The Mafia's Babies by Kaycee Romano (howl and other poems txt) 📗

"Did I say you look beautiful tonight?" He asked.

Zero originality. River thought and then scolded herself for being so bitter. What was her problem? She should have just said no! but she was being pathetic and not able to refrain herself and now she was complaining.

"I don't remember." River smiled at him, earning a chuckle.

"Well you do."

"Thanks." River shook off all her negative thoughts and just laughed.

They made small talk as they had their meal. It was mushroom soup followed by the most delicious pasta she had tasted and lastly apricots in hot chocolate sauce. She had declined the wine though. Because Dr. River Johnson didn't know when she would get an emergency call.

"How about we take this to my apartment?" He asked as they walked, holding hands.

Here we go. River thought. She wasn't going to pretend that she didn't see this coming.

She looked over at the man. Though he had a small smirk on his face, he looked sad and reluctant and something told her that he was mirroring her own expression. What was wrong with the both of them?

"I don't see any reason to decline." She said, looking ahead at the parking lot.

He let out an empty chuckle, his arm pulling her closer to him.

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They made love. Mateo knew that they did. It was not one of his casual sex. It was not about pleasure or making one another and themselves feel good. It felt as if they were trying to engrave the feel of each other's skin, lips, tongue on their own bodies. It was like they were trying to make themselves remember each other. It wasn't sex. Was this what making love feel like?

Mateo tightened his grip on his coffee mug. He had left River sprawled across his bed. She looked exhausted from yesterday's lack of sleep. And she looked so at home there, like she belonged in his bed, that he just couldn't bring himself to wake her up.

Also, he didn't know how he was going to face her. How was he going to pretend like that meant nothing to him? Like she meant nothing to him?

"Morning."

He felt his heart stop for a second. He wished he hadn't left the room, because she had now gotten out of his bed and he will never see her there again. He just wanted a light glimpse of her in his bed, to forever engrave in his mind.

"Coffee?" He held up his own mug as he turned around. She was not looking at him. She was busy checking her phone.

She looked up at him and said, "No thanks, there is an emergency. I need to go."

"I will drop you off." He said too quickly, not really thinking what he was saying.

"No no. I already called a Uber." With that she was out. Out of his life.

"Damn it!" Mateo growled, smashing the mug onto the counter, hurting his hand.

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"Mommy!!!!" Kiara screeched as River placed the twins' clothes back in their closet. They were finally back for good and their classes started in a week.

"Yes my pumpkin?" River asked, knowing very well what she was about to say.

"Let's get a house."

Exactly my thoughts. River thought. The kids were not very happy moving back to their apartment since they had had way too much fun at their grandmother's. It didn't help that River's best friend and Susan Johnson's favorite child; Sebastian Shane had gone to stay with them along with little Mia and that idiot had rebuilt the tree house which was once built by their fathers for him and River. Now they didn't want to come back even more.

"Yeah sure." The mother turned to her. "But you have to wait another year."

"But why???" She whined.

"Because money doesn't grow on trees." Lucas said gravely.

"How come you are the only one who knows all this?" River turned to her elder kid. "As far as I know, you both are attached at the hips."

"She zones out. Like you."

The doctor narrowed her eyes at him and she was proud to see that her daughter was doing the same.

The girls certainly did not zone out. They just always had too much on their mind that sometimes they tend to not pay attention to whatever was happening around them or being said to them.

That is exactly what zoning out means. River rolled her eyes at her own pathetic justification.

It had been a couple of weeks since the date and the ground-breaking sex... River didn't want to call it mere sex but she knew that was what it was and she was not allowed to be a pathetic sappy heroine and pretend that it was something more.

He hadn't contacted her ever since that day and she too had refrained herself from doing it. She had caught herself multiple times with her finger hovering over the call button next to his name. She always made an excuse to herself that she wanted to know if he was doing well and if his leg was better now that he had resumed his ordinary life. But there was this other self-loathing side of her which was pointing the truth out to her which was that everything she said to herself was just an excuse she was making to contact him and have another go at him.

River felt pathetic and she came to realize that her hunch was right all alone and that date though seemed sweet and one of the best nights of her life at that moment, it had had a disastrous impact after it ended. She was unfocused and sometimes frustrated. She was just glad that she always detached emotion in the operation room and she loved her twins way too much more than she loved herself or the attraction she felt towards the Italian man to ever act in any way that would affect them.

Other than her internal battle and the babies coming back from their grandmother's, nothing exciting was going on in her life. And she hoped that though she wanted to see him again badly, he never came back. Because she was scared she would do something very stupid if that ever happened.