Caleb and I were just getting in the car when someone called. He quickly answered it after reading who was on the screen. There was no hesitation on his face to answer the call immediately.
"Excuse me, I'll just answer this."
I just nodded.
At the same time as he opened the car door, he swiped up on the screen of his phone. It seemed that an important person called him because he came out quickly to answer that.
I just waited inside and remembered what happened earlier. I was no longer annoyed with that saleslady because I was thrilled with the result. He mistaken me for Caleb's sister but Caleb introduced me as his wife. Wait, I should be thankful to that saleslady, right? Because of her, Caleb introduced me as his wife.
My heart really screamed for so much happiness.
He is increasingly giving motive. Maybe later, I’ll assume he likes me too. But it's also not impossible for him to just ride my haul.
Ah, that's up to him! I don't care what will be the result of my flirting move to him.
I just go with the flow. I will just treasure every time that I’m with him.
I won’t force him to like me back.
If he tells me to stop, then that's the time I will follow him.
I want love that is not forced.
As long as he says nothing and he keeps giving motive, I’ll continue pursuing him.
After ten minutes, the door opened again and Caleb entered. His phone is already in his jeans pocket. There was a look of concern on his face so I didn't hesitate to ask him. "Is there a problem?"
He turned to me. “Bri, I can't be with your friend's birthday party. I will take you to their house but I will not be with you inside. Don’t worry, I’ll pick you up when it’s over. Just text me.” He gulped. "Papa has a fever and there is no one to watch over him because Casie, my sister, is busy with her school activities with her classmates."
Even I was worried about what he announced.
“Huh? Manong Dante has a fever?" I repeated. "Let's not go to Lyssa's birthday party then."
It was more important that Caleb go straight to their house. It would be a long time before he took me to Lyssa's house. It also takes about 30 minutes to get there.
“But Bri”
“It’s okay, Caleb. I can make up for Lyssa's next birthday and this gift from her, I'll just give it on Monday. The important thing now is that you can go to your Dad. He may have a high fever.” I don't know if I'll ever get out of the car. I want to go with him because I want to see Manong Dante again but I don't want to force it to be with him going home. “I'm just going to commute. Use this car to speed you up.” I suggested.
"Don't you want to come home with me? Stay in our house for just 2-3 hours then I will drive you home."
My eyes widened because of his question. “What don’t you want? You want me to go home with you! Oh my gosh, of course I want it too! I just don’t want to tell you because I’m shy. Maybe I'm not welcome to your home yet."
It's awkward because I'm going to their house just because I want to and he didn't insist on taking me.
I miss Manong Dante but I'll just wait for Dad because he plans to visit them. And at least when I'm with Dad, it's not awkward anymore because my Dad is with me.
“Bri, Papa treats you like a child, so you’re already part of the family. Anytime, you are always welcome at home.”
I was overwhelmed.
During Manong Dante's long service to our family, I also considered him my second Father. Caleb's dad was so kind that we had no problem with his service back then. Dad even considered Manong Dante a friend and because of that, we became even closer to Caleb's Dad.
“Let’s go? I'll just let your Daddy know.”
He started the engine.
I was excited because this was the first time I could go to them. I also couldn’t help but be nervous because I would also get to know Mama and Caleb’s only sibling.
I feel like I’m a girlfriend to be introduced to my boyfriend’s family.
Caleb and I stopped at a drugstore to buy medicine. As well as other needs of his Dad, he also bought them. I saw someone selling fruits next to the drugstore so I bought a kilo of orange, apple and grapes each. These fruits are good for the body whenever you have a fever.
He also took a long time to drive to their house. It is also almost an hour away from our house. I mean, Caleb also travels for almost an hour just to pick me up.
"We are here," he said.
We hit the 2-storey sky-blue colored house, even its gate was also painted sky-blue. The design of the house is simple but it looks nice and neat on the outside. You look at the vast space of their yard. Many plants were planted in pots lined up there. Caleb's Mom must have planted them.
Caleb picked his phone to message someone and a few moments later a woman in her 50's came out of their house. It looks so much like Caleb! Even with this old age, there are still traces of the beauty of what the lady has.
She is currently opening the gate. She's smiling, that's why I didn't feel uncomfortable with her.
"Our mother?" I asked without realizing what I'd said.
"Yeah," he replied.
When the gate finally opened, we went inside. Caleb parked the car in their garage before asking me to get off.
I took a deep breath before getting out of the car.
Caleb's Mom greeted us immediately.
"Son!" The lady hugged her Son.
They are fun to watch. You can see how much Caleb loved his Mother. He was not ashamed to hug his Mother even though he knew someone else was watching them.
After Caleb let go of his Mother's embrace, she came to my side. "Mom, I'm with Brittany," he introduced me.
I smiled and immediately took her mother's hand to shake her hand. “H-Hello...” I stopped because I didn't know what to call her.
"Aunt Agnes," she mentioned..
"Hello, Aunt Agnes!" I greet her again.
She smiled at me so I smiled too. With those smiles of hers, the nervousness I had felt before disappeared. I feel kind to the lady in front of me now.
"She is a very beautiful child," he said. "I won't be surprised why Caleb always mentions you to us since he replaced his Dad as your driver."
I was surprised by Tita Agnes' story.
"Did Caleb mention me?" I asked, surprisingly.
I turned to Caleb and saw him scratching his head.
