Arranged Love

Meeting Atticus

Bose's POV

Week 3

3 hours later...

It's now around the time Atticus should be showing up. Addi woke up from her nap an hour ago so Mika took her to the backyard to play in the newly installed playground we put back there. The door opens to one of the guards walking in with Atticus who looks around the palace in astonishment. I get up off the couch heading toward the amazed young boy.

"Hey, Atticus!"

"Hi, this place is awesome!" Atticus says.

Unlike Addi, Atticus was a social butterfly and never needed time to get used to new people or new places since he is used to being moved around a lot. While Addi is used to mostly seeing her parents, Phoenix, and Atticus.

"Thank you. Do you remember my name?" I ask.

"Yea, Mr.Bose!"

"Cool...alright, do you want to say hi to Mrs.Mika and Addi before doing your homework?" I ask.

"Sure." Atticus says.

I grab his hand guiding him to the backyard where we see Addi and Mika swinging on swings.

"Looks who's here!" I say.

Mika and Addi look over and Addi jumps off the swing running toward Atticus.

"Hi, Titi!" Addi greets.

"Hey, Didi!" Atticus greets Addi while hugging her.

"How was school bud?" Mika asks.

"Good, I told all my friends that I'm living in a castle!"

Mika and I chuckle at Atticus' answer since the young boy confused the word castle with the palace.

"Do you guys have dragons?" Atticus asks.

Another misconception but Mika decides to play along.

"Yea but they live across the world where they are fighting other dragons!" Mika says.

"That is so cool!" Atticus exclaimed.

"Ok kiddo, let's go do your homework." I say.

"Ok."

We walk into the at-home office sitting at my desk. But Atticus had his eyes glued to the grand piano.

"Is that the piano we're gonna play sir?"

"Yes and we can start practicing later but homework comes first." I say.

We get started on homework which seemed pretty simple to me since it was meant for 7-year-olds but I could sense Atticus was struggling. He was trying to do multiplication but was stuck on a question that made him visually upset.

"Do you need help?"

"No, I got it." Atticus says.

Atticus continues on his own by skipping over that question but in the end, he had to go back to it and he was not happy about that. I felt his leg shake under the table as he continues to work out the math problem.

"Buddy if you are struggling just tell me and I can help you." I plead.

"I'm fine!"

His emotions are heightening as I continue to offer help so I back off. I see he's very independent and likes to do things himself.

"I'll leave you to finish this on your own but if you need me...just tell me." I say.

He nods not shifting his eyes up from that paper. I leave out the office seeing the girls moved back to the living room, Addi on her tablet and Mika scrolling through her phone. I sit next to Mika who notices my conflicted demeanor.

"What's going on up there?" Mika says pointing to my brain.

"Atticus is struggling with his homework but won't let me help him and I'm scared that if I push him too hard I'll hurt his feelings."

Mika sets her phone down on the coffee table, scooting closer to me, and laying her head on my chest.

"Some people need that little push to truly know when it's time to reach out for help." Mika says.

That was profound and such an intellectual answer.

"Who did you learn that from?"

"You."

Me? How? And as if she was reading my brain...she answers me.

"If I didn't push you into teaching Atticus, you would have never come to me and mourned with me. If you didn't push me the night behind the club, we would have still hated each other, I would have never known about Gam Gam and Pa Pa, our mothers' organization, and we would have never started dating. I'm so much happier than I was 2 weeks ago and I have no one to thank but you. You helped me and I helped you because we care about each other...pushing the ones you care about doesn't always turn out bad."

She was right. I knew that Atticus was struggling so he deserves that little push.

"You're the best." I say.

I kiss Mika's forehead while getting up and going to the office.

"I know!" Mika says.

I laugh at my adorable girlfriend's reply while I enter the office seeing Atticus now sitting with his knees up to his chest head resting on his legs.

"Hey, bud what's wrong?"

Atticus raises his head and I could see his eyes were watery so I sit next to him putting him in my lap.

"You know you can ask for help whenever you need it right? No need to get upset."

I hand Atticus a tissue and he wipes his tears.

"I just wanted to show you guys that I'm super smart and that I don't need help."

He wanted to prove himself to us. All his life he needed so much help and he depended on his mother for everything so he's trying to prove that he doesn't need that assistance anymore.

"You don't need to show us anything Att, we all know that you are super duper smart!" I say.

"Really?"

"Really. Just because you struggle with your homework sometimes doesn't mean you aren't smart. And it's ok to ask for help, especially from Mika, me, or Addi. Everyone needs a helping hand sometimes." I say.

Atticus smiles at my encouraging words.

"Mr.Bose."

"Yes?" I ask.

"Can you help me with my homework?" Atticus asks.

"Now was that so hard!" I say while tickling him.

Atticus laughs while squirming and kicking his feet.

"No!" Atticus says out of breath from laughing.

A couple of hours later...

It's now dinner time and tonight we are having chicken and mashed potatoes with corn. Atticus is scarfing down his food like Kirby while Addi eats with her hands even though she has cutlery.

"Addi honey, how about you try using a spoon or a fork." Mika says.

"And Atticus, you need to slow down or you'll choke on your food." I say.

"Ok." Both kids say.

Addi picks up her pink spoon shoving it into her mashed potatoes struggling a little but eventually getting some in her mouth. Atticus slows down his eating pace but still speeds up from time to time.

"Is this what it feels like to be parents?" Mika jokes.

"If so...I'm not having kids for a while!" I joke back.

"Don't you mean...we aren't having kids for a while?"

I playfully roll my eyes and laughed at Mika's correction but deep down...I love that she corrected me.