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It was a little past three in the afternoon when Sergio parked in front of the Philippine International Elementary School and patiently waited for Paula to step out of the front door.
A car stopped right next to his, and a tall blonde woman came out from the driver's side to wait for her child on the sidewalk. As she passed by him, the woman smiled politely and greeted him with a marked Australian accent. Another woman, with South American features this time, parked her car on the other side of his, and soon a little crowd formed in front of the school. Right at first sight, one could tell that the building was quite different from the others nearby, as it had an evident modern architecture, with tall edgy walls made of white cement and glass, and everything of it screamed 'expensive private school'. And that's exactly how it was: private and expensive. Not that Sergio cared about how many zeros were on the tuition fee, of course. Although Paula wasn't his daughter, he was happy to pay for her education, and he had been the one suggesting to enroll her there in the first place. "It's an excellent school," he had said to Raquel a few days after the Murillo family settled in, "she would get the right amount of attention from her teachers and learn English in no time. Also, it would be good for her to meet kids going through the same struggle of moving to another country." So, after assuring her multiple times that the money wasn't a problem, they had taken Paula for a school tour, and Raquel wasn't able to object further in front of her daughter's excitement. After all, she had said afterward, that seemed the best option.
Sergio heard the ring of a bell coming from inside the building, which indicated the end of classes. After a moment, the door opened and a stream of kids aged between six and ten ran down the steps and to the open space in front of the parking lot, giggling and celebrating the end of yet another school day. He searched the crowd for Paula and found her talking intently with her friend Janice, a well mannered girl that often hung out at their house. When Paula finally looked up, he waved at her, and his heart filled with joy at the sight of the little one smiling at him. He saw her say goodbye to her friend and run in his direction.
"Hi, Sergio!"
She greeted him with a hug that made his smile widen. He couldn't possibly love that kid more.
"Hello, Paulita," he replied as he held the car door open for her to get in. "How was school today?"
She shrugged. "Good."
Paula threw her backpack on the back seat, and he rolled his eyes - as delicate as her mother - then she climbed in.
"Why didn’t mom come?"
"She's busy with the fundraising. I hope you don't mind me picking you up."
The girl shook her head. "I don't."
Sergio smiled gladly and walked to the driver seat on the other side of the car. At first, they had been a little worried about Raquel funding a charity for the street animals that populated the island, since it would have taken a lot of her time away from her daughter, and they didn't want to upset the kid's world more than it was already. But Paula had reacted surprisingly well, and she seemed to enjoy her time with Sergio while her mother was busy. Not to mention how happy she was when she got to visit the rescued animals. A plus point was given by the fact that he liked to spoil her rotten, and she knew it. So he wasn't surprised when, taking advantage of her mother's absence, she asked to get ice cream on the way home.
He pulled in in front of the ice cream shop and followed her inside.
"Can I have a sprinkle cone?" she asked, her face pressed against the display.
"Of course you can."
"With three scoops of chocolate ice cream."
He laughed. "Isn't that a bit too much?"
"It's not!" she replied in a serious tone, then turned to him and gave him her best puppy eyes. "Pleeeease."
"What about one scoop and whipped cream?"
She seemed to think about it. "One scoop of chocolate and one of a fruit flavor since it's healthier. And whipped cream."
Of course.
He negotiated back. "One scoop of chocolate, whipped cream and a cherry on top. And I won't tell your mom, but only if you pretend not to have a sugar rush tonight."
She grinned from ear to ear. "Deal."
They sat at the small tables outside, enjoying the warm sun of Palawan as they ate their ice creams in silence. Sergio took a spoon full of his vanilla one - rigorously in a bowl - and brought it to his mouth as he looked at the happy little girl in front of him getting chocolate all over her hands and face despite him having provided her with a full box of napkins. Normally, he would shudder at the sight of such a mess, but this time he couldn't help but smile. He had never thought about having a family and being a father before, but now he couldn't imagine his life without Raquel and Paula. Suddenly, the whole scenario of him picking up his child from school, having ice cream together, helping it with its homework while he cooked dinner and waiting for the love of his life to come home seemed like the most natural thing in the world. And as he looked at Paula, he couldn't express in words how much he loved that tiny human being that had so much of his Raquel.
