JUST A LITTLE COMFORT

END

"AMIR! AMELIA! ELIZABETH! Come on! Breakfast is on the table." I called. I opened the curtains in the dining room to let in the sunshine. I passed my antique, porcelain tea pot that was used as part of Cole Angelo's proposal to me; that was displayed on the mantel next to the glass case of Pride and the Prejudice and some photographs of me and him on our wedding day. I loved this photo because I had a lavender dress as a wedding gown and he was holding a bouquet of red roses against the dress to hand to me. 

There was also a photo of all five of us with Anna-Marie when Amelia and Elizabeth were still babies. I missed her. Cole missed her loads too. I walked towards my beautiful custom-made kitchen that took years to get it to how I wanted it to be. I switched on the kettle and prepared their lunches in a hurry.

"Mom, tell Elizabeth to give me back my Alice band!" Amelia said, all teary, while pushing back her sandy brown hair behind her ears. "It's not hers!... You broke yours!" Elizabeth defended, putting the Alice band on ,pushing back her long, dark hair.

"Girls please, not now. You're going to be late for school." I said, scolding them to eat quickly since they took so long to get ready.

Amir sat down and ate his cereal, separating his sisters from each other. The fun of having twin tween girls I thought. I felt an arm around my waist and a kiss on my cheek as I was packing the kids' lunches into their bags.

"Morning Beautiful." Cole said. That still made me blush.

"Morning... What time did you get back last night? I didn't even hear you come in." I asked, while he helped me fill up their snacks and water bottles.

"Around 2am. You were knocked out." He said.

"Thank your daughters.... They've been at each other's throats all night. They refused to go to bed" I said, handing them their lunch bags. They were getting all their stuff together for their school day. 

They both shoved each other to greet Cole, "MORNING DADDY!" They both chorused.

"Good morning my Sweethearts." He said and crouched down. They both gave him a hug together and a kiss on either cheek. Amir used to hug us before but now he was a teenager and didn't find it cool. So, he just gave us a quick side hug before we got to the door and said, "Bye Mum. Bye Dad."

"How was chemistry yesterday?" Cole asked as they were walking out. Amir was like Aarav in looks but his determination and dedication to school came from Cole. He was a nerd like his DAD and Cole still showed all the interest in the world to his studies. I even gave up at some point since I didn't understand half of what he was talking about.

"Good! Your periodic table hack came in handy." He said.

"Oh GREAT! Good luck with Algebra today." He said to him.

"Thanks!" He said, running off to catch the bus. He didn't want us walking him to the bus stop. Apparently, some of the girls in the bus would ask about COLE and he'd get really annoyed that they'd have the hots for his dad. We'd just watch him leave from the front door. Cole was ageing well and since I stayed my same height. They thought I was Amir's sister. Poor Amir, had to get Aarav's genes. 

Amelia and Elizabeth walked down the driveway and kept shoving and nudging each other as they argued about something silly. Cole and I just gave each other a look like we just gave up with the two of them. They hopped onto the bus and were pushing each other to sit at the window and waved at us. We just waved back and laughed.

"We survived the morning rush... again." I said as we walked up the driveway and he high fived me.

"Well done. Sorry I wasn't here to help much today." He said, as we both walked in.

"It's okay.... How did the surgery go?" I asked, pouring out our coffee and setting it on the dining table. We sat across from each other, sipping our coffee and he told me all about it.

The back door opened, and we both turned to look. James walked in, took a mug and poured himself coffee. "Julia and John are driving me nuts. John hitting puberty is just a nightmare!" He said, coming over to sit with us. So, James procreated with Julia since the two of them were hooking up since Ariel's wedding. Now they have a son together. They were living behind us since we all decided to move to a residential area together. 

Cole just laughed. John and Julia were very similar in nature, so we heard them screaming at each other every other morning.

"JAMES! John missed the bus... take him to school!" Julia said, coming through the backdoor in a huff. James rolled his eyes, and stood up, leaving. John popped his head in and smiled at us both and greeted us. We just laughed because he knew how to get on his mother's nerves and Cole would tell him to stop but John and Jules would still bump heads. Cole and I just looked at each other and laughed. Cole did say something would explode somewhere if James and Julia got together. Turns out it was all of them, every other morning.

He just took my hand, put his head down on it and shut his eyes after they all left. I was glad I was his comfort as much as he was mine. I just stared at him, looking peaceful. He was off for the rest of the day, so he came with me to our store. When he and I just got together, he asked me if I could do anything with my life, what would it be. I said, "Read books all day with my tea or coffee." I said and he laughed. So we opened up a coffee shop with various tea's as an option as well. We took all his books and opened up a little section as a library for people to read while they had their coffee. Over the years, it grew into a bigger coffee shop and a bookstore. I also loved flowers, so I had a little flower section in our bookstore/ coffee shop and hired a florist and called that section, Anna-Marie's Garden since she was the first person to ever give me flowers. The original section with all Cole Angelo's books was called Darcy's Library so people could just read the books while they had coffee; those were not for sale. I loved this place. It was my haven.

 At this point we had people running the store so we'd just come check up on it or use it as a place to chill while we both read books there. This store had a red and purple theme, and the interior was of course designed by my one and only talented Sister-in-law, Julia, and was called, COMFORT-TEA - A play on come for tea and a place for comfort. I could always change the name.

Cole was checking out the new books we received and I was sitting behind the coffee shop counter, 'people watching'. The Barista gave me a new tea that they added to the menu. We were always keeping up with the trends. Cole had to get his cheesecake, ofcourse. He sat on the stool across from me at the counter. I shook my head and laughed when he gave me a crazy look and showed me the psychological thriller he picked to read. I was sitting in this perfect setting that was my life. It felt like a dream.

"Not a book I'd recommend you read Sydney...a lot of plotting on how to kill your husband." He said, jokingly, while engrossed in his book.

l pondered back to this thought I would have now and again. Where would my life have been if I was still with Aarav? What would have happened if Rani didn't help me. Rani reached her breaking point with Aarav and his family and got her mechanic husband involved to tamper with Aarav's brakes. I was overseeing them fixing his luxury weekend car one afternoon in the week and no one else was home. I thought back to what she said to me before I went upstairs that night with Amir, just after Aarav left, the day he died. "You're going to be okay now Meera." She said, giving me a hug and leaving for the night. I never saw her again after that. I never told Cole how Aarav's accident happened. He'd probably not blame me for being involved in causing Aarav's death but I couldn't put that on his conscience.

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FATIMA BIBI OE

2024