Status: Live

Holding Hands Won't Be Enough

Chapter 65: Pretty Girls

December 19th

There must have been at least one thousand twinkling bulbs above her, gorgeously illuminating the ballroom like a blanketed night sky. They hanged in lines like cascading chandeliers above the seats and aisle – it looked ethereal. It had taken the better part of the afternoon to get them perfectly uniform and now that it was dark and she could finally have them turned on, they looked just as amazing as she imagined they would.

Oscar had stayed with her today, upon waking up she could bare to part from him - she missed him. Sending him off to spend time with his father every day was all well and good in terms of them bonding and her being able to work for her sister, but at the end of the day, no bond was stronger than theirs and a few hours in the morning and a night wasn’t enough for her.

As always Oscar was perfectly behaved for his mother; he had entertained himself quietly with her iPad or his colouring books when he wasn’t singing and running around the hall with a toy car. Now, all was quiet, except for the quiet music playing through portable speakers she had placed on a chair near to her. Milly walked over and crouched next to her little sleeping cherub who had taken it upon himself to curl up in a pile of muslin drapes to watch his cartoons. His button nose pointed to the ceiling and his hands were splayed either side of his head as his chest softly rose and fell with each breath he took. She stroked his hair and ran her thumb over his palm, still amazed that she was so lucky to have him and amused at how he slept exactly like Ville. As she stood, the noise of someone entering the room scared her and she stood up immediately, fearing it was Inga trying to sneak a peak at the room.

“Ville… You startled me.” she gasped, patting her hand to her forehead. “What… what are you doing here?” he merely held Blinky the elephant up for her to see. “How did y-“

“Oscar dropped it at the coffee shop you were in this morning. The barista lives in my building, recognised it was Oscar’s just from having met us a handful of times and kindly bought it over after her shift.”

“Oh, what an angel.” She gasped, walking over to him and taking Blinky from his hands and holding it to her chest. “He was upset earlier, but I was sure we left him at home. He would have been devastated.”

“Well you weren’t home when I called in, your father sent me here, said Oscar going to sleep without Blinky would be more hassle than you needed; thought pre-empting it would be better.”

“Little dove tired himself out and didn’t even realise.”

“You mean he’s asleep?” he asked disbelievingly.

“Fast asleep.” she nodded, motioning her head to where she had been previously standing. Ville tentatively walked over to the spot where his son was bundled on the ground, Milly following quietly behind him, picking her pliers of a chair as she passed him.

“He’s just perfect, Mil…” he said quietly, placing his hand delicately on Oscar’s chest. She went about her business as Ville marvelled at his son, before turning his attention to the room, specifically the altarpiece she was currently tweaking. “How on earth did you make that?”

“Cheated. Bought a garden arch, covered it in chicken wire and have woven ivy and lights, and then more ivy and more lights, into it. Now I’m tightening parts down, because I don’t think it looks right yet.” she said humbly, Ville chuckled, to him it looked like an arch sculpted entirely of trained foliage. He watched as she wound wire with the pliers, poking and hiding it behind leaves. “I’ve not turned it on yet, I’m worried.”

“I was talking about Oscar..” he laughed.

“Oh,” she said simply, feeling stupid, “you said ‘that’ I just assu-“

“Worried, why?” her interrupted, she dropped her arm to her side and turned around, looking at Ville quizzically.

“Why the small talk, Ville?”

“We haven’t spoken in two weeks.” He shrugged, “I don’t know how to make you talk to me anymore, I’m sorry. I don’t really know where to begin.” she sighed, truth was, she didn’t either.

“See that cable over there?” she said, pointing at an extension cord lying on the ground on the other side of the aisle. He turned, looked and nodded, “Would you mind bringing it to me, I’m going to see how this looks, I want your opinion.”

“It’s stunning.” He said, shaking his head as he admired it, “She’ll adore it.”

“Well, I should hope so…” she sighed, “It’s kept me away from my life for almost two weeks now. You’ve had Oscar almost every day and when I get him back he’s asleep, I miss him; I feel like I’ve abandoned him.” she distressed, staring over at him, then guiltily to Ville.

