Dear Diary

Chapter 14 - Cooper

I walk with Ana to the hotel she booked for the night. I was planning to drive her, but she said she wants to walk. The euphoria from the party still buzzing in her body and she needs to calm herself down with walking, she said. So, here we are walking two blocks to her hotel, hand in hand.

"I thought you would be boring, accompanied me here and there," Ana says.

I chuckle. "Now I know we have so many pink colors. Soft pink, hot pink, nude pink." I joke. The truth is. How can I get bored? The view was amazing, Ana's sparkling eyes when people praised her works, her laughter and giggle.

She rolls her eyes, but the grin stays there. "By the way, I didn't know that you know a lot of people. I was clueless about you," she says, her eyes look everywhere but me.

I stop her and make her face me. "I know we never get to know each other. So ask me, Ana. Whatever the question is, I will answer it for you. Because I also want to share it with you."

She bites her bottom lip. "Okay... um..."

"You want to start with business or personal life?"

"Personal life."

I nod. "I have a daughter. Her name is Brielle Ann Montgomery, but we called her Billy. I was married to my ex wife for 2 years, and then we grew apart. The divorced went a bit ugly with alimony and everything else. It took around 2.5 years to settle everything. When I met you in Maui. It was when the divorce is finalized. Not that we both kept ourselves during the process."

She nods.

"Jemima and I share Billy's custody. That was the only thing we agreed right from the very beginning. Our marriage fall, but we both agreed that Billy will always have both of us. She lives with Jemima on the weekdays and she lives with me on the weekends."

"I see."

"Is this going to be a problem?" I ask her. I feel a bit nervous. Because Billy means the world to me. And Ana has grown in me too.

"Umm your ex wife?"

I shake my head. "I don't give a damn with my ex. The marriage wasn't because we loved each other. It was because she showed me a positive testpack. Billy is 6 years old. And I'm 29 this year, Ana. My contact with Jemima only have one topic, Billy."

"Oh. Okay."

"So?"

"The problem refers to?"

"Um... I have a daughter," I say carefully.

She chuckles. "Don't worry. That's the least you should worry about me. I don't mind," she says in relax.

I didn't know I was holding my breath while waiting for her answer. "Okay," I say in relief.

She looks at me funny. "You are weird. Tell me more about yourself."

We resume our walk. "I only have a sister, and she is annoying as hell," I say and that earns giggle from Ana. I chuckle too. "My parents died in an accident. One day they went on vacation, few days later we heard the cruise sinked. No one saved from the accident. It left me alone with Charity. Charity was devastated, luckily she could pulled herself together and now, she is a successful woman and ready to enter marriage life with a man that I know will take care of her."

Ana eyes soften. "She is very fond of you."

I chuckle. "Nah.." I'm not comfortable with anyone telling me that I'm Charity's anchor even though I already know that. Because she is mine too. Without our parents. She is the only family I have, beside Billy.

Ana chuckles. "Okay, big brother. What else you have in the bag?" She drops the topic.

"I live alone, have no mortgage." I shrug. "What else do you want to know?"