Accidentally In Love

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

The large sprawling house that Christian pulled up in front of was one I remembered, it was the same house Christian had lived in when we were children, before the family blow out and animosity. I hadn't realised they had stayed here, though why wouldn't you, the house was insanely beautiful. I had always been envious of this house when I was younger, in fact I distinctly remember my five-year-old self announcing to my Mother that I was going to marry Christian when I was older just so I could live here. Strange how insightful that was.

It was a house design inspired by those old Tuscan Villas, with its creamy walls, terracotta roof and wooden window shutters it was easy to see how I had fallen in love with it, yet even though it was a large house it always had that homely feel to it that my own seemed to lack, though that might be something to do with the fact that Christian's Mother focused more on her family and household than on social events.

My eyes trailed over to the house next door, half covered by the trees and a high solid fence, but I could still see it and remember it even better than the house we currently stood in front of. That used to be my own house as a child, not long after our Fathers business spilt we had sold up and moved away, I remembered that day clearly as well. The image of a seven-year-old Christian and his younger brother Oliver standing at their front gate waving good-bye as Sam and I looked out the back window had been ingrained on my memory, that was probably the last time I had seen this neighbourhood.

"This place looks exactly the same." I said as I turned to face Christian.

He smiled. "Don't tell Mum that, she's hugely proud of how her garden turned out after re-doing the landscaping a few years ago." He rolled his eyes as he obviously thought his Mother was a nut-case for having pride in her garden.

I looked around me then, noticing the trimmed hedges and blooming flowers that had been noticeably absent during the days when Christian, Oliver, Sam and I would be running about.

"Huh, so it has." I said almost distractedly as I took in all the now apparent changes.

"Okay Na-na Banana, let's just get this over with, yeah?"

A scowl took over my face when he used my old nickname, but reluctantly I followed him. The entrance hall was exactly how I remembered it, marble floors, sweeping staircases on both sides and a large chandelier hanging down from the centre of the room. I could feel myself falling in love with it all over again. I followed Christian to an area of the house I remembered was the main living area, though they must have renovated it since I was last here as it looked completely different.

The first person I saw was Christian's Father sitting on the couch watching what I thought was the same replay my own Dad and brother had been watching. He was wearing black dress pants and a white button-down shirt, though the first couple of buttons were undone and I saw a jacket and tie hanging off the back of the couch behind him, clearly they hadn't been home very long then.

"Who's winning Dad?" Christian called out as we entered the room.

"Patriots, though not for long I hope." He called back, not even looking over at us.

Christian chuckled, I had a feeling he had already seen this game and from what I remember hearing the Patriots do end up winning.

"Hey Dad, you remember Serena, right?" Christian said after a moment of silence, his voice was now slightly uneasy, was he expecting the same reaction as my Dad had shown?

Mr Fletcher then looked over his shoulder, looking at me before frowning and standing up to face us, the game momentarily forgotten. He looked relatively the same as when I had last seen him, though with more wrinkles and more grey hair, in fact, he practically looked like an older version of Christian, even down to the eyes, that strange bright hazel colour.