Eleonora

I could still feel my head banging, it was so heavy that it was hard to open my eyes though the shower helped I am still hungover but I will never admit that.

I chose something to wear enjoying while he wasn't here yet. I dressed up in a comfortable ribbed grey sweater and pants combination, I twisted my hair putting a hair clip on it, and then my earrings. My phone buzzed a few times making me frown.

It was Saturday morning who would send me a text, Jennifer is sure sleeping, Miles never texts just calls, Andre is decorating the shop and I'm pretty sure I left all just fine, could it work? No...it's Saturday...maybe it's my mom. Yeah, no. My mom doesn't bother me to call probably too drunk for that and my father is more likely to just forget he has a daughter.

I looked in the pockets of my previous pants, the pants from last night where the sound of my phone was coming from. I quickly took it out and saw the 12 unread messages from an unknown number... Who the hell is this?

I unlocked the phone curious about these messages, and my eyes started to read all the 12 messages my heart started to beat abnormally and I just wanted to strangle myself.

"SHIT SHIT SHIT " I shouted angrily at myself making a hurried and the towel-around-the-waist-Blaze meet me. With his naked upper front torso, a simple white towel around his waist that looked like it was falling due to the perfect clear demark of the upper part of the pelvic bone. His abs were perfectly defined, not too much and not too little you could see their detailing even from far away, his chest was perfectly defined too not to mention his attractive neck it was hard to explain but every single muscle and bone was situated perfectly in this man's body. Single drops of water were plastered to his body looking like he was shining his hair was also wet, I have never seen him this way, and his bare body standing in front of me made me gulp and my breath heavy unconsciously.

"What happened?" He asked making me frown questionably

"What?" I said, I tried to it sounds more like a whisper or a simple breath that interpreted the sound

"I heard you scream" he said walking towards me, he had a lot of confidence in that towel, didn't he? My eyes seem to not leave his torso.

"I fucked up"I breathed again, making it harder with every step he gave in my direction. At this moment I didn't even know how the words slipped out of my mouth it was like I had a script but I wasn't really meaning or paying attention to any of those words. He got closer and closer, although we were at a very reasonable distance if he was dressed which he wasn't I wasn't taking it quite well. If I stretched my arm I could touch his abs.

"What did you do?" I heard him ask in a serious tone, making me close my eyes and shake my head trying to get back to reality, I looked at his face trying with everything in me not to look down, but fuck was he handsome. It was looking at his face didn't help either, what the hell happened in that shower it's like he came out 100 times hotter, or maybe it's just the abs effect or the alcohol in my blood.

He sure was handsome, since I met him, but I never confessed that at least not out loud ...but seeing him bare naked in front of me is making me truly irrational.

"Can you-" I tried to say moving my hand up and down while looking at his body

"What?"

"Can you dress so I can focus on what I have to say?" I asked, but it felt like begging. He let out a laughing sigh.

"Ok" he said but I just watched him getting closer and closer, I could smell his shampoo and the massive sweet and strong scent of honey coming from his body, probably from his body gel. He kept getting close and I unconsciously started to walk back with every step he was taking but I was stopped by the closet door. Making me have no choice but to look at him coming towards me, my eyes escaped to his neck and his visible adam's apple.

What the hell is going on with me? It's like every single trace of him is making me weak

"What are you doing?" I asked while watching his muscled arm get above my head. Oh lord take me.

"Dressing" he explained taking a shirt out of the closet, the door next to me was opened that explained his muscled arm coming back to him with a white shirt. He frowned probably questioning my behavior, I closed my eyes took a deep breath exhaling all the air my lungs could.

Focus, Eleonora. It's not a heavenly torso carved by God that will make you freak out ... control your goddamn hormones!

Plus he won't like what I am about to say ...And that godly picture will soon vanish from my brain when the first words will fall out of his wide lips.

Oh no... did I just describe his lips? Oh for godsakes

"What happened?" He questioned in a serious tone, I looked at my phone and I realized the situation.

"Before you say something" I started gesturing with my index up "You need to know that I have a sudden urge to help people"

"Where are you going with this?" he asked while buttoning his shirt

"I may or may not have promised something in your behalf..."

"What did you do?"

"In my defense, I blame my pure heart"

"Eleonora.." he said in a threatening tone

"In our weeding your mom talked to me and she was an absolute crying mess" I t«defended myself making him raise an eyebrow

"Maybe I am exaggerating fine... but she was mentally not ok, she cried a lot she feels distant of you" I explained his face made an unreadable expression, I couldn't tell if he was happy or mad about it

"So I said we would have dinner or lunch together "

"what?"

