One String Attached

8.

.James. 

Asher was sat at the table scribbling in a colouring book as I sat in the office with him when Riley was busy teaching a conditioning class to the teenagers. The doughnuts were set in front of him as he took a few munches here and there but I had to break it into tiny pieces for him to chew and swallow.
His sister was in a class too, hanging out with other children her age. Michelle helped out here occasionally and she usually taught the younger kids, so she was currently in the same room as Aaliyah who she claims to be her favourite 'little princess'. She even had a nickname for her which was 'Aurora' based on Sleeping Beauty and just seemed to work well as it begun with the same first letter of Liyah's name.

"Look, Dada, it's you!" Ash squeals, holding up his colouring book to show me. I examine it for a moment as I held my phone in my hand before my eyes come across a large blob of blue scribbles. I could distinguish two eyes, a nose and a mouth though, plus he had definitely highlighted the fact that I had curly hair. It was better than I expected, considering his age.
"Yeah, it is, well done, Ash," I tell him with a chuckle as I stretch my arm over to ruffle his hair. 

He smiles and giggles then drops his crayon before stretching his arms out. I take notice and then reach my arms across the table before lifting him up to then sit him down over the top of my lap.
"Where's LiLi and Mumma?" he asks, moving his hands to each side of my face. 

I laugh slightly and move my hand to place on top of his before taking hold of it, gently bopping my knee up and down, which I know for a fact he enjoys. He proves my point by filling the room with his adorable Asher-giggle. He definitely got his laugh from Riley.
"They're dancing. Do you want to go and look for them?" I ask him and he smiles, nodding his head.

"Hide and seek," he whispers, a playful smirk emitting on his face which only makes me smile more.
"Let's find Mummy and Aaliyah, yeah?" I chuckle, lifting him off of my lap and then letting him down onto the floor.
I take hold of his hand, knowing that Riley and I had to help him reach the milestone of being able to walk alone. Asher needed as much support as possible now, being the age he is. One more year and he'll be going into primary school.

We walk down the hall slowly, with me leaning down slightly as I walked my son along the hallways of the studios with me.
Different kinds of music were coming from every angle as we reached the centre of the building where the main hall was - it was where we held open houses and any other celebrations or parties.

We pass the music room where Michelle was teaching to find Aaliyah practising her aerial on a gymnastics mat.
"LiLi," Asher calls, looking up at me and giggling. I chuckle and nod my head before letting go of his hand so he could toddle over towards his sister. Aaliyah was a right hold bragger and loved to boast and show off over her little brother, unlike some other girls with brothers. She enjoyed showing him to her friends and being the right little bossy madam when it came to Asher.

Michelle looks over at me before leaving one of the little boys, Jason's, side as she was helping him to learn how to tumble. He was about eight or so and I'd been helping him over the couple of weeks to teach him how to do a backflip. 
"How's she doing?" I ask when Michelle reaches me, her arms crossed over her belly as she wore a black sports bra with matching leggings, her hair packed into a high ponytail. She looks over to Aaliyah before chuckling.

"Well Aurora's quite the stunner. She's got her aerial down to pat in only two hours," she tells me, making me smirk as I nod my head. It wasn't too much of a shocker. The girl was as active as hell at home. "She's a lot like you, you know, considering . . ." Michelle continues, drifting off. Knowing what she was intending to say, I nod again.
"Yeah, I know. She's a mini-me," I chuckle, to which she laughs softly. "Right, well I better go and find Ri. Keep an eye on Asher for me?" I ask her, to which she smiles and nods.
"Yeah, course."

Entering the fitness studio thirty seconds later, I take a look inside to find Ri on the floor, going through a couple of exercises with the older girls and boys who had come in for their regular fitness.
"Then you want to go the right and the left continuously. Make sure to turn those hips and keep those legs straight," she instructs the rest of the class. A workout playlist played in the background as all of them moved to the music. 

I cleared my throat, remaining stood against the wall as I leant against the door. I waited for Ri to finish her demo before she stood up and then brushed her hair out of the way of her face. She walks over to the side of the room and grabs her bottle of water, taking a sip from it before she notices my frame stood to the side of her and then she smiles when she sees me.

"There's my favourite person," I grin, walking over towards her and pecking her lips softly. 

When we pull away, she chuckles before crossing her arms over her chest and smirking.
"Where are the kids?" she asks me. She turns her head around for a moment before snapping her fingers. "Keep going guys, don't stop because of me," she shouts above the music to them all. They groan slightly before she looks to me again and I laugh slightly.

"They're with Michelle. Aaliyah's quite the gymnast, I'll have you know."
"Mm, and Asher?"
"He's becoming an artist," I smirk, making her laugh before she stands by my side and rests her head against my shoulder. "I love you, y'know that?" I whisper to her as I place my hand on the back of her head and begin to comb my fingers through her light strands gently. She smiles and moves one hand up to my chest.

"I love you too. But I need to go and check on Asher because, knowing you, you haven't changed his nappy yet," she groans, pulling away from me to stand in front of me instead. "Watch the class for me?" she asks and I smile, nodding.
"Sure thing," I tell her, then lean forward to press our lips together again before she leaves the room entirely, rushing out to go and attend to our children. Ri was an amazing mother but she does know how to fuss over the children an awful lot. I guess the best parents do though.

"Okay guys, why don't you take a one-minute breather and then we can start working on those planks," I tell them all, causing them all to break out of the current stance they were in as they lay on the floor before they dispersed into their own separate groups around the room as they headed over to the sides to grab their drinks of water.

As they did, I took a seat down on the bench with my phone in hand still as I messaged the boys on our group-chat. Hunter, Eldon, West and I had all made sure to stay in touch ever since we went our separate ways but we mostly spoke online now rather than in person. It was something though.
I know Ri's tended to have drifted away from her friends on A-Troupe and now the only people she's really close to are Michelle, Thalia and obviously Em. The rest of her friends are the mums from Aaliyah's school - though her closest would have to be Aaliyah's best friend, Violet's mum, Maisy. Ri and Maisy get on like two fish in the sea.

As I'm sat there, reading through the recent text messages, there's then a loud ping from Ri's phone, causing her home-screen, which was a picture of our small family, to light up. I ignored it, knowing not to intrude on her privacy. We may be married but definitely not to the extent where we snoop through each other's phones.
But that's until it starts vibrating continuously, all with the same messages from one person.

Eyebrows furrowed, I decide to take her phone into my hand and have a quick glance at it, only to find an unknown number which had sent her five messages.
Knowing that her password was Aaliyah's birthday (eighteenth of April) I unlock it and click onto the recent messages - one was a plain text saying 'Hey', the next was a voice-note and then there were two attached documents, no other messages sent whatsoever.

I scrolled up their conversation slightly to see that Ri had been texting that person previously in the past, meaning they must know each other.
But who the hell could she be texting that she had chosen to keep them saved as 'unknown'?