Chapter Forty-two

Athena's POV

''Do you know that if you fell into a black hole, you would stretch like spaghetti?'' Colton leans forward, looking at me straight in the eye. His brown eyes wide as he nods his head continuously. I blink quickly as he back away, ''It's not just that but a day in Mercury lasts approximately as long as 59 days on earth.'' It fascinates me how he has more knowledge than me.

''Oh! Oh! Do you know that—'' I pick him up before placing him on my lap and he continues, ''—different parts of the world have their own local cuisine. The diets and general food habits of various cultures depends on social, religious, economic and safety factors as well as availability of different foods.'' He grins widely, ''Do you think that my facts are significant?''

I smile back at him, ''They're great facts, Colton. Where'd you get them?''

Alex appears out of nowhere and starts wrapping his arm around my neck, pecking me on the cheek. He messes with Colton's hair as Colton laughs, fist-bumping Alex. I watch as they bond. They both look like brothers who are close to one another; which is adorable. I'm not going to lie, even though Alex doesn't admit about liking kids but he's good with them.

''Me and mommy went to the zoo the other day.'' I hear Colton say toward Alex. Alex's eyes widen as he pretends to rub his lower lip and Colton goes on, ''There was lots of animals! I even saw a baby monkey. It was so cute. So tiny—'' Colton shows the size of the baby monkey with his fingers. I smile unknowingly, seeing him explain.

Without me realising, Alex eyes my expression; seeing me running my finger softly through Colton's hair. When I caught him looking, he quickly look back at Colton, ''Was it really that small?'' Alex asks and Colton nods eagerly.

''Yeah, this small!'' He jumps, using his small fingers as a measurement, ''Do you want to go and watch some baby monkeys if you're free?'' He glances toward my direction, ''Athena can come too!'' Colton sits back on my lap as he look up in my eyes. How can I resist those big brown eyes?

''Of course, why not.'' Alex answers, rubbing onto his head.

''Yay! I can definitely see baby monkeys again.'' Colton immediately hug me around the neck and sniffing in my scent. Too surprised to react, I pat onto his back and it took me awhile to pull him closer and return the hug. Alex notices how awkward it is for me but I'm getting there. I am.

''But as for now, we'll be going out. Maybe for a walk or get something to eat?'' Alex says out of nowhere, receiving Colton's attention. Colton quickly runs down from the sofa and go straight ahead toward him, jumping up and down; due to his height.

''I want pizza!'' He jumps, stating his answer in total confidence.

Alex nods at Colton and glances toward my direction. I keep quiet as I play with my fingers, forming a smile at the end. He pats on Colton's back and they quickly walk toward the front door. I continue to smile without realising that they have been standing at the front door; waiting for me, ''Athena, come on! I'm hungry.'' Colton's voice interrupts me from my deepest thoughts. I immediately stand up and walk toward them before we all enter the car.

I found out that he actually owns another car beside his Lamborghini.

Once we arrived at the Kestè Pizza & Vino, we took the table near the wall just because Colton chose it. Alex sits beside Colton and I sit the opposite from them; watching as they go through the menu. The waiter comes to take our order and Colton points at the pizza he wants, the waiter writes down his order. Alex puts down his menu, ''You'd want that?'' He asks Colton.

''Mm.'' Colton nods.

''Alright. One capricciosa—'' He looks up at me, waiting for me to answer. I point at the my order and he continues, ''—and one caprese. Water for me and my wife.'' I shiver as I hear the sound of his voice pronouncing the word wife, ''What do you want, buddy?'' He gestures toward Colton. ''Chocolate float.'' Colton mutters as he plays a game on Alex's phone.

''Okay, that's all?'' The waiter asks. Alex nods and the waiter starts to walk away, typing our order in the system.

I eye Colton and see that he's busy playing; not even glancing toward me and Alex. I rests both of my hands on the table as I sigh. In an instant, Alex slowly grab onto my hand and start rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb. ''Baby, you okay?'' He asks, his voice low.

''I'm fine, why?'' My lips curve up into a smile.

He raises his index finger before pointing at my face, ''I don't know, I just see a few wrinkles here and there and oh, won't you look at that! There's a few line in the middle of your eyebrows.'' I immediately touch my cheeks, slapping his hand away from mine.

Using my phone's front camera as a mirror, I take a closer look at my face. There's no such thing as wrinkles or lines in the middle of my brows. I drop my phone down and I see Alex laughing while rubbing both of his hands together, ''You're such a teaser.'' I grumble.

''Aha, you're such a believer.'' He fist-bump Colton who doesn't get a clue about anything that's going on.

We ate our pizza in silence but not without glaring at one another. Sometimes I would feel Alex slightly touching my legs with his and he would reach out for my hand; trying to act all affectionate in public. I would glare at him and continue to eat while he keeps on trying. I know after what happened that night, it's like a sign that we're having something right now.

