Writing's Second Taste

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Find Myself

"Call me more often, will you," Heart laughed as she hugged Adam tightly, "Especially since Axel's going back to America now."

Adam chuckled and placed a gentle hand on the top of her head, "I'll miss you, Soph."

They released their embrace and while Adam said his goodbye to Axel, Heart approached me with a friendly smile, "I'm glad I got to meet you, take care of him for me."

I couldn't say a word in reply so instead, I smiled back at her. They immediately left right after and I was alone with Adam once again in his apartment. Now, the uncertainty had made its presence known once again and I really thought we would be over it when he kissed me back in December.

There was a blanket of awkwardness that fell upon us. It was so uncomfortable that I felt like I was going to choke, but he realized that there was something wrong.

Though sadly, I couldn't say it out loud why I was being bothered. Even I knew it was a stupid reason.

"Sienna..." he trailed off, followed by a stiff cough. He was hesitating, probably afraid of the unknown conversation that might ensue.

We were going nowhere with this, "I need my uncle to check my progress on my book, will it be okay if I go next door?"

He let me go, knowing how the situation was. When I arrived next door, Emma was happily painting on a new canvas, Andy was nowhere to be seen, Uncle Levi was out as well, and Aunt Janine was on the dining table with stacks of manuscripts next to her laptop.

"Where's uncle?" I asked after dropping my bag on the couch and saying a quick hello to my aunt, "I want him to look over my progress."

Emma looked up from her painting, "He said that he had something to do at the university, he'll be back soon though."

Gesturing for her to continue on her work, I observed my aunt for a moment. She was busy reading over manuscript after manuscript, her pen twirling between her fingers as she made quick notes on each page. I've known her since I was born and I really admired her for being steadfast and strong, yet I couldn't understand why uncle willingly left America for her.

Taking out my laptop, I silently asked if I could sit from across her. I've always seen her as the serious aunt to Uncle Levi's playful vibe. She was easily frustrated by him but you could see that they still have that spark from when they first started going out.

From what I've heard, Andy was conceived before they got married. It wasn't a shotgun wedding to save their faces, but uncle proposed to her during the midst of the pregnancy and they got married a little bit after Andy turned one. That was when mom was pregnant with me and all of the wedding pictures showed her growing stomach underneath her lilac bridesmaid dress.

Aunt Janine had a good eye for detail and was an extremely intelligent woman. But why? I thought uncle adored his home country.

"I'm beginning to wonder why you're staring at me so intently, dear," she suddenly spoke, lifting her eyes from her the paper she was reading, "What's on your mind?"

"Why did you marry uncle?" I shot out all of a sudden. No need to beat around the bush.

Her eyebrows scrunched up at the unusual questions, but my inquiry certainly caught her daughter's attention. She dropped her paintbrush and wiped her hands on a piece of cloth before taking the seat next to mine.

She watched on with amusement as both Emma and I looked at her in anticipation – like we were little children again begging for her to read us a fairytale.

"Levi was very famous in our office, he was the newly signed author in our publisher and it was rumored among the ladies that he was quite attractive," she started, placing down the manuscript back on the pile, "Of course, I also wanted to have a glimpse of him. I was young, single, and many of my friends were already smitten."