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“Then she’ll love it here.”
“I love you. Have I told you that today?”
Her bright smile is infectious. “Countless times.”
I draw her into my arms and kiss her, feeling her love envelope me.
CHAPTER26
GISELLE
“This is so exciting, I can hardly sit still,” Ashlyn says with catching enthusiasm as we take our seats at the Metropolitan Opera in Lincoln Center to watchGiselle.
Observing the sunny smile on her face brings joy to my heart. Ever since I returned to New York a month and a half ago after the successful exhibit at the Louvre, Ashlyn and I have become the best of friends. It feels good that she wholeheartedly accepted my relationship with her father and is so comfortable with me that she tells me everything.
At fourteen weeks pregnant, I’m finally into my second trimester and feeling great. Nausea still grips me once in a while, but the incidences are fewer and far between. There’s no sign that I’m pregnant except that my figure is now a bit fuller. My colleagues at the Met teased me that I had so much fun in Paris that it’s clearly showing.
My attention is drawn from my thoughts when Miles’s hand clasps mine. I lift my head to see his gray eyes fixed on me with a charming smile on his face. I squeeze his hand and return his smile.
Sometimes, I feel as if I’m in a beautiful dream and might wake up to the nightmare of not having Miles, Ashlyn, and the baby. For the first time in my life, everything seems to be working out great for me. As a conservator, my job is not only thrilling, but also incredibly rewarding, especially as I immerse myself in the meticulous preparations for our upcoming exhibit on early Buddhist Art from India.
Yesterday, after having dinner at the Mandarin in the same room where we spent our first night together, Miles asked me to marry him. I look at our entwined hands and the diamond engagement ring nestled on my finger, and my heart gushes with happiness again. We haven’t told Ashlyn yet. We hope to do so after the performance. I know she’ll be more than delighted, especially when she finds out about the baby.
“It’s starting!”
Ashlyn’s excited words draw me out of my reverie. With my hand still clasped in Miles’s, I settle back to enjoy the romantic tragedy about a beautiful young peasant girl. As we watch the apparent love between Giselle and Albrecht, Miles and I share a knowing smile as his hand tightens against mine.
Tears flood my eyes at Giselle’s death. When the curtain closes on Berthe weeping over her dead daughter, I turn to my left to see Ashlyn crying silently. I wonder if she’s remembering her late mom. She has spoken to me about her several times, and I feel as if I knew her. Miles, too, finally opened up and talked about Gwen, and I also told him about my past and Pierre.
“That was sad,” Ashlyn whispers, and I nod.
The second act is even more heartrending, and I find myself crying again. It must be the pregnancy hormones because I have seen this ballet many times before, and I don’t know why I’m so emotional today. Perhaps it’s because I’m seeing it with the man I love and the girl I cherish.
We give thunderous applause at the end of the matinee. Ashlyn is all smiles despite her teary eyes.
“Thanks for bringing me here to see the ballet, Giselle. It was amazing. I can’t wait to tell everyone in school. It’s a shame Maddie couldn’t make it,” Ashlyn chatters as we walk out of the theater amid the throng of people.
Maddie is down with the flu. Gabriel is nursing her back to health and couldn’t make it either.
“It’s all for the best. Maddie might still be a bit too little for this ballet. She’ll come along next time,” I promise her.
“Did you enjoy the performance, Dad?”
“I sure did,” Miles replies cheerfully.
He gives me a searing look, and only the presence of his daughter stops me from throwing my arms around him and kissing him until we’re both out of breath. It’s quite shocking for me that even while I was in poor health due to morning sickness, I still wanted us to make love. That was after I made sure it wouldn’t harm our baby that first night in Paris. Now that I feel amazing, the sex is even more mind-blowing.
Even though we’ve told Ashlyn we’re dating, we’ve still been sneaking around. Sometimes we catch a moment in his apartment before Ashlyn is home from school or when she’s away at her grandparents’ for the weekend. Other times, it’s at my apartment when Gabriel and Maddie aren’t at home. One afternoon, when Gabriel and Maddie came home from a birthday party earlier than expected, he gave us a playful look.
“She’s already pregnant. What more do you want, Miles?” he had teased as he saw him getting ready to leave. I had blushed to the roots of my hair while Miles roared with laughter.
Looking back, I admit that it has been so much fun, making us feel like teenagers again.
“What do my favorite girls in the world want for dinner?” Miles questions as he slides into the passenger seat of the cab he hailed while Ashlyn and I sit in the backseat. “Sugarplum, please don’t say pizza.”
Ashlyn and I burst into a fit of giggles. I make a face at Miles.
“What if I want pizza, too?” I ask with a glint in my eye.
