Season 3 Young Royals (Version 1)

10. Linda

They tried to be quiet because Sara had gone straight to her room after coming in, barely saying a word to her mom. That's why Linda had tried to get information from Simon about what had gone wrong for her at school but he refused to give any details.

Once she accepted that she couldn't do anything about Sara's problems for the night, Linda couldn't help but act like a proud mother to both the boys, but especially to Wilhelm. He welcomed the positive attention but was so unused to it he wasn't sure how to act.

They moved to sit down in the living room together. The boys next to each other on the sofa and Linda across from them in the armchair.

"Wille, I'm really proud of you for being so brave. That was a really hard thing to do, especially for someone so young." She gave him a wide, warm smile and reached out to squeeze his arm.

"Tack, Linda."

Wilhelm was embarrassed by the attention but smiled, then lowered his head bashfully.

"I hope your mom has told you how proud she is of you." Linda continued.
Wilhelm looked up at her, confused.

"Eh, no. I don't think she is proud of me really." He'd never put it into words before but realised he felt it to be true as it came out of his mouth.

Linda frowned suddenly as she looked into his face and saw that he was sincere. She squeezed his arm again and told him,
"Well, everyone in this house is proud of you and your mom probably doesn't know how to show it well. I think it must be difficult for her too, not being able to show how she really feels most of the time."

Wilhelm nodded at Linda and gave a short "hmm."

Simon sat quite close to Wilhelm on the sofa and squeezed his hand from time to time as they chatted with his mom. He felt relaxed and happy while they chatted and laughed, and he realised they'd never been in front of her openly as a couple before tonight.

Simon had pretended they were just friends the other times Wilhelm and his mother had been in the same room and then she found out they were together because of the sex tape. But since then, they hadn't all been together and Simon hadn't really been able to include her in the fact that he was in love and happy with Wilhelm when things were going well and he was feeling happy. His face flushed thinking about it and he smiled to himself and lowered his head, feeling embarrassed and thinking that someone might read his mind if he didn't try to hide his face. He pressed his lips together trying to force himself to stop smiling but it wasn't working. His mom looked at him while chatting to Wilhelm about more mundane things like his studies, and then Simon's singing and the song he'd been writing for the Jubilee. She recognized immediately that he was trying not to smile and it made her smile back at him. She leaned forward and squeezed his arm then patted his knee which made him smile even bigger at her.

"Cómo estás mi amor? Feliz?"

Simon still felt shy and was trying to stop smiling but couldn't.

"Sí mamá. Muy feliz." He looked her in the eyes, then shyly looked down again. She clasped his hands in hers.

"Ay, mi amor ven acá, te quiero dar un abrazo."

She stood up, pulled him up at the same time and took him in a warm hug, kissing his cheek repeatedly, telling him how much she loved him.

She looked over to Wilhelm and said, "Wilhelm, tú también, levántate y ven acá."

"She says to stand up and come here." Simon laughed at his mom forgetting that Wilhelm didn't speak Spanish.

"Oops! It's ok, Wilhelm. You'll learn once you've spent enough time with us. Like osmosis." She laughed.

Wilhelm smiled and stood up.
Simon let go of his mom as she shifted her arms and put them around Wilhelm who was about a head taller than her. She enveloped him in a warm hug and he relaxed and enjoyed the feeling of motherly affection that he was so unused to.