Chapter 219 - Godmother

"Are you sure you are not hiding anything?" Ximena asked in response to Zaria's groan that seemed to be out of the blue. When the latter nodded, she did not believe her but she took her word for it nonetheless.

"I know what we both need. A night out at the club?" She suggested.

"No!" Zaria exclaimed, then immediately realized that she had overreacted. "I mean, no. I have work to do tonight and I will need to be sober for that."

"Okay." Ximena did not believe a word she was saying but she did not push it. "Then I'll bring you some decaffeinated coffee to drink while you work." She headed for the door.

"Thank you." She smiled. As soon as the door shut behind Ximena, her blood ran cold. Why would she offer her decaffeinated coffee?

When Ximena came back, she had a mug of coffee in her hand and Zaria wondered where she had gotten decaffeinated coffee out of the blue.

She set it on the table and sat on the couch next to the confused Zaria.

The latter held the cup hesitantly.

"I would never want to hurt you. I know what caffeine can do to you in case you are pregnant." Ximena remarked, knowing why she was confused.

Zaria's eyes darted to her. "How did you…"

Ximena pointed at her laptop that was on the bed. The screen had turned off but Zaria understood immediately. Before Ximena arrived, she had been searching for possible reasons why a woman's period might be late, aside from pregnancy—and if those reasons could cause behavior changes as well.

She bit the inside of her cheek. "Xim,"

"I know. And I understand why you didn't want to tell me." Ximena took both of her hands.

Zaria felt even more ashamed of herself. "I didn't want to hurt your feelings."

"I know. But Zaria, you know that I would never be sad about you having kids, right? I hate the fact that I cannot be a mother but that doesn't mean your life has to come to a halt because of it." She lectured her. "If I were to lose my eyesight, would you cover up your eyes so I don't feel sad about the fact that you can see?"

"That's not the same thing." Zaria sighed. "It's not fair."

"No it's not."

"I'm sorry." She looked up to meet Ximena's gaze. The latter was truly not angry with her. If angels did exist, Ximena would be one of them.

She had lost her fertility years ago, when she decided to donate her eggs. In an unfortunate twist, she could not be a mother herself even though she had helped someone else have babies. It was a sore topic for her but apparently, it didn't make her jealous of her friend.

"Are you thinking of confirming it?" Ximena asked, pulling Zaria out of her thoughts.

"I'm not ready." She confessed. While she had already made a firm guess, she didn't want to confirm her suspicion until she had a word with Desmond. Crap. How was she going to bring it up?

"You know that I'm here for you, right?" Ximena reminded her.

"I know." She hugged her emotionally. "I hope he doesn't ask me to get rid of it."

"Oh honey." Ximena patted her back. "Do you think that's a possibility? Because I'm certain that Desmond will be overjoyed."

She could only hope so, but the only way to find out was to wait and let him know the following day.

"Could you stay over tonight?" She asked, to which Ximena nodded. The latter then grabbed a pair of matching nightdresses from Zaria's closet and changed into one. They both liked to believe that they would have the exact same kind of sleep overs if they were sisters.

They climbed onto bed and turned off the lights, after which Zaria closed her eyes and tried to catch some sleep.

"Hey, Zaria." Ximena spoke all of a sudden.

"Mmh?"

"If you are pregnant, I'm fighting to be the godmother." She declared.

Zaria smiled into the darkness. "Of course. It would never be anyone but you."

___

Since she had not eaten dinner in the end, Zaria was the first to wake up and the first thing she wanted to do was raid the refrigerator for any leftovers. When she found a food storage dish with chicken wings, she warmed them up and dived right in.

"You are not going to treat that as breakfast, are you?" Theodore asked from the door, having just arrived to cook.

"Dad, you're awake." She waved hello at him with a half-eaten chicken wing held between her fingers.

He was relieved when he saw her looking so cheerful. "Someone had to make breakfast." He sharply stopped himself from spilling the rest of his statement. "Is Ximena awake?"

"She's snoring the morning away. I changed the time on her phone's alarm." She devoured the rest of her wing. Ximena had been working too hard. She needed some rest or her brain would no longer function.

Theodore seemed to understand the situation because he sighed. "I knew that Preston guy was not a good person."

"I'm not saying he is good or anything, but you would never know until you hear the entire tale from the horse's mouth." She remarked.

"I don't care if I hear it from the horse's or falcon's mouth. If I ever see him, I'm going to punch the living daylights out of him for hurting such a kind woman." He annoyedly grabbed an apron to drape around his waist.

She chuckled dryly. Poor Liam.

She packed her blueberry muffin as well as the sandwich that Theodore had insisted on her carrying to work after having her eat pancakes and milk. He was definitely trying to let her know that she should eat for two. It was also insane that he had managed to pull it off, but he had hired her a chauffeur so she wouldn't drive to and from work.

Would he be disappointed if she took the test and found that she was not pregnant? She didn't want to think about it. The elevator arrived at her floor and the first thing she did was look for Desmond. He had already arrived and was going crazy with worry.

"Zaria?" He rushed over to her when he finally saw her. "What happened to your phone? I had to call your dad."

He was berating her, and he had every right to do so.

"I'm sorry. It broke." She didn't have the strength to tell him how or why it broke—or figure out why Theodore didn't tell her that he had called.

He hugged her without probing. "I'm glad you are okay. I was worried about you." She hugged his shoulders silently.

"Are you alright? You have not been yourself lately."

"I'm fine." She lied. The nerves in her stomach did not give her away, luckily.

He studied her and knew that she was not alright but he did not insist on it. Who was to say that she would not explode if he insisted on finding out what was wrong?

"Well, uh…" She started, and stopped when he looked at her. Ximena had said that disliking kids didn't automatically mean one would not be a good father. Even so, she couldn't get the words out.

"I wanted to ask you out on a date tonight. I'll clear your schedule if you don't mind." She looked up to meet his gaze.

"Of course." His eyes dimmed. Why would she ask him out after acting like she hated him for days? Was she going to break up with him?

He felt as though his heart had been stabbed from the mere possibility of it. It was the only thing that made sense no matter how he thought about it, but he still remained slightly hopeful that there was something else—even though he felt like a clown for it.

He knew that this dinner was probably the one that determined his life or death but there was nothing he could do to stop her if she really wanted to break up with him.

"Zeus is out today. Do you mind filling in for him?" He asked when she was about to leave.

"I will." She rushed out before she could break down in front of him. She sat at her desk and started off by reading his emails, deleting the unnecessary ones and forwarding the important ones. Her hand stopped when she saw the subject of one of them, from a sender called Angela.

"I miss you"

____

AN

Sorry for the late update, and thanks for being patient XO

The next chapter will be up tomorrow. Crazy busy month is over so I have resumed daily updates <3