𝚂𝚞𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚛𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚂𝚊𝚍𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜

Chapter-60

The door felt heavy when I pushed against it to enter the shop, stuff was exactly the way it was, covered in drop cloths so the dust wouldn't get to it. I pulled out my phone, Baba had given me a list of things she wanted to be packaged nicely and shipped to her, the rest I could try and sell.

I went through the jewellery, there was a lot of it that I wanted to pocket for myself. I looked through the necklaces and earrings and finally the rings. To my surprise, the beautiful engagement ring was missing. That broke my heart a little bit, had Baba really decided to part with it after so long? She finally thought someone should own it?

I sorted everything she wanted in one pile and then dug through the rest. I found things that would look cute in my house, things Kenji and Laura would like and then stuff that no one would like. Sometimes Baba collected stuff that was hideous, no matter what era it belonged in, no one probably wanted it.

I heard the chimes ring, I awkwardly rushed to the front of the store. We were in fact not open for business yet. I was still piling up things I wanted to keep for myself.

It felt like time froze, he was here again. And he was looking at me. His ears and cheeks a bright red from the chilly weather, his hair in its usual tasteful mess and eyes as bright as I remembered them.

Seeing Charles again didn't bring any weird emotion in me. But he sure looked flabbergasted. His mind was still trying to register what was going on.

"We're not open yet, you can come back tomorrow around the same time. I'm sorry, it's my fault I shouldn't have left the door unlocked." I said.

"No it's all good! I'm only here because Baba said that I could come get the sheets of music whenever I saw the door open." He said.

"Oh! Just a minute I think I kept it somewhere around here." I said, looking away from him, walking back towards the piles. I think I had taken it for myself. I never learnt to play the piano, but the sheets of music reminded me of my childhood.

The time Baba and my grandad spent playing the piano after dinner for us, the kids that came to our house to be taught by Baba and the stories she told me about the concerts she performed in her days as a professional musician. I wanted to hold onto them for memories. Why did Baba promise them to him?

I walked back to him with the sheets, reluctant to hand them over. I know they'd be more useful to him since he actually played the piano, but I was tired of him snatching away everything that was meant to be mine.

"Here's the stuff.I really need to get going." I looked at my phone.

It was the truth! I'd promised to take Siya on a stroll to the harbour. The baby sitter texted me saying her time was up, she had to go.

He walked out of the shop and I locked the place after him. I'll take care of this after my outing with the baby I thought to myself. Just like that, he went his way and I went mine.

"Thanks so much for looking after her." I smiled at the babysitter paying her for her time.

"No problem! She's a very sweet child. Siya hasn't eaten much though, I tried but she refused pretty much everything I offered her except for cut up carrots."

"Don't worry! I'll make sure she's not hungry. Thank you so much for today." I saw the babysitter out.

It was a little past lunch, I decided to grab a bite while Siya was still napping. No surprise, she woke up hungry and cranky. I looked through the pantry, we had udon noodles! I made her and myself a very lightly seasoned bowl of them. At first she looked at me in confusion, she refused to be fed so I showed her how to eat them.

"Mmm!" She nodded slurping them up.

"Do you want to go to the harbour now?" I asked her.

"Yes!" She replied ecstatically, jumping up and down. Her excitement made it almost impossible for me to put her shoes on, man I wish I was this excited about seeing the sea and some rich brats on their yachts.

She was skipping and hopping on every step to the harbour, ultimately getting tired and asking to be carried. I should have gotten her stroller but it was too late, even in my arms she was constantly moving. The squeal of joy that escaped her mouth on seeing the harbour melted my heart.

She pointed at anything and everything in the sea, calling it a boat and getting super impressed by all of it. I set her down because she wanted to walk around, almost instantly, she took off running closer to the piers.

"Slow down! Please stop!" I ran after her.

It was useless, she ran straight into someone's legs and fell down and almost instantly burst into tears. I quickly caught up and scooped her off the ground, profusely apologising to the guy she ran into.

"I'm so sorry! I'm so so-" I finally looked up to see his face. My fate was playing games with me. Today out of all days had to be when I ran into him not once but twice.

Something about Charles had changed, I couldn't put my finger on it. He still looked as gorgeous as he always did, the salt and wind from the sea tousled his hair, his skin had tanned, he did in fact look like what I imagine painters would call the perfect muse. But there was something about his eyes, they weren't twinkling like they used to. Still as brilliant as they always were, they looked hollow.

"It's alright! I'm completely fine! I hope she's fine..." he said.

"She's not hurt, just scared it happened." I looked at her, "isn't that it?" I asked her. She still looked sad and rested her head on my shoulder.

"It's okay! Nothing to feel bad about." He smiled at her, pulling her cheek. "I didn't know..."

"Oh yeah, I got married and this is my husband's child from his first marriage." I grinned.

"What!?" He looked at me in shock.

"I'm kidding!" I laughed, "this is Siya, you saw her last Christmas." I said, I didn't want to talk about that anymore.

"Siya? She grew up so much! Time does really fly." He smiled at her.

"It really does." I sighed.

"I was thinking..." he said, nervously gulping, running his fingers through his hair. That was his nervous tick, he always did that. It was a dead giveaway. "We've got a lot to catch up and talk about."

At first I froze. I thought that was all over, but then I realised we didn't really formally end things with a civil explanation from both sides. I may have not needed that closure but he needed it, it would have been cruel to deny him what he needed to move on.

"Yeah we do. Let's meet tomorrow for lunch then? If you're free?" I asked.

"A conversation over a meal isn't going to cut it." He scoffed.

"I'm sorry. What do you want then?" I asked, sounding much more defensive than I meant to.

"Are you free tomorrow? I'll plan everything, just tell me what time you're free."

"I haven't got much to do tomorrow, I'm free pretty much all day."

"Let's meet at the harbour tomorrow, Ten in the morning." He said.

"Sure."

"Don't chicken out. Please. We have a lot we need to go over."

" I promise I'll be there."