Owned? - Chapter 54：The Date

•Azalea

As Arius and I walked out of the hotel, I saw that the streets weren’t busy, probably because it was very early in the morning.

“Where do you plan to take me?” I asked.

“The only place I know of Paris is the Eiffel tower.”

“Then let’s go there.” He intertwined his fingers with mine as he held my hand and a smile appeared on my face.

“I heard it’s pretty crowded.”

“It’s off-season plus it’s early. It’s actually a good idea to go now. There’ll be fewer people there.”

“Okay.” I squeezed his hand tighter. It still doesn’t seem real. I can’t believe this is all happening.

Am I dreaming?

I asked myself as we were passing through the park when something hit me on the head.

“Ow!” We both stopped as I placed my hand on my head where I just got hit.

Well, at least the hit confirmed I’m not dreaming

“What’s wrong?” Arius asked, “Does your head hurt?”

“Something hit me.” I looked at the floor and found a nut, “A nut…”

“Huh?”

I looked up and saw a red squirrel sitting on the tree branch. His mouth open and hands joined together as if it was apologizing.

I looked at it bewildered and said, “Ah… It’s okay?” I nodded at it.

The squirrel smiled.

It understood me?!?!

I looked at Arius. He was still staring at the unique creature in awe and then waved at it. I looked back at the tree branch and the squirrel was waving back.

Arius glanced at me and I glanced back at him.

We both smiled and then ended up laughing together.

.

***

We took the stairs to reach the first floor of the Eiffel tower.

“I didn’t know it had a glass floor?!” I got excited walking on it and seeing the people on the ground. There were shops all around the first floor and the mid had a glass floor.

“They made it not too long ago.” Arius joined me with breakfast. Two cupcakes and coffee that we could take with us ahead.

After I had my fun on the first floor we took the elevator for the second and third one.

“This is a dream come true!” I yelled as I stood at the edge looking at the magnificent city. Then I heard something click behind me. I looked back and saw Arius taking pictures on his phone. “Should I move?”

“Ah- No.”Arius came and stood by my side, “I did not even think about something like this.” He said, “But I’m glad-” He looked at me while I was already looking at him, “-It happened.” He smiled.

I smiled back at him, “Me too.”

He held my hand and moved in closer. I repeated the action and drew my face closer to his for a kiss. Just as our lips were about to meet a sound interrupted us.

“Ewwwwwwww!!!” We both turned our heads and saw a pair of siblings making a disgusted face at us.

“You guys are gross!” The boy who was about six said.

“Mommy!” The girl who looked like five called out to her mother, “Look at them doing bad stuff!”

Their mother came to them after hearing their calls and looked at us. She was a bit confused as what to say at the moment but spoke anyway, “How about you avoid doing this stuff in front of kids?”

“Ah…” Well, she wasn’t wrong, “Sur-?!?!”

Arius cupped my cheeks and kissed me so suddenly, I didn’t even get the time to process it.

I thought he would stop immediately but no, he had to make things turn steamy.

From the corner of my eyes I saw the shocked expressions of the three people looking at us. The mother immediately grabbed her kids and turned away.

I hit Arius on the chest and pushed him away, “That was very mature.” I said as I breathed heavy.

“What?” He gave me an innocent expression, “They interrupted!”

I facepalmed and sighed, “Would you be fine if someone did this in front of your five year old daughter or son?”

“Ummm, let’s not go there. I’m not a kid person”

I folded my arms, “Oh really now? What about the one you already have?”

“He’s not mine.” He sounded confident, “I’m not the father.”

“What makes you so sure?”

He began searching his pockets for something, “Remember when I asked to hold the baby?” He took out a folded piece of paper, “I did it to get his nail clippings.” He unfolded the paper and showed it to me, “This is the paternity test, look at the results below.”

I looked down and my eyes focused on the 0.00037% match.

The red line below it stated ‘ Not related.’

I looked back at him, “Is this where you went after dropping me off at the hotel on the first day?”

“Yup. Having it done here was better. Macy’s father is a High Court judge. She can manipulate things as she wants there but not here.”

I felt a bit lighter too after I learned that Macy was just lying, but I feel something off about Arius’s words.

‘I’m not a kid person.’

I could see the relief on his face. Well anyone would be relieved in this kind of situation but I feel like there’s something more to it.

Arius took my hand again, “Let’s go. We only have today. We’re going back tomorrow morning.”

We started walking back to the elevator.

Maybe I’m thinking too much. It might just be nothing.