Chris and Hazel

'Why are you two up? It's midnight hon.' Chris said looking at his kids.

'We just woke up' Rob replied.

'We were waiting for you' Aurora replied.

Chris looked at his kids suspiciously as they gave different answers at the same time.

Aurora and Robert looked at each other filled with uneasiness.

'Sis, maybe next time we should prepare' Rob whispered to Aurora.

Aurora nodded at her brother as she looked up at her father who was staring daggers at them.

"Just now I was boosting up as a proud parent and these two pull me down as I reached the skies. I thought I was creating a good image about myself in front of Hazel and here I stand busted" Chris thought to himself as he continued to stare at his adorable kids.

'Next time come up with a better lie' Hazel said walking over to the kids.

'Hi Hazel' they said smiling happily at her.

'Hey peaches' she said giving them a light hug.

'What are you doing here…with dad?' Aurora asked looking at her.

'Well…as for now I won't be able to go to my house and so your dad was kind enough to provide me with shelter tonight' she answered looking at the kids.

'You are just exaggerating things, come now let's go down, dinner is ready' he said walking over to her. To be honest, Chris didn't like the way Hazel spoke out just now, he didn't do all that expecting her to be grateful to him all he wanted was to be there for her no matter what she goes through.

'Dad, can we come too?' Robert asked.

'No…not until you tell me the reason why you guys were fooling around' he said glaring at the kids.

'Watch and learn' Robert said winking at his sis.

'Dad, I am sorry we were just waiting for you' he said looking at Chris with puppy dog eyes.

Chris looked at him in doubt.

'It didn't work this time, buddy' Chris said looking at Rob.

'But dad, Rob is right. You haven't been spending time with us lately, you even went overseas…so we missed you daddy' Aurora said in a soft tone.

'Oh honey, I am sorry' he said pulling the kids into a group hug.

After Chris pulled back, Aurora went close to Rob and said;

'That's how you do it' she said smirking.

'Oh you are good!' Robert said jealous of his sister's talent.

'Ok kids, it's already late. Let's go to bed' Hazel said smiling at them.

'Ok' they nodded obediently at her.

Hazel tucked them in bed and said good night and turned towards the door and saw Chris staring at her.

'Chris?' she called out. But Chris didn't respond rather he kept looking at her.

'Chris?' she called out again standing in front of him.

'Yeah?' he jolted back to reality.

'Shall we go? I put them to bed' she said looking at him.

'Oh okk, thank you' he said smiling at her.

'Is something wrong?' she asked with a worried look on her face.

'Nope! All good. Let's go' he answered.

As they descended towards the dining hall, Hazel kept thinking about the things that happened to her the previous day, she never imagined that she would get cheated on the house she rented nor did she expect to eat dinner at 1:00 a.m.

Chris pulled the chair for Hazel and after she sat down, he sat next to her.

'Come on dig in, since it's already very late I didn't cook any heavy meal' he said as he served her the food.

'You cooked?' she asked awestruck.

'Yes, why are you surprised?' he asked quite surprised by Hazel's question.

'No, I just assumed that the housekeeper would do that or that you just heated up the dinner already made' she answered.

'No actually…I didn't want to give you the old meal' he told her placing the glass of water next to her plate.

'You cooked for me?' she asked after a moment of silence.

Hazel looked at Chris silently as he ate his food without looking at her. It was quite new to her, a guy like Chris, basically built entirely with attitude cooked for her and moreover he's shy when she found out. It's like she has been finding a whole new side of Chris for the past few days.

As they finished their dinner, Hazel was about to go to her room when Chris stopped her.

'Can I talk to you?' he asked looking at her.

Hazel nodded and Chris took her to the living room and they both sat on the couch.

'What is it?' she asked him.

'You seem disturbed, wanna talk about it?' he asked concerned.

'It's nothing, I am fine' she answered looking away.

'Hazel, it's ok? You didn't do anything wrong stop blaming yourself' he told her.

'How can I be so stupid? I rented a house from a person who didn't even own the house' she yelled angrily at herself for being so naïve.

'You aren't stupid ok? One more time you blame yourself, I am gonna kill you' he said consoling her.

'Seriously? Your way of consoling people is by telling them that you will kill them?' she asked laughing in disbelief.