"Mom!" its disobedience to his Mother.
We just laughed at his reaction.
Aunt immediately changed the subject. She immediately let us go inside their house.
Although their house is not spacious, it is airy and well -kept inside. The paintings hanging on the wall caught my attention. There are five large paintings there of different house designs. I can’t help but marvel at every painting that is there. Whoever painted them, I can tell how good he was!
"It's beautiful art, right?" Aunt Agnes whispered when she noticed my vision was in the paintings. I nodded in agreement with what it said. "Caleb painted those," she said.
I turned to Caleb, who was in their living room, putting his purchases on the table.
I won't be surprised that he actually painted them. Caleb is an engineering student and I saw the plates he was making last week and even then, I was amazed at how good he was at drawing.
Aunt accompanied me to tour their entire living room. I saw in their cabinet where their big tv sat the pictures that were there next to it.
I looked at their family picture one by one. I smile because they are happy and whole in that picture. Even now, their family is still whole and happy.
Hopefully we are too.
I wiped a few tears that ran down my cheek that Aunt Agnes didn’t notice. I remember my Mommy again. There was no hope that we would ever be formed because he had left us. We had a family picture when I was 5 years old and that's the last picture we have where we are a complete and happy family.
"You're already here, Brother." Our attention went to Caleb's sister. She is now down the stairs. She looked at me so I smiled at her but he did not return it. "Papa is in the bedroom, sleeping."
“All right, go to your groupmates now. It's up to me to take care of Papa now,” said Caleb.
His sister stopped across from Aunt Agnes and me. She looked at me and examined. I’m not nervous about Caleb’s Mom if it’s not about her only sibling. Traces in her eyes that she has an attitude problem. "Who is she?" she asked.
"Casie, she's Brittany, the one your Dad served."
She is no longer asking again. I didn't greet her either because she didn't seem to want to talk to me either. She turned her back on us and turned back to her older brother Caleb. “Brother, when will Sister Trisha come here again? I miss her."
I don't know the name she mentioned. I just waited for Caleb to answer but he just avoided looking at his sister. Casie couldn't wait for her older brother's answer so she said goodbye as she entered. She didn't really talk to me until she was completely out of their house. I just ignored the way she acted towards me. It's just the first time we've met and maybe she just is not comfortable because she didn't know me yet.
I went with Caleb up to their second floor. We went to his Dad's room and found him sound asleep. Caleb walked over to the bed and laid his hand on his Father's. He wondered if it was still hot.
"Is he still hot?" I asked.
"Yes," he replied.
"Wait for me, I'll just take something from the kitchen," I said.
I went down to their kitchen and asked Aunt Agnes where their sink and towel were. She didn't ask anymore, she just gave it to me.
"Oh, Bri, don't do that. Let me do it later, I'll just finish cooking it. You are our visitor and you don't need to do such things. Go, sit there and wait for me to finish this dish. Let's eat dinner later.”
I made her smile. “You are not only beautiful, you are also a very kind daughter. The man you will like must be very lucky to have you in the future.”
Your son is really lucky, Aunt.
I went up again to Uncle Dante's room carrying the basin containing cold water and a towel. Caleb greeted me and immediately took what I was carrying.
“Bri, just sit there. You shouldn't be doing this.”
I took back the basin. “No, it's okay. Besides, I'm worried about Uncle's condition, so it’s okay. Let me do this.”
He didn't argue with me either. He let me put the towel on his Dad’s forehead to reduce the heat he felt. This is also what I do to my Daddy whenever he has a high fever. This is effective because the heat goes to the towel and reduces the heat in their body.
I'm done with what I'm doing but until now, Uncle Dante is still asleep. It was only five o'clock in the afternoon and Uncle still had time to rest before dinner.
"Bri," Caleb called to me so I turned to look at him. “Change your clothes first. I know you’re not comfortable with your dress. I have a lot of oversized shirts and shorts in my room. Borrow it first.”
He noticed maybe earlier I was taking off my dress. It's because it's so short and it can almost see my cycling every time I sit down. I never refused his offer again.
Caleb accompanied me to his room. He pointed to his cabinet and also said he had extra slippers at the very bottom of his cabinet. I take that and use it because the tiles are cold.
"I'll wait for you outside," he said.
"T-Thank you."
He closed the door of his room.
I didn't go straight to his cabinet first. I first rolled my eyes around its room. Only white, gray and black can be seen inside. All her belongings are just that color as well as her bed sheet and curtains.
There are three paintings on the opposite side of his study table. Just like the painting in the living room, the modern house is also painted here.
I was impressed because of the cleanliness of the interior of her room. It's even cleaner than my room. Its bookshelf is full of books, most of which are Engineering books and others are mythology books.
He loves myths.
I was about to go straight to his cabinet when I accidentally touched the picture frame on his study table. I was about to fix it when I noticed that Caleb wasn’t in that picture.
That’s a picture of a woman.
Not Aunt Agnes and not Casie.
Another face was there.
White skin, long hair, gentle face and yes, super beautiful!
I picked it up to take a closer look. Who could it be? Why is it here on Caleb’s study table? This was the only picture on his desk so he was definitely an important person in Caleb's life.
I looked at the back of the picture frame and was shocked to read the name on the back of it.
Trisha <3
I remember that this was also the name of his brother mentioned earlier.
"Who is Trisha in Caleb's life?"