313 Marcel Was Not Smiling

“How could she be so clumsy?” Marcel muttered to himself as he wiped the ice-cream stain off his pants.

However, when he cleaned close to his crotch, a sheepish grin couldn’t help but cross his lips when he remembered how wide her eyes grew when she almost touched him there.

Marcel stared back at his reflection in the mirror and tugged his hair back, checking his appearance. Victor was right, he did look good with his hair down. Of course, why wouldn’t Arianna fall for this face? His face should be praised as the conqueror of women.

“Seriously?” Marcel groaned afterward. What the hell was he doing? He wasn’t a damn narcissistic for crying out loud.

With a huff, he tossed the tissue into the bin and made his way back to the shop only to see Arianna carrying a child and he halted at once.

At first, he wondered whose child she had in her arms? But that didn’t matter in the next seconds she began to rock the child, humming a lullaby and he just stared at her transfixed.

The whole world might as well have gone to hell because the only person that mattered to Marcel at that moment was Arianna. She looked so breathtakingly beautiful while carrying that child and suddenly, his imagination overlapped his reality.

In that imagination, Arianna wasn’t just carrying any child, it was their child that had his blonde hair and her beautiful green eyes. Then, Arianna glanced up and Marcel forgot how to breathe while her smile grew wide.

His heart was pounding so hard and it looked like it would burst out of his chest, but that was until a third green eyes appeared in his imagination. Only that it wasn’t his imagination.

.....

Marcel was suddenly roused back to reality and he realized that another woman was staring intently at Arianna from the back. His survival instinct kicked in and the first thought that came to his mind was that she was an enemy, else why would she be invested in Arianna like that?

Who could have sent her? His father or a rival family? He might be invisible at the moment but that doesn’t mean the other families weren’t poking their noses in his business, trying to sniff out his weakness.

Marcel was thinking of the best way to get Arianna out of here safely when he noticed something else. For someone sent after Arianna, he couldn’t sense any killing intent from her and she was staring at her with emotion. Like really strong emotions. Something was not right here.

Then the woman turned and their gaze connected; she stared at him just as he stared back at her boldly. Marcel’s imagination was not wrong, the strange woman did have green eyes. Eyes surprisingly akin to Arianna’s.

historical

Instantly, the woman upon realizing that she had been caught staring, put on her glasses and Marcel regretted the action because he wanted to confirm something tingling at the back of his mind.

So the instant she stood up to leave, Marcel was already on his way and intentionally blocked his path. Why did he block her path? He had no idea. He has gone from thinking that she was a spy to whatever stupid hypothesis he had in his mind. It didn’t make sense.

Seeing his action, the woman lifted her brows and asked haughtily, “Do I know you?”

Marcel stared at her but he couldn’t see her eyes behind those aviator glasses she was wearing. He suddenly wished they were in a less public setting so he could kidnap her and question her all he wanted.

But then, if Arianna heard that he kidnapped a strange woman on their date – by the way, was this a date? – she would really skin him alive. Hence, when he couldn’t see what she wanted, he bowed his head in apology.

“No, sorry, my bad. Forgive my rudeness.” He moved out of her way, just as she rolled her eyes and walked away with her head held high.

She was definitely rich, Marcel could tell even though she didn’t dress ostentatiously. But that modest dress she wore cost a lot a ton. Who was she? And why did he have this disturbing feeling that she looked too similar to....

As if Arianna knew what he was thinking, she lifted her head and those beautiful green eyes bored into him innocently. The same green eyes as that woman....

Oh God.

Marcel would have run out of that door and chased after that woman had he not remembered he would only startle Arianna who would not let him rest until she got the information out of his mouth. So he just smiled back at her, pretending that nothing happened as he walked back to his seat.

“Look at this beautiful baby,” Arianna said to him before he barely sat down.

She turned her arm in such a way that he could see the small, red thing cocooned in layers of clothes like an Egyptian mummy.

“Ugly,” was the first thought that came to Marcel’s mind when he saw the child and didn’t know he said it out loud until he lifted his head to see a furrow on Arianna’s face while the baby’s mother glared at him.

Shit, they heard that.

But that was the truth though.

“A-hem,” Marcel cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably on his seat. If those eyes were bullets, these women would have killed him.

“I meant to say that the ugly little human is surprisingly adorable,” Marcel rephrased his words at once while lowering his gaze. These women were scary.

But none of the women believed him and huffed as they looked away, Arianna in coalition with the baby’s mother to his surprise. Shouldn’t she try to defend him as her partner?

Whatever.

In the next minutes that followed, Marcel was totally ignored as Arianna tended to the baby until the mother was done and took the child back from her.

“Thank you so much,” She said to her.

“No, it’s nothing,” Arianna told her before the woman finally took her leave. It was at that moment that she finally remembered she came with Marcel and she turned to him, “So, I’m....” She trailed off.

Marcel was not smiling.