All Along, You

IX- Survival

PETE's POV:

"Venice, don't cry. It's okay. Aunt Lou will be back tomorrow, okay?" Venice's nanny went on a week-long vacation to help her daughter prepare for her wedding and attend the ceremony too. That left me and Venice here alone.

I can't help but sigh while looking at the huge mess in our condo. I don't have the time to clean everything up since Venice had been crying all morning. I wonder if he's sick. His temperature is normal and he eats well too but he starts crying after a while. I checked his diapers and it's clean. I keep bouncing while carrying him in my arms. The crying has subsided but he still whimpers from time to time. I'm so exhausted I want to cry together with him but that won't be any good. I wonder what people would say if they see a six-month old baby and his father crying at the same time because he can't stop his child from crying. Shia. Finally, after a few minutes of rocking him in my arms, Venice dozed off. I walk him carefully to his room and as gently as I can, put him down his crib.

Phew, finally. I can start cleaning and maybe rest for a while.

"Fuck." It came out as a whisper. I promised not to swear in front of Venice but I can't help but complain because some idiot is aggressively knocking on my door. I'm going to smack this guy's head! I told the delivery person to just place the food outside my door since I already paid for it via credit card but I guess they never listen. Shia if Venice wakes up I'm going to spam their page with negative reviews, just you wait, asshole!

"What?!" I can't help but snap at the person behind the door. I'm not impolite but I'm so tired. It was so hard to make Venice fall asleep and I felt like this person is trying to wake him up.

"Oh. Sorry, I was worried because you weren't answering. I saw your car parked downstairs so I figured you must be home" he explained and I automatically felt guilty for being mad.

"Khun Kinn" I can only call out his name and bow as a sign of my apologies. I haven't seen him in months. I figured he regretted and did not want to see me anymore after---well, after we had slept together. I kept Meeting up with Khun Noo, Arm, and Pol but I haven't heard about Khun Kinn. They didn't talk about him and frankly, I feel like I have no right to ask.

"Is there something wrong, Khun Kinn? What brings you here?" I ask him and notice he's holding big shopping bags and some boxes, some with brands that I recognize, some with those I don't.

"Aren't you going to let me in?" He raises an eyebrow at me. Should I let him in? The entire condo looks like it's been rampaged by a tornado thrice. There are feeding bottles and baby toys everywhere. There almost isn't anywhere to sit.

"Well, I'm not sure about that..." I say. It's embarrassing to let Khun Kinn in right now

"Oh, I see. Do you have a guest over?" Khun Kinn asks

"Oh. No, I don't have guests. The house isn't in any condition to accept guests right now." Unfortunately, Khun Kinn seemed to have stopped listening after I said I didn't have guests over and he helped himself inside. When he went in he put the bags down and took his shoes off while facing the door. I gave him indoor slippers and he wears them.

"Woah" his eyes looked so shocked while his mouth opened, a corner of his lips raised like he's so surprised he doesn't even know what to say.

"What happened, Pete? Were you robbed?" I felt extremely embarrassed.

"Well, Aunt Lou took a leave of absence so I had to take care of Venice myself. He's a very relaxed kid but these days, he's been really restless so I kept carrying him around that I can't do anything else anymore." I scratched the back of my head while Khun Kinn looked at me.