Later that day, however, he would wonder if he had overestimated the joy of fatherhood, because what came after caught him totally off guard.
"Sergio, did you know that it takes a tiny piece of a mom and a tiny piece of a dad to make a baby?"
He almost choked with his ice cream.
"I learned it at school today," Paula continued, oblivious.
"At - at school?" he managed to ask in between coughs. What kind of teacher would explain that to a class of third graders?
She nodded. "Sean said his parents are getting divorced because his mom found his dad having sex with his co-worker."
SEX?
" So he asked our teacher what that means, and she said it's something grown-ups do when they want to have a baby. The dad gives something to the mom, and that makes a baby start to grow inside the mom's belly. But I didn't understand what the dad gives. What is it, Sergio?"
Sergio wished his bowl of ice cream was big enough to dip his face in it and cool off his burning cheeks. He knew he should let Raquel answer that question, but he also knew Paula was as stubborn as her mother and wouldn't let it go so easily.
"It's, uhm... it's like a seed," he said eventually, and the girl tilted her head as he spoke.
"A seed?"
"Yes, a seed." God, he needed fresh air. "You know, when a mom and a dad love each other they, uhm... hug - yes, they hug a lot - and then, if they decide to have a baby, the dad gives a little seed to the mom, so it starts growing inside her tummy and turns into a baby."
"But how does the seed reach mom's tummy?"
He had never been particularly religious, but he prayed for something - anything - to happen and interrupt that conversation. It didn't happen, so he said the first thing that came to his mind.
"She eats it."
Paula pondered it for a moment, then she simply shrugged. "Oh, okay."
Sergio let out a sigh of relief when the last piece of the ice cream cone disappeared into her mouth without any other questions from her side.
Of course, he had spoken too soon.
"So why do you think Sean's dad wants a baby with his co-worker?"
This time, he couldn't come up with any reasonable explanation, and definitely, he wasn't going to tell her that Sean's dad wasn't trying to have a baby at all. So he just said, "I have no idea."
Lucky for him, she seemed to have lost interest in the topic and stood up.
"I'm going to wash my hands," she announced and headed inside the shop.
He followed her with his eyes from the other side of the window until she disappeared into the restroom, and he finally relaxed on his chair.
That night, as they were changing into their pajamas after a long session of 'hugging' in the shower, Sergio told Raquel about his earlier conversation with Paula.
"She asked you what ?" Raquel stayed still, with only one leg inside her loose shorts, and stared at him, startled.
"I know, right?! I was shocked myself!" he said, buttoning up his striped shirt. "She started making a lot of questions, and I didn't know what to say. When she mentioned sex-"
"Wait," she interrupted him abruptly, "did she actually say it? She said the word 'sex' ?"
Sergio looked at her with an apologetic look, and she grunted in frustration. "Oh, my baby..."
She pulled up her shorts, visibly upset by the fact that her child was growing up at a faster rate than she thought possible.
"She's only eight. How does she even know what that means?"
"She doesn't, that's why she asked," he explained, in the attempt to calm her down. "Apparently, a kid from her class overheard that his dad had sex with a colleague, and he was trying to figure out what that is about. That's how she learned the word."
Raquel nodded thoughtfully while putting on a plain top. "It makes sense. I'm going to talk to the other parents and see how bad the situation is."
"As Paula's mother, it's in your right to do that, but I think we shouldn't make such a big deal out of this."
"What do you mean?"
Sergio, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, opened his arms to her as an invitation to sit on his lap. When she did, he rounded her with his arms and continued speaking.
"They are just kids, after all. They hear things but don't pay much attention to them, and Paula seemed okay with the explanation I gave her. Of course, you should talk to her and figure out how much she knows because, as I said, you're her mother, but let's try to take it easy. Just because she knows the word, it doesn't mean she's going to start dating or watching adult movies."
Raquel remained silent for a moment, pondering his words. He wasn't completely wrong. Maybe she was making a big deal out of nothing. Paula was just a kid, after all.
"Alright," she said eventually, stroking his hair as a sign of gratitude. He knew how to keep a clear mind when she couldn't, especially when it came to her daughter, and she was thankful to have him by her side. "I'll still talk to her, but I'll try to keep things cool."
