Eero's Perspective
Diana fakes a smile. "It's nice seeing you again. How am I supposed to address you? Do you still go by Alpha Claudius or just Engineer Cormac who works for RGC?" Diana asked.
She looked at me as if Diana expected me to understand the meaning of those looks that Claudius was giving me. When I still couldn't get it, Claudius raised his eyebrows and sneered at me.
I gulped simultaneously. With each step that I take to come closer to him, I am losing both my strength and sanity.
After our quick meeting at the milk tea shop a week ago. I'm not ready to see him again.
When I was only two or three steps away from him. I stilled on my spot as I couldn't bear to continue daring to approach him.
"You know them, Mr. Cormac?" My eyes did not miss seeing how Claudius casually nodded to his secretary.
"Yes. She's my..." Claudius stopped talking and let his sentence hang in mid-air for a moment as he checked on me shamelessly. The muscle of his jaw moved and just like before it's making my knee tremble.
I firmly held the side of the dress I was wearing. I had to hold on to something so I wouldn't go completely crazy.
"Have they signed the contract yet?" Claudius directed that question to his secretary and yet his castigating eyes remained on me.
"Yes, Sir, the other day I brought it to your condo while you and Ms. Adelina were in LA."
My attention was immediately caught by the ringing of my cell phone that was on the table with the papers I had read earlier. I couldn't do a thing but give them an apologetic smile before I walked hastily to the table.
I heard Diana start a conversation to lure him as soon as she realized who it was that was calling me.
I looked at the three of them for a moment before I walked outside to answer Perseus' phone call.
"Yes, baby?"
"Mama, I'm bored so I asked Daddy to bring me there and we're a block away, but we stopped in a coffee shop for my frappe," Perseus said excitedly. The information made me panic a lot. I nervously glanced at the studio and saw that there was no one on the first floor, they must have gone on the second floor.
"Shit! Shit! Come on, Eero. Think of something. Perseus can't come here. Not when his biological father is here," I whispered to myself.
"Mommy?" Perseus's voice asking if I was still listening to him brought me back to reality. I quickly entered the studio to get my bag.
"Pup, can you please give your phone to your father for a while? I need to have a word with him," I said.
"Dad, Mama wants to talk to you," I heard Perseus say from the other line. A few seconds passed and I was about to cross the pedestrian lane that leads to that coffee shop when I heard Miguel's voice.
"Eero–"
"Don't go to the studio. Stay in that damn coffee shop. I'm on my way there." Before Miguel could even throw me sets of questions that I knew he had, I ended the call and sprinted the remaining distance of the said coffee shop even if I was wearing four-inch pumps.
"To hell with this situation!"
***
"Mommy!" Miguel and Perseus were sitting near the door of the coffee shop, so I saw them quickly when I entered
Carrying his grande-size frappe. Perseus came down from where he was sitting to meet me. Miguel did the same thing and quickly kissed my cheek.
Miguel smiled and offered me an iced tea as the three of us sat down. "Is there a problem at the studio?" he asked me worriedly. I quickly took a sip of the iced tea and put it down again.
I was about to nod to him and tell him what happened when his cell phone rang. His secretary's name was registered as the caller's ID. Miguel looked at me and I knew what it meant.
I nodded, permitting him to leave. "I'm sorry, I'll be back after I resolve whatever this emergency is, I promise," he said. Miguel and Perseus had a fist bump before he finally left us at the coffee shop.
Perseus is in the middle of enjoying his cold drink when my phone rings, it's Diana, she must have been looking for me after I disappeared like a bubble in the studio.
"You're not going to answer that, Mama? That might be an important call," Perseus commented after he chewed the chocolate cake he had eaten earlier.
I shook my head then stretched out my hand to wipe off the chocolate from his lips. After that, I accidentally knocked over his toy robot on the side of the table, causing it to fall.
Perseus was quick to move himself out of the chair to pick it up before I could. The door of the coffee shop opened and I quickly stood up, attracting the attention of the woman who had just entered.
"Mommy?" Perseus said when he noticed the look on my face.
Alice tore his eyes off me and bore them on Perseus who was looking up to me with a curious look.
I pulled my son behind me to try to hide it.
"Father, I'll call you back," she said then put down her cell phone. She gawped at the two of us and the glint in her eyes confirmed an instinct and gut feeling in me.
"Is this the son now, Eero? And when did you come back here? Your father and I didn't hear about this." Alice bent down and reached for Perseus' fallen toy robot that he couldn't pick up because I suddenly pulled him behind my back.
"Thank you," Perseus said and smiled at her. Perseus settled down and Aelice looked at me seriously.
"Just so you know. He looks exactly like Claudius back when Perseus was at Claudius' age. You can't deny that he's a Cormac, Eero."