Mark watched her figure vanish out of the door, frowning. That was not Arianne’s usual attitude; he knew her well enough to know that. That was an aberrant behavior.
Things would have been so simple if Shelly were just his aunt—if only. But she was more than that, unfortunately.
Arianne was not the type to throw tantrums however she liked, so Mark dared not take this lightly. After a brief calculation, Mark decided that Arianne was more important than the other party, so he gave Shelly a call. “Something else came up at home, so I can’t go to your place today,” he explained. “But I’ll send someone to fix your heater later. All you have to do is to open the door for them.”
Shelly was seething, but she had to belie it with faux understanding and consideration. “Oh, that’s totally understandable. The repairman will do! By the way, tomorrow is a Saturday, isn’t it? You’re free, aren’t you? Because I miss Smore. Can you bring him over to have lunch with me?”
Mark demurred for about two seconds before agreeing to her request. There was no harm in letting Shelly see Smore, was there? Grandparents love doting on their grandchildren even more than their own kids—take Summer for a quick example. Mark was rather familiar with that human quirk, so he could not help but soften his stance even though he told himself to never see Shelly again.
Throughout the road back home, Arianne had been repressed and passive. Mark had tried to dig up as many topics as he could to start a conversation, but all her reactions could be boiled down to very muted “oh” and “okay.”
The only time when a smile broke out of Arianne’s face was when they returned home, where she saw Smore. “Hello my little sunshine, Mommy’s home!”
Smore ran into her embrace excitedly. “Mommy, mommy! I wanna go out and play!”
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