He smiled and kissed her lips, feeling her body relax a little in his arms. "Good."
"I just need to figure out how to approach the subject."
"I read something about using bees and flowers as a comparison, once. I can see if I can find the book-"
"Bees and flowers?" She laughed. "What kind of books do you read?"
Sergio turned red for the second time that day and, once again, because of a Murillo. "You know how I like to learn basic notions about every subject, so it happens that I read a book about parenting a while ago."
She filled the gap between them once more and kissed him on the lips. "You are so cute. You know that, right?"
He couldn't help but smile. "Stop teasing me."
"Alright." She closed her hands behind his neck, her front teeth biting her lip as she made no effort at all to hide the grin on her face.
He shook his head and chuckled. She was impossible. Sergio pulled her closer for another kiss before they got under the sheets.
"How did your mother give you, you know, the talk ?"
"She didn't," Raquel replied as she took a small amount of body lotion and rubbed it between her palms. "Not at the right time, at least."
She started to apply the lotion on her arms - something Sergio had gotten used to watching her doing every night before bed, and he rather enjoyed it.
"She mentioned the subject the same day I introduced her to my first boyfriend. I was fifteen and, of course, I already knew everything, so I wasn't expecting that kind of talk anymore," she explained, her cheeks flushing slightly after more than twenty-five years. "You can imagine my reaction when she made me sit on the couch and showed me a condom."
Sergio burst out laughing at the thought of Marivì doing such a thing, though it was definitely something she would do.
"Don't laugh, it was embarrassing beyond measure!"
"Sorry!"
He tried to contain himself but gave up when she turned to look at him and started laughing too.
"Alright, maybe it is a bit funny now, but I can assure you it wasn't back then."
"And what did you say?"
"I told her she didn't need to worry about it, that I already knew everything I had to know, and that I would be careful." Raquel took some more lotion and started rubbing it on her legs. "But that day, I swore I would never traumatize my own daughter like that."
"Right."
"What about you?"
"Me?"
"Yeah. Has anyone ever talked to you about sex, or did you just casually find an old copy of the Kama Sutra?" she teased him, and he laughed.
"My brother did, kind of."
She looked at him with interest as his memory traveled back to when he was just a little more than a kid.
"After my father died, I lived with Andrés for a few years. He always liked women a lot, so it wasn't unusual for me to see girls around the house at every time of the day and night. When I was ten or eleven, I saw him enjoying his time with one of the said girls, right on our kitchen table. He saw me running away, and after he was done, he came to my room and talked to me about what he called 'one of the greatest pleasures in life'."
Raquel shuddered as she could almost hear Berlin's voice saying those last words. Definitely, his experience wasn't better than hers.
"Now I see why you weren't inclined to have a relationship while growing up. It must have been hard for you."
"Let's say that for as much as he tried to convince me to enjoy life," he gestured air quotes over those last two words, "it sorted the opposite effect."
She didn't answer, as she could see from his gaze that his mind wasn't there anymore - it was lost in the thought of his brother as it often happened when he mentioned him. So she quietly snuggled up next to him and gave him the time to process his loss once more, and then come back to her. For as much as she didn't like Berlin, she respected the memory Sergio had of him.
They maintained that position for a while, finding comfort in each other's closeness, until Sergio finally spoke again.
"At least we have cleared what not to tell Paula," he said, and she knew he was trying to lighten the mood. He used to do it as a sort of apology to her every time he got lost in some old memory, even though she had never blamed him for it.
"Well, that's something," she chuckled lightly, then shifted her body a little closer to him and wrapped her arm around his waist. "Thanks for saying 'we'. It means a lot to me."
"Raquel, don't even mention it. Paula is like a daughter to me."
He meant it, and she knew it. She kissed him again, as words weren't enough to express how grateful she was to him.
"You know, I knew this moment would come one day," she said when she nestled back against him, "The moment I would have to explain certain things to Paula. Just... not so soon."
"Mi amor, why don't you try to sleep now?" His voice was calm and reassuring, and his hand rhythmically running down her back was making her sleepy. "I'm sure this all won't seem so tragic tomorrow." He sweetly kissed her hair, and she smiled against his chest as he said the next words. "We are going to figure it out."