'Well did it work?' he asked innocently.

'…Well, kinda' she said smiling

'But seriously where did you find this place?' he asked her.

'Online' she replied in a low voice.

'Did you sign the house contract?' he asked trying to gather the required information to take the necessary actions.

'Yeah, in fact I signed it after giving him the advance but after that I didn't get to meet him at all, the other day when I went down to his place, only his wife was there and she promised to ask him to call me back' Hazel answered explaining all the details.

'Oh that's great news, his wife promised and you trusted them, I am really starting to wonder about the Hazel I knew back in college because I remember that she wasn't stupid' he said stupefied by her explanation.

'I really had no idea, ok?' Hazel defended.

'Enough with the defense! Why didn't you think? There are many people scamming on the Internet and plus you wouldn't take help from any of us, remember Ed told he will help you once he gets back but you didn't pay heed to any of us...why do you have to always be so uptight?' he asked upset with her decision for the first time.

Chris wasn't disappointed with Hazel but he was bothered, all he could think about was what if she had the keys and the two guys appeared at her doorstep and interrogated her in the middle of the night? How would she even handle it? He knew she wouldn't have called him because she is trying her level best to maintain a distance from him and he was pretty sure that Ryan would've been of no help and even if he would have he didn't want him to.

'Are you listening?' he asked looking up at her.

'I am sorry' she replied in a low voice quite disappointed in herself.

'Fine, don't beat yourself up, ok?' he said trying to bring her out from her wretched state.

'Hazel?' he called.

She looked up at him; Chris noticed tears standing at the corner of her eyes.

'Don't cry, it's not your fault' he said his voice shaking up a bit.

'I really couldn't imagine what would have happened if you weren't there Chris. Even when you were there I couldn't talk anything, when they proved that we were in their apartment, I just froze. I neither knew how to handle the situation nor did I come up with any solution. I was just so glad that you were there with me today...thank you so much' she said tearing up.

Chris slowly wiped the tears rolling down her cheeks, and looked at her in the eyes and spoke out;

'Look, I know you are traumatized by the whole situation but no matter how bad the situation is I will be there, ok? Just trust me on this'

Hazel looked into his eyes, she knew right away that the guy before her was the old Chris she fell in love with, he wasn't the cold boss anymore. Just a look at her and he knew what was going on inside her head.

She quietly embraced him with a hug, she didn't think twice before pulling Chris into her arms. Chris looked down at her dumbstruck.

He quietly hugged her back because he understood that this was the best way to let her know that it was ok and she had someone she could lean on and doesn't have to face things alone anymore like she did in the past years.

'It's ok, just calm down' he said holding her helping her relax.

It took some time for Hazel to realize that she was hugging Chris and she pulled herself away from him though she knew she didn't want to.

'I am s…' she started.

'Please don't ruin it' Chris pleaded cutting her short as he got up from the couch.

'It's late, let's talk tomorrow' he said looking at her.

'Chris…' she called getting up from the couch.

'Good Night, Hazel' he said walking away from her.

'…Good…night' she said looking at him in a dilemma cause she knew that she desperately needed sleep but she didn't know whether she will be able to get some after the bold move she made a few minutes ago.

The next day around 10:30 a.m. Hazel stood in the balcony of her room looking at her phone; she heard a slight knock at the door. She opened the door and found Chris standing outside.

Chris entered the room and sat down on the chair next to her bed.

'Why didn't you come down for breakfast?' he asked looking at her.

'I wasn't hungry' she answered not looking at him, after last night she didn't know how to face him. It was the first time she ever made a move on a guy but Chris seemed extremely fine with it, it didn't seem to bother him a single bit. It can be said that Chris took the hug in a friendly way but Hazel certainly didn't. In fact, she just discovered after that incident that she still had some mixed feelings for Chris, well she was on the right track before but once she discovered that he didn't have a wife, she found a silver lining among the dark clouds in her sky.

'You look tensed, what's up?' he asked.

'Well, I called Ryan and it seems that he is out of town' she said looking at him.

'Why did you call him?' Chris asked scrolling down the newsfeed in his phone.

'Cause he's a lawyer' she answered in obvious tone.

'Is he available?' he asked looking up at her.

'No' she said in a dejected voice.

