He's The One™

Once they got to the house, Kaia unlocked the door and turned on the lights. Alexa ran into the house with a wide smile. She latched onto his arm and pulled. "Come on Papa Alex! Come see my room!" Alex stepped through the door, looking around. The house looked tiny and worn down on the outside, but the inside was a different story. It appeared huge on the inside; the house was well furnished and taken care of. Alex gazed around, surveying pictures of Alexa's childhood in the countryside.

His gaze landed on Kaia, who happened to be staring at him. Kaia flinched when their eyes met. She swiveled around and went into the kitchen to get the ingredients for the stew ready. Alexa smiled, taking Alex's hand again to lead him to her room located next to the kitchen.

She opened the door and pulled him in. It was clear that she loved dinosaurs. She had a white daybed with various dinosaur patterns all over the mattress, blanket, and pillowcase. One of her dressers displayed a row of dinosaur toys as well. She even had a huge dinosaur plushie with the purple sparkly pony plushie carefully placed in the dinosaur's protective arms.

Looking around the room, Alex's heart warmed up when he saw the birthday present and other souvenirs carefully placed in different locations around the room. He walked in with a smile and bent down. "That reminds me, I brought your favorite dinosaur cup from my home." Alexa's eyes lit up. She grinned enthusiastically, running over to accept the cup from his hands.

After a while, Alexa and Alex sat in the living room playing with the dinosaur toys together. They also talked about a new animated dinosaur movie that was coming out soon, as well as previous dinosaur movies they'd seen together. Alex was amused by how cute Alexa looked as she blabbered on and on about the movies that they'd seen together.

Kaia stayed in the kitchen the entire time. She faintly heard some of Alexa's excited blabbering from her daughter's room nearby. She didn't really know what to say or do without feeling overwhelmed so she continued to stay in the kitchen. She gently stirred the stew she had on the stove. Her gaze following the vegetables and meat in a trance as she thought to herself.

"Mummy?" a voice from behind asked tentatively. There was no response and the voice asked again; but Kaia didn't seem to hear as she was still in a trance while staring at some of the already floating vegetables.

Alex stepped up behind Alexa when Kaia didn't reply to her daughter. He blinked at seeing Kaia's absentminded expression. Sighing, he walked past Alexa, patting her head lightly. Leaning in behind Kaia, he whispered into her ear, "Kaia."

As he did, she stumbled a few steps back. The ladle hit the side of the pot and splashed drops of stew everywhere. Some even landed on her face. She winced lightly with an "ow" as she hurriedly wiped the stew off her skin.

Alex didn't seem to notice. He was focused on the drops of hot soup on Kaia's reddening skin. As Kaia retreated away from him, he stepped closer. She backed into a wall and froze on the spot. All the muscles in her body tensed up, as if bracing for something. She gaped, wide-eyed at Alex's advancing figure.

Alex stared down at Kaia with an intense gaze. He carefully placed her chin in his hand. Slowly, he leaned in to check on the slight burn marks on her face. He tilted his head slightly to the side while adjusting the angle of Kaia's face to check on how serious the burn from the stew was.

As he leaned in, she felt his warm breath. His face was mere centimeters away. Her heart fluttered while her cheeks burned bright red. Alexa went to the kitchen counter to grab a few napkins and a clean wet towel. Giggling, she handed Alex the napkins and towel, which he accepted. Carefully, he wiped off all the soup on Kaia's face.

Suddenly, he leaned in when he smelled something. He sniffed, trying to determine the smell. After a bit of sniffing, he couldn't determine what the spice was so he resumed wiping off the rest of the stew on Kaia's arms.

Throughout this, Alexa stared intensely at her parents with anticipation. Although she was young, she knew what a kiss was. A kiss would make everything better. From the angle she was in, it looked as if he was kissing Kaia. If Alex kissed Kaia and made everything better, then wouldn't that mean her mummy and daddy were getting back together? Wouldn't that also mean that she would be able to have both a mummy and a daddy?

She giggled, covering her eyes before running back into the living room. After Alex was done wiping off all the soup. He pressed the cool wet towel over the burns until the discoloration subsided. When he made sure everything was fine, he swiftly moved back, releasing Kaia's chin.

Noticing her body visibly relaxing, his expression darkened. Curtly, he said, "Don't worry, I wasn't going to kiss you." Kaia's face warmed up with embarrassment. As he walked away, she stood there helplessly staring at his receding figure.

Her emotions were all over the place. She wanted to tell him everything so that she could return to his side again. But at the same time, she couldn't handle having him around emotionally because she couldn't explain herself or mention "the man." After keeping her secret for so long, it was almost like a survival instinct for her to continue keeping Alex in the dark.

Remembering how Alex still seemed to care about her, she really wanted to cry again. She didn't blame him for being mad because he deserved to be mad. But as much as she knew he had a right to be mad, her heart still couldn't help but ache.