Mr. President: You Are The Daddy Of My Triplets - Chapter 305

Chapter 305: 305- Something Or Someone?

While coming back home, with Tom walking at her side, she was continuously giggling, “I swear!” She managed between her laughter fits, “his face resembled of bitter gourd. Hehe.”

She could still imagine the scene when Tom lifted Koa up in the air, by holding his collar. Then people started gathering around them.

Koa who tried challenging Tom, later was too embarrassed by the situation. He had started muttering the word ‘sorry’ several times, while his legs were dangling in the air.

Tom didn’t drop him down unless Mala convinced him to. Once the boy fell to the ground, he didn’t take time to get up and run off.

He had such a funny look on his face that Mala was finding it difficult to control her mirth.

Walking beside him, she looked like a little schoolgirl. His bulging muscles made him look like a giant. The shirt he was wearing was an old one that her father bought for him from a thrift store.

Everything he wore, suited him. Sometimes she wondered if he was a man working in the cooperative sector. The way he walked or talked was a telltale sign that he not only had good qualifications but also this charisma that must have captivated his female colleagues.

His face remained stoic when she was laughing about the incident. He was like that.

Moody!

Sometimes he did react to her teasing but other times his face stayed like this.

But Mala never minded it. She knew he must be going through a lot with a memory as blank as a slate.

“Excuse me,” A couple who was coming their way, made them stop. They looked like newlyweds.

“Yes?” Mala responded to the couple, but Tom stayed close to her protectively, “We are searching for rented bicycles.”

The man waved his hand around, “We have heard that this place is best if discovered during cycling.”

Mala smiled and nodded at them, “You’re right. It was my father’s shop. A few months back he needed to sell those due to some emergency.”

“Oh,” the woman made a pout in disappointment, “Please tell your father to restart it. A couple of our friends enjoyed the bicycle rides here.”

“I would definitely tell this to my father,” she tugged Tom’s hand, and they resumed their walk back home.

“Your father rented bicycles?” he asked her with a frown and Mala nodded.

“We needed money for your treatment, Tom, but hey!” she eagerly turned to him, forcing him to stop, “Don’t worry. He is working hard to buy them back.”

She patted his arm and walked ahead leaving him behind. After a few moments when she turned around, he was at the same spot, deep in thinking.

“Come on, Tom,” she waved at him, “Today it’s my turn to cook dinner! We need to hurry.”

Due to electricity issues, they usually made food using wood as the fuel.

Placing his hands in his pockets, he started walking towards her.

***

“You should have seen how he treated Koa today,” Mala told Talia who was again observing the man with those dreamy eyes.

He was again busy with his exercise regime outside the house.

“Tell me something, Mala. Aren’t we beautiful?” Talia asked her in annoyance, “Or maybe he is blind.”

Mala looked over her shoulder and then shook her head, “I don’t think he realizes that girls are wildly attracted to him.”

“And why would you say that?” Talia asked her and then glared at her when she handed over some carrots to chop.

“Haven’t you felt it, Talia?” Mala said while stirring the pot, “You are eighteen while I’m seventeen yet…”

“Yet?” Talia looked at her face with curiosity.

“Yet… I feel like… he treats us … as if… as if we are… young… we are babies. Like we are five years old girls.”

Talia made a face. She thought, she was imagining it, but maybe Mala was right. The way he sometimes ruffled their hair was endearing. Once, when Mala had a fever, he fed her the soup with a spoon while talking and cooing to her as if she were a baby.

She gulped down her saliva and turned to Mala, “Wh-what if… she has got a girlfriend back home?”

“Yeah,” Mala took off the pot from the stove and placed a grilled pan for frying chicken, “He might be married too… Maybe he has kids,” she said with a casual shrug and Talia wanted to hit her hard.

No, please. He shouldn’t be married. I’ve fallen for him.

***

The dinner was served on the jute spread where Mala placed his favorite chicken fajita along with carrot and tomato soup.

“You seem to like chicken fajita a lot,” their father remarked when he placed the chicken pieces on his plate, “I think you liked it before coming here. It’s a wild guess, son.”

Tom raised a shoulder, “Maybe…”

Talia saw her eating it with gusto and remembered what their village healer had told them. Usually, the first thing such patients remember is their own names.

She couldn’t wait for the day when she would come to know about his real name. She was sure, it would be classier than this Tom thing.

Mala was silly to give him such a common name.

Mala got up and went to the kitchen to fetch the large wooden bowl, “Today Talia prepared her signature ice cream and then poured this homemade strawberry sauce on it.”

Talia gave a sheepish grin and looked down. Mala was the one who put some of it in Tom’s bowl and served it to him.

He accepted it with a subtle nod of his head.

“Nobody can make this ice cream better than her,” Mala told him, wiggling her brows.

Her father had already started eating his portion.

However, after one spoon, Tom regarded the bowl with surprise.

Mala and Talia quit eating and frowned at his strange behavior. Talia also smelled her ice cream to check if it had gone bad.

No! It was just fine.

“Tom!” Mala placed her hand on his arm and put her bowl down, his eyes were filled with tears.

“What happened?” their father stopped eating and looked at him in concern.

He shook his head, violently, “I don’t know…” he whispered, “it’s… awesome… this dish is good…” he pointed towards the ice cream bowl which brought a shy smile to Talia’s lips.

“I don’t know why, but I think I love strawberries…” he picked up the bowl again and scooped up a big spoon before placing it in his mouth.

He didn’t swallow it but kept it there like he was enjoying the feeling and its taste on his tongue.

Mala wanted to giggle but Talia had this uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her belly. It wasn’t the strawberry taste.

It was something related to it. The taste was reminding him of something.

Or maybe of someone!