by Mary Peart
“He probably saw your potential from that early age and decided to hone it.” Peter murmured. He was making circular motions on the small of her back. “My dad had me reading the business section of the papers each morning while we had breakfast and would tell me what was happening in the company. He would let me come over to the office after school and when I was on holidays I worked there as a regular employee. It helped that I was fascinated by it.”
She rested against his chest and felt the steady beating of his heart and closed her eyes in contentment, knowing that she felt at home with him.
“Tell me about Daniel’s father,” he asked her suddenly.
Elise stiffened and lifted her head to look at him. His piercing dark eyes met hers directly.
“Why?”
“I want to know what I am up against. Were you in love with him?” he asked her, his hand tensed against her body.
“I thought I was,” she said after a little bit. “He was the first and only man for me besides you and I was swept off my feet. After he left and I realized that I had let down my parents and myself I was devastated.” She looked away from him. “But I was determined to prove to them and myself that I would make it and I would be a good parent.”
“Have you ever heard from him?”
“No,” she shook her head. “Sometimes I feel bad for Daniel; because a child needs his father, but I am glad he has not come back.”
“I want to be his father,” Peter told her, his hand coming up to cup her cheek.
She stared at him for a long moment, her heart constricting at his words. “You are rich beyond what I can imagine and you are handsome. You can get any woman you want. I am a working girl with a son, why me?”
“I asked myself the same question when I first met you,” he told her with a whimsical smile. “I guess the heart wants what the heart wants.” He held her gaze with his.
“What are you saying?” she whispered.
“I am in love with you, and I have been in love with you since the first time I saw you sitting on the floor in the main kitchen.” He told her.
“You don’t know me, you don’t know us!” she said agitatedly, moving out of his arms. She was still naked and he lay there propped up against the pillow staring at her exquisite beauty. The kind of work she did had toned her body. and without being muscular it was finely honed and looked healthy and strong. “What if you discover later that you have made a mistake? A child is involved, so we cannot afford to be frivolous.”
“I love you! Did you hear that part?” he sat up and reached for her reluctant body. “I am not going anywhere Elise, so if it’s time you need for me to spend with you and Daniel then you have it. I am in charge of a huge company and I am usually busy but I promise that I will never be too busy for you both, trust me on that.”
Elise sank against him, her body shivering against his. “I am scared,” she whispered.
“I know,” he murmured. “But I will never hurt you or Daniel, I promise you that.”
*****
“You actually cook?” she asked in amusement as she saw him with an apron around his narrow waist. He was dressed in loose pants and a T-shirt and he was barefoot. He had invited them over for dinner and had decided to cook the meal himself. Ever since that night when he had told her that he was in love with her, he had been trying to prove to her that he was not going anywhere. He had had to go away on a business trip to Japan for three days and he had called her everyday and asked to speak to Daniel as well. She had started another project which was keeping her busy: One of Mitsui’s friends had seen what they had done with the kitchens and had hired them to remodel her bathrooms and two kitchens as well.
“I cook,” he told her. Daniel was in one of the bedrooms playing with some toys Peter had brought back for him.
“You are spoiling him,” Elise had protested.
“I want to,” he had told her briefly.
“I am doing sushi and hot dogs for Daniel, in case he does not like raw fish.” He told her with a smile.
“I thought a rich guy like you would not even know how to turn on a stove.” She said, propping her chin on her hand and watched him. He looked like he knew what he was doing and it fascinated her to think that he was actually cooking for them.
“My mother taught me to cook at an early age and even though I did not want to do it she told me it would prove useful in the long run.” He grinned at her. “She was right.”
Chapter 8
He took Daniel out to a baseball game. Elise had been working over and he called and asked her if he could do so. It was already February and snow had been falling for the past two days. “You said you want me to spend more time with him, remember?” he had asked her when she hesitated. So she had said yes, he was right and she wanted them to get to know each other better.
They had grown closer over the past two months. Daniel had asked if he could call him 'Uncle Peter' and he had looked at her. She had told him yes, feeling resentful and happy at the same time. Daniel had been only hers for years now, apart from the relationship he shared with her parents, and she was not certain if she was ready to accept him sharing the love with someone else.
They came home a little after eight with Daniel all excited and talking a mile a minute about the time they had had and what Uncle Peter had bought him. He was wearing a baseball cap over his hair and said he was bursting with all the things he had to eat.
Elise saw them together and something triggered off inside her. She was the one who was supposed to make him bubble over with happiness like that! Not Peter!
“You look like you had fun.” His grandmother teased him. He was still holding on to Peter’s hand and usually he would rush into her arms, Elise thought, the jealousy rushing through her.
“Mom, could you take Daniel and get him ready for bed? I need to talk to Peter for a little bit.” Leslie looked at her searchingly for a moment and then took her grandson’s hand.
“Will I see you tomorrow Uncle Peter?” the little boy asked looking up at him.
