Chapter 9

Rio slips away while I begin to put my shoes on. He eventually returns wearing a jacket and holding a hoodie in his hand for me to wear. I slip it over my head and look up at him.

"You look good, mama." he walks back to the living room, preparing to leave the apartment.

"Are you sure about this? I mean I don't have to meet your son like right now. It could wait a few days or weeks... or months." I mutter, following him around the living room.

"You nervous?" he chuckles, grabbing his keys.

He guides me over to the door as I reply with a sassy "Yeah."

He laughs again, getting me outside the apartment and he locks the door.

"Maybe we can all get dinner sometime, like when he graduates." I counter.

"That's in like a decade, Mama." he scoffs while turning to face me.

"That'll give me plenty of time to prepare!" I smiled at him.

He slightly raises an eyebrow at me and nods his head. Unfortunately, he just squats down, wraps his arms around the back of my legs and heaves me over his shoulder.

"Rio!" I gasp, "You really need to stop doing this... I'm not a sack of potatoes."

"See, I think you like it because you never fight me off." I can hear the smirk, growing on his lips.

The drive was mostly quiet. There was music softly playing and Rio had a hand on my thigh; his thumb slowly moving back and forth every so often. We pull up to a house in the suburbs.

"Uh where are we?" I looked around, seeing all I could from the confines of the car.

"Where do you think my son stays when he's not with me?" he chuckles, exiting the car.

Do I follow him? Do I stay in the car? Is it weird if I stay in the car? Is it weird if I don't?

The passenger door yanks open, he looks down at me still buckled into the seat and reaches over freeing me. He grabs my hands and helps me slide off the seat.

"Wait, so you want me to meet your son? And your ex? Rioooo." I complain.

All he does is chuckle, shut the passenger door and pull me up the driveway. I practically shield myself behind him as he knocks on the door.

A beautiful woman with short hair answers the door and smiles at us.

"Hey." she greets us.

"Rhea, this is my girl, Citrine." Rio says, nudging me out from behind him.

"Hi, it's nice to you." I say, smiling.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Rhea. Come on inside." she offers, opening the door up more.

Rio, now standing behind me, places a hand on my back and guides me into the house.

Oh, I didn't prepare for this.

The house was very nice, don't get me wrong! I just didn't mentally prepare myself for meeting new people.

The sound of a pair of running feet can be heard rushing towards us and the kid from Rio's photos appears.

"Daddy!" he yells, charging to Rio and wrapping his small arms around his father. Rio bends down, returning the hug. It's hard to not smile at the sight.

When they part, Rio grabs ahold of my hand and I bend down as well to his level.

"Marcus, I want you to meet someone, this is Citrine." he turns his attention to me "Citrine, this is my son, Marcus."

I look to the kid, I now have a name for, and give me a soft smile "Hi, Marcus. It's nice to meet you."

"Hi." he whispers.

"Is it cool if she hangs out with us tonight?" Rio asks him.

Marcus nods his head.

Rhea motions for me to follow her. She leads me to her kitchen and offers me a glass of wine, which I accept.

"I'm glad you could join us for dinner." she says, pulling out glasses from the cabinet.

"Uh, yeah, I'm honored." I smiled.

Rhea laughs a little "He didn't tell you, did he?"

I give her a half smile before shaking my head.

"That's Rio." she shrugs before asking red or white. White, always white.

"What are you two talking about?" Rio enters the kitchen, carrying his son over his shoulder who was having a ball, laughing and lightly kicking his feet.

We look at each other before responding with "You."

"They're already ganging up on us, bud." Rio smirks, patting the kid's back.

"I got a new ball, are we going to play before dinner?" Marcus squirms in excitement.

"Sure, we can play." Rio puts his son down and tells him to go get a coat.

The three of us were now alone in the kitchen. I shift my attention to my glass, and Rhea tells Rio about a test Marcus passed.

Marcus runs back into the room, jacket on and zipped up. Rio walks over to him and whispers in his ear and nods towards me.

"Wanna come play with us?" he asks me.

I look at Rhea and ask if she is going to need help here, but she quickly dismisses me.

I turn back to Marcus and give him a smile and nod, sliding off the kitchen stool.

We enter the backyard and I'm watching them bond and it's adorable. Rio ruffling Marcus's hair and Marcus looking up at Rio with the biggest smile on his face.

