I turned to pay attention to what he had to say.
"You have some luggage arriving tomorrow?" He asked like he hadn't already been informed.
"Mmhh," I replied, not wanting to speak to him.
"I asked to have them delivered here so you don't have to stress yourself to go over to pick them up," he said.
"thank you" I simply responded.
"If you don't want to put the pregnancy out there, I totally understand, I don't have any right to make you do that" He loudly said from a distance.
I was happy he acknowledged my decision. Even though we had an agreement I still deserved to be heard.
"Dante" I called out as he turned to leave.
He paused and hesitated before walking over to me.
"Yes Sienna" he said responsively
"I don't know what you'd think, but I would like to get back to work. I don't want to be a stay home wife for you, it won't be healthy for both me and the baby" I said
"You want to come back to work?" He sounded shocked.
"I give you enough money, what do you need to work for?" He questioned.
"It's not about the money. I need to stay active, keep myself busy, and socialize as well. My mom always said idleness wasn't good for a pregnant woman and it's starting to make sense now. These past days have been uneasy for me, I don't want to just stay home doing nothing" my eyes expressed my speech just as much as I needed to.
He stared at me for a few seconds.
"You never cease to amaze me. Fine you can get back to work"
"Thank you so much" I said excitedly.
"But one thing", he chipped in.
My excitement ceased and I stared inquisitively.
"You'd no longer be my secretary. I'll put you on supervision. That doesn't require a lot from you. You just get to go about and be the boss"
I didn't know what to think about that. That was really huge. But I was worried the other workers would think it was unfair to them. I know how the job cycle worked and I knew it took a lot of hard work to get promoted.
"I really don't mind staying secretary," I humbly suggested.
"Nonsense, the wife of the CEO, A secretary? Of course not darling"
"You like the flowers huh?"
Even though that was a rhetorical question, I decided to respond.
"Yes I do".
"You see those white ones over there" Dante said pointing at the direction he wanted me to pay attention to.
"Yeah?"
"They're lilies, they're so beautiful, the most beautiful in this garden in my opinion" he said
"Yes they are indeed beautiful" I supported.
"They remind me of you" he said moving over to me and in that moment my entire body froze.
I hated it whenever he did this thing, his compliments always came off as so deep but unintended and casual. But to me it was way beyond that. It lightened up my mood and connected to my soul.
I had slowly begun to develop a soft spot for Dante and I didn't like that. No matter how much he got pissed at me and annoyed me, the fact that he always came back to apologize and acknowledge his wrongs resonated so much with me. It felt so satisfying. When I was with Marcus, whenever we had a fight, it didn't matter if he was wrong or not, I always had to be the one to apologize and make up. The one time I decided I wouldn't own up for his mistake, he stayed an entire week away from home and in the end I gave in. That's what love does to you.
"Thank you" I managed to mutter.
"You're not as annoying as I thought you'd be you know"
I was offended, between the both of us, I most certainly wasn't the annoying one.
"What do you mean?" I asked, giving him an irritated stare.
"Calm down, I just thought pregnant women usually throw their emotions all over the place, you're holding up just fine"
That made sense, I was also surprised I was holding up pretty well, asides the fact that I had started eating like a ruminant animal.
"Come with me, I want to show you something," Dante said, holding me by my hand and leading me up to a closed door at the other end of the garden. I had never noticed that door before, it was almost invisible.
He opened the security lock with his thumbprint and that had to be the most beautiful room I had ever walked into.
Bright crystal light shone through the entire room and beautiful art pieces were kept in different glass boxes spread all over the room. We walked slowly roundabout the room and at every art piece we stopped by, Dante took out time to explain it to me. I was amazed, there was so much about him that amazed me. Who'd think he was an artist, I could never imagine.
We stopped by a flower sculpture, a bouquet of different colored flowers mixed together and it was so beautiful, it looked extremely realistic.
"Let me show you a trick," he said, opening the show glass. He took a spray bottle filled with water and sprayed on the petals, he closed the glass and turned on a switch. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, light erupted from within the flowers and the water dripped down the petals, it was amazing. That was a work of art and at that moment, I had no idea which I admired more, the art itself or the artist.
"No one knows about this place, not even my mom. I come here when I need to get things off my chest. Creating these art pieces brings peace to my soul. I started this when I was a young boy, fifteen years old at the time" He said, staring into my eyes.
I was tongue tied and I didn't know what to say. The only thought running through my mind was why he decided to show me this. Not even his mom knew about it and here he was opening up a vulnerable side of himself to me.
"This is beautiful. You're such an amazing artist" I managed to say.
His stare didn't move and I felt myself melting. My joints were frozen with emotions and I prayed silently in my heart that he would look away.