"seems like she didn't forget about it" I said biting my lip

"Did you make plans without telling? That is going against the contract we both signed" He said angrily, I looked at him biting my bottom lip regretting having my soft heart "You're going to say no" he stated walking to the bathroom again

"It's your mom though... I'm not going to say no to my mother-in-law, plus she is a very lovely woman" I defended

"You're going to say no. I'm not putting my feet on that house" He shouted from inside the bathroom

"It's just a dinner why are you so mad?" I questioned

"No is no... no more questioning or talking" He said leaving out of the bathroom walking in the closet again opening the drawers quite aggressively "You realize how many steps of the contract you infringed?"

I rolled my eyes, it's annoying how he takes everything like a business we are talking about his mom

"Your mom was really happy to know you were spending just a dinner or lunch with her, it's that so hard for you?"

he shook his head and then looked me right in the eyes " We both signed a contract were you'd stay out of my life and I'd stay out of yours so obey to it"

"I am not ditching on your mom! She was nothing but kind to me and she truly loves you, you know that right? or are you just so focus on work you forget about your mom?" I fired back

"You know nothing about my life to start defending my mom"

"Right! I don't! It's your life and I have no right to get in it as you said...But I can live my life the way I want and your mom invited us two so whether you want or not, I'm going!"

"They will strangle you alive" I said shaking his head in disbelief. Gosh is his family that bad? What are they? Serial killers?

" Look I made a mistake. That's true I did and I am terribly sorry for making plans where you would be in without first talking to you. " I apologized looking at his disapproval face "But your mom was very kind to me and I don't have any reason to turn her offer down so I will meet her and see if your family is that bad as you're making it look like"

"You're not going anywhere" he stated while putting on his watch

"I am and there's really anything you can do about it. Tomorrow I will have a normal dinner with your family"

"You are not" he implied with his index finger pointing at me, like if he was scolding me ...like I was a child.

"I am!" I said pointing at his face "It's my life, like you said I stay out of yours and you stay out of mine"

"You can't go alone, are you crazy?" He said like it was a fact, what the hell is going on in that family

"You can tag along if you want to" I shrugged my shoulders

"Why can't you just stick to what I say it would be so much easier" He let out frustrated

"Where would be the fun in that?" I said crossing my arms " If you wanted to marry a puppet who would do everything you say you could just take future Mrs.Cordova." I smiled " I'm not backing down on this although we don't know each other that much I know that you have realized how stubborn I am-"

"Uhm yeah" he said widening his eyes, well that kind of hurt

"So, even if you keep on telling me not to go I will just go at the end. You know that. So you have two options whether you stay at home talking to yourself about how stubborn I am and then work of course... you can tag along and nag about my stubborn trait on the way" He looked at me thinking

" I choose to stay home, working" He simply said leaving the room.

I was still in the same place overthinking his words, that honestly let me a bit down. I didn't know why but his interest in seeing his mom and his family made me sad. He does realize he doesn't have any more moms right? it's something you can't just get a new one... My mom was always very protective of me, she was the best mom you could ask for until I turned 18, since then she started drinking like crazy, my dad was never home and she would take her sadness on alcohol. She never explained to me why she felt useless and sad, she would ask me to just stay with her some nights, and I would drive from my college to her house just to keep her company. I knew it had something to do with my father and I've asked him a lot about it but he wasn't able to respond to me either.

I feel her more distant now, although she tries, she really does. She tries to be there for me but I just wish she was there for herself. She may have made some mistakes during her life, but she is my mom and I will protect her with all I have and all I don't, because she deserves it, because she is simply my mom.

I know what it feels like to be disappointed by your parents. When my mom started to drink I felt the world collapse when I realized it was starting to be vicious, when I realized she was drowning her own sorrows, I tried to help her the best I could with a therapist, with AA, with so many things but she was the same or some times worse. My dad was just very occupied with work, he hasn't celebrated my birthday with me since I have 20, so that makes a total of 5 missing birthdays, work was always more important he would try to compensate with presents, gifts, money, houses, dresses, all things I really wasn't looking for. I knew he loved me but he didn't know his priorities, he was a conservative man and never would say his problems when the proposal of the marriage came, mom was the one to tell me about it pushing me to not do it, my father, on the other hand, was embarrassed to ask her daughter for help, the one thing he would take hours, days and months on, working and working missing family time, and he couldn't do a good job at it...

I guess we grow this image in our minds as kids that our parents are some kind of superheroes and with time when they let us down it's like we don't know a part of ourselves, like a part of us was a lie. Thankfully that doesn't happen to everyone...

It's true that my family was complicated and with some problems but deep down I was scared and also curious about Blaze's. He was so mysterious with it and so careless, something serious is going on there which is hard for me to believe his mom was like an angel.