Passion's Instinct

Fifty

Natalie

As we prepared for dinner that night, Hayden followed me around. Before I could sit down at the table with everyone, he pulled me aside.

"Natalie, could you help me with something outside before dinner?" he announced, loud enough so that everyone looked up from the table.

"Sure," I said, following him out.

Once we were outside, he closed the doors behind us and walked towards the pool, kneeling down beside it and playing with the edge of the cover.

"So... what did you need?" I asked, crossing my arms.

Hayden looked up at me, the corner of his mouth quirked up into a little smile. He shook his head and looked down, picking up a small stone and scratching the ground with it. "Well to be honest, I didn't really need help with anything. Actually... would you mind helping me understand what's going on with your next ad for Dior?" He looked up at me, his lips formed into a serious, straight line. I was not going to get around explaining this to him.

So I just decided to dive right into it anyway.

"It's a commercial. I'll be filming it all next week. I know you were listening to me and my mom earlier. Why else would you ask?" I sighed, sitting down beside him, careful with the three months worth of extra weight I had on me so far. "Hayden, I'm sorry for not telling you sooner. You have to trust me, the only thing that guy was going to do was sit beside me in a helicopter prop and nuzzle my neck a little, that's all..."

I could tell Hayden wasn't enthused. He set his jaw and looked out at the sunset, breathing out.

"There's something I need to tell you," I continued, "before you get mad."

"What is it?" he mumbled, keeping his eyes averted from me.

I waited a few minutes to say what I needed to say, gathering the words together in my head. "Well... they haven't gotten back to me about it yet, but the guy, Marcus, is going away and I asked if you could replace him. Would you want to do it?"

Hayden bit his lip and met eyes with me, a smile slowly forming across his lips. "If I can..."

"We'll see. We have to wait until they get back to us about it."

He stood up, brushing off his shorts, and took my hand, helping me up as well. "Was that worth getting so worked up about?" I asked. He shook his head. I smiled. "Let's go eat. We don't want to keep them waiting."

Hayden started towards the doors with me, but stopped suddenly and turned again to face me.

"What?" I asked slowly. He walked over to me and took my head in his hand, sliding his right one behind my neck. "Hayden, we have to go inside..."

"I'm sorry," he whispered, leaning in. "Sometimes I do get worked up about those types of things, and... I don't mean to be overprotective and strict. I'm --"

Just then, his lips an inch away from mine, his hand behind my neck and his other hand run through my hair, in the middle of his sentence, my dad walked out of the French doors and looked at us, crossing his arms.

"I thought we were supposed to be having dinner, not a make-out session!" He leaned inside, calling to my mom, "Shelley! Just found out they came back here to get down and --"

"Dad!" I said sternly, raising my eyebrows. "Stop it! That was not our purpose back here. And don't say things like that in front of the kids!"

"To get what, PopPop?" I heard Temple ask.

My dad met eyes with me and I gave him a hard look, speaking with my eyes, No. Don't say it, Dad, don't you dare say it.

He turned back and walked inside, Hayden and I following him. "Oh, nothing, sweetheart, just some drinks from the cooler..." He motioned to Hayden to run outside and make it look like he was doing what he said, so he did, grabbing two bottles of wine for my parents. We hated to have alcohol around the kids, and practically anytime at all, but we kept it for emergency purposes, just like this one.

"Thank you, Hayden," my dad said, taking the bottles and handing one to my mom, keeping the other one for himself. "Well, let's eat! Finally..." he muttered, glaring at Hayden and I. I shrugged and Hayden cleared his throat, shifting in his chair. "Yeah, let's do that..." Hayden agreed.

***********************************

A couple of mornings later, Hayden laid in bed beside me, hugging me to him and talking to me.

"I'm so glad they let us do that commercial," Hayden said, turning an lying on his back, staring at the ceiling.

I nodded in agreement, stepping out of bed and walking into the bathroom. "Me too," I said, inspecting myself in the mirror. "I'm glad it starts tomorrow, because if it didn't, I'd be screwed. You'd be filming with a fat woman."

"What are you talking about?" he said, laughing. He gazed at me from the bed and smiled at me. "You're as thin as could be right now!"

I rolled my eyes, shaking my head. "You're such a liar. You know you can see the fat in my face. It's just going to get worse as time passes."

"You're still beautiful."

I paused, leaning on the counter and looking at him. "Thank you."

"It's only true."

I walked over and leaned on his chest, kissing his forehead. He took my chin and leaned in, but of course, like before, my dad came in.

Grrrr.

I stood up and sighed, crossing my arms. "Dad..."

"At it again?"

"Get out, Dad," I said, and he ducked out of the room, saying on the way out, "Just was wondering if you were coming down for breakfast..."

I met eyes with Hayden, and he smirked. I shook my head, "How are we still functioning right now with my parents over?"