Not Now, Not Ever

"Adam?" Stella murmured under her breath, her face still buried in his chest. 

"Yes sweetheart?" Adam replied rubbing her back softly.

"You won't leave me, right?" She asked clutching on to his t-shirt tighter.

"Of course I won't. Not now, not ever." Adam replied softly trying to ease her worries. 

"Promise?" Stella looked up tilting her head slightly back.

"I promise." He replied as he stared back into her hazel eyes. 

Stella gave him a hearty smile in return and hugged him tighter. 

"I brought you some coffee. Would you like to have it?" Adam asked pointing at the table that was close to where they were standing.

"Yeah! Sure." Stella nodded.

Adam sat down in a chair and just before Stella could pickup her cup, he tugged her hand hard, making her fall on his lap. Before she could move, he wrapped his arms around her holding her in place.

"Just sit here." He said with a mischievous smile. 

"Adam!" She smacked him hard on his chest.

"No one's here except for us sweetheart." Adam tried to reason with her. He wanted nothing more than to keep her in his arms at the moment. "Pretty please." Adam gave her a pitiful look.

"Okay." Stella agreed to him reluctantly.

They sat there in silence as they sipped on their coffees, with Stella leaning her back against his rock hard chest. None of them talk to the other, but the silence between them wasn't awkward, but rather a peaceful one.

--------------------------

Next day at the office,

Stella and Adam were having their lunch peacefully in his office when the door suddenly opened and Liam walked in, followed by Bella.

"Hello. What's going on in here?" Liam spoke up bringing their attention to him.

"I am so sorry Sir. I tried to stop him but he didn't listen to me." Bella apologized to Adam.

"It's alright Bella. You can leave." Adam replied to her politely to which she nodded and left. 

"What is it now? Didn't you have enough chat with your god-daughter yesterday?" Adam gave him an eye roll as he sat on the single couch next to them.

"I was going through some old pictures and found something good among them. Thought you guys may want to see it." He replied taking out a picture from his coat's inner pocket.

Adam took the picture from him, his eyes widening in shock as soon as they landed on it. 

It was a picture of his younger self, around four or five years old. He was kissing a small baby bump of a woman who was patting his head. The shocking thing was the woman's facial features which resembled to Stella's around seventy to eighty percent, especially her eyes.

He turned his head to his right to look at Stella, who was already looking at the picture with her eyes almost popping out of their sockets.

"That's my M-M-Mom." Stella spoke up after a while, raising her head to look at Liam.

"Yes." Liam nodded with a sad smile. "And that boy is…" He continued but Adam interrupted him.

"Me." He spoke with a baffled expression on his face. "I am going to frame this one and hang it up in my room." Adam continued after recovering from his earlier shock. 

"I want a copy of it as well." Stella spoke up.

"No, you aren't getting one. Whenever you feel like seeing it, you can just come to my room sweetheart." Adam declined her request right away.

"But…" She tried to speak up but Adam shook his head, not wanting to give in her request.

"You guys can fight all you want to after I leave. There's one more thing that I needed to tell you guys." Liam interrupted the two adults who were arguing like two children. "Before your Dad found your Mum, he was after Stella's mother." Liam continued after getting their attention. 

"What?"

"What?" 

Both Stella and Adam shouted at the top of their lungs.

Liam chuckled at their reaction and continued. "He was trying to make her agree to be his girlfriend but Rosaline declined him continuously. He didn't give up until she said yes to Ethan. His expressions were quite funny when he came to know about it. It was actually a bet and the poor guy lost it pretty badly."  

Listening to him both Adam and Stella heaved out of sigh of relief. 

"Thank God, it was just a bet." Adam spoke up. "Otherwise…" He didn't even want to complete his sentence.

"Your father was kind of a play boy before he met your mother. She was a transfer student. He fell in love with her right away." Liam smiled remembering the old times. "I am going to go now, you guys continue with your lunch." He spoke and made his way to the door without even paying any heed to the couple who was calling him to join them.