·40·

⚠︎ᴄʀɪɴɢᴇ⚠︎😁✌🏻

"Almost"

"Feliz Cumpleaños, Estella!"

"Gracias!"

"Estella, Happy Birthday!"

"Thank you, Señor!"

Ever since the girl woke up, she's been getting greeted by people for her special day – not to mention the presents she's been receiving; A bouquet of flowers, jars of delicious jam, and other sweet foods that everyone knows she'll love, different accessories, and even a pair of new footwear.

Estella places down a basket of goods on the table in their kitchen, panting from carrying it all the way from almost the other side of town since it was given to her as a present right after her little delivery.

"Oh my, that is a lot," Her mother says, placing a hand on her daughter's shoulder.

"It is, isn't it?" Estella laughed, "Good thing most of these gifts are edible," She mentioned, her eyes sparkling from all the sweets she received from the people who gave them.

"Now, now, Estella," Benito says, "Share your blessings," He jokingly said, making the other two laugh.

"Like father, like daughter," Tacita sighed, rolling her eyes at Benito and Estella's undying adoration for sweets. It's like they'll love anything with sugar on it.

--------------𝙱𝚎𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚂𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚎:

Camilo: Brown Sugar or White Sugar? [Covers Himself with Both, Shrugging]

: 'Milo, you forgot "Refined Sugar".

Nah, I'm just messing with y'all. Proceed.--------------

Estella smiled, kneeling in front of her little siblings who were sitting like behaved angels on the sofa. "Hermana's birthday is today. Give me a kiss?" She asked, tapping her cheek with her finger only to make them laugh at her.

"Ayy, why do always laugh at me? Am I that funny?" She asked, playfully tickling her siblings' sides.

"Ella!" Lorenzo smiled, tapping his sister's forehead, making her smile.

"Si," She said, grabbing her brother's wrist and kissing his smooth, tiny palm. "Es-tel-la," She said, pronouncing her name.

"Ehlla!" Lorena laughed, falling on her back, infecting her other two siblings with her laughter.

★ Sorry guys, I forgot how one-year-old babies sound like– 😂 ★

"Mama," Lorena says, pointing at their mother. "Papa," She continued, pointing at their father before looking at Estella and then kissing her nose, leaving a little bit of saliva on it since she tends to drool a lot.

Chuckling, Estella wipes off some of the viscous liquid on her nose, smiling happily at Lorena while jealous boy, Lorenzo started doing the same.

"You two are so cute," She laughed, giving both of them a squeeze.

"Knockity knock," Mirabel said in a sing-song voice, peeking from the other side of the Cortez's big open window.

Estella turns her head in surprise, smiling at Mirabel as she makes the twins laugh with a funny face.

"Feliz Cumpleaños, Mi Amiga!" She greeted, giving her a wink, taking out her best friend's gift behind her back, specially wrapped by yours truly.

"Aw, you shouldn't have," Estella smiled, making Mirabel chuckle. "I give you gifts because I get to, you know," Mirabel tells her friend as she took her present, leaning closer to pretend like she's telling her something secretive.

"And just between you and me, I kind of like the feeling whenever I make you feel special – it's been mostly the other way around," She said, flashing Estella a warm smile. 

Estella tsked and turned her head, "Seriously Mirabel, it's still early and you're already making me blush," She said bashfully, a bit of nervous laughter escaping her mouth.

Mirabel sighed, "A few birthdays later and you still get flustered so easily," the girl pointed out, resting her arms on the windows, her front body leaning on them.

"I know," Estella muttered, opening her mouth to say something when Mirabel's name gets called out by someone.

"Coming!" She yelled, turning to Estella and bidding her goodbye, for the time being, promising that she'll be back later.

Estella's birthday isn't really that special, it's mostly just like how she is every day but with numerous people greeting her and giving her gifts. But she likes it that way.

Quite the simpleton she is.

After helping get the twins to sleep, Estella goes to her room with her hair tied into a low ponytail since she was cradling her brother to sleep. Closing her bedroom door and taking her bow off, she turns and runs a hand through her hair – having to involuntarily inherit it from spending too much time with her partner, not noticing he was there until she heard clattering.

"Whoa, you okay?" Estella asked, noticing how Camilo was holding on to her vanity table and chair for support, accidentally knocking down some of the things placed on top of her desk.

The boy gave a sideway smile and a short chuckle, trying to dismiss her concerns by saying that he just tripped on his own foot.

Embarrassed to admit the fact that he lost his balance because he got startled by how Estella looked when she did what she did, which was running a hand through her hair in a very attractive way to his eyes.

"You know front doors exist, right?" Estella smiled and asked, fixing the things on her table, and making the boy laugh. "I know," He answered, looking at her.

"Feliz Cumpleaños, amor," Camilo said, placing his fingers on her chin to raise her head and face him, a playful smirk creeping up his face.

Shoving his smug-looking face aside, Estella scoffed, shaking her head at his growing flirtatiousness. "Thanks," She simply said, tying her bow around her wrist just in case she'll need it for later again, making sure it wasn't too tight.

