Please behave My Lord

Chapter 88: Secret Base

Chapter 88: Secret Base

-Xavier. What brings you here today? I didn't have time to clean the room today, why don't you...

With a slight gentle smile on his face, Xavier looked at the older woman in front of him with a kindly

attitude.

-Vera, it's okay. It was me who came in today without telling you. Go about your business, I'll just take

my friend upstairs for a chat.

At that, Vera Echave glanced at Mariana standing behind him, only to see that this woman's eyes were

slightly red and puffy, but remained unable to hide her fair skin and delicate, very impressive looking

features.

Vera winked meaningfully. She looked at Xavier and spoke in a whisper:

-Xavier, is she your girlfriend? How pretty!

And he froze and, for some reason, did not refute her in the first place. After a brief pause, he smiled

without saying anything, as if he had tacitly agreed.

Vera's eyes couldn't stop moving between the two of them as she nodded in satisfaction before leaving.

Mariana, who was behind them, naturally, had not heard Vera's question.

The two opened the door and entered the room.

But what was before her made her pause a little.

The room was furnished in a somewhat old-fashioned but clean manner. An old, obsolete television

was set up on the table and in front of it were Dalbergia armchairs, with smooth but somewhat faded

arms.

When he looked up, he noticed some candlesticks on the table, of an antique style that looked like

objects of yesteryear.

Even the color scheme of the room design was vintage, where antique touches expanded.

Mariana suddenly realized that it was probably a place where the elderly lived.

He turned his head to look at Xavier whose appearance was somewhat melancholy and guessed

approximately who had lived here.

Xavier turned around and slowly walked over to one of Dalbergia's armchairs and sat down, telling her

to sit next to him as well. © 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

-You have to wonder whose residence a place like this really is.

Nodding softly, Mariana continued to look at the various antique ornaments in the room.

At this moment, however, a flat voice rang in his ears:

-Early in the morning, my parents were busy with work and didn't trust the nanny to take good care of

me, so they sent me to my grandparents and asked them to take care of me.

Mariana's heart tightened as she looked at the man whose eyes were in front of her. Such Xavier was a

look she had not seen before.

-For a long time, my childhood was spent here. I had a very happy and carefree life.

His voice fell on Mariana's ears, interspersed with a bit of warm laughter.

Unconsciously, she tilted her head and her eyes followed Xavier's to the small television set in front of

her, still carefully covered with a red and white patterned cover, just enough to show the seriousness

the elders had put into her life.

She had not expected Xavier to have such a memory.

That man of many young girls' dreams, the one who always wore a bohemian expression and played

all kinds of other people's lives on the screen, turned out to have a dim light in his own life.

The story in his ears continued:

-Then the disease took my grandparents. Years later, I bought the place and redecorated it, restoring it

as it was.

At this point, Xavier stopped narrating and turned his eyes to look at her.

-Nobody knows that this is my secret base. I always come here when I feel bad, so I feel that someone

is waiting for me, someone to stay with me to spend the not-so-good times together.

The light in the eyes of the man in front of her seemed to spread over her, as fiery as if it would burn

her.

-Xavier... -Mariana spoke hesitantly.

But he interrupted her.

-Mariana, you can take here as your secret base too. If there is something you are not happy about, I

am here and you can talk to me.

Xavier looked at her with a very serious face, leaving aside his usual mischievousness.

In the time he had been away from Mariana, he had perceived, one after another, many malicious

words in the words of those around him: jealousy, or disgust, or mockery.... Such things abounded

everywhere.

Blinking hard, she struggled to hide the tears in her eyes. Mariana watched the small television with

some bewilderment.

-How do you think people's choices really are? If not being elected means being left behind, right?

The words drifted softly into Xavier's ears, a little hoarse like shards of broken glass that had fallen to

the floor.

-Xavier, you know what? Once again, I was not chosen.

Speaking, Mariana turned her head to stare at him with a trembling gaze brimming with tears, as fragile

as if she would break on contact.

-Mariana, some things are not your fault and not being elected is not your cause, don't think like that.

A small, bitter smile expressed itself on her face as Mariana looked at the man, with a faint broken light

in her eyes.

-It's not my fault?

Like a child who had done something wrong and was desperate for an affirmative response. It wasn't

about someone telling her she was doing the right thing, but hoping someone could comfort her.

There was a moment of silence before Xavier quietly took the floor:

-As long as one lives in this world, one has to make choices. He will choose what he considers

important, and he will inevitably renounce what he does not consider important.

At these words, Mariana hugged her knees tightly. She encompassed in a glance the vulnerability all

over her body and her slender shoulders trembled in a heartbreaking way.

-There is no necessary correlation between choosing and being chosen, abandoning and being

abandoned. Because the choice is made by others, but the abandonment is what one thinks one can

only call abandonment.

His gaze went through the window and landed on the loose, worn swing in the yard.

-You probably don't know that I had those same thoughts when my parents sent me to my

grandparents. I felt abandoned, that they had chosen their careers and abandoned me.

-But then, it was my grandparents who cured me, and they were also the ones who told me that truth.

Xavier stood up and walked to Mariana's side. After a hesitation, he placed his palm on her soft hair

and stroked it tenderly, with a touch of affection.

-If a person is resentful because they were not elected, then there are too many unforgivable things in

this world, aren't there?

After a long while, he spoke in a soft voice:

-Just follow your heart.

He had been cured here once, and now in the same place he was trying to warm up the woman in front

of him.

The man's hoarse voice rang in Mariana's ears, rushing into her cochlea and causing a booming

impact.