To Caress My Day

The next morning, everyone on Seth’s property was out in his yard enjoying a bountiful barbecue and a nice cool refreshing swim in his pool underneath the blazing sun. Neon Jungle and Simone were both splashing around in the pool with the Guadalupe’s kids and having a great time. The much smaller children that didn’t know how to swim were running around with their new water guns that Seth had purchased for them online a few days earlier. Mr. and Mrs. Guadalupe watched them carefully from where they sat relaxing on the loungers with their hands linked together, and their eyes shining with the love that they had for every one of their children. Seth and Twigs also watched the kids from a distance on their own separate loungers that purposely sat away from all the others. Seth had his arms resting on his knees as he watched in amusement as the kids and his girlfriend’s close friends played a game in the pool. He let out a laugh when one of the little girls let out a scream of surprise when Shereen ‘the Monster’ came up from under her and lifted her out of the water with a playful roar. Mr. and Mrs. Guadalupe burst out laughing from their loungers and loudly encouraged their daughter to try and escape the monster before it ends up eating her. Seth was about to open his mouth to inspire the other kids to save their sibling from the evil Shereen Monster, when he felt a pair of eyes watching him intently. He turned his head around to see Twigs staring at him as if she had finally found the key to unlock his most inner secrets and was now searching for something.

“What’s wrong, Pixie? You’re staring.” Seth softly spoke, his brow furrowed a bit in curiosity.

Twigs blushed a little at having been caught in the act of staring at her boyfriend. She blinked a couple of times to collect herself and then gave him a soft smile as she recalled where her mind had previously went. She hadn’t meant for it to happen, but it obviously didn’t matter anymore now that she was caught. What had first started out as a short passing glance at her boyfriend had turned into a long captivated stare. She loved Seth from the inside and out, and was overjoyed that he was born into the same time as her instead of centuries apart or else they never would have met. She couldn’t stop staring at him with so much pride and adoration in her eyes, it was a wonder he hadn’t yet seen it. Everything down to the growing stubbles on his face had her full attention and devotion.

Of course, he could never know how strongly she felt about him, at least not now. They hadn’t been together that long enough for them to be spouting about love so early in their relationship. Sadly, in moments like these, that’s all she found herself wanting to do and so to keep herself from confessing her love to him every moment they were together, she was forced to express it through kissing him alone.

Not caring that the Guadalupe’s were still present a distant away, Twigs reached out to caress Seth’s cheek with the pad of her thumb. Seth broke out into a smile and turned his head a bit to press a loving kiss into the center of her palm. Twig’s smile turned into a full blown grin as she absentmindedly, yet eagerly leaned over the side of her chair to publicly kiss him in front of everyone, not caring if they saw or not. Seth had opened his mouth to warn her about the consequences to her actions as her lips were coming down but she silenced him by softly pressing a lingering kiss to his lips before he could speak. She savored his scent, his warmth and his taste now that the distance between them had been closed.

“Alright you two, you gotta know that you’re in public right now where any one of us could see you two being all romantical.” A familiar voice spoke up from behind them. Jumping away, Seth and Twigs both turned their heads in the direction of the voice to see both Derek and what was most likely his beautiful wife stepping outside the house. Twigs was curious as to how they got through the front door before she remembered that Derek was one of Seth’s most trusted employee which probably meant he had his own key to the house. After all, he was the one that bestowed a key to Seth’s mansion to her before she officially started dating his employer, so why wouldn’t he also have a key?

“AND YOU ruined the exciting thrill of it! How’s it going, Derek?” Seth asked him as he stood up to shake his employee’s hand.

“Everything is going pretty well, actually. I take it you’re all having yourselves a good time too, considering the amount of people that has attended your barbecue.” Derek replied, gesturing to Twig’s friends that he was still unfamiliar with.

Seth looked over his shoulder to see who Derek was pointing to. “Oh, yeah, those are Tahliah’s close friends.” His brown eyes shifted to Derek’s slender wife as he turn to greeted her as well, of course with the exception of giving her a kiss to the back of her hand. “Odette, it’s so nice to see you again! You look beautiful as always.”

“Yeah yeah that’s cool and whatever.” Odette rolled her eyes at him as she waved him off before reverting her attention to Twigs who was still sitting on her lounger, patiently watching them. “SO, is this her, your infamous Pixie?”

