Chapter 10 - Butterflies & Favourite Things

The next day, I take Aiden to his daycare as I head into work early.  Wishing him a good day at school, he smiled up at me and tells me he loves me.  I love the way this kid of mine makes me feel.  He reminded me so much of Amelia what with the way he was able to make me smile so easily, and this morning, that apparently wasn’t too hard.

“So, are we going to see Amelia again today Daddy?”  Aiden asks me.

“I don’t know, son.”  I tell him.  I was glad that he had hit it off with her.  Frankly, I wasn’t all that worried seeing as they were such kindred spirits to begin with.  “We’ll have to wait and see.”

“Alright.”  He had dragged out to me and I couldn’t help but laugh at the best pouting face any Masterson had ever been able to achieve.

I headed out to a lunch meeting with a potential client when I saw her.  There she was, crossing the street to the flower shop.  She had on a flower patterned wrap-around dress that flared out to just above her knees and a pair of black ballet flats.  Her hair was tucked away loosely at the back, by her neck with a few strands floating freely in the breeze.

“Christian?  Mr. Masterson?”  I hear and bring my eyes back to the table.

“I’m sorry?  What did you say?”

“I was just asking what you could do for us in a building management sort of way.”  The short, mid-fifties man tells me.  Needless to say, I found myself wanting to leave him here and go find Amelia and say hi.  But I didn’t.

“I think we can manage something we’ll both be happy with.”  I tell him at the end of our meeting, extending my hand for a firm handshake.  “I’ll have our office draft up the necessary papers and have them to you by tomorrow afternoon at the latest.  How does that sound?”  He agreed.  As he left, I took my seat and watched Amelia as she came out with a large bouquet of sunflowers.  As she looked both ways, she eventually crosses the street waving quickly and headed straight for me and then my heart stopped.

She wasn’t waiving at me.  I watched as an expensively suited man hugged her while she smiled that radiant smile of hers.  I was trying to make out who this guy was and what he wanted with her.  I was glad that there wasn’t much flirting, on her part anyway.  After their short conversation, she squeezed the side of his arm, nodded and flashed him another smile and headed away from me.  As the guy turned, I realized that it was none other than Dean Saunders.

Dean had been one of those incredibly awkward looking teenagers at our high school; far from popular and incredibly introverted.  He was incidentally the one person that I ended up loathing because he and Amelia had bonded in those two years of high school.  I couldn’t blame her for seeking some form of companionship, after all I had put her through, I’m sure she needed someone to talk to.  Regardless, Dean was known as a ladies man in this town now.  He quite literally charmed the pants off of the ladies.  And I thought I was good back in the day.  In all honesty, as jealous as I was of his abilities, I wasn’t willing to trade my current life away.  I knew I still had it, I just wasn’t using it; then again, I only had one girl on my mind and she wouldn’t fall for that stuff.  Plus, I had a son.  Aiden might have been a mistake initially but he turned out to be the greatest thing in my life.  I don’t know what I would do if I lost him.  Snapping out of my daze, my cell vibrates in my pocket.  It was a calendar reminder that I had never thought twice about.  I had completely forgotten.  I got up, left money on my table to cover the bill and an extensive tip for Missy and left.

“But why do we have to catch one?”  Aiden asks me.

“Because.”  I told him.  “Today’s a special day.”  Aiden decided to accept my statement and run with it.

“Oooh!  Oooh!  Daddy, over there, I see one.”  He jumps up and down excitedly.  “Look!”  He says as he points to the flowers garden at the back of my mother’s yard.  We ran towards the garden as I approached the large butterfly and slid my jar over it slowly and then screwed the punctured lid overtop of it.

“There!”  I say, proud of our accomplishment.  “Do you think she’ll like it?”  I ask my son as I present him with the jar.  He smiled up at me and nodded.  “Good.  Now lets go inside and clean up for dinner before Nana has a cow.”

A few hours later, I had tried to put Aiden to bed while I went and visited Amelia but he wouldn’t here of it.  He wanted to tag along.   Seeing as today was special, I figured I’d let him have his way.

“Where is she Daddy?”  He asked when we had been sitting on the front porch steps for over an hour.  I looked at my watch; it was nearly eight thirty by now.

“I don’t know, son.”  I said softly as I hugged him to my side and he held on to the jar.  “We’ll wait for a little bit longer and then, if she isn’t back yet, we’ll try again tomorrow.”  I tell him as he nodded in disappointment and yawned.  As I began giving up on her getting home, I saw headlights forming up the road, heading in our direction.  By then, Aiden had fallen asleep on my lap as we now sat on the porch swing.  I didn’t want to watch but couldn’t take my eyes off of what unfolded before me.

“Thanks for tonight.”  She told Dean.  “It was really sweet of you.”

“You deserve it.”  He tells her.  “Can I see you again tomorrow?”  And my heart sinks into the pit of my stomach as Amelia was in no rush to say anything.  She looked down to her feet and I knew she was falling for his soave ways and was blushing.  I mean, any brighter and she’d be glowing in the dark.  As he took her chin and started to move in for a kiss, Aiden sat up.

“Daddy?  Who’s he?”  He says aloud, causing Amelia and Dean to jump.  I sat there on the swing, rubbing the back of my head, feeling slightly embarrassed but far from guilty at my intrusion.

