Chapter 390: Her Birthday
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
It seemed like she could still feel the warmth from the soft lips on her cheek.
Tanya touched her cheek and looked at the small, timid Mia in front of her. Suddenly, a feeling welled up in her—would it also feel like this if her child kissed her?
She s.p.a.ced out and kept quiet for a while.
Seeing her freeze, Mia became frightened. Her eyes reddened and she hastily asked, “Are you mad, Ms. Turner?”
Tanya didn’t know whether she should be angry or not.
In fact, she even felt like her decision to teach Mia dancing was a mistake in itself!
The child she had with Joel was missing.
Yet, here she was, teaching Joel’s daughter how to dance. In fact, when she kissed her, she hadn’t even pushed her away. It was as if she had already accepted her.
How could she do that?!
Tanya was originally helping Mia with her leg stretches, but she suddenly stood up. She wanted to say coldly, ‘Don’t kiss me again in the future.’
But when she looked at Mia’s round eyes and small pointed face, she simply couldn’t bring herself to say it. In fact, the words at the tip of her tongue even changed. She said, “No, I’m not.”
Mia nodded. “Then, are you happy?”
Tanya wanted to say that she wasn’t, but when she saw the hopeful look in Mia’s eyes, she instead replied impulsively, “Yes.”
Her answer made Mia’s eyes instantly light up.
She said timidly, “My mother said that I can’t kiss her so casually, Ms. Turner. She would also become unhappy if I made physical contact with her, so I thought you were unhappy, too. I only kissed you because I heard you say that you wanted a kiss. Are you really not mad at me?”
Her mother didn’t allow her to touch her?
Tanya was dumbfounded.
She didn’t know how other mothers behaved, but if it were her daughter, she would never tire of giving her kisses. Besides, whenever she was out, she always saw a lot of children who behaved very intimately with their mothers.
Little did she expect a tiny little girl like Mia to be so pitiful?
With that thought in mind, she said, “It’s true, I really am happy. Ms. Turner likes to keep close contact with children.”
“That’s great!”
Mia stood up straight and grabbed Tanya’s hand. She made her lower her head and then kissed her on the cheek again. She said, “I will make you happy every day from now on, Ms. Turner!”
She pursed her lips and gave her a bashful smile.
Tanya simply couldn’t bring herself to say any words of rejection when faced with such a well-behaved and adorable little girl!
She ruffled Mia’s hair and asked, “Doesn’t it hurt when you stretch?”
Mia immediately nodded. “It does!”
“Then why didn’t you say anything?” Tanya asked curiously.
After she decided to take Mia as her student, she had added an hour of cla.s.s for her after school every day. As there wasn’t a suitable location in the kindergarten, she had brought her to her home.
Fine beads of perspiration had formed on Mia’s forehead when she was dancing, yet she hadn’t complained about being tired.
After dancing, Tanya had even told her to do leg stretches.
One must always do their stretches properly after exercise. Besides, Mia was already five. To be honest, it was already a bit of a late start for a dancer because the body would no longer be flexible enough anymore. Thus, Tanya had also taught her a few difficult moves such as bending over backward.
Despite that, Mia hadn’t made even a single sound from beginning to end.
Just as she was wondering whether it was because the girl’s pain receptors were less sensitive than others, Mia replied, “I can’t complain that it hurts.”
Tanya was taken aback. “Why?”
When she was a child, she would always cry out even at the slightest bit of pain when she was practicing. This way, the teacher would show her some mercy.
Mia replied, “Because Daddy will be unhappy if I’m in pain. If Daddy is unhappy, Mommy will also be unhappy.”
Unhappy?
Tanya frowned. Suddenly, she started to feel sorry for the girl.
Although she lived in a wealthy family and had both her parents with her, she led too frustrating a life. While other five-year-olds from ordinary families were blissfully unaware, she didn’t even have the right to complain when she was in pain!
Tanya suddenly became a little angry with Joel.
How could he treat a child like that?
No matter what, children were angels of the world. They were the most innocent!!
Tanya said to Mia, “Mia, you can speak freely without holding back in Ms. Turner’s home in the future. If you’re tired from practice, you can say so. If you’re in pain because of stretching, you can also cry out. If you’re thirsty or hungry, you can tell me that too. I will prepare everything for you.”
Mia’s eyes lit up. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
Mia hesitated for a while. Then, she hung her head and asked somewhat embarra.s.sedly, “Then… can you bake me a cake?”
Bake her a cake?
Tanya found the request rather odd but nevertheless agreed. “You must be hungry after practicing for so long. Alright, let’s go downstairs.”
Tanya used to be really bad at housework, but when she went abroad and lived by herself, she had to cook for herself, so her culinary skills had improved over the years.
Baking a cake was no problem for her.
Sometime later, she walked out of the kitchen with a simple cupcake in her hands. She was a little embarra.s.sed as she said, “I can only bake simple stuff like this, Mia. You don’t mind, right?”
Mia immediately shook her head. “Of course not, Ms. Turner!”
Tanya smiled and said, “You can dig in now.”
Mia picked up the fork. She was about to eat when she suddenly said, “I’ll give you half, Ms. Turner.”
“No, it’s fine.”
A smiling Tanya went back to the kitchen and then came out with another cupcake. “I made a few. Come on, let’s eat!”
Mia stared at the cupcake. Suddenly, she clasped her hands together, closed her eyes, and seemingly thought about something. Only then did she start to eat the cupcake.
Tanya looked at her, feeling rather amused. The girl actually had the sense to say a prayer before eating.
The two of them dug into their respective cupcakes with gusto.
When Tanya saw the little girl’s cheeks all puffed up from eating, she felt a sense of accomplishment come over her, especially when Mia finished more than one cupcake from the batch she had baked.
She ate so much that even her belly had swelled up.
After they were done eating, she went to the kitchen to do the dishes. Then, she told Mia, “You can come here for dance practice every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in the future. You can go and play the rest of the time. You’re still young, so you shouldn’t restrain yourself.”
Mia pursed her lips and smiled at her as she nodded. “Okay, Ms. Turner.”
All of a sudden, the doorbell rang.
Tanya knew that it must be Joel here to pick Mia up.
She looked at the clock in surprise—sure enough, it was already seven. She hadn’t expected time to pa.s.s so fast. Somewhat reluctantly, she helped Mia carry her schoolbag and then walked over to the door.
Sure enough, Joel was standing outside when she opened the door.
Tanya didn’t look at him. Instead, she waved at Mia and said, “See you in school tomorrow, Mia~”
“Okie-Dokie. See you tomorrow, Ms. Turner~”
Mia took Joel’s hand after she spoke. Just as she was about to leave, she suddenly looked back at Tanya and said, “Thank you for the birthday cake today, Ms. Turner. It was really yummy!”
Birthday cake?
Tanya was taken aback. Then, she heard Joel say, “It’s Mia’s birthday today.”
Birthday…
Tanya felt like a bomb had suddenly gone off in her head.