Clearing his throat, Camilo reaches for something from his back, causing Estella to eye him suspiciously.

"Don't look at me like that," He laughed, now holding a small box in his hand. "My mind wouldn't be at ease if I hadn't at least gotten you something."

The side of Estella's lip tightened, accepting the present that was being given to her. Taking glances at Camilo's sheepish, toothy smiling face, and the small, wrapped-up box, Estella sighed and started opening it.

"I wrapped that myself," Camilo proudly added, making her chuckle. "I better unwrap it with care then," She said.

Estella blinked multiple times just looking at what was inside the small box, making Camilo feel tense from the prolonged moment of silence.

He lets out a breath of relief, seeing how the side of the girl's lips slowly started going up as she smiled.

"It's a hair clip," She said, her shoulders trembling from trying to hold her laughs, adding, "With a winky face," through shaky breaths.

"I suppose you also made this?" She asked, clearing her throat afterward, trying to maintain her composure while looking at him.

"One, you're mean," He said, squinting his eyes at her and making her laugh. "Two, yes – I did," He confirmed, proudly, giving an explanation afterward by telling her, "Granted that it looks a bit weird and that it looks like a five-year-old just made it as an art activity, I only had less than half a day to do that."

"I haven't even said anything yet!" She exclaimed with a smile, hitting his leg lightly, "I think it's cute."

"You think everything I do is cute," Camilo tells her, pouting at her.

"No, really! I like it," She insisted, already putting the accessory on her hair. She opened up her hands, showcasing herself, saying, "Ta-da!"

The boy chuckled softly at her childish gesture. "So, how does it look?" She asked, dragging the 'o' in 'So' and 'look'.

"Please," He scoffed, leaning backward on her bed and using his hands for support. "You'd look good in anything," Says he, tilting his head to the side over his shoulder as he looked at her and smiled.

Estella scoffed back, unimpressed by his comment. Typical of you to say that to me when I haven't even combed my hair properly, She said mentally, keeping her thoughts to herself, rolling her eyes at him and placing the box down.

Estella turned herself, her body now facing to the side where Camilo was, seeing her face in her vanity mirror.

The two now sitting together in comfortable silence while the girl decides to fix her new hair clip while looking at herself in the circular mirror from her bed to her desk.

Camilo also watches her fix herself in the mirror, turning his head back at her. She meets his eyes and smiles, striking a hand pose and making him laugh.

Estella's smile widened, glad how she made him laugh and smile today. Her head gets busy trying to freeze the moment, she doesn't realize that she had started staring at him.

The boy notices her fixated gaze on him, also finding himself to start staring. Starting from how adorable she looked with the hair clip on, to her eyes, then ever so slowly, he finds himself looking at her lips.

She, of course, noticed this, her heart starting to pound like crazy. Soon enough, after noticing Camilo hesitantly try inching forward, Estella also finds herself leaning closer. Their eyes slowly started to close as well as the distance between their two lips, when all of a sudden. . .

Squawk

Startled, their eyes bolt open, and their faces automatically move away from each other. "Oh, Pico," The girl breathed out, looking at the bird who flew in from her open balcony window. While Camilo, on the other hand, turns his head in disappointment.

Almost, He told himself, his lips tightening as he repeated the word in his head another time before letting out a sigh of dismay.

Flying on top of Camilo's head, Pico squawks once more, tilting his head to the side at Estella before looking down at the boy's face.

"I think he's here for you," She tells the boy, looking back at the bird as soon as it squawked again, its wings going up as confirmation.

Releasing a heavy breath, Camilo rolled his eyes and unenthusiastically stood up from the girl's bed. "Alright, alright," He let out, putting up his arm for the toucan.

"If only some of my chores could wait longer," He said, turning his head at the girl who also stood up from her bed, chuckling at him.

"Go on, go on," She tells him, walking him out to her balcony since heaven knows how much he prefers entering and exiting her room from there when front doors and stairs exist in their house.

"Adios, Señorita," He winked, going over the railings. "Until next time," He said dramatically, making her laugh.

"Thanks for the birthday present," She smiled, looking down at him as he slowly makes his way to the ground, grunting as he jumps down and lands on his feet.

"De nada," He smiled, giving a short wave before seeing her walk back inside her room and leaving.

Biting her lip, Estella stops just as she was about to go back to her room, remembering the moment from earlier before Pico flew in unannounced.

The girl dashes back outside, calling out for Camilo but also ends up getting some of the other nosy people's attention. Feeling the heat travel through her face, Estella blows a kiss at the boy, regardless of the fact that some other people also saw.

Retreating to her room in embarrassment, she plops back on her bed and buries her head on one of her pillows. While Camilo could feel himself start to blush, grinning and noticing their neighbors' staring.

He simply shrugged at them with a smile, turning back around in the direction where he was walking, humming happily at himself as he skipped.

"Almost," He whispered to himself.