'Looks like you are dejected, aren't you? Anyways don't worry I will ask my family lawyer to handle this case if anything goes wrong and yet again I can't promise you that he's the best like Ryan but he will certainly do his best' Chris said getting up from the chair.

'Enough with the sarcasm, ok? I know you have the world's best lawyers as your family lawyers but since Ryan is also a lawyer I just wanted to ask for help' she said rolling her eyes at him.

'Ok fine, I am wrong' he said giving in to her.

'Come let's go down' he said to her. She nodded and followed him downstairs.

As they settled in the living room, Hazel turned towards Chris;

'Where's your wife?' Hazel asked looking around though she knew there was no one in that house except them and the housekeeper.

'Are you sure you wanna go back to that considering that you already know everything?' he asked looking at her trying to figure out why she keeps jumping to the same topic every time.

'Well you certainly didn't answer my question the first time? When I asked whether you were divorced you just told me you weren't so that does imply that you have a wife, Mr. Finch' she answered calmly.

'Fine…I guess it'll be better if I tell you or you are surely gonna bring it up every time' he said losing patience, it was like arguing with a child and he was never gonna win and so he gave in quickly.

He knew Hazel already knew the answer to the question she asked, he wasn't stupid. He knew Hazel better than she thinks he knows. Hazel would never make a move on someone who has a wife but he knew Hazel didn't like dishonest people and that's why she wanted him to tell her plus she deserved to know the truth and it was important that she heard it from him.

'I am not married Haze. I never was' he finally confessed looking at her.

'I know' she replied smiling.

'You knew?' he asked trying to sound shocked.

'Yeah, I just wanted you to tell me by yourself' she answered smiling joyfully.

'I guessed right' Chris told himself while looking at Hazel who seemed pretty pleased with herself.

'What about Rob and Aurora?' she asked turning serious.

'Well…' he started.

'Is she the one?' a voice asked interrupting them.

'Mom?' Chris asked looking up at the woman standing in front of them.

'Hello Mrs. Finch' Hazel greeted getting up.

'So you are Hazel?' Mrs. Finch asked walking up to her.

'Do we know each other, Mrs. Finch?' Hazel asked confused by the way his mom was reacting towards her.

'Well of course I know; someone here wouldn't shut up about you' she said with a serious look on her face.

'Well Hazel, I informed mom that you were staying here and that's what my mom is talking about' he said trying to save himself from getting exposed.

'Oh okk. Thank you Mrs. Finch for letting me live here for the time being' Hazel thanked her with humbleness and her aura resembled grace.

Within Chris' mom could say any word further Chris dragged her inside excusing themselves from there.

'Weird' Hazel thought to herself as she sat down.

After sometime she noticed Robert and Aurora rushing down the stairs giggling all the way down.

'Hey careful' she said looking at the kids.

'Why aren't you guys in school?' she asked as they sat next to her.

'We skipped school because mom is coming today' Robert answered beaming.

'Your mom?' she asked again hoping she heard it wrong.

'Yes, our mom' Aurora answered smiling at her.

"But Chris told me he wasn't married then how come they have a mom? Is it that he isn't married to her but the kids are his?" she wondered as she jumped to wild conclusions, just a moment before everything seemed to fit perfectly but now it went back to being unsettled again.

As she was lost into her own little world, she heard the kids running towards someone shouting mom, she struggled out of her foggy memory and saw that the kids were hugging Chris' mom overjoyed.

'Why didn't you come to meet us last week mom?' Robert asked angrily.

'I was busy dear, but don't worry you both are gonna spend this entire weekend with me' she said smiling at them.

"Oh so they call Mrs. Finch as their mom. For a moment, I thought this idiot lied to me again" Hazel thought to herself heaving a sigh of relief.

Chris walked over to Hazel;

'You seem to be wondering about something?' he asked looking at her.

'Well it's nice to see that the kids call your mom as their mom' she said smiling at him.

'When the kids shouted mom and ran downstairs, you suspected me, didn't you?' he asked smiling through his words though he was serious about the question.

'Well…it was kinda misguiding' she said smiling apologetically at him.

'Of course it was. Why are you so adamant when it comes to trusting me?' he asked glaring at her with a smile.

'Well…you know…I think I should say bye to the kids' she said running away from him.