Grow Up First.

Amelia blinked twice, blinded by the man's charming smile. No, he certainly had a strange influence on her. "I didn't have time to miss you, I was busy," she turned away, not wanting to look Marcus in the eye.

"Tsk, you are still as prickly as usual," the man laughed and ruffled the girl's hair, which he stroked a minute earlier, "Well, that's ok, we have some grand plans today which will certainly cheer you up."

Marcus has already got used to a cold attitude on the part of Amelia which she gave him sometimes, he did not know the reason for this, just at some point she began to talk to him less and seemed to be offended by something. Lucia also did not understand what was happening, and they came to the conclusion that the awkward age was the reason to blame, and her hormonal system began to show up as periodic mood swings.

Even if Amelia was older than her peers with her mind, her body was still the body of a child, only preparing to turn into an adult girl, like a kell turning into a butterfly. Therefore, everybody took her grumbling and frowning eyebrows easy.

"I brought you a present, wanna see?" Marcus did not wait for the girl's response and handed her a small box, "I know that you consider yourself a grown up, so don't pout your lips, this doll is one of the most popular Japanese souvenirs."

Amelia looked inside the box and saw a wooden doll that looked like a figurine. She had no arms and legs, just a rounded body and head. Despite the unusual shape, this souvenir looked cute, and the girl even imagined where she would put it.

"Thank you," Amelia answered quietly.

"If you agreed to talk to me when I called last time, then I would bring what you wanted. But since you didn't want to talk, accept what there is," Marcus grinned. He brought with him only this small souvenir to test the reaction of the girl. The huge pile of gifts that he prepared for her remained at his house. The man decided not to pamper the child with excessive attention. Hmm, he could also be a bit stiff sometimes, right? Although deep down, Marcus knew that it looked silly of him.

The girl wanted to comment on his remark, but at that moment the front door clicked and Polina entered the room. At the sight of Marcus, a joyful smile lit up her face. The man answered in the same way, went up to the girl and hugged her tightly. Amelia turned away so as not to watch this sweet scene.

"Welcome back! How are you?"

"Thank you, everything is fine," Marcus kissed Polina on the cheek, pulled a small envelope from his jacket pocket and handed it to the girl, "Here. A little gift from me," he said in a mysterious tone.

Polina unfolded the envelope and took out a few photos. The girl covered her mouth with her palm in surprise, an excited scream flew from her lips, tears appeared in the corners of her eyes. "Ahh, you are just the best!" she jumped on Marcus and squeezed his neck in her arms.

Amelia looked at the couple in bewilderment, for the first time she saw Polina so joyful and emotional. Usually, the girl was reflective and often would be lost in her thoughts that Amelia perceived in the nature of things since she herself had been so most of the time.

But now, watching Polina rejoice at Marcus's gift like a child, Amelia's heart sank with an incomprehensible feeling. It turns out that all the dreams she saw about them were true?

Two is a company, three is a crowd - seemed to the girl, so she felt uncomfortable in this joyful atmosphere, the reason for which was not clear to her. She turned and headed toward the stairs so as not to see Marcus's radiant face, pleased that he had gifted a nice present for his friend.

"Aren't you going to the zoo?" the man shouted to the girl when she put her foot on the first step of the stairs leading up.

"That's right! Give me a couple of seconds, I will put the food in the fridge, and we can go!" Polina had already forgotten about the bag with the products that she brought with her, all her thoughts were occupied by the light-haired man from the photographs that Marcus handed her. "Did you want to change clothes?" she asked Amelia, noting that the girl had gone to her bedroom.

"No, I'll go that way," Amelia decided to return to her original plan, dressing her did not make sense. This person perceived her as a child, so what's the difference if she will be in a beautiful dress or in home shorts?

"Then, beautiful ladies, I'm waiting for you in the car," Marcus nodded and left the house. Amelia stood for a few seconds, shifting from foot to foot, and followed him.

The girl narrowed her brown eyes from the bright sun, as soon as she crossed the threshold. The weather was wonderful, the sky was clear, the air was warm. But the inexplicable feeling of anxiety in Amelia's chest did not give her the opportunity to enjoy it.

When Marcus lifted her from the floor, this oppressive feeling receded, as always happened in his presence. But Amelia knew that she could not rely on the presence of the man all her life, and the most effective way was to see what upcoming event could cause her anxiety.

