Irresistible Boss Succumbing to Your Touch (Maria Anita) novel Chapter 440

$3–Chapter 38

Manuela’s POV

My birthday weekend with Flavian was perfect. I was so happy! He look care of every detail, prepared each moment to be unforgettable. I was daydreaming and wanted it to last forever. I wanted him to want me with the same inexplicable feeling that I wanted him.

After accompanying me to the bank to put my jewelry in the safe deposit box, he said he had the best weekend of his life too. I was sighing while biting my pen cap, thinking about our weekend when Rick shook me.

“Manuela, Manuela!” Rick was laughing beside me. “Everything okay there in la–la land?”

“What la–la land? This is Flavian’s fantastic world!” I smiled at my friend who was amused by my distraction.

“Did the detective get you, Manuela?”

“The detective arrested me, Rick, I’m convicted.”

“Yeah, I can tell. Lunch with me today, Little Key?” Rick asked with an irresistible pleading face.

“Sure. And it’s about time. Shall we?”

Rick and I left the building chatting, I was telling him about my wonderful weekend and how beautiful the place Flavian had taken me was. But something seemed to be bothering my friend, and as soon as we sat down at the restaurant, I started investigating.

“What’s going on, Rick?”

“Where?” He played dumb, but I knew something was up.

“With you. Come on, talk to me, something’s on your mind.”

“Yeah, there is, Manu.” Rick admitted and called the waiter. After placing our orders, he resumed the topic. “It’s just that I think Tess is being kind of distant, you know. She’s different, but she keeps saying it’s all in my head, but she seems disinterested.”

“You’ve been together for a long time, right?”

“Yes. Since college. It’s been almost fifteen years.”

“No. It’s complicated. I really want to have kids, always have, but Tess keeps saying she wants to wait. The thing is, she’s already thirty–three and still wants to wait. The biological clock for you women is kind of cruel about this, and I wonder if she really wants to have children at all.”

“Have you asked her about this directly?”

“Yes. She always says she wants to, but not yet. Can I ask you something?”

“Of course!”

“If Flavian wanted to have a child with you – I know you’re still very young – what would you say?”

“Hmm.” I thought for a moment, though there wasn’t much to think about, really. “Look, Rick, I want to be a mother, but obviously not yet. In my mind, it’s always been something that would come after college, but before thirty, especially since I would like to have two children.”

“Look at you, all planned out!” Rick laughed, trying to hide a certain sadness.

“Well, I think every woman thinks about these things–career, marriage, children. I’ve always thought about studying, having a career, getting married, and having kids. In that order of preference.” I smiled. “But I would be willing to rethink the order of things for Flavian.” Rick thought for a moment before asking his next question.

“Manu, is this thing with Flavian really serious?”

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$3–Chapter 38

+25 BONUS

“I’m head over heels in love with him, Rick.”

“And he is with you.”

“I don’t know. He always says he’s enchanted and things like that but he’s never said he loves me, so I don’t know.”

“But the way he is with you, it’s obvious, Manu.”

“You know it’s not like that, Rick. He might be really into me, he might like me a lot, he might even be somewhat in love. But love, real love, the kind that lasts a lifetime, that I’m not sure about”

“But you would like it to be.”

“That’s all I want most. I just turned nineteen, he’s the first man in my life, but I have no doubt that I love my detective.”

“And how are you so sure?”

“Because besides feeling it so strongly in my heart, for me, nothing and no one else in the world is more important than him, because I can’t think about myself or make plans for my life without him anymore. And because I saw how it was with my brother when he found the love of his life, so I know what it’s like.

“How beautiful! I bet the detective loves you, Manu.”

“Rick, please don’t tell anyone about this. I don’t want Flavian to know yet. I’m afraid he’ll run away.”

“What? You think if he knows you love him, he’ll leave you?”

“Yes. He knows exactly what he wants in life, and he was very clear with me. I don’t want him to think that what I feel for him will be a problem.”

“Manu, I won’t tell anyone, and you won’t tell anyone either. We’re officially each other’s vault of confessions.” Rick made me laugh when he held out his pinky finger toward me. “Pinky promise.”

“Oh my god!” I linked my pinky finger with his, laughing at our somewhat childish confidant promise. “Pinky promise. Where do you learn these things? You’re sensitive, you know women, you understand us…”

“I have five sisters, dear. If that doesn’t give me a Ph.D. in women don’t know what would.”

“I need to meet them.”

“They’re all crazy, but they’re wonderful.”

After that lunch, Rick and I really did become confidants and started having lunch together more frequently. He understood my fear of confessing my feelings to Flavian, and I understood his concern about Tess’s change in behavior. It was good to be able to talk to him and get a man’s perspective on my situation. And there were still people who think that sincere friendship between men and women couldn’t exist, but whoever thinks that was quite wrong. Rick was my friend, almost like a brother, my vault of

confessions.