“Christian.”  Dean says.

“Dean.”  I nodded sternly.

“Well then.”  Dean started.  “I better get going.  I’ll see you tomorrow.”  He says and leans in quickly to kiss her on the cheek and then turned to leave.  Before I knew it, Aiden was by Amelia’s side, tugging on the skirt of her dress.  I knew she was slightly annoyed at the interruption but she hid it from Aiden.

“Look at what I got you.”  He says and I had to laugh at how my son had already managed to push me out of the equation.  Amelia looked at me and then back at Aiden and crouched down to look at the jar.  She took it gently from him and saw the large monarch butterfly that we had caught for her, earlier in the day.

“Thank you.”  She said sweetly and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek.  “It’s perfect!”

“You’re welcome.”  He says with a smile and runs back to me as I stood up.

“Did you guys want to come in?”  She looked over at us as she unlocked her front door.

“We can, for a minute if you want.”  I tell her.  “But monster here will have to go to bed really soon.”

“Ah, Daddy!  Do I have to?”  He whined and that generated a giggle from Amelia.

“Do as your father asks and I promise you that on Friday, we’ll have loads more time to spend together.  Deal?”  She asks him and sticks her hand out to him and Aiden takes it.

“Deal!  Let’s shake on it!”  And as she began to shake his hand, his body begins to convulse as he shook himself all around.  I had to laugh at the look in Amelia’s face.  She was giggling.

We had left Aiden inside as he dozed on one of the chairs in the den and we headed for the front porch.  I couldn’t help but notice that the living room still hadn’t suffered much progress since Sunday.

“So, you and Dean, huh?”  I ask as I looked down at my hands on my lap as we swung on the swing.

“Relax, Chris.”  She tells me.  “He’s just a friend.”

“It didn’t look that way coming from him.”  I tell her.

“Why Christian, it would appear like you might have a slight touch of jealousy.”  She looks over at me and me, at her as she studied my face.  “Well?”

“Well, what?”  I mumbled.

“Are you?”  She asked me.

“Am I what?”  I paused.  “Jealous?”  And she nodded.  “Maybe; but does it really matter in the end?  You only want to be friends.”  And I knew that I should have just kept that to myself.  Amelia shifted and then surprised me as she kissed my cheek sweetly, took my arm and wrapped it around her shoulder as she leaned into me.  My heart began to race.

“Thanks for being honest.”  She says slightly above a whisper.  “Can I tell you something?”  She said, breaking the peaceful silence between us and pulling away slightly from me, sitting up.

“Mmm?”  I say.

“Your son will be breaking loads of hearts later, much like his father did.”  She tells me pokes me in the chest teasingly.

“You think?”  I smirk at her.  She nodded.

“Just make sure that he saves the butterflies for me.”  She winks and I had to laugh.  “I was shocked you remembered to be honest.”  Butterflies were her favorite.  When we were kids, we spent hours chasing them and I was the only one that was able to catch them for her.  The look on her face as she stared at the creature through the glass jar was well worth the efforts.

“I could never forget that.  Your face was just too much to have ever forgotten; the look on it, I mean; mind you, the countless hours I spent chasing them for you would never allow me to forget either.”  I say and she laughs as I knew she was remembering the times.

“What else do you remember?”  She asks me.  And so, I indulged her for the next half hour with reminiscent tales from our past.  Some were funny, and others were simply heart-warming.

“We were quite the pair, weren’t we?”  She smiled.

“No wonder you were taken away from me.”  I tell her and her gaze grew dark.

“I never got to tell you why, did I?”  She says and I shook my head, no.  “That last summer, Dad and Granny got into a spat.  Granny only told me after I moved back to take care of her when she got ill.”  She paused.  “In case you haven’t noticed, we Reed’s hold our grudges for quite some time.”

“Really?”  I say sarcastically but in a teasing way.

“Differences were never completely resolved.  I’m sure if I had other relatives, my parents would have had them listed in their will.  I mean, I hadn’t even talked to Granny since the end of that summer to when she picked me up at the airport when I moved back.”  She explains.

“So that’s why I never heard from you…”  I began but she finished for me.

“Until the day I showed up on your doorstep.”  She said.  “But that doesn’t matter any more.”  And she turned to me and smiled.  I couldn’t help but smile back at her.

“Are you sure you just don’t want to spend the night?”  She asked me.  “You can use the spare bedroom.”

“Thanks, but we should just go home before Aiden starts to think that sleepovers will become a new trend in his life.”  I wink at her and help her out of the swing.  We headed inside so I could get Aiden.  “Goodnight.”  I said as I turned to face her before heading out to my car, Aiden in my arms, head on my shoulder.  She held the door open and followed me out to the front porch.

“Goodnight.”  She smiled.  An idea struck me, realizing I had forgotten something as I buckled my son in his car seat.  I shut the car door turned and instead of getting into the driver seat, I hurried back to Amelia, standing there on her front porch.  “What’s the matter?”  She asked, eyeing me oddly.

“I realized I forgot something.”  I tell her.

“What?”  She asks.  I grab her hand and pull her down toward me so her face was level with mine.

“This.”  And I kissed her on the cheek.  “Happy Birthday, Mia.”  And I run back to my car and get it, then drive off with a smile on my face.