“I am not so sure Daniel, I will let you know.” He gave the boy a brief hug and then Daniel skipped away with his grandmother, talking excitedly about the game.
“Am I in trouble?” he asked lightly as soon as they were out of the room. “I did not realize it was so late and being a school night you must be upset. I assure you it won’t happen again.”
“He is my son, not yours!” she told him angrily, her eyes blazing. She was being unreasonable but she could not help the words coming out of her mouth. She felt cheated. He had not even hugged her when he was leaving with her mother.
“What?” Peter looked at her startled, his gaze narrowed. He was wearing a black sweater and black jeans and his cashmere jacket.
“You think you can come into our lives and just take him over? He has been my son before you and he will continue to be mine when you are gone!”
The silence that followed her outburst was awful! She wanted to take back the words but they had already left her mouth and she was not sure she wanted them to be unsaid anyway. Daniel had never not hugged her, he had never not run to her first and tonight he had acted as if she was not in the room.
“I have no intention of taking your son away from you and you would be a fool to think I am able to do that.” His voice was quiet and Elise wished he was raging at her; it would have been better. “I love you and I happen to love your son, the fact that you cannot see past the hurt and pain of your past is something very regrettable. Please tell your son,” he put the emphasis on the two words leaving her in no doubt that he wanted her to know that Daniel was hers. “Tell him that he can call me anytime, if you will allow it. Goodbye Elise.” With a nod he left the room.
She stood where he had left her, looking at the closed door and realized that it also signified a close chapter in her life. He was not coming back and she was the one who had caused it.
“Aren’t you going after him?” her mother’s voice sounde
d behind her. “Don’t worry your son is sleeping, thank goodness for that, we wouldn’t have wanted him to hear what you said to the man that he is starting to think of as a father, would we?”
Elise felt the tears starting at her mother’s cool and controlled voice. “He brought him back late,” she said weakly, trying to justify her unforgivable behavior earlier.
“Really?” Leslie had come further inside the room. “And that was the only issue? That Peter took out that boy to show him a good time and brought him back a little over eight o’clock? I think the real issue is that you have deliberately gone ahead and destroyed a wonderful relationship that might have been. I have seen that young man take time out of his very busy schedule to prove to you over and over again how much the two of you mean to him and you have done nothing but fight it. I have to ask myself why? Are you still in love with that low life that got you pregnant and left you to fend for yourself?”
“Of course not!” Elise said sharply, feeling the pain that her mother’s words had invoked. “It’s just that Daniel did not even come and hug me, it was all about Peter.”
“I see,” Leslie looked at her speculatively. “You are that insecure about your son’s love that you don’t want him to share it with anyone else?”
“No-“she started to say and then stopped. She sat down heavily on the sofa and stared straight ahead of her. “Ever since he was born I was the only parent and I thought I could love him enough for both parents. I never envisioned that I would meet someone who would want to be a part of our lives, because I was not looking for a relationship. I have never been in one and I don’t know how to act now that I am in one. I keep expecting the other shoe to drop and I guess I was tired of waiting, so I did it myself.”
Leslie took a seat beside her. She had seen how happy her daughter and grandson were since Peter had come into their lives and would hate to see her destroy something so precious. “You are going to have to fix it.” She told her quietly. “Because from what I heard from the conversation from his side, he is not going to make the first move.”
“I can’t, not right now.” Elise said miserably.
“Then both of you will be losing out.” Leslie stood up and without another word she left the room leaving Elise there, hunched in the sofa, the tears falling down her cheeks.
*****
Peter stared at the amber liquid in his glass with a dark frown. He had come in from his side of the house not wanting to have to answer any questions about the outing with Daniel from his mother. All the way back from her house he had felt the despair burning inside him. He had tried and he had done things he would never normally do because he had fallen in love and fallen deep. For the past several months, ever since he had met her, nothing else mattered as much as her and then he had met her son and realized that he needed them in his life, he needed them to be his family. At first it had all been about work and acquiring as much wealth as possible, until she had come into his life. He had tried to prove to her that he was not that creep who had gotten her pregnant and had left her to take care of their son; he was there for them, no matter what.
He swallowed the liquid down hastily and with a grimace of distaste he put down the glass on the counter. His eyes took in the excellent work she had done in the kitchen and knew it was going be a constant reminder of her. Everywhere in his suite was a constant reminder of them because she had some clothes in his closet, and there were toys strewn around the living room that Daniel played with whenever he was over here. He had refrained from getting in bed because it was a reminder of the way her body felt against his on that same bed. The many nights they had made love right there and how he had watched her sleep with her curls against her soft cheek. “You are watching me sleep,” she had accused him one night waking up to see him looking at her.
“I can’t help it,” he had told her softly, bending to kiss her mouth gently.
He went into the living room and lay on the sofa, his eyes staring fixedly on the beautifully patterned ceiling. He was in for a very long night!
