Patience ➳ Shawn Mendes

Chapter 28

He had been right.

Shawn had been right and I should have listened to him when he said I shouldn't worry. His family immediately took me away from him and have been telling me embarrassing stories about him from when he was younger.

He was not really happy with it and was about to curse Aaliyah when she confirmed a story I didn't quite believe but his grandmother had asked Aaliyah if it was true and she had assured me that it was.

His grandmother had told me to sit next to her because she wanted to get to know me better and wanted to talk to me some more because she would not see me for a long time. How could I say no to that?

Shawn sat across from us, looking at us intently. He had been watching us and listening to our conversation and I knew that he was getting embarrassed because he was closing his eyes every few seconds when his grandmother would share something new about Shawn.

Karen sat on my other side and Manuel sat next to her with their youngest cousin on his lap. On a certain point during the evening before our food, she started fussing and jumped down from his lap. She started crawling to me and her granmother and sat down behind our chairs.

Everyone was silent, looking at us for what we'd do. Shawn's grandmother bent down to pick her up but she quickly shook her head and held her arms up to me to pick her up. I was used to it because of Maybelle but I had been told that she was shy around people she had never seen and that I shouldn't expect her to come to me because she refrains from being around new people most of the time.

Savannah was one of the cutest two-year olds I had ever seen. She was a small little girl with brown hair and green eyes. She was starting to talk in full sentences as much as she could and we would understand her but just barely.

"Pick up?" She asked in her sweet, childish voice.

I pushed my seat back a bit and took her in my arms and put her on my lap. She was dressed in a cute little blue dress with a black bow on her back and cute little black flats. Her hair was up in a bun with a black bow in it.

Everyone was looking at us when she laid her head down on my chest and started playing with my hair. My braid was hanging over my shoulder by my front and she started playing with the ends of it.

She started getting the bun out of her hair and I could hear her mother sigh. "Savannah!"

Savannah looked up at her mother with big, innocent eyes and pulled the bun out quickly. She pointed at my hair and then at her own. I was confused by what she meant until she started pointing at my braid and then at her own hair again.

Even her own mother was confused by what she wanted. "Darling, what do you want?"

"I think I know what she wants." I said as I turned her on my lap with her face to Shawn. I leaned down to her ear. "When I'm done, you'll take Shawn's hand and give him a kiss on his cheek and whisper in his ear that I love him."

"You?"

"Yes, I."

"'Kay."

I start braiding her hair like I did with mine after taking her bow out. I put it on the table and started braiding her hair. "You want me to put it up in a bun again with your bow, lieveling*?"

"What language is that, dear?" Her mother asked.

"Dutch, I'm originally from Belgium and I've grown up there for years until we moved here this summer. I still sometimes speak in Dutch without knowing." I confessed.

"Don't I know it." Shawn said. "Before we were dating she had stayed over for a night and I went to wake her up- she nearly made sure that I could never have children herself and gave me a whole lecture in Dutch before she finally realized I couldn't understand her."

"Doesn't mean you didn't get what I was getting at." I told him with a wink as I put the band in Savannah's hair.

"What names did you call me actually, I'm now really curious." He asked.

"Names that aren't appropriate for little ears." I confessed.

His eyes grew wide. "Charlotte! Why did you call me names?"

"Should teach you to know better than to wake me up so early."

"It was 8.30." He said exasperated.

"The middle of the night then." I shrugged off, tapping Savannah's shoulder.

She swiftly slid off my lap and went over to Shawn and did as I said. She kissed his cheek before climbing onto his lap and whispering in his ear.

His eyes shot up to me and I winked at him. He took my hand and kissed it, mouthing at me that he loved me too.

His mother and grandmother both shared a look before Karen looked at her son and gave him a look. It was as if they were having a non-verbal conversation. The entire table was oblivious to it but I had seen it.

Out of everyone, I knew how valuable that privacy was so I didn't make plans to ask him. This was something between son and mother and I was neither.

He must have seen that I was looking at the two and that I had seen the exchange of glances and he just shook his head. He mouthed to me that he'd talk to me later.

"So, you're from Belgium?" His grandmother asked. "I've been there once and I've seen Manneken Pis, the Atomium and other things."

"Oh, you've been to Brussels then?" I asked.

"Yes." She said. "I don't think that Shawn has been there though. Do you miss the country?"

"No, I'm glad that we left, actually." I said truthfully. "There is nothing there for me, I've never really felt at home there. In the short amount of time that I've been here, I've felt more at home than I ever have in Belgium."

"You don't want to go back then?" Karen asked.

"No, not for all the money in the world. I'm fine here, I don't want to leave." I answered. "There is nothing in Belgium for me."

"Do you not miss it at all? I mean, you've been raised there. All your family is there and not to forget the memories."

"That is why I was happy to leave." I confessed.

Aaliyah looked confused and it seemed for a moment as if she wanted to ask but didn't when Shawn sent her a look.

That didn't detter their grandmother to ask questions though. "Why is that why you were happy to leave? Family is important, is it not to you?"

"Oh no, contrary is true actually. Family is everything to me but the people I left behind in Belgium is not my family. I don't have family to be honest." I answered before pushing my seat back and standing up. "Excuse me."

.

.

.

.

No pictures.

Lieveling has many translations but I would use it as sweetheart, dear or something like that.

Anyway, happy New Year.

See ya next year.