Twigs couldn’t help but smile to herself over her boyfriend using her nickname instead of her birth name whenever he talked about her to other people. It was actually super cute to her and something she wanted to tease him about later on even though she already knew he was simply doing that to protect her identity. Seth returned back to his girlfriend and held his hand out to her to help her up so that he could introduce her properly. “Yes, this is her. This is my Pixie.”

Twigs placed her hand in his and stood up from her lounger with a shy smile on her face. “Hello, my name is Tahliah, but my friends call me Twigs. It’s nice to finally meet you, your husband goes on and on about you every time I see him.”

Odette smiled up at her tall husband who kept her close to his side with an arm around her waist. “Oh I know, he can be such a talker! It drives me crazy sometime.”

Derek mocked an offended expression as he looked down at his tiny wife. “Well, excuse me, woman! I just won’t talk to you anymore about anything that goes on in my life since my ‘ramblings’ annoy you oh so much.”

“Very mature, Derek.” Seth teased, before gesturing to the empty loungers that were next to theirs. “Why don’t you two have a seat and relax while we go fix you guys a plate of some grub. You are hungry, aren’t you?”

Derek and his wife nodded and helped themselves to one of the comfortable cushion loungers, deciding to share one together instead of sitting apart like Seth and Twigs were forced to do. They watched as the couple went inside for a few minutes and then returned with two plates of delicious food that were being served in the kitchen instead of outside. Once they were in close reach, the secret couple handed over the plates with spoons, forks, and knives wrapped up in a few napkins. “Here you guys go, we hope you like it. We weren’t sure what you liked so we just kind of put a bit of everything on the plates.”

Derek raised an eyebrow at Seth with a smirk on his face. “Oh come on now Seth, you know I’m addicted to Mrs. Guadalupe’s cooking! There is nothing that woman cooks that I won’t eat. Hell, I’ve even snuck some of her food into my coat pockets just to bring home for this beautiful angel to try out.”

Odette nodded in confirmation. “He did, and even after sitting in his pocket for three hours the food was AMAZING. You’re lucky to have that culinary Goddess in your employment, Seth.”

Seth couldn’t agree more as he and Twigs took a seat across from them, having already eaten earlier. “You don’t have to tell me twice. I swear when she goes on vacation I lose like 30-50lbs, depending on how many days she takes off. She’s decided, however, after the last time she left that she’s going to start teaching her kids to cook for me when she’s not around so I won’t be malnourished the next time she comes back.”

Odette burst out laughing before covering her mouth. “Are you serious? Are you that pathetic without her?”

Derek shook his head as he grin. “Oh, I bet he is.” Seth shrugged with a guilty smile.

Twigs watched the group fall into conversation from where she sat next to her secret boyfriend. She hated this. She hated being right next to Seth and not being able to touch him as much as she wanted to. She envied how Odette could touch her husband so openly and without regret. Sadly, Twigs had already made a terrible, but also rewarding mistake by kissing him outside in public where the Guadalupe Family could’ve seen them, though luckily they hadn’t. Of course her friends knew about them dating, but not every single one of the Guadalupe did, especially the children. Their ages ranged from 5-17 and there was so many of them! There was no way she and Seth could trust all of them not to tell anyone about their relationship. Hell, from what Seth shared with her some time ago, not even their mother trusted them enough to tell them about their relationship herself, and that right there was a major sign to Twigs to keep her mouth shut. Still, all she wanted to do was to close the distance between her and Seth and innocently link their fingers together.

She didn’t know how long she had been spacing out mulling over it, when she heard Seth call her name. With a raised eyebrow, she looked up to see everyone looking at her. “Huh? What happened?”

Seth chuckled. “Odette wanted to know what you did for a living, and I told her you that you’re a video girl that’s been breaking into music too.”

Twigs looked to Odette and nodded. “Oh yes, I am. I’ve been dancing and singing most of my life.”

“Oh that’s amazing, can you sing something for us really quick? I’d love to hear you. Seth says you sing like an angel.” Odette begged her with excitement in her big blue eyes.

Twig’s eyes widened as she looked between Seth and his friends nervously. “I…uh…”

Seth wanted to reach over to comfort her by touching her hand, but he urged himself not to before he lift his hand. Instead all he could do was give her a comforting smile. “It’s okay, Pixie, you don’t have to sing if you’re not comfortable. Maybe another time perhaps, Odette, if you don’t mind?”

Odette nodded in understanding, her long blonde wavy hair fluttering in the warm breeze. “Oh yes, absolutely.”