Kissing his papa

(Alana)

Ricardo had a blank expression on his face, he too seemed stunned by what just happened. I wanted to look away, knowing the image before I would forever haunt me. Unfortunately, my brain swarmed with thoughts.

“You should excuse me… I need to shower,” Ricardo's low voice slapped me back to my senses, only to realize I was staring at him shamelessly. He seemed to have realized that too because he grabbed a white towel nearby. And slowly but surely wrapped it around his lower part

“Please,” he muttered again, and I was agitated

“I'm… I'm so…sorry… I didn't mean,” I regained my wits and turned away from Ricardo. Ricardo quickly rushed out of the bathroom before slamming the door shut. I didn't understand why I entered the bathroom without knocking. It wasn't my room. I should have knocked

“Oh gosh, Alana…now what,” I scolded myself and sat on the bed. But then again I rose to my feet. I could feel my stomach twisting from being nervous. It felt awkward; hence I decided to leave the room until Ricardo was done.

I recalled telling Ricardo things about Santiago. He still didn't give me any approval. I entered Santiago's room and found him sitting on the carpet drawing

“Hello Santiago, can I see,” I said and lowered myself down and comfortably sat on crossed legs? He didn't even look at me or react to my presence. I was used to this. He continued doing his drawing while I picked up his sketchbook

“I love this one,” I said while flipping the pages. He was really into drawing things around her. Like flowers in the garden. The Gardner, the beautiful sky and some parts of the house

I smiled while perusing through until I found something that shocked me. Glancing up at Santiago, my eyes widened as I scanned the picture. Accurately drawn.it was almost as if he took the actual people and stamped them on paper

“Santi…sweetie…did you…who did this?” I asked in disbelief, I couldn't believe it. It was embarrassing to see such things. Santiago didn't even look at me

“Sweetheart, you shouldn't draw this…do you know what this is?” I asked for, wanting to know if he knew exactly what he drew.

“You, kissing papa,” surprisingly, Santiago said in a low pleasant little voice that for a second, I thought I heard wrong. Looking up at him, I was perplexed. The boy didn't flinch, but acted as if he didn't utter a word.

“I… Santi,” he was right, Santiago had drawn his father and me kissing. The picture was of me and Ricardo kissing from the previous night. He was cradling me in his arms while I was on top of him. It was embarrassing that I tore the page right off. And quickly rose to my feet. It was disturbing, that I didn't want Ricardo to see it

I was prepared to leave when I nearly bumped into Ricardo

“I'm… I'm sorry…” I said and hid the paper I tore behind my back. Ricardo's eyes narrowed suspiciously at me

“Good morning, hehe… I should get ready,” I chuckled nervously and quickly ran out of the room to get ready.

Ricardo frowned as he glanced backwards, he wasn't sure why she was acting strange

“Hey Champ, everything okay…” Ricardo said with a smile and Santiago left everything he was holding and went to sit on his lap

“You look healthy, do you want to come to the office,” Ricardo asked as he creased Santiago's hair. His son nodded and hugged him

“Do you like her?” He whispered carefully and glanced down at Santiago. His son didn't say a word. Ricardo wanted to make sure Santiago was comfortable with Alana. His son wasn't one to be friendly with people. He would rather not force him to like anyone.

“Come, let's go,” he said and carried him in his arms. Since he was ready, he decided to have breakfast with his son.

___

“So, you look distracted?” Brigitte said while they walked to the canteen to get some breakfast. Alana was exhausted, but not sure why. But her body was hurting. Maybe it was because she didn't get enough sleep. But she wanted to get some coffee and sober up

“I'm fine, I have tons of things to do… I might as well stay late and finish up,” Alana remarked with a yawn and dropped on the chair like a sack of potatoes, and Brigitte handed her a mug of hot coffee.

“Just relax darling… don't rush, I'm sure the boss won't give you a hard time… Felix said you are exceptional,” Brigitte said as she took a sip of her coffee. Alana yawned again and played with her mug.

“I see,”

“Don't exhaust yourself like the boss… I understand him what's happening is terrible… he's moody...poor Dennis was yelled at earlier,” Brigitte added surprising Alana,

“Really? What is it…is everything okay?” She was surprised Brigitte and the rest knew Ricardo was having a hard time, and she didn't. She wondered what was going on.

“It's Rocco, it turned out he's busy manipulating all of our company's suppliers…sir is angry, I overheard him telling Dennis and Mr. Suarez about this,” Brigitte leaned forward and whispered only for Alana to hear since they had many employees having their breakfast. Alana's eyes narrowed suspiciously. Although it was awkward how she called her husband by his last name.

“I didn't know that…but can't he buy somewhere else?”

“Nope, you don't know, but Mr. Rocco and sir don't get along… I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Rocco was trying to make sir lose everything, including his clients,” Brigitte added with a click of her tongue. Alana now understood why Ricardo hated Rocco.

“That's terrible, I thought he dealt with clothing lines,” she failed to understand why Rocco was doing this.

“Well yes, if we don't get the new diamond supplies. I'm afraid, sir might lose his clients and the company might hit rock bottom,” Brigitte said and continued drinking her coffee. After that, Alana lost her appetite. She had to see Ricardo and ask him why he didn't say a word to her.

Not just that, but she wanted to see Rocco.

“You have a meeting at lunch…since it's in the afternoon, I made it at a restaurant” Alana ran through Ricardo's schedule. He didn't even look at her but focused on his computer,

“Sure,” he replied nonchalantly and Alana was hesitant. She wanted to ask him about the issue with Rocco,

“Do you need anything else…” Alana asked word by word. Ricardo found her question irrelevant. He didn't need anything,

“No,” he simply said and continued his work. Alana was even more agitated, he was going through so much, and he would rather not share anything with her.

“Mrs. Romero…do you perhaps need anything?” Ricardo asked and shoved the laptop away and leaned back in the chair. Alana was a little stunned by how he addressed her.

“No…not at all,” she shook her head slowly. Ricardo gestured at her to the door, and she followed his gaze and knew what he meant.

“Sure sir,” she muttered in a low voice and picked up her things to leave. Once she was out the door. Ricardo shrugged and took his other laptop from the drawers below and placed it on the table. He made sure the door was closed when he came back to his seat.

For some reason, he didn't stop smiling as he fixed his eyes on the laptop screen. This was his secret sin, watching him and his wife. It felt cheesy that he was watching what transpired between him and Alana that night, he couldn't help it. He just had to make sure Alana didn't get hold of the video. It seemed she didn't remember a thing, and he was thankful.

On the other hand, Alana was investigating how to have a word with Rocco. And like the heavens heard her, she received a text message, and it was Rocco inviting her for lunch. An opportunity to make him stop stealing Ricardo's suppliers. Therefore, she decided to meet him.