“You’ve done nothing of the sort, he’s with me.” Ville was right, he was with his Dad and they were catching up on lost time. “Another week and I’ll be the one missing him.” He said sadly, “I’ve grown quite used to our man time.”

“Man time?” she chuckled.

“Yeah, you know, cartoons, cereal in our underpants, mess everywhere, talking about pretty girls – man time.”

“Pretty girls, huh? Is Oscar meeting them in your neighbourhood?”

“No, we mostly just talk about one.”

“Huh, oh..” she laughed nervously, fiddling with her watch before looking down at it, “Oh, fuck. I didn’t realise the time.” She rushed to her bag and pulled out her phone, being visibly distressed upon looking at her phone, “Excuse me one second.” He nodded politely and turned away, as if that would aid in not being able to hear the conversation in full. “Hi, sorry, time completely got away from me… Oh you haven’t, I’m so sorry… Yes, rescheduling would be perfect… Yes… Okay, I’ll let you know tomorrow… Great… Again, so sorry… Bye.” Ville kept himself occupied by looking around the room, she had obviously forgotten a date and Helsinki wasn’t exactly a gossip free town, she had been spotted out and about dining with Jukka, but being a gentleman – and having this be the first time in a while that they’d spoken – he chose not to pry, even though it pained him knowing exactly whom she was speaking to.

She hung up her phone and stared at the back of Ville’s person for a moment, feeling a strange sense of nervousness around him. She wanted to ask about Jonna, about their wedding, about the baby… but there was nothing she didn’t already know from the gossip about town, from their friends. “Um, tomorrow, I don’t have anymore work to do here, but I do have to go to a dress fitting at midday, if you wanted to take Oscar for lunch, obviously only if you’re not busy.”

“I’d love to take him. I have lunch with the guys, but I think he can handle beer as well as Mige. I know they’d love to see the little guy.”

“Okay, well I’ll come by in the morning, give you a lift wherever you’re meeting them on my way to the fitters?”

“Perfect.” He nodded in agreement.

“I really had better get him – and myself – home and to bed. I can give you a lift now too if you like?” she proposed as she carefully took the iPad from Oscar’s sleeping hands.

“Only if it’s no trouble, I can just as easily get a cab.”

“No trouble.” She replied as she stuffed various objects into her bag before picking up her car keys then a large box of rattling objects. “If you could just grab our child, we’ll get going.” She watched as he delicately picked up Oscar, shrouding him inside his jacket, close to his body to protect him from the cold outside and quietly standing to his feet. She nodded and headed towards the door – balancing the box on her leg in order to open it, holding it open with her foot for Ville and reaching across to the power board to switch off all the lights, following him through allowing the large door to lock itself behind them.

She lugged the large box into the trunk whilst Ville put Oscar into his car seat, as she rounded the car she could hear Ville quietly cursing under his breath, obviously having trouble with the car seat belt.

“Everything okay?”

“This thing is a bloody nightmare.. How does it-“ she reached back from the drivers seat and snapped it locked with one hand, “Oh.”

“There’s a trick to it.” She said simply. It didn’t take long to drive Ville home; they listened to the radio and didn’t speak for the first half of the ride before Ville broke the silence by asking about their return home.

“After Christmas, I need to be back at work.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Everything is great, I just feel like a bad boss by not being there. I have to sort of the Seth mess and Gwen and Dax are getting married… Life, you know.”

“Yeah, that old thing.” He said glumly, keeping his eyes fixed on the roads. The remained quiet the duration of the journey, Milly pulled up in front of his apartment building and looked up at it – it no where near as pleasing to the eye as the tower.

“Why live here and not in the tower?”

“The tower is mine. It’s my office space, my brain in physical form, it’s not for a life begrudgingly lived to be there.” She needn’t ask anymore, she understood. “So, after Christmas…” he nodded. She could tell he was filling with worry.

“Ville, I’m not going to stop you seeing him, I’m not taking him away from you. We just have a life we have to live in conjunction to this now and you have one too. We’ll make it work, somehow, I promise.” She nodded, “I’ll call you when we’re on our way tomorrow, yeah?”

“Okay.” He said as he let himself out of the car, he was about to close the door when he popped his head back inside, “Your reassurance means a lot to me, Milly.”