Does it have to be officially announced by him toward me? Do I really need him to say the word?

It's true that he hasn't been acting the same anymore. He's way straight forward and isn't holding back like he used to. I couldn't agree more about liking how he treats me now. My mind always shuts down whenever I'm around him; it's weird how we went through it for the first time but we weren't really talking about it. Yeah, he touches me more often but we don't talk about what's going to happen next.

Is he as scared as I am? What would we both become? Things are becoming more complicated just by thinking about it. Why did we even give in the first place? Why did we start putting feelings as our first option? We could have resist but we didn't. We fail to push the temptation away. I'm not putting the blame on anyone but I'm putting the blame on myself. I made myself fall.

Truthfully, a part of me is happy that I actually moved on. If this is consider as moving on. I never thought that I could manage to move on so fast. It's weird how everything just glides on smoothly with him. Does he realise that? I barely even know him well. He knows almost everything about me; about my problems, my psycho ex-boyfriend but luckily, he doesn't know anything about Joanna and me. Especially about the deal.

But then again, all I know about him is his personality. He likes to keep things to himself and I come to notice that. Sure, he told me about his parents. About their divorce and he was eight that time. How his father got remarried when he was fifteen; he never really liked him much afterwards. My heart clenches at the thought of his mother passed away due to a car crash. It feels like I'm holding onto a burden that I can barely carry any further.

I look up to see Alex laughing with Colton as they both eat the pizza quickly; challenging one another. Colton seems comfortable around him. Of course he would. Clark is barely around and he needed someone to play the father role. Would Colton end up growing hating his father too just like how Alex did? Would he hate the fact that his father cheated?

Things really are starting to make more sense. It took me awhile to realise. How have I been so stupid? Colton's situation is just the same as Alex's when he was younger. When he's old enough to understand, he'll be making a choice to choose whether he'll be forgiving Clark or blame him for everything that Clara has been feeling due to the heartbreaking moments.

Even though I can't see Clara suffering. I know she is. She may not show it in front of Colton because she wants to show how strong she is and she wants everyone to see her as a strong woman; not someone who's weak and would cry over their ex-husband for weeks or even months. I know that humans have limits. When the burden is too much, they might try and give up.

But Clara wouldn't do that. She wants the best for Colton. If she gives up, then Colton would receive a great impact; it might even ruin his future. He's young, it's painful to see him growing up this way. Clark should have thought better before making stupid decisions. I don't see Clara as someone who would hurt a fly so how come Clark choose someone else than his wife and son? His family?

After finish eating our pizza, we walk out. Colton walking in between us as we hold his hands. As we walk, some people actually thought we look like a real couple—like a parent. We stop by the park near the street and Colton is right now playing around with a ball while me and Alex sit down on one of the benches. I continue to keep an eye on him.

Alex grabs onto my hand, ''You look like you've been thinking.'' He says, frowning.

I give him a reassuring smile, ''What makes you think that way?'' It's true. I've been thinking a lot lately. As things are actually getting better, it's getting worst too. ''Do I look like I've been thinking?''

He tuck a stand hair behind my ear, ''You can tell me anything. You know that right? Whatever that bothers you, just come straight to me and pour it all out. I'm a great listener if you haven't known. You should probably Google about me more often and find out that they actually made a website and put up my likes and dislikes. I don't know how they get that anyway.''

Chuckling at the thought of him searching his own name on Google, ''I'm pretty sure you search about yourself quite a lot huh? You're pretty much narcissistic.''

Alex grins before leaning in and kissing me on the lips. One of his hand goes up to my jawline and pull my face closer. I kiss him back; following the rhythm. I keep both of my hands on my lap—not bothering to move them around. After a while, he moves back, slightly touching our noses together, ''I've been wanting to do that an hour ago.'' He breathes out.

''You've been wanting to do everything.'' I say sarcastically.

He chuckles, ''Quite true. I've been wanting to do everything with you and I think I'm going somewhere with that one.'' He holds onto my hand—playing with my fingers, checking them one by one.

''I want to ask you something.''

''What is it about?'' He leans in closer, eyeing my face as he waits for me to continue.

I turn my head; facing him. My eyes meet with his blue ones, ''Do you think you know me well?'' I ask and he furrow his eyebrows immediately. I swallow the non-existent lump in my throat as I continue to stare at him, ''You can't answer that, can you?'' I mutter under my breath.

''Athena, it's not like that.'' He replies slowly, ''I may not know everything about you but I'm getting there. Can't you see that I'm trying? I've known you little by little. Your problems have becoming mine and I think that I should at least get some appreciation from that.'' Then he run his fingers through his hair, ''The true question is, do you even know me well?''

He reads me like an open book.

