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The next day Eva was home alone with the twins whereas Vikram and Daadi were out of the house separately. Vikram was spending his time with another lady friend and Daadi was spending the night at one of her friends place two hours away from the house.

 

The trio had spent the early morning cleaning the house and still finding time in between to groove to the songs playing from the radio station on the TV.

 

Evening arrived for the trio as they had finished cleaning the last spot in the house when the twins volunteered to cook dinner.

 

After dinner Eva stood in front of the bathroom mirror brushing her hair listening to the small radio sitting on the table counter. She shimmered to the melodic vocals of Shreya Ghoshal.  Suddenly Adil rushed into the bathroom pressed to use the toilet.

 

"Come on couz I have to use the toilet can't you brush your lioness hair in your room?!" Adil whined childishly.

 

"You keep forgetting my mirror is too small to see all my hair Adil, be patient I am almost done" Eva replied throwing him a pointed stare from the mirror and continued to brush her thick strands.

 

"There goes her sarcastic words bro. I'm doubting your influence perhaps it's awesome Paul giving her secret lessons" Aadesh teased leaning by the wall watching her brush and enjoying the look of pain on his twin's face waiting to use the toilet.

 

Minutes later Eva was finished brushing her hair, pulled it up into a messy bun turning around to face her troublesome cousins with a roll of her eyes. She nudged Aadesh away from the door leaving the bathroom for the duo.

 

Stretched on her bed with the sketchbook in her lap, plus a pencil in hand she quietly doodled sketches of the Jacksons. The twins walked into the room, bending down to sit cross legged on the floor. The duo gazed at their cousin till she had to notice them.

"Ok what is it boys?" Eva sighed pushing the sketchbook aside to glance down at the pair giving them her full attention.

 

"Wellllll since you asked we have a message from Paul" Adil responded holding a medium sized box and a piece of folded paper in his hands.

 

"We have been messaging him back and forth in last few days. Keeping him and afro dude updated" Aadesh added cheekily.

 

"You both have? Are they okay?" Eva fired back to the twins worry evident in her round eyes.

 

"Calm down cousin everything is ok. We can't say a word due to secrecy thanks to our idol. Just read the note first and then open the box" Adil replied stretching his arm forward to drop the items beside Eva while the pair sat patiently waiting for her reaction.

 

Eva decided to leave opening the box last. She flipped the folded piece of paper up to see Paul's italic handwriting and learnt in that moment that he truly was a gentleman in every aspect.

 

Love I know you are thinking to reject my gift. But I would be utterly disappointed if you did not take it! We can chat on days we are not together and you can speak to your lover boy. So please accept this from the bottom of my black heart.

-          Love, Paul.

 

Eva ignoring the stares from the boys immediately grabbed the wrapped up box tearing off the flimsy material. Gasping she zoned in on the word ‘PAGER' written boldly across the medium sized space without question she opened the box carefully to pull out a brand new pager.

 

"A pager?!" she bleated in astonishment leading the brothers to fall onto their backs sharing pearls of laughter at the wide eyed expression on her face.

 

"Why are you both laughing?" she sneered down at the boys.

 

 "Oh sweet Eva you should have seen your face. Priceless I tell you" Adil cackled wiping a tear from his eye. Aadesh just snickered a little longer before asking what was on his mind "you going to keep the gift cousin? Because we would hate to see you disappoint our boss especially.  He is your friend"

"This is just all too much boys I-I- can't accept it!" Eva rebuked putting the pager back into the box pushing it away.

 

"Well you know how our boss is cousin he won't say no for an answer and get you something even flashier" Aadesh pointed out with a waggle of his finger.

 

"Our Idol is a great reason to grow up some day to be on his level" Adil gushed with a cheeky grin.


"I do not know how you both were able to get to know Paul so well.." she grumbled trailing off when the pager vibrated inside the box that a message had been received.

 

Not knowing how to use the pager Adil grabbed the pager from her hands, quickly did his thing before handing the pager back.

 

-hello love. I hope you like the gift I gave you and have not decided to return it back to me. Remember my fragile heart.-

-Love Paul-

 

-Eva please ignore any of my pal's words. If you do not want to keep the pager I can persuade him to take it back somehow but he would truly be happy you accept it.

-Michael-

 

Eva massaged her temples in hopes to relieve the incoming headache she felt from Paul's crazy ways of gifting her things.

 

The twins sat quietly giving her some time to make up her mind as they played rock, paper and scissors to themselves till she was ready.

"I have made up my mind" Eva announced grabbing their focus. The twins shared expressions of eagerness with cheeky smirks.

 

"I'm keeping it but you both have to teach me how to use" Eva sighed whereas the twins shared high fives in victory.

 

"Now help me work this thing please" Eva responded with another sigh. The brothers both jumped up to sit on the sides of the bed to teach her how to use the pager. Within thirty minutes (with a few mishaps) Eva had memorized the features while the twins chose to leave her be after telling her that they were going out to buy themselves bags of fish and chips down the road.

 

Now alone Eva decided to test out her skill with the pager by texting Michael to see where it goes from there.

 

In the intervening time Michael was sitting opposite Uncle Roy playing the word game ‘Scramble'. Just as he was about to lay his last tile down. He felt the pager vibrate in his front jean pocket. Pausing the task at hand he pulled the pager out to look at the message on his pager to see it was from Eva.