She closed her eyes, and he held her close until she finally fell asleep.
A few days had passed since Sergio and Paula's talk at the ice cream shop, and Raquel didn't touch on the topic with her yet. Not that she thought it wasn't necessary, but rather because she couldn't find the right moment. Every time she was about to start that conversation, she looked at Paula playing innocently with her dolls, building a sandcastle on the beach, or reading a perfectly appropriate book for an eight years old child, and she didn't have the heart to interrupt her and talk about stuff she shouldn't know in the first place. Paula herself didn't bring up the matter, and life had continued as if nothing happened. In fact, as the days went by, Raquel considered not to talk about it at all. Maybe she forgot about it, she thought. Or maybe she's just too little to care, and you are worrying for nothing.
She was proved wrong, however, after she arrived home on a Friday afternoon from a meeting with the other members of her foundation and found Paula sitting at the dinner table, struggling over a math problem Sergio was trying to help her with.
"If you have five candies, and I eat two..." Sergio took away two of the five candies he had placed on the table. "...what do you have left?"
"I would be very upset if you ate my candies."
Sergio chuckled and pointed at the candies again. "Yes, that's because you would only have…"
Raquel smiled, looking at the scene from the kitchen door as none of the two had noticed her yet. She loved to watch them interact with each other, both so focused on what they were doing.
Paula counted the pieces of candy left on the table, then bit the top of her pencil as she pondered her answer. "Three-fifths?"
"Correct!"
A huge smile appeared on the girl's face as she high-fived Sergio. Then she grabbed the candies and moved them to a little pile that was forming on her side of the table because, of course, Sergio would let her keep them. Raquel rolled her eyes but couldn't stop smiling.
"May I come in?" she asked, and both turned to her direction.
"Hi, sweetheart."
"Hola, Mamà."
She kissed her daughter's forehead, then moved to the other side of the table to give Sergio a peck on the lips. "Hi."
"Hi," he replied with a smile. "I made some fresh coffee for you, it's still hot."
She kissed him again. "What did I do to deserve you?"
Raquel went to change into some more comfortable clothes and checked on her mother on the way to her room, then walked back to the kitchen where Sergio and Paula were still busy with homework. She filled her mug with coffee before going to sit at the table and watch Paula gain more and more candies after every exercise.
"How was school today, cariño ?"
"It was fine."
"What did you do?" she asked as she took a long sip of the hot beverage.
"I learned the English name of the animals, then our science teacher told us how volcanoes work, and we watched a video about it. I had lunch, and then I drew a turkey in art class," Paula listed while writing down the answer to the last math problem on the sheet in front of her. "Oh, and I'm pregnant."
The two adults exchanged a quick look, then Raquel frowned and asked, "Honey, what do you mean?"
"I mean that I'm pregnant!" Paula insisted as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I had sex with Matt during recess, and now a baby is growing inside my tummy. I hope it's a girl…"
If she had looked up, she would have noticed her mother's startled expression. Instead, she kept her gaze on the tiny scribbles she was drawing on the edge of her homework sheet, as she talked about where the baby would sleep and what games they would play together.
Raquel turned to look at Sergio with her eyes wide open as if they were about to pop out at any moment. When did her sweet little girl start to say such things? And what the hell happened at school today? As if he could read her mind, he reached out for her hand and squeezed it.
"Paula, may I ask you what exactly happened with Matt?" he asked, carefully.
"I told him what you said about the seed turning into a baby, but he didn’t believe me," she explained calmly. "So we decided to try it out. We hugged, and I ate a watermelon seed from his lunch box, and now I'm going to have a baby."
Sergio's lips curled at Paula's explanation, and he looked back at Raquel, who seemed a little more relaxed after hearing the whole story of how her eight years old daughter 'got pregnant'. See? It's alright.
She nodded, exhaling with relief, but it was obvious now that that conversation couldn't wait any longer. She straightened up on her chair.
"Sergio, I think Paula and I need to have a little chat."
The girl finally looked up with an alarmed look on her face that made Raquel's heart soften. "Am I in trouble?"
