30

Eloise

My chest felt like it wanted to explode at any moment with so much happiness, Julian was amazing. Affectionate, attentive and dirty mouth, everything about him enchanted me in a way that I couldn't explain, it was like a good pain, it was a feeling so intense and strong that sometimes it hurt the idea of not having it anymore.

The rest of the day with him was the best of my life, in fact, one of the best as I knew I had many more ahead of me.

We were standing there in front of my house, he was going to come in and talk about everything with my grandmother, she needed to know the mess my life was being, in the chalet we had talked about it and we both agreed that it was the best thing to do.

After all, she must have been very worried about me, I disappeared for almost a day, I had been behaving strangely, I confess. I really hoped that Olivia had at least come up with a good excuse for her.

Julian took my hand and we walked to the door, my legs were hurting like I had been hit by a truck, after a non-stop sex session for hours with my man, these were the symptoms I got, pain all over my body and marks on my skin, but if they asked me if I cared? Not at all, it was a pain worth feeling. Just remembering her reasons had the tension between my thighs starting to build up.

As soon as I opened the door, the first image I saw was that of my dear grandmother reading her book sitting in her favorite armchair. I couldn't hold back the tears of emotion and relief knowing she was there.

I took a deep breath and closed the door, trying to calm the anxiety inside me a little, my hands were sweaty and Julian was looking at me with a confident expression, everything would be fine I was sure, Dona Florence was the sweetest and most understanding person in the whole world.

"Grandfather?" I called with a racing heart. Quickly she looked back and stood up smiling.

"Daughter! You're here... Good." She said. "What was that on your leg?" she asked, still not noticing Julian's presence.

"It was a silly bruise." I replied and gave him a smile. "This is Julian... Grandma, I'm really nervous, so I'll get straight to the point." I spoke quickly holding Julian's hand. "I don't know if you remember when I said I was in love with a man and he didn't want me?" I asked and Julian looked at me in surprise.

"Clear." Her wisdom sometimes scared me, how could she be so calm? As she answered me she looked at Julian as if she recognized him.

"Allow me to introduce myself Mrs. Espinoza, I'm Julian Esguerra." He said and shook hands with my grandmother who smiled sympathetically. Julian had told me that he didn't like the name Vicenzo very much, he preferred using Esguerra. I would also rather have considered all the history that name carried.

"Hi Julian, I'm Florence." She replied and smiled once more, it was rare for an occasion when the smile was not stamped on her face.

"First and foremost, my number one goal in coming here is to propose to your granddaughter. I want to marry her." My grandmother and I had the same reaction, our eyes widened in surprise.

To marry? Julian had to be kidding me. He hadn't even asked me on a date and already wanted to jump into marriage? Besides, it was too early for that, I didn't know if I was ready, I hadn't even finished my studies. But I just looked at him with a frown to let him know we'd have a serious talk later.

"Calm down, I'll make some coffee and then we'll talk more calmly. Daughter, come help me. Julian can make himself comfortable, sit on the couch." She said calmly and we walked to the kitchen. It didn't take much for me to know that she wanted to talk to me alone.

"Grandma, I can explain..." I started but she cut me off.

"Is he the...Maniac?" she asked. "I mean, the former maniac who was wrongly framed, there's nothing else in the papers." She whispered next to me.

"Yes... But the two of us will explain everything. I really like him Grandma, when I first met him I had no idea who he was, then I kept going after him because I couldn't stop thinking about anything other than him and his mysterious way, when I found out about his true identity he told me everything, how was his life since he met those responsible for the shit that happened in his life. Remember the ride? It was him, the lady also said that she wanted to meet the man who brought me home, there he is. Please don't kill me." I explained speaking the words quickly as I had a mania when I was nervous.

"Wow. This is sounding more like a story from movies and books. Well, I confess I was worried about your behavior these days, you might think I don't notice, but I know when you don't feel well, I just don't dare push you. I was dying of pity when I saw this guy's case on TV earlier today." She said with a look of compassion.

"Did I ever tell you that I love you? And that you are the best person in the whole world?" I asked her with eyes full of tears.

"You've told me that a few times, but this week you still haven't said it." She replied in a joking tone and hugged me tight. "I love you very much too, I hope you never forget that." She kissed my head and smoothed my hair.

"You are everything to me. Thank you so much for always being so good and supporting me even though I don't always deserve it." I spoke sincerely, feeling a sinking in my heart. "I'll never forget that. Rest assured." I said wiping my tears.

"Now let's go get some coffee because there's a visitor waiting in the living room." She said hurrying to prepare things.

She had an incredible ability to fix things, with her nothing was a problem, there was always a solution and she was hardly seen sad or in a bad mood. She quickly made the coffee and with my help set the table with cookies and a bread with guava paste that she had made that morning, she also wanted me to go to the bakery and buy some more things but I insisted that it was good, despite of knowing that Julian even like a hungry lion.

"Go call him." She sent and I went.

When I arrived Julian was sitting comfortably on the couch playing on his cell phone.

"Do I get in the way?" I asked approaching him.

"Never. I was just talking to Agnelo, he was updating me on how my name is on people's lips." He said.

"Do we have any news?" I asked worried about the direction our lives would take after all the lawsuits.

"I don't want to talk about it right now." He said and stood up taking my hands and placing a kiss on the back of each one. I loved when he did that.

"Julian..." I warned him not to hide anything from me.

"We'll talk about it later. I don't want to ruin this family time." He said and I felt like a nuisance for charging him when he was just feeling like a family there.

"Sorry..." I said and stood on tiptoes to reach his lips and leave a kiss.

"When are you going to show me your room?" he asked with malice.

"You already know." I replied.

"I've forgotten what it's like, I guess getting in through the window doesn't count." He joked making me smile.

"Who knows later. Now let's have coffee, and talk about our crazy love story." I said smiling and we walked to the kitchen.

Incredibly, a friendship was formed between my grandmother and Julian that day. He told everything exactly as he had told me, I felt very guilty for smiling at times at some of my grandmother's reactions, it was very funny how she reacted to each step of his story.

We also decided to tell about the two of us, apart from just our intimacy, it would be very embarrassing to tell my grandmother about my first time with him there in front of us.

Dona Florence didn't hide her concern, but she wasn't against it either, she adored Julian and was very angry at the injustice committed to him in the past.

"You're very welcome to our little Julian family, and you'll always be welcome to our home too. And I'm really sorry for everything that happened to you, but God's justice comes. I just hope that Brenda and her son don't decide to denounce you for having shot them." Florence spoke.

"I find it difficult. They are crazy to harm me, even more so now that the police have discovered the whole truth about what they did to me." Julian said.

"But it's going to be all right. You're innocent and that's what matters." I said trying to calm down. The truth was, I hated talking about it. I didn't want to think a minute of myself without him.