really going out with her. Even during those hour or two lunches we only talk about how the family is doing. Whenever she tries to get something too personal out of me I shut her down. I was not ready for her to know the gory details about how we left things. She only knows that I wasn't with you anymore. But knowing me I believe she would have just assumed that it was my fault to begin with." I wasn't ready at that moment.
"Well maybe it is time to finally talk to her. Maybe you can invite them over to dinner? Maybe tomorrow? I can cook. If it will make you more comfortable I could invite my dad over today and have him stay until tomorrow. I know he missed you. He happily watched your business grow. He is very proud of you. I always encouraged my dad to never be mad at you because we weren't together." She always was there to comfort me.
"Do you think I should invite my whole family?" I don't know if I can do this
"Yeah better to do it all at once and get that nasty moment over and over again. Okay let me call my dad really quick and he should be here later on this afternoon." She walks over to her bag and tells her dad she is at my penthouse and he agrees to come over. Oh Raymond Steele, the father figure I always wanted and I am just going to expect the worst after hurting his daughter. He did warn me about hurting her.
"Okay he will be here in time for dinner. So what else do we have to talk about?" she sits back down
"Do you want to go public as my wife?" I can only imagine her response.
"I was never hiding being your wife. I loved you when you asked not to tell anyone because your dad was paying your college tuition and when we did plan on telling something them you did, you know, what you did. I just need you to realize I am still hurt and it has been a long time. Are you comfortable still being married to me?" she said quietly
"Of course I still want that! I also want you to take my name. We made those decisions when we were young. I am not hiding from my family any more. I would like you by my side always. I just want to tell you that the public, meaning the media will ask questions. Would you move in here?" Okay there it is.
"I wouldn't mind hyphenating my name. I have always been a Steele. I would add Grey to my existing name. As for the moving in here, I just moved to Seattle and I am not even settled in yet. I don't know if you are ready for this yet. Like I don't even know if you want to tell your family that we are married." She had a good point.
"Of course I want you to be here with me. I am a better person when you are around. I love you. I have always loved you. I don't mind that you want to hyphenate your name; my mother did that for me of course. Do you still love me enough to give me a chance at this relationship?" I really am putting myself out there.
"Of course I still love you or else I wouldn't be here right now. As for moving in with you I would have to talk with Kate. I want to make sure she isn't going to fight me over this." She is so considerate of other people.
"Well its fine if she doesn't like that you live here. Her opinion does not matter." Ana is an adult and shouldn't have to ask to leave.
"Well she was there for me for years. She is my friend and her opinion does matter. I would like a third party opinion. You know we kind of get caught up in ourselves." Okay she does have a point.
"How about you consider staying here part of the time in the beginning? Since you have not unpacked everything you could simply move some of those boxes here." I am actually compromising, she makes me change my ways.
"Okay part of the time I can do. And just to let you know I cook for myself. I am strictly as hands on girl and I don't need someone cooking for me. I like to cook and you know that." She is so right the kitchen was her room back in high school.
"Okay we can work something out with Gail." Yes yes yes this is working!
Something else has been haunting me during our exchanges and especially when she mentioned her normal college experience. "I also want to know something else Ana."
"What would that be?" she looks up at me questioning.
"Have you ever…. I mean did you… ummm…. Go out?" I know I haven't but I knew I left her in a bad place and that bad place is lonely. I wouldn't blame her I know that. I would merely have that man found and kick him in the nuts for touching my wife.
"What do you mean? Of course I went out. I went to like bars with Kate and Jose when they were in town." She is not getting what I am putting down.
"I mean did you ever go out with like men?" Jesus why am I finding it so hard to get this question out of my mouth
"Yes Jose is a man. Unfortunately one of his drunken nights he flashed everyone and I can now verify that he is a man." she giggles.
I don't like that but I guess she did answer my vague question in one meaning.
"Have you ever gone out with another man romantically?" there I have said it.