"Oh no, cariño. I just want to have a girl-talk with you. See," she continued as Sergio left the room to grant them some privacy, "you are growing up, and it will become more frequent for you to hear words you don't know the meaning of, because they are grown-up words."
Paula put down her pencil, curious about where her mother was going with that, and listened carefully.
"I want you to know that there's nothing wrong with using these words, and you should never feel embarrassed about asking me, or Sergio, what they mean. It's important, though, that you understand how to use them. Now, I believe Sergio wasn't clear when he explained to you what the word 'sex' means."
She paused, trying to find the best way to explain that concept to a child.
"When two people, no matter if they are boys or girls, are in love with each other, they want to stay close to each other, connect, and share good moments. And to do so, sometimes they make love-"
"What does ‘make love’ mean?"
Raquel smiled. "It means the same thing as sex, but I like it more. Do you want to know why?"
Paula nodded, and she went on. "Because it sounds like you create love. You are not just doing it, you are making it. It implies emotions and the will to make the other person feel loved. And sometimes, from love can grow a baby. What Sergio told you about the seed was a metaphor, but it isn't completely wrong. When a man and a woman make love, a little piece of the man's body - called a cell - reaches the woman's belly, and it blends with another cell. The cells start to multiply, and they form a baby."
"That sounds complicated."
"It is," Raquel confirmed. "Our body is really complicated. But what I'm trying to say is: what you did with Matt today isn't any of this." Thank god, she felt like adding in her mind. "You are not going to get pregnant from eating a watermelon seed."
"Then, how ?" Paula asked with a frown.
She hesitated. "We will talk about this when you are a little older. For now, what you need to know is that you can't go around and say you had sex. To make love is something amazing, but only adults do that."
Raquel remained silent as she gave Paula the time to think about what she had just said. Her daughter was smart, and she had no doubt she would understand. Maybe too smart, she thought, as once again the little one caught her off-guard.
"Mom, do you make love to Sergio?"
From all questions, she wasn't expecting that one. At all.
She took a moment to consider her options. If she said 'yes', it would be kind of embarrassing to know that your child is aware of your sexual life - although Paula was still very young and maybe wouldn't give too much importance to it. But if she said 'no' after what she had said to her, she could think she wasn't in love with Sergio. Her heart ached at the mere thought of it, so she decided to go with the truth. "I do."
"Then you should talk to him too. He seems a little confused on the matter."
At that affirmation, Raquel burst out laughing, and Paula with her. It took her a while to regain her composure as Sergio's burning red face kept popping into her head. God, she would have paid millions to see his reaction to that.
"Alright, sweetheart," she said as she wiped away the tears that had run down her cheeks from laughing so much. "Why don't you go upstairs and get ready for your bath, would you? I'll come up in a minute."
Before joining her daughter upstairs, she stopped by the office, certain that she would find Sergio there. She wasn’t disappointed when she heard his voice telling her to come in from the other side of the door.
“How did it go?” he asked as soon as she entered the room. She found him sitting comfortably in his favorite armchair, with a thick, boring-looking book in his hands that he closed and placed on the wooden coffee table to his right - not before having carefully marked the page - allowing her to sit on his lap.
“Better than I thought,” she said as she rounded him with her arms.
“Yes, I guessed so. I heard you laugh.”
She smiled. “I was laughing about something Paula said. You were right, I shouldn't have worried so much."
Sergio nodded and didn’t ask further. Instead, he brushed a wave of her golden hair behind her ear and leaned in to plant a soft kiss on her now exposed cheek. “I’m glad you got to talk to her, and that everything is fine now.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Of course you could have,” he replied softly, his gaze locked in hers. “You would have handled things in your way, and you would still be the great mom you already are.”
He then smirked and added, “Maybe with a little more freaking out moments here and there.”
She chuckled as she realized he was right. She would have gone through that in her own way, which would probably reveal to be less calm than his. Once again, she was glad for him to be there.
“Don’t get too comfortable about this, though,” she teased him. “I talked to Paula, but next time it’s going to be your turn. You better start practicing.”
“Next time?”
“With our next child.”
His lips stretched into a warm, heartfelt smile, and he leaned in to catch her lips within his. “I can’t wait.”