''How can I when you tell me nothing. We never really sit down and talk about this.'' I reply.

''Exactly. It's because I don't want to tell you about my life. I don't want you to know me by my past. I want you to know me by who I am right now.'' He sighs, ''Does the past really even matter? For me, I don't think it does. All you have to know is that I have a ruined relationship with my father and a perfect one with my mother. That's it.'' He stops for awhile, ''And one thing that I would like to keep in my mind is that I would never end up becoming like him. I would never hurt the one I love. Mom raised me well for me to think properly.''

I keep quiet, not bothering to turn this into an argument. ''I don't even know your favourite colour.'' I end up chuckling at the end, somehow realising that we're way behind when it comes to know each other. We spent the past months on trying to attract each other but not knowing. It felt like days when it's been three months.

''Brown.'' He replies, smiling at me.

''Pft, yeah.'' I sigh and lean back on the bench.

''Pft, yeah what? It's true.'' Before I could say anything, he cuts me to it, ''And no, it has nothing to do with your eyes so don't flatter yourself.'' Then he tilt his head, pushing any strand hair that's covering my face. I smile widely, biting onto my lower lip.

Alex continues to stare at me; as if he's looking at something so fragile, so special. I cautiously fidget. I have never been a fan whenever someone put their whole attention on me. ''Wait,'' I blink, looking around, ''Where's Colton?'' Alex furrow his eyebrows and I stand up, walking toward the direction where I last saw him.

He follows behind me, catching up with my pace. I continue to walk fast, worried if I might lose him. My hands are sweating when I see that he's nowhere to be found. I stop in the middle of the park, taking a very closer look at every inch. Once I spotted his brown hair, I immediately run toward him. As I get closer, I see that he's talking to an unknown man around six foot tall. I fasten my steps and I reach his shoulders as soon as I get closer.

The unfamiliar man looks at me with surprise. I take a better look at him and see that he's wearing a suit. He has a few grey hairs mixing with his natural light brown colour. I pull Colton closer; not even caring if he thinks I'm being rude. The stranger frowns, ''You're Athena right?'' He asks.

My body tenses immediately. How does he know my name? I take a few step back, ''Excuse me?'' I shake my head slowly, ''I'm sorry but do I know you?''

He clears his throat, ''Apparently, no.'' Then he starts to look at something behind me. I turn around to follow his gaze and I see that he's looking straight at Alex who is also looking back at him. They are staring at one another in confusion. Alex wakes up from the trance and he picks up Colton, ''Let's go.'' He mutters to me before pulling my hand.

''Wait!'' I hear the man calling us.

Alex continue to pull my hand; not even loosening the grip. I turn around to see the man following us. I fasten my steps, trying to catch up with Alex. Colton wraps his arm around Alex, ''Alex, what's going on?'' I ask but he ignores me.

Once we have reached his car, Alex slowly put Colton down and he gets inside. I stand awkwardly near the door, looking at him. He looks back at me, ''Get in the car.'' He says. It sounds more like a demand which makes me breathe out in disbelief. He sighs, ''Athena, please, just get in the car.'' He adds.

''Then at least tell me what the hell is going on?'' I ask, almost raising my voice.

He slams the door shut, making me flinch. Then he turns around, sighing as he rub his temples. I keep on standing where I am, not bothered to walk toward him. I've never seen him mad—never seen him this mad. Does it have anything to do with the previous man?

Our eyes meet as he looks back at me, clenching his jaw, ''Princess, I'm sorry but can you please get in the car?'' His eyes stare straight into mine. I look away before slowly getting into the car. I turn to look at the backseat, seeing that Colton is looking back at me. I swallow, ''Put on your seat belt, okay?'' I say, softly.

Colton nods, doing as told.

Alex opens the door but before he could enter, I hear someone shouting his name. He looks at me for a second before quickly entering the car. As soon as he closes the door, another car came to block us from moving any further. I turn to look at Alex who's gripping onto the steering wheel. He mutters something under his breath which isn't clear.

''Stay in the car.'' He says, touching my cheek before stepping out; closing the door behind him.

I press down the button for the window to hear their conversation and I see Alex looking at the man from before. ''What do you want?'' Alex says, ''Move the car.'' He adds. From the way he speaks, it sounds like he's not fooling around. I stay still, not bothering to look at anything else but at the man's face.

He looks at Alex with regret and disbelief.

''Alex, would you please listen to me?'' He asks, trying to walk closer toward Alex but he stops once he sees Alex backing up a little, ''Please. Listen.'' It sounds more like he's begging. Begging for Alex to stay and listen to his undying explanation. Alex ignores him as he turns around, opening the door once more. I quickly press the button to close back the window.

''Son.'' The man says and Alex stops moving. One of his hand holding tightly onto the door while the other clenches into fists.