But her dreams were silent about this. This was the first time. And she did not like this uncertainty the most.

The girl noticed that Marcus arrived in a new car, the latest BMW model. She had already lost count of how many cars he had changed in the last couple of years. Her father owned the same MINI as five years ago, and this man bought cars at every change of season. What was his job at all? This question only now occurred to her.

"New again? Why BMW?" Amelia asked and opened the door of the passenger seat.

"I prefer German cars," Marcus leaned on the door, and with his second hand blocked Amelia, who was about to get into the car, "Children cannot sit in the front seat. Sit back."

"Dad always lets me in! I'm tall and, in any case, I'll manage to fasten my seatbelt," the girl protested. Amelia was taller than her peers, but next to Marcus barely reached to his chest with the top of her head. Her main motivation was the desire to take a closer look at the car dashboard, which was part of a narrow circle of her strange interests.

"Tall? If you were at least at the level of my eyes, then I would admit that you are tall. And so," the man examined Amelia with an appraising look, "Little girl. Grow up first, then we'll talk."

If one could kill with a look, then there would definitely be a hole in Marcus's forehead at that moment.

"What?" The man looked with incomprehension, as the girl grunted her nose, and sat back, loudly slamming the door. Did he say something wrong? Marcus shrugged, the train of thought of this child every year became more and more inexplicable to him.

Amelia was sitting in the back seat and with a sullen face looking through the glass at the road and passing cars. Polina and Marcus were discussing his last trip to Japan and their mutual acquaintance named Armand.

The girl tried to listen to the conversation but did not understand anything. It seemed to her that there was a strong connection between these two and that unknown Armand, since Polina listened with interest to every word of Marcus.

A walk in the zoo also did not bring the girl much joy, and after several attempts to cheer her up, Polina and Marcus decided to abandon this idea.

Amelia sat on a bench and stared at a wide pond, where ducks and swans swam idly, bathing in the sun. A minute later the man sat down near her, he threw one hand on the back of the bench behind the girl, in the second hand he had a big horn with several balls of ice cream.

Amelia squinted at the pink ball, 'Raspberry', she thought and swallowed.

"And when I offered you one, you didn't want it," Marcus bit off a half of a pink ball and, with demonstrative pleasure, began to enjoy how the cold ice cream melted in his mouth.

"Where is Polina?" the girl decided to change her focus of attention and returned her gaze to the gray ducks, but the smell of ice cream from the man sitting next to her messed up her entire concentration.

"She went to the dolphinarium. She'll be back in thirty minutes or so," he replied and held out a horn of ice cream, "Try it. If you like, I'll go buy one more."

Amelia looked at the ice cream stretched toward her, only half of her favorite raspberry ice cream was left. The girl looked up at the man and, not taking her eyes from his eyes, slowly leaned toward Marcus, opened her mouth, grabbed the rest and closed her lips.

They gazed at each other until Amelia's face was distorted by a terrible grimace.

The girl opened her mouth and began to wave her hands, "Ahh, it's cold!!!" She tried to swallow a large piece as a whole, as Marcus did, but in the end, she only got all her teeth cold.

The man could not restrain his laughter, this wayward princess was too funny, "Ahaha, silly, who eats like that?! Why to bite off so much right away?"

"You took even a bigger bite!"

"Tsk, don't compare an adult man and a child of your age," Marcus chuckled. For a second his heart skipped a beat when the girl made such a frank gesture with such a fixed gaze. If she was ten years older, he would have serious problems with self-control. Thank God Amelia was just a child who decided to compete with him in eating ice cream.

"How old are you? Twenty - twenty-five max!"

Marcus did not respond to this comment, the concept of age did not make sense to him.

"Excuse me, can you tell us how to get to the serpentarium?" The ringing female voice distracted the couple from a lively discussion. Amelia raised her head and saw two pretty girls who kept their eyes on Marcus.

The man gave the ice cream to the girl, got up from the bench and began to explain the way to two strangers. The zoo was large, and getting lost in it was easy enough.

Amelia immediately realized that these visitors did not even listen to the explanations, but only were giggling playfully and looking at the man. Serpentarium, my foot.

She went to Marcus, grabbed his hand and looked at the girls with maliciousness, "When you get to the place, do not forget to take a picture with a pair of vipers, you look so much like them," and smiled.