"Alright, now Citrine's going to need your help, bud. She's a bit clumsy, think you can help protect her?" Rio asks with a smirk on his face. Marcus immediately nods his head and grabs my hand leading me to one side of the yard. I know Rio is going to let his son win, but I'm glad I agreed to play, because this is going to be funny and adorable.

And it was, we started off in a triangle just kicking the ball back and forth, while Marcus told Rio everything that has happened since he saw his father last. However, it quickly turned into a 2 vs 1 game. Well, mainly 1 vs 1. I contributed when needed, but I didn't want to get in the way of their time together. I spent most of my time laughing and taking candid photos of the duo. By the time Rhea calls for dinner, the boys are out of breath from running back and forth across the yard.

"How was the game?" Rhea asked, placing a plate down on the table. The table was already set up, except the glasses, which I grabbed and waited to see who sat where.

Marcus sat down first and I placed his glass down, he told Rhea how 'we' won. Rio sat at one end and I placed his clean wine glass in front of him. Rhea sat down at the other end and I placed her glass in front of her. I poured them both a glass of wine before sitting down myself.

Marcus was telling Rio about his soccer team and his friends at school. I just eat silently and listen to him talk.

"How did you and my dad meet?" Marcus asked, looking at me.

"He came into my shop one day, actually." I answered, smiling at him.

He nods before starting to talk about this game his friend has.

The evening wraps up and I volunteer to help Rhea with the dishes, while Rio follows Marcus to his room.

"We didn't get to talk too much during dinner. Marcus gets so excited around Rio." Rhea laughs before continuing "What kind of shop do you own?"

"It's a flower shop; I opened it about 5 years ago." I explained.

"That sounds nice, and Rio just walked in one day?"

"He bought some flowers actually, and he just kept popping up." I chuckle.

It was silent for a minute. The only noise was the water running and the plates clattering as they were placed in the machine.

"Marcus likes you." she says, placing another plate in the dishwasher.

"Really?" I rinse another dish off and hand it to her.

"He's not a shy kid, but he actually talked to you, which can be a lot for him, sometimes."

"He's a sweet kid. Oh, and I hope it's alright that I took some pictures of them playing. I was going to print some out for Rio, but I can print some off for you too." I pull out my phone and let her slide through the photos.

"They're adorable!" she coos.

"What's adorable?" Rio asked, entering the kitchen.

"Just some decorations I'm thinking of getting for the shop." I quickly lie.

"They'll turn out great." Rhea confirms.

Rio nodded and asked me if I was ready to leave. I nod and follow him to the door.

"It was nice to meet you, Rhea." I say, giving her a side hug.

"It was nice meeting you too, maybe we can go out for coffee sometime?" she says, handing Rio Marcus's backpack.

"I would love that!" I beamed.

We exchange numbers quickly, giving each other another hug before I follow after Rio.

"You did good, mama." Rio says, opening the door for me. I slide in and allow him to close the door. I buckle up and he gets in and we set off back to his apartment. Marcus was already asleep in the backseat.

Rio carried Marcus's sleeping figure up the stairs and I unlocked the door and switched on lamps to try not to wake him.

I allow Rio to carry him to his bed alone as I wait by the door for his return.

"You trying to run out on me now, mama?" His voice is softer than usual, which is to be expected.

"I figured you would be tired and you probably have things to do in the morning, so I should probably head out." I explain.

"Stay the night." he says.

I looked at him to see if there was any hesitation in his eyes, but there wasn't and that was only the reason I agreed. I would like to sleep in my own bed, but sharing this with him is better.

He guides me to his closet, where he gives me a shirt to wear and some shorts. I change in the bathroom and eventually meet Rio back in the living room. He is already in bed, silently typing on his phone. I slide in the bed and curl up to him. He chuckles to himself and puts his phone on the side table.

"Marcus likes you." he turns to face me.

"I'm glad."

"What did you think of Rhea?"

"I like her, she's nice." I say, kissing his cheek.

"And Marcus?"

"Adorable." I kiss a little further down his cheek.

"And Marcus's father?" he wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me closer.

"Oh, I think I've developed a small crush on him." I say, kissing down his neck.

"Should I be jealous?"

I return to his face and kiss him before whispering "Definitely."

I turn over to face the wall as I curl up with the blankets.

I hear Rio scoff behind "You aren't that mean, mama. Come on." he says, wrapping his arm around me.

"Sorry, I'm waiting for Marcus's dad to make a move." I smirk.