Irresistible Boss Succumbing to Your Touch (Maria Anita) novel Chapter 3

Manuela’s POV

We arrived home and I went to take a shower. When I returned to the living room, Olivia was finishing setting the table and Flavian was on the phone.

"How are you, Manu?" Olivia asked.

"Terrible, Olivia. How can she do these things to me?" I had tears in my eyes again.

"She's evil, Manu! Unfortunately, I need to tell you that," Olivia sighed. "Now dry those eyes, because your detective ordered that Chinese food you love for our lunch."

"Little one, did you take your medicine?" Flavian hugged me from behind and I nodded. "Your mother is already on her way home. But I still think you should report her."

"She's my mother, Flavian..." He hugged me and gave up with a resigned sigh.

"I've already informed Cam and your father, Manu. It seems your mother tricked the employee your father left to track her. She went to the local detective's wife's house, and then her car left and returned home. The employee followed your mother's car, thinking she was driving, and kept watching. But she came here in the detective's wife's car," Olivia explained.

"We'll need to be more careful," Flavian said, and I was certain something else was worrying him.

"She's never going to give up, is she, Olivia?" I looked at Olivia.

"There is a way to make her give up," Flavian took a deep breath and looked at me.

"And what would that be?" I was already expecting Flavian to try to convince me to report her, but I didn't think that would solve anything.

"Marry me. If you're already married, she can't force you to marry someone else, and then she'll have to give up." I looked at Flavian, not believing what he was saying.

"You're kidding, right?" I looked at him as if I couldn't believe what I'd heard.

"No, little one, I'm serious," he said, holding my hand. "We get married, and then she won't be able to do anything else."

"Flavian, this is absurd!" I protested.

"Why is it absurd, Manu? We're together, we already live together, I love you, you love me, we get married and that's it," Flavian spoke as if everything was very practical and obvious.

"I'm not going to get married just to prevent my mother from continuing to try to take me back home," I replied.

"Don't you love me, Manu?" He asked as if he'd been offended.

"I love you, Flavian, but I don't want you to feel obligated to marry me to protect me from my mother." It was so obvious that his idea was ridiculous. I felt a bit hurt by it.

I loved Flavian, nothing in the world would make me happier than being his wife, but not like this, not because he felt obligated. And especially not with a marriage proposal like that, as if it were some unimportant business deal. If I were ever to be proposed to, I expected it to be more romantic, more special, more everything.

"Damn it!" Flavian cursed. "I have to tell her, Olivia."

"Tell me what?" I looked at them both, confused. "By the way, Olivia, I love that you're here, but why are you here?"

"She came for work and we met by chance," Flavian explained, and I looked at her curiously.

"Where is she?" I heard Melissa's agitated voice ask, but she didn't wait for Flavian to respond. She barged in, and when she found me, she put both hands on my shoulders and looked me over. "She might have brought you into this world, but she's not your mother, because real mothers don't do this." Melissa's voice was choked with emotion as she hugged me. "That said, I'm going after her and ripping out each of those nails with pliers."

"I don't doubt you would," I laughed, "but I'd be happier if you'd sit down and have lunch with us."

"Little Key, report this woman already, get her out of your life," Melissa pleaded.

"I can't, Mel!" I was honest; I didn't know how to remove my own mother from my life.

"What are we going to do?" She looked from me to Flavian and then to Olivia. "Olivia! Sorry, I hadn't seen you."

"We're going to sit down and have lunch." Flavian came over and pulled out a chair for Mel. "That was the original plan. Olivia and I went to pick up Manu, and we were going to invite you for lunch."

"Oh my gosh, really?" Melissa smiled. "Then let's have lunch, and afterward, we'll have a girls' afternoon. And you can go to work, detective, unless you want to end the day with painted nails, a bow in your hair, and false eyelashes."

"I definitely don't want that," Flavian made a face that made us laugh.

"Mel, how did you find out?" I asked, curious about how she ended up here.

"I called to schedule a meeting for Henry, and Lexie told me," Melissa explained.

After lunch, Olivia gave Mel a gift, a purse she had used in the fashion show that Mel attended. After that, since I would have Melissa's company for the rest of the day, Flavian went back to work, and Olivia went with him since she would be returning to our city.

In my head, I was still mulling over Flavian's awkward marriage proposal, the news that my mother wanted to marry me off to Mr. Calvin, and the suspicion that Olivia and Flavian were sharing some extra little secret they didn't want to tell me.