When A Playboy Loves

|| 12.

Utianle

Emma's eyes danced with happiness as Esther helped him with the last of his shirt's button, leaving him to tuck it into his maroon coloured shorts. Esther was dressed in matching colours but her outfit was a gown that had her school's white badge sewn to the breast pocket.

They seemed to be in a world of their own with their eyes communicating their inner thoughts. I felt like a nosy stranger with my back propped against the wall, a lazy smile plastered on my lips and eyes watching their every move.

"We will use Bolt today," I interjected, suddenly feeling left out of their private jokes.

Esther's giggling stopped and she left the parlour, returning shortly with a bowl of pap and a plate of Akara while Emma took a seat on the couch, having already eaten.

"What's Bolt?" He asked with his brows furrowed and his lips in a pout. His socked foot was halfway into his shoe when he stumped it on the ground, struggling with it for a few more seconds before raising his leg up in Esther's direction.

Her spoonful of pap froze midair and she peered pleadingly at me to assist him. The smile on Emma's face died as I edged closer to him and I staggered slightly, feeling a dull pain like the quick removal of a blunt knife from my chest at his crumbled expression.

Kneeling down in front of him with his foot in my arms, I muttered solemnly, "Bolt is a car service."

As if to verify the authenticity of my statement, he cast another glance at Esther. Their growing dependency on each other should have warmed my heart, instead, it scared me, leaving me with a deep fear of being unwanted by my own children.

"Yes. They will take you wherever you want to go," Esther added, smiling reassuringly at me as if she could hear my thoughts.

"They will take us to school?" His eyes lighted up when Esther nodded and the smile on his cheeks broadened; he never liked the public bus but it was cheaper. "You will follow us?"

My fingers automatically went to his cheeks, caressing it gently; I wanted to preserve the smile on his face. "Yes."

His arms immediately went around my neck, providing calmness to the storm I never knew raged inside of me. Unexplainable joy filled me at his action and it tripled when Esther's arms also wrapped around us in a group hug. I was overcome with the strong urge to remain in this position, a hunger for more intimate moments like this.

I knew what I had to do: persuade Vincent to let me resume by 9 am, stop working on Saturdays and refuse to bring clients clothes home. Then, I could make the journey with them to their school every morning, spend the weekend listening to them ramble about their classmates while assisting with their homework.

The moment was broken when the low battery tone of my phone pierced the silence and the power supply went off, casting the room into semidarkness.

Tentatively, I broke off from the hug, walking towards the socket where my phone had been plugged. The 10% beside the red battery icon glared at me mockingly, rapidly decreasing until it was just 1%. Afraid to disappoint them, I skipped over to the Bolt app, my shoulders sagging in defeat when the apple that looked like someone had taken a careless bite out of it appeared on the now blank screen.

When I turned to face them, their hands were intertwined, lunch boxes at their feet, eagerly waiting for the promised ride.

"We will use Bolt another time," I murmured, twiddling my fingers nervously. The fleeting look of disappointment in their eyes made me want to scream, to ask them to blame my stupid phone for refusing to charge even though I had it plugged overnight.