Finding You.

CHAPTER 39

Lilly joins in and sleeps next to Skyler, who weakly pets her. Daniel plays Stranger things on Netflix and we all watch until Skyler gives in to the drowsiness caused by the medicine I gave her.

I send Aya a text:
Hey you, hope your day is going well. I picked Skyler up from school, she's not feeling well. Her father was supposed to fetch her from school, hours ago but he didn't so... I'll come home with her after I knock off.

I hit send and the message gets delivered. He calls immediately, I get up to stand outside, near the pool. "Hey." I say into the phone. "What's wrong with her?" he asks in a rushed voice. "She was throwing up and her temperature is hot." I inform him.

"Make her some rehydration solution and give her a cough syrup." He advices."I already have, she's sound asleep as we speak." There's silence on his end before he lets out a long sigh. "You're amazing, I love you. We'll talk soon okay?" We say our goodbyes and I go back into the house, continuing with the episodes with Daniel.

                                 *****

When I get to Aya's place, I hit the buzzer and the gate opens immediately. I enter the driveway, and Aya comes running down the lengthy stairs. I park the car and exit. "Where is she?" he asks, peering into my car. "She's in the backseat." I inform him. He opens the door, holding her in his arms as he takes her inside.

He takes a cloth and wets it with cool water, then places it on her forehead as she lies on the bed in my guestroom - I wonder when he got the time to change the linen. I go downstairs to make her a bowl of soup. When I get return, I find Aya reading to her. I can tell he's struggling to see well without his glasses.

I'm standing by the door, leaning on the door frame as I take in the scene in front of me. Aya on the bed, Skyler's head on his chest as he holds the book in one hand, and brushes her hair with the other.

My thoughts drift to the future, one day he'll be this way with our own child, reading him/her to sleep every night, then coming to our bed and reading to me. "Come on in Somi." Skyler's hoarse voice brings me back to earth, I hadn't realized they saw me standing there.

Entering the room and placing the bowl of soup next to the night stand, Aya hands me the book - George Orwell's Animal Farm. "I can't really see." He whispers to me in explanation and I just smile at him as I begin to read until she falls asleep. "I think I'll call it a night. I feel tired." I tell him. "Have dinner with me... please." He knows I haven't eaten yet, and this is him reminding me to eat before going to bed. "Okay Aya... I'll have dinner with you."

I give in and he gets up and holds his hand out for me to take. We exit the room and go to the kitchen. "Did you cook?" I ask, I just love his cooking, especially because I never thought I'd find someone who could ever cook for me. "Yep, well actually I made stir fry... we'll have that with Chinese noodles." He says and I'm delighted.

He tried teaching me how to eat using chopsticks, but that turned out to be an epic fail and I ended up using the fork because he was laughing at me the entire time.
                                 *****

After dinner, I went up to his bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face in preparation for sleep... that's when I heard Aya shouting at the top of his lungs with another deep voice. "Where the fuck is my daughter Aya?" the voice asks. "Your daughter... she could still be in school since you didn't pick her up. Are you drunk man?"
       "What does it matter?" the voice responds.

"It matters because I'm not allowing my niece in the car with a fucken drunk!"
"Well, that's my daughter and by the way, I'm not driving... my fiancée is." I don't hear Aya's response. I think he didn't have a response, because the next thing I hear from the stranger is: "Skyler baby... come to daddy, let's get you home, okay?"