"Well no. Kate tried and so did Jose. They obviously didn't know I was married. They wanted me to go out on date but I resisted. I always said that I had school and that was the main reason for them dragging me to bars. They said and I quote 'Ana you need a good one night' but I always went home early." She said.
Okay time for the big one. "Have you had sex with someone else in these past five years?" oh god am I ready for this?
"No I have not. What about you Christian?" she looks me dead in my eyes and waits.
"No I have not. I haven't gone out, had sex or had literally any physical contact with a single person. I haven't even hugged my mother since you have been gone." Wow that sounded more pathetic then I thought.
"Okay. Now what?" She says.
"I guess I call my mother. I don't think I have the strength to talk to her today. Would you mind making the initial call?" I just wasn't ready for her just yet. I need time to prepare mentally.
"Okay. Give me your phone." I walk over to the room and get my phone. Ignoring the emails flashing I hand over my phone. "Please put it on speaker phone."
I sit back down and I hear the phone ring waiting for my mother to answer.
"Christian hello?"
"Oh no this isn't Christian this is Ana, Mrs. Grey." Ana says with a smile
"OH GOOD GOD ANA STEELE IS THIS YOU? DARLING HOW ARE YOU?!" I can see my mother's smile from here.
"Oh I am great. Christian stepped out of the room right now and decided to have a little get together here at his penthouse tomorrow are you and your family free?" Ana lies. She isn't a good liar in person because even now I see it plain in her face that she doesn't like it but she sounds convincing.
"Oh yes honey I will call the kids and my husband. What time are you thinking?" She asks in a hurry.
"Oh maybe around six tomorrow." Ana said
"Oh that will be perfect. How are you honey? It has been so long. We have to catch up." My mother implores.
"Oh yes it has been long. Well I am well. I graduated not even two weeks ago and start work in a week." Ana tells her the plainest of details.
"Oh that is wonderful honey. So this is a very sudden change. Honey honestly from girl to girl what happened with you and my son?" Ana looks up at me with an evil smile
"Your son was being mean and it was all him fault." She said with a petulant whine but ended up giggling. "Well in all honesty this was a situation of our own making. Christian and I have been working really hard up until now and we decided to finally do something. We have been in contact this entire time but we was doing his business stuff and I has school to keep up with and it wasn't until now that we had time to finally get back to where we were in the beginning." She just lied to my mother about all of it. She made it seem like this was all planned. She didn't want my mother to know. Why?
"Oh the young life, I knew it though! I knew you were always together even though my son is grumpy." Hey!
"Ha-ha yes he is grumpy. Oh look he just walked into the room! Say hi Christian." Ana said expectantly
"Hi mom" I said lamely
"Happy to hear you have your girl back Christian."
"Me too mom. See you tomorrow?" of course I know the answer.
"Yes. I will see you two tomorrow."
"Bye honeys" she hangs up.
I look at Ana. "Why didn't you tell her the truth?"
"She doesn't need to know. For all she knows we were always together but you just got focused on work and sexual neglect. This is our business and if you don't want her to know all the gory details I won't tell her." She said stubbornly
"You are protecting me from their judgments?"
She stands up and kisses my cheek "I always will." She holds my face in her hands. I have missed this.
"Now I need clothes." She said with a smile. "And I believe that you don't have any old clothes in this place, do you?"
"No but there is an advantage of us being rich, I can order clothes. Give it an hour." I walk over to the phone and order her clothes.
"I want jeans and a t shirt." She yells at me
"What about a dress and skirts?"
"Hahaha no" She has on a serious face. She means business.
"And you are rich get used to it." She makes another disgusted face.
"I am not" She says
"You still have the money your mom left you and you are married to me. You gave me the initial investment money which means you own half of everything I own." Which is true
"I have never had a need for endless money Christian." She says with a shake of her head.
"That's why I love you." I kiss her head.
"Okay you go get dressed and finish you call and emails and I will make some breakfast. You okay with French toast?" She heads to the kitchen.
"I am good with anything." I watch as she walks in to the kitchen and gets the things ready.
This feels natural and right.
…..
Please review
What do you think should happen during the dinner?