 Hello Michael. I'm getting the hang of using the pager. Um are you busy?

-Eva

 

Michael let out a small chuckle and responded back to saying he will talk to her in a while when he finishes beating uncle at his own game.

 

Uncle Roy waited for his nephew to finish his texting so that the game could be finished and he could have the chance to win this round.

 

"Son can you put the damn pager down? I want to finish this game and beat your skinny ass. Also who were you talking to?" Uncle Roy huffed as Michael looked up from his pager to give his uncle a cheeky grin.

 

"Alright Uncle Roy Just replying to Eva besides you have not won a game against me "Michael bragged picking up the last tile on the board to spell ‘extradition'. In that moment Michael crossed his arms with a smug smirk at the look of anger on his uncle's face knowing he had won the game there and then.

 

"Fucking damn it kid you won again! What do you want? You do not need to tell me about your Asian flavour of the month. I do not care" Roy responded shrugging his shoulder at the mention of his nephew's activities.

 

Michael narrowed his eyes at his uncle wondering why he was so quick to cross off Eva when it came to any other woman from their race the old man would pester him to find out more. Michael decided to scoop out the lack of interest in his attitude.

 

"Uncle Roy what is your beef with Eva? Since I introduced her, you are the only one who hasn't even bothered to try and warm up to her" Michael stated coolly with a frown on his face.

 

"Alright I'll spit the truth kid. I do not trust her" Uncle Roy replied bluntly crossing his arms.

 

"Why? What has she done to get you to distrust her?" Michael questioned now folding his arms to mirror his uncle's stance.

 

"It is not her per say son look I have never told you this but I am mixed kid. I have Pakistan blood in my family which is why I am so biased against Asians. I was raised with my Pakistani family for first fifteen years of my life till my black mother was sick of their attitude towards the both of us. If my memory serves me right living in that home was hell brat I never identified with that side due to not being up to their standards alongside the constant teasing by my cousins. Thankfully my mother decided for us to leave when I was sixteen. We packed our things and left without a word.

 

It was hard enough to date when two sides of my identity did not find me attractive. I was too blackish for my Asian side and too pretty looking for the black sisters. Life was downright depressing till your aunt Jay met me years ago." Uncle Roy explained.

 

Michael sat floored by the information his uncle uprooted from his life. He did not expect to hear such the heart-breaking story from his lips. He always saw him as the wise and funny Man growing up but now realised he used his humour to hide his own pain from the family. Growing up he saw a tired yet strong black man always rocking a puff or rocking his silky afro tied back into a pun.

 

"Now I know why you claimed your afro uncle it all makes sense" Michael joked dryly leading Uncle Roy to laugh shortly in return to break the tense atmosphere.

 

"I never claimed that it was fake. My hair isn't thick like yours" Uncle Roy quipped back lifting his shoulder in a half shrug,

 

"Look uncle Roy, your family treated you like shit and I am glad you were able to move past their bullying to become the man you are today but that still does not stop you from projecting your hate on Eva either. I digress the problem is within you Uncle Roy. You have to let the pain from the past from your Asian side go.  Also please realise that not everyone from the Asian race is bad including my Eva. I'm going back to my room. Night uncle" Michael advised pushing back his seat to rise to his feet and walk out of the room.

 

Roy leaned into the chair pondering over his nephew's words, letting the words played over and over again in his mind. Unknowingly an hour passed when Aunt Jay walked past only to step back to see her husband in deep thought. Knowing her husband he would sit in that same position for hours without moving. Mind made up she stepped into the room to get him out of his head.

 

"Leroy? Are you alright?" Aunt Jay spoke gently shaking her husband out of his stupor watching him blink back into the present to see his wife bent to her knees expressing her concern.

 

"Don't worry so fucking much. I am fine Jay" Roy snapped slightly agitated not in the mood to explain what was going through his mind.

 

"When you are ready to stop sulking I will always be here for you to vent. Because I do not have the energy to snap back at you now that our child is growing inside me" she responded standing up to drag her husband back to their bedroom for the night where they both changed and went to bed.

-- Meanwhile --

 

Michael was laid down legs crossed over the other holding his pager texting back to the cheeky statements Eva was giving him. He wished he could speak to her on the phone but knowing how her crazy family is he was grateful for Paul suggesting pagers.

 

-It took you at least three times to use the pager right? After the first try I was using it so well.- Eva

 

Michael had a feeling Eva had a smug smile on her face after that text. Instead of getting annoyed he decided to try and throw back a clever comeback.

 

-I know you are smirking behind that screen but it will never beat the moment you found out about the types of burgers- Michael

 

-Bah- Eva

 

-Speechless hm?- Michael

 

-I am not speechless I'm just giggling at you- Eva

 

-Giggling at what- Michael

 

-One word spice- Eva

 

-You will never let that go- Michael

 

-Never but I think its time we go to bed Michael. I'm feeling sleepy- Eva

 

-Sweet dreams Eva- Michael.

 

-Good night Michael- Eva

 

Afterwards the pair went to sleep after their nightly routines.

 

Chapter End Notes:

I'm back from my dugeon of late updating sorry for the wait lol. In this chapter we get to learn about Uncle Roy's backstory and how his own nephew schools him and Paul gifts poor Eva a pager sigh isn't he a perfect gentleman Paul? XD.


Anyway tell me what you think about this chapter!.


Enjoy!

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