Oh no.
Closing my eyes, I braced for the impact. Instead, Yunus was lifted out of my arms, and that's when the horrendous gag hit.
A loud cry ruptured out of his tiny little chest and echoed across the hallway.
Christian held Yunus with one arm. His small body wrapped tightly around his waist like a koala.How does he know how to hold a child so well? Whose babies has he been holding?
With a gentle yet swift motion, I seized Christian's other arm and guided him inside, swiftly closing the door behind us.
While my back faced him, heavy pants took over my own chest and struggled to settle back down in their respective places—not from panic, not from nerves—but from… from thedisbeliefof something mawkish and tender sticking to my veins and jumping on board every beat that travelled through them.
He stopped Yunus from throwing up on me.
Instantly blanching when I turned around to thank him.
Yunus’s milky frothy clumps trickled down near Christian’s breast pocket, and the smell?Criminal.
My initial fear transformed into suppressed cachinnations tickling the inside of my lips like the touch of a feather to skin.
“Are you laughing at me?” He asked darkly.
Looking up, half-expecting Christian to fume with anger, to yell at me for holding a child, to push Yunus back in my arms while he strutted away with the excuse of cleaning himself.
Instead, I found hazel irises shining with humour.
Within seconds, both of us burst out laughing.
Yunus joined in on our senseless chuckling with an adorable giggle, a snotty nose, and remaining tears rolling down his cheeks.
But just as the laughing started, it died down.
For a moment, I let go and it felt similar to jumping into a cold bed after a stressful day. He stood there, capturing my latest struggles as his own and I swallowed it up.Way too quickly.
Yunus nuzzled his tired face onto Christian’s shoulder, and he didn’t look the least bit bothered. “You should get cleaned up.”
His eyes flickered past me at the clearing of a throat.
“Well, isn’t thiscozy?”
Squinting my brows, I muttered a prayer.She chooses this as the time to come out?
“Umaima,” I turned around. “Can you show Christian where the washroom is?”
Just a couple of feet away from us, she leaned against thekitchen island. Her eyes glittered with unfiltered amusement. “I like it here, actually.”
She smiled mischievously at Christian. “I was hoping to knee you in the balls, but it seems like you’re in more pain than I thought.”
Turning my head to look at Christian, he cleared his throat with a blush. Shifting uncomfortably.
“What do you mean?” I looked back at Umaima who was smirking.
“Oh, just you know?”
No, I did not know.
“When a man is physically attracted?—”
“Iwanted to apologise for the other day.” He took a step forward with his interruption while extending Yunus over to me. “I was…” Our hands briefly brushed with the slightest touch of skin, igniting something akin to a newly hatched fire-breathing dragon. “Being adickto you, I’m sorry.”
