Let me love you (Marina)

Chapter 1

I closed my car door and hurried to the entrance of the mall trying not to knock anyone down.

As always, I was late for work, getting out of bed before noon was quite a difficult task for me, especially when I had arrived tired from the hospital.

I greeted Chris, one of the mall's watchmen with a quick smile and a wave as I sped past him.

"Late again, Carina," the boy said, smiling at me.

"I know, Amelia is going to kill me," I continued running until I reached my workplace.

Children's Entertainment Center, that's what it said on the entrance sign, but for the kids it was "the inflatables and trampolines" and I couldn't agree more. CEC sounded formal and boring.

The business belonged to Amelia's father, he proposed a deal to her when we were in college where the earnings from Saturdays would be for her as long as she attended the place; Amelia asked me to help her and divide the money in half and I accepted, two years later and after graduation she continued to do so while I helped her every once in a while.

Like every weekend, the place was completely packed with children running, jumping, screaming, fighting... Sometimes it could be a bit overwhelming but kids never bothered me, Amelia said that as a pediatrician I had a special power to calm the little ones.

Speaking of Amelia... I observed the woman who was inside one of the trampolines trying to get a boy who did not want to get off the game, the little one screamed and ran in front of Amelia while she tried to hold him.

I headed to the office laughing a little, I put my things down and put my hair in a high ponytail. It is not advisable to have your hair down when there are spoiled children everywhere willing to turn you bald if you don't do what they say. I learned that the hard way on my first day on the job.

I left the office after signing my attendance and went to help poor Amelia who was still fighting with the kid, now she had him by the legs and tried to pull him but he was clinging to the net as if his life depend on it.

"Excuse me, please," I said, pushing my way through the small crowd of parents watching the scene. "Who is responsible for the kid?"

A slim woman with short black hair approached me, clearly embarrassed by her son's tantrum. I tried to smile kindly at her. Things like this happened all the time, it was nothing new to me.

"What is the boy's name?" I said looking at the woman.

"Matthew," she whispered.

"Okay, I'm going in," I said out loud so that Amelia would hear me.

I adjusted my jeans around my waist and took off the Converse I was wearing, setting them to the side of the trampoline and climbing up without any problem.

"Good time when you come to appear Carina Deluca" From her tone of voice I knew that the brunette was upset with me but there was a pleading look in her eyes. "Help me"

"I'm sorry Amelia," I said, trying not to laugh and carefully approached the child who was still clinging to the net even when Amelia had already released him. "Matthew?" He looked at me and stopped crying. "Hi Matt, I'm Carina... Do you want to go with me and your mom for a milkshake?"

Matthew let go of the net but crossed his arms and shook his head. He was not more than 7 years old but he was quite a grumpy.

"No?" I pretended to be hurt. "It's a shame Matt... They have some divine chocolate shakes with whipped cream and..." I could see the doubt in the little boy's eyes. "If you're good they even put a cherry on top, they're delicious Matt,  are you sure you don't want to come?