Affection & Love

chapter 13

Sam's P.O.V:

We all got seated and I called a waiter to give Mike's order. I noticed a bag at Mike's feet. "What's in that bag?" I asked him.

"School stuff." He said nonchalantly.

"How are your school activities going? Anything interesting?" I asked him.

"Nothing much, maasi. It's kind of boring." He sounded bored.

"When was school ever interesting for kids?" I said. I saw from my peripheral vision that Jake has been listening attentively.

I turned to him. "Do you go to school, Jake?" I asked him.

"No." He replied cautiously, looking at his father.

"Why?" I asked.

"He does homeschooling." Liam replied firmly. I left the topic there as the waiter came with our order.

We all ate silently, with few words exchanged here and there. I was mostly conversing with Mike, as it has been almost a month since I last saw him. He was telling me about a new addition to his action figures collection. I glanced at Jake and saw him listening to Mike attentively with his head still down. I called for Mike's attention and signaled him to talk to Jake.

Mike cleared his throat, getting both of their attention. "So, Jake, do you know action figures?" He asked.

"No." Jake replied with his low voice.

"Sports? " He asked again to which Jake nodded. That was a good start.

"Cool. Which one?" He asked. The conversation went on for a while from baseball to football. Most of the talking was done by Mike as Jake was answering a few questions here and there and I'm happy with that. I did not like him being sad.

Jake looked a bit relaxed than earlier but, he still had his guard up. He was afraid of something, that I can tell, but what? And why? He wasn't acting like a shy and introverted 5-year-old kid. He's always alarmed and guarded.

I looked at Liam and saw him looking sadly at his son. We were all done with our food. We still haven't talked anything about business so I decided to bring it up.

"I think..."

"We must.." We both started at the same time. I laughed. "You can go first." Liam. Said.

"I think we should get into the business." I completed my earlier statement.

"I was just about to say the same." Liam said.

I called for the waiter who came earlier."Yes, ma'am."

"Can you please call your manager, Rosaline?" I asked him.

"Sure, ma'am." He said and left. Liam looked confused but didn't question. A few minutes later Rosaline came.

"Sam, You called for me." Rosaline greeted me. She's a young woman around my age.

"Yes, the kids." I said pointing towards them. "Can you take the kids with you and look after them for a while?" I asked.

Before she could reply, Liam intertwined. "What do you mean by that?" He asked. He sounded confused and angry.

"I'm asking her to take the kids with her so that we can talk." I replied.

"Why can't we talk infront of them? I'm not trusting anyone with my son." He said in a raised voice and Jake looked scared. Thankfully, the cafe is empty.

Now, he's making me angry. "Excuse us." I stood up, took his hand, and dragged him aside. When we were at a distance from kids, I stopped.

"What do you think you're doing, raising your voice in front of kids?" I asked him.