The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 125

"We do not need to talk, Mabella. Not after you kicked me out for stating the obvious."

"I’m sorry I upset you." She helplessly pleaded to be heard, not believing she was doing this. "I know how confused you must be."

"I’m not. I never expected you to reciprocate my feelings." Chloe cut her off. "And I don’t want to stay with you all day. It’s going to be awkward and I can’t leave because Avery made me promise not to leave until they return. Can you leave?"

Mabella grabbed her hand and before either of them could figure out anything, she kissed the other’s lips. She then pulled away and smiled at the wide-eyed Chloe. "Can we talk now?"

Struck with shock, Chloe made way for her and shut the door. If there was any disadvantage of being close to a shrink, it was the fact that they knew what to do to get specific reactions.

"Fine. You better make it quick. I have better things to do, like watch The Boss Baby for the twentieth time with Angel."

"Are you sure it’s not the fiftieth?" Mabella laughed as she exaggerated. The boy rarely ever took interest in new things and would drag everyone to watch the old ones with him dozens of times.

"Actually, it’s only the fifth. Go ahead and tell me what you think will change things after everything that has happened." Chloe crossed her arms. She didn’t think anything could faze her.

Mabella stood before her. "I know I don’t have much time so I’ll not stall. I like you."

"That’s not what your actions have been screaming." Chloe retorted, trying not to get excited at the words she had just heard. Heaven knew she wanted nothing more than to pull Mabella into a hug and forget about everything else but she needed to understand her.

"My brother treasures you very much." She held Chloe’s shoulders, finding nothing else to do with her hands. "Out of all his friends, I’d say he would take a bullet for you without having second thoughts and even if it killed him, he would die without a single regret."

"Where are you going with this?" Chloe laughed through her confused frown. "You know Damon’s straight, right? Okay, I’m a woman but he knows I wouldn’t be into him and he only has eyes for Avery. Point being, he wouldn’t have anything against me getting into a relationship."

"Unless it’s with his sister." She closed her eyes helpelssly to get her thoughts together. "I promised him I’d take care of you. Not like this. I promised to help you out of your past relationship trauma. Hurting you was never on the table."

"Hurting me." Chloe picked up what must be the most important part. "What makes you certain you would do that?"

"My pledge to my work. I could never be in any relationship with my patients apart from a strict doctor-patient relationship." She knew she wasn’t making sense the more she spoke. "Look, I like you, okay? But what if you don’t feel the same way?"

Chloe laughed aloud, only to realize Mabella wasn’t laughing along. "Wait. You’re serious. You still think there’s a possibility that I don’t like you even though I put it out there in plain sight."

"It could be true, or it could be a rebound. You are friends with Avery because she looks a lot like Shirley. You are friends with Damon because he dated her too. Even if it was just for a bit. She also pretended to be his sister at some point but if it had been true, I would be Shirley’s sister too. What if your subconscious is looking for bits of Shirley in the people you currently care about?"

A kiss shut her up and when she met Chloe’s eyes, the latter was upset.

"Shrinks are meant to help us discover our feelings. That’s what you say. You never talked about the possibility that a shrink would be the one to make me question all my views of the world."

She grabbed Mabella’s hand and placed it over her chest. "I did get close to Damon because of Shirley but that was only initially. I realized after befriending him that if we met under different circumstances, I would still want to be his friends. And I never thought of Avery as Shirley. She’s awesome. And what I feel for you, it had nothing to do with anyone else. Feel my heart, ma belle."

"Don’t call me that again." Mabella chuckled. "Unless you want me to melt into a mush."

"Good idea, ma belle." She laughed along and hugged her, ignoring the latter’s comment about her cheesiness.

Mabella quickly realized the next topic they would have to discuss, which she didn’t think she was ready for. Luckily, Angel came running from upstairs, jumping right into her arms.

"Aunt Mabella!" He yelled excitedly and then hugged Chloe. "Chloe."

The boy suddenly stood still, deep in thought. He had never called them both out at the same time so Mabella instantly understood why he was confused. Why was she ’Aunt Mabella’ while Chloe was just ’Chloe’?

"Adult relationships are a little complex. But you know what? You might call me ’Aunt Chloe’ soon." Chloe spoke up before Mabella did, perplexing the other.

"Chloe!"

"What? It’s just a title." She laughed, even though they both knew what she was playing at.

"You know what? Let’s just get Angel a mid-morning snack." Mabella took the boy and made a beeline for the kitchen.

.....

Meanwhile, Avery checked her wrist watch for the time in Damon’s helicopter.

"Are you tired? Don’t worry, we will be there in twenty minutes." He slid a hand behind her shoulder to comfort her. He had picked her up without telling her where they were going and it was understandable that she was confused about it.

"I’m not tired. I’m just wondering if Mabella and Chloe finally met. Do you think they would claw at each other or kiss and get together?" She giggled at the uncertainty.

"They wouldn’t want to scare Angel so yelling is not one of their options." He studied her face. "Do you like playing cupid that much?"

"Only when the couple in question obviously like each other but are both too stubborn to admit it. These two nearly drove me crazy having to listen to both sides of their insane denial. I would rather deal with Mina telling me about my brother’s sex life all day."

At the mention of Mina and Gabe’s sex life, she remembered how long it had been since she and her friend talked about anything aside from work. The latter had been keeping her distance unless the only choice she had was to face her, and she had to admit it was driving her crazy. She missed her friend despite having asked for the distance herself.

"I’ll stop thinking about it." She reminded herself that this was supposed to be a trip to unwind and stressing herself out was not one of the things one did when trying to relax.

She picked up the files on the retractable table before them and frowned at Damon. "Is this what you call a weekend of fun?"

"Only partially." He guiltily took them back. "I’ll admit, I wasn’t able to put everything in order yesterday. I have to meet the owner of a resort today. It’s only going to take a few minutes and the best part, it’s the same resort where were are spending our weekend so that will be killing two birds with one stone."

"And after that, I’ll have you all to myself." She wrapped her arms around him clingily. When he nodded, she ran a finger down the side of his face. "You should let yourself relax, you know. You can’t work this hard."

"Says the woman who would sit at a desk and work the whole night while running a forty degrees fever. I’m quite mild at work in comparison." He reminded her of every time he’d had to drag her out of her office. "Which reminds me. We should set some rules. No working late, all night, or over weekends."

She immediately shook her head. "Are you kidding me? I have a son. I have to secure his future."

"We have a son. Not just you." He swept a lock of hair behind her ear. "And we both know if we retired right now, Angel would still live comfortably for decades. Which is why we should take it easy."

"Fine. But only if you do. Why don’t we start by setting aside this meeting of yours and postponing it for Monday?"

"That may be a little hard." He grinned, merely seconds before the pilot announced their landing.

"That’s an excuse." She called him out for it. They got off the helicopter and she turned to glare at him for the same reason she did when he picked her up. He had not told her they were boarding a helicopter. She was wearing a short, pink sun dress and the helicopter blades were making it nearly impossible for her to conceal her modesty.

"I’ll warn you earlier next time." He wrapped an arm around her waist as their host approached.

"Meet Cassandra. She owns Imperial Resort—but won’t be for very long."

The tall brunette laughed heartily. "How funny. I don’t remember having agreed to anything yet. Though I must say, it’s a bit hard to say no to a man this handsome." She offered her hand for a shake, revealing a fake smile through her bold red lipsticked lips. Her gaze at Avery was brief, nearly calculated. "This is?"

____

AN

Ma belle is just a play on Mabella’s name into an endearment. (my beauty)