*****
“I want Uncle Peter!” Daniel said, his bottom lip trembling. It was a week since they had heard from him and she was running out of excuses as to why he was not coming around anymore. Mitsui had called her and asked why they were no longer coming around. She would ask her son, but he was not really around. Elise had not known what to tell her.
She was getting Daniel ready for school with the intention of going to finish the work that they had started at Michelle’s place. “Where is he mommy? Why can’t I see him?” he asked petulantly as she pulled the zipper up on his jacket.
“He is very busy now honey.” She told him avoiding her mother’s look. She had been having a hard time sleeping at nights and even when she was on the job she was finding it hard to concentrate and to make it worse she had to deal with the never ending questions from her son. She missed him so much that right now she felt like crying and she hated herself for the weakness she was feeling.
“When is he not going to be busy?” he son asked, stubbornly refusing to let it go.
“Honey, why don’t you come with me in the kitchen and help me put some cookies in a bag to give to your teacher?” Leslie suggested to Daniel taking pity on her daughter. Elise sent her mother a grateful glance as her son ran towards her, and they went into the kitchen.
She took the opportunity to go into her bathroom and stared at herself in the large oval mirror. She had lost a little weight and there were bags underneath her eyes because sleep had eluded her since he had gone. She had hoped he would have called, even for Daniel’s sake, but he had not done so and she kept telling herself that it was for the best but that was a lie; both of them were miserable without him. Her bed felt strange and alien to her and she missed feeling his arms around her, she needed him so much that it had become a constant ache inside her.
She straightened up as she saw her mother in the doorway. “Has he calmed down enough for me to take him to school?” she asked wryly.
“You look like hell,” Leslie told her bluntly. “You are pining over him and so is your son and if you are too damned stubborn to think about yourself, then think about that little boy in there who has finally found someone to call a father. I am taking him to school as I am going that way.” Without waiting for her to answer she left, leaving Elise staring after them, dumbfounded. Her mother had never spoken to her that way before and she felt as if all her world was crumbling in on her.
But she was right! She was pining over him because she had gone ahead and fallen headlong in love with him! No amount of fighting was doing her any good and what was worse was that Daniel was involved as well. Fix it! Her mother had said but how was she supposed to do that? She had hurt him so much with her words that he was not even calling Daniel. How was she going to fix what was so broken?
With a sigh she sat down on the ceramic tile in the bathroom and put her head in her hands, the tears coming and not stopping! She cried as if her heart would break!
*****
“Get it done!” Peter said sharply, slamming down his hand on the table in the conference room. They were in a board meeting and the purchasing team had been a part of it as well. The cars they had gotten from Japan a week ago had been stuck at the wharf because of some mix up with the paper work and there were orders waiting to be filled but were not able to do so because of the hold up. Usually he would make a phone call to his source in that department and it would be sorted out, but since he had stopped seeing Elise he had no interest in anything, including the business. He wanted to hit someone, anyone.
“Yes Mr. Hamasaki sir,” the hapless man in charge of the purchasing department said, and hurriedly left the room to see if he could somehow perform miracles and save his job.
“This meeting is over,” he said crisply, not giving a damn if there were other matters to discuss. He just wanted to be by himself for a while.
The room cleared out except Martin Greendale, the Vice president of
the company who remained in his seat. “What is it Martin?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing Peter,” the well dressed middle aged man with dark brown hair streaked with silver said to him. “What is going on with you?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Peter made as if to leave but Martin’s voice stopped him.
“You are allowing your personal problems to interfere with the running of the company and that’s not acceptable. We all have problems but we also have a company to run. You need to deal with the issue you have and get it together.”
“It’s my company,” he reminded the man coldly.
“Correction, it’s our company,” Martin said standing up. “The others are afraid of you so much that they will not tell you the truth. I, on the other hand, do not give a damn; I have to tell you as it is. Deal with whatever you have to deal with and fast!”
*****
“Darling how very nice to see you!” Mitsui greeted her warmly. It was a little past three o’clock and she had asked her mother to pick up Daniel and had told Jack and Michael to continue without her. She could not concentrate anyway.
Mitsui ushered her inside the kitchen and poured them cups of herbal tea. Both helpers were somewhere else in the huge house doing some house work so they had some amount of privacy.`
“I messed up and now Peter is upset with me, and also Daniel and my mother.” Elise said shakily, blinking back tears.
“I don’t know what happened and I don’t want to know, but this I do know. You have the power to fix it.” Mitsui squeezed her hand gently. “I have barely caught glimpses of my son but the little I saw of him has revealed how miserable he is, and I have to tell you, he is very stubborn, so no matter how much he is suffering he is not going to call you.”
“I know,” Elise said with a glimmer of a smile. “Maybe he is not going to want to hear what I have to say.”
“He loves you darling, and you are going to have to make him listen.” Mitsui advised her. “You are going to have to find a way to do that.”