Sara

I nuzzled Kennet's neck and stayed for a long time with my head on his strong chest, stroking the strands of his brown hair and sighing.

-I don't know anything about your family, do they live here?- I asked.

-My parents separated when I was ten years old and I'm the oldest of three, imagine how young my siblings were at the time of their separation, Giancarlo is twenty-five and Ninoska is twenty-two- I swallow hard before speaking again- I think it was the best thing for us, but that doesn't mean we didn't suffer, anyway Mom always did her best to keep us happy and be able to ignore the fact that our father was never with us after their separation.

》-For Ninoska it was easy since my mother was six months pregnant when the divorce happened so she never lived with him, but for my brother and I it was more complicated not seeing him every day, I would say it was more difficult for me, I spent more time with him and I felt that since I was the oldest I should keep everything to myself and help my mother.- her gaze hardened looking at a specific point.《

-Why did they break up?

"My father cheated on my mother with her cousin. My mother wasn't going to let that happen, and she didn't back down when my father swore it would never happen again. My mother is everything to me. Besides keeping her own pain to herself, she's also helped us three succeed. I have a great company. Giancarlo is a professional Formula E driver and Ninoska is a designer. We all managed to be successful thanks to her."

-Everyone thinks my last name is from my father, but in reality Rhys is my mother's maiden name. It was hard to get her last name as my primary name, but it was achieved since my father signed all the documents; he didn't care at all.

"Where is your father now?" I asked. His story was similar to mine, except my father ran away as soon as he found out my mother was pregnant with me.

-Don't ask any more, curious girl, there will be time for more- he said and I snuggled closer onto his lap.

-I'm sorry if I bothered you with so many questions.

-Don't worry. Let's not waste any more time. We have a reservation at the restaurant.

**************************

I looked at the monitor and rested my head on my arm, already dead with sleep, my eyes slowly closing.

"If you keep this up, you'll get fired," Maddie said. I jumped so much that I almost fell off my chair, making my friend laugh.

"I'm dead tired," I lifted my face and Maddie looked at me horrified.

-Oh my god!- I exclaimed- Girl, you look very pale, you look like a ghost- I took a mirror from my bag and looked at myself in it, it was true I was very pale and I hadn't noticed that I had huge dark circles under my eyes.

-It must be because I haven't slept well these days, sometimes I even take a bit of work home with me.

-You should rest, speaking of distractions, I'm here to get you out of here and let's go to lunch, or are you going out with the boss? - I asked with a mocking smile.

-Speak lower, Maddie- I said-okay, let's go eat, I need to go out for a while- I said taking my bag and left the big building with Maddie.

We walked for about seven minutes and arrived at our favorite lunch spot, where the food was delicious, especially the stuffed potatoes with chicken stew, which was by far my favorite. Damn, just thinking about it made my mouth water. We found a table and our order was quickly taken. Of course, I ordered the potatoes with the stew.

"How are you doing with that boyfriend of yours?" I asked. Maddie was in a relationship with a man I hadn't met yet. He was sixteen years older than Maddie, and he was divorced and had a five-year-old daughter.

-He's not my boyfriend, we're just getting to know each other and his name is Hector- she said, downplaying the importance.

"They've known each other for over a year," I complained.

"I'm scared," he admitted.

-Afraid of what? What people will say?

-Exactly, I know that only what I feel for him matters and vice versa, but he scares me and he wants something serious, I don't know if I'm ready for that. My father wants me to settle down, I'm thirty years old and he thinks I'm never going to find a man who loves me or someone to have children with-sigh- Hector confessed to me that he wanted me in his life as something more and I ran away like a coward. I... love him.

Take her hand across the table and look at her.

-Maddie, don't close yourself off to what you feel. If you think you could be happy with him, try it. Age, in this case, is just a number. If you love him, don't push him away. Talk this topic over with him, and I hope you can work something out. I'm sure you've been happier for him.

They brought our plates and we immediately started eating, we were both very hungry so we didn't say another word about the matter.

*********************

-Could you bring the contracts with the Japanese, please- Kennet called on the phone.

"Right away," I replied, taking the folders out of the drawers before walking to his office. I knocked twice and entered. "Here are the contracts, sir."

"Thanks, you can leave the papers." I focused on one of the two photographs on his desk, which I knew was of him and his brothers when they were very young. Kennet still had those striking honey-colored eyes, while his two brothers had also inherited them from their mother.

I had a long-standing question I wanted to ask him, since we had sex, but he never liked using a condom, and I knew that there was a very small percentage of errors in a birth control pill.

-Mmm... Kennet- I called him.

- What's going on?

- What if I get pregnant? - He put the computer aside and stared at me.

"It would be a nightmare," he dictated. "Is this a joke?"

"I just want to know, not that I am," I said with visible nervousness as I dried my sweaty hands on my skirt.

"Don't say such a stupid thing again, it will never happen again," he said, turning back to the computer screen.

I quickly left the office and sat down firmly in my desk chair. To say that his response left me frozen was an understatement; it had left me terrified and afraid that his nightmare might come true.