A Step Closer to Love

“Are we meeting him today?” Everly followed up with her friends’s question when Arabella did not say anything.

“Yes, we are,” Arabella said.

“And you are just telling me, I should have stayed back at home to prepare a warm meal for him instead of coming to the hospital to pick you up. I should have also taken extra care to clean the house today.” Kieran rolled his eyes at how extra his mom was being. He wondered how she would react when she got to know that he was the one she was making all this fuss over.

“Forget it; moreover, if he knew that you took extra care to do all those things, he would feel uncomfortable,” Arabella said.

“Is that it?” Everly said, biting her lip and looking out the window. “Kieran, go to Hyshoo restaurant; let us get something from there since I might not be able to make any food,” she said out of the blue.

“Everly, why don’t you calm down? You are making a big deal out of nothing,” Ethan said from the passenger’s seat. It was the first thing he said since they got in the car.

“Calm down?” Ava asked. Arabella felt relieved hearing her mom talk. Her mom was supposed to be freaking out now, but she seemed to maintain her composure.

“How can we calm down?” Everly said. Arabella rolled her eyes, and when she looked at her sister, she was doing the same as well. Both women were about to go dramatic over this issue. Arabella felt bad that they were about to go all out and spend so much money to entertain her boyfriend when he was right there with them listening in to their plans.

“Also, I would want to get some cleaning supplies; the house is a mess,” Everly added, hinting that they make a stop at a store so she could buy all those things.

“Oh gosh, I can’t take this anymore,” Arabella said, raising her head and putting it in the face of her mother. “I guess I would just introduce him to you now.”

“What?” Ava said, looking around. Surprisingly, Everly understood without Arabella having to explain anything further.

“It is certainly not true,” Everly said, turning her neck so she could look at the girl.

“What is?” Ava asked confused.

“Her,” Everluy said, pointing to Everly, who was now sitting comfortably with her hand on her left leg in the back seat. “And him,” she said, pointing to Kieran in the driver’s seat. “Dating”

“Uhh, oh, you broke Everly,” Seraphina teased.

“What?” Ava screamed, her head going from side to side so she could check out the faces of both of them. “Is that true, Hana?” she asked, finally deciding to keep her gaze on Arabella.

“Yes, Mom, we began dating about three weeks ago,” Arabella said. She met his eyes in the mirror, and she could hear all the unspoken words in them. He was seriously thanking her for taking the cat out of the bed and not allowing them to make unreasonable stops around to impress him.

“Sera, you do not seem shocked; did you know Alereafy?” Ava asked.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“Well, it was already pretty obvious,” Seraphina said. She could not believe that they could not see all the flirting between them.

“So it is true?” Everly asked.

“Of course it is.”

The rest of the drive back home was. Even though Arabella did not picture them telling their families this, she was glad that she had gotten it off her chest. As they entered the house, Ava called everyone into the living room. Arabella had expected a reaction from her mom, but maybe she was just shocked that she had forgotten how to react.

She was waiting for them to remind them of the age gap between them and the reasons why this wouldn’t work out. She wanted to hear their reasons, even though she was just learning how to love him. He had admitted that he had a crush on her. When he went to the airport to pick her up, it was like love at first sight.

When his mom had told him that her friend’s daughter, whom he knew from his youth, was coming to stay with them, he did not know why, but for some reason, he encountered a small child and was shocked by what he had seen. He tried to suppress his emotions, using his hurt as an excuse.

“Everyone to the living room,” Ava commanded. It was like she was the mother of the house, and the rest of them were her children.

“I’ll just skip this out,” Ethan said, trying to remove himself from the situation.

“Everyone!” Ava’s tone was firm, telling him that he dared not counter her instructions.

Everyone filed into the room and sat down. Ava told Arabella and Kieran to sit down on the floor in front of them. “This will make for a very good social media post,” Seraphina said as she sat down.

“Put your phone away,” Ava said, and Seraphina waved her phone in the air before dropping it at the corner table by the chair she was seated in.

“How did this happen?” Everly asked after they had sat for a while, and Ava did not say anything. One look at her, and it was obvious that she was trying to collect her thoughts.

“We fell in love.” Kieran said her question was stupid because she could see the most obvious thing in the world. Would they be there if they weren’t lobe?

“Is that true, Ara?” Everly shifted her gaze to Arabella. Arabella licked her lip and nodded.

“But how? I leave you for barely days and you get to sleep? Or were you together and eating strangely while trying to make me think that you hate each other?” Everly asked, scenarios playing out in her mind.

“Mom, you have a wild imagination,” Kieran said.

“But no, it was not like that. I always thought Kieran to be a man I would like to be with but I could not stand his attitude and to think he was always being mean to me for no reason. I later found out he was only doing those things because he didn’t know how to express his feelings.”

“So what are you saying? You two are together? You want to be together?” Ava asked.

“I do want to be with him; I am shocked that it is possible for someone to lobe another person this much,” Arabella replied.

“Our baby has found love; what about you?” she asked, turning to Kieran.

“I want to be with her,” Kieran said, turning so his gaze was on Arabella.

“Forever”