Chapter 70: Family time

"Kids, you can’t do that" Selen said to the kids as they tried moving they tried to give themselves more monopoly money at the beginning of the game. "Why not? As long as we make the rules at the beginning, it stands" Diana insisted.

"Well sweetie, some rules are not meant to be broken, that’s what makes winning fun- knowing that you followed the rules and still won fair and square. Sure, some of them may be changed along the way, but that should not be because it favors you at that point" she said.

"Fine," Diana said in surrender. "But now you have to play with us, mummy," she added. "Sorry, I can’t play. Plus, it takes forever and I will hate to leave the game half way" she said, dodging the invitation. "Fine, scrabble then? Come on, join us mummy" Daniel said.

"Fine. Make room for me" Selen said and walked toward them. The kids adjusted and left her between Diana and Clancy. Their eyes met for a split second and both of them knew that the next few hours were going to carry a lot of those kinds of moments.

After the second triple word, everyone including Selen had loosened up and was now totally enjoying the game. "Xo is a word!" Clancy said insistently at his placement of his "x" plaque above a word that had an "o"

"No it isn’t!" Everyone said in between their fits of laughter. "Well, well, well," he said animatedly. "So, I get to use only regular words to seem fair, but you all are objecting to my use of a very familiar word that we all know!" Clancy objected as he tried to maintain a straight face.

"Use it in a sentence then" Selen challenged. "Fine. See you soon, xo xo" Clancy said proudly, making everyone resume their laughter. Clancy could no longer hold his in and joined them in laughing as well. "Fine, fine. You all win!" He said as he waved his hands dramatically in the air for surrender.

He then picked the plaque out of the board and replaced it with an "N". Everyone gasped at his action. "You had an N this whole time and you spent so much time defending xo?!" Selen said, calling him out.

Clancy shrugged his shoulders, "it was worth a shot" he said and they all went back to laughing.

Hours went by without anyone’s realisation. The kids had fallen asleep and left just Selen and Clancy to continue, then they began to use what the kids called big words. When they realised it was late was when Selen’s stomach made a loud grumble. She looked at the time and saw that it was almost midnight. "Oh no! We stayed up too late!" She said,

Clancy’s eyes darted to Selen and to where her eyes were and noticed the time on the wall clock. "We should get them to their rooms" he simply said. He and Selen then carried the children up the stairs, with Clancy carrying both boys at once.

After tucking them in, Selen’s stomach grumbled loudly again. "Let’s get you dinner before I leave" Clancy said and walked out of the door, leaving Selen to follow behind him. "That was my first time tucking them in," Clancy pointed out to Selen as he walked down the stairs. She nodded slowly even though she knew that he could not see her.

They walked to the kitchen where he opened the fridge to scavenge what he could while Selen silently just silently took a seat on one of the kitchen stools.

"Salad or sandwich?" he asked her as he held up the loaf of bread and the plate of already prepped salad. Selen pondered on it and then responded.

"Sandwich" she said with her lower lip between her teeth. He nodded in acknowledgement and went for it. He laid out the bread and picked out the lettuce from the salad bowl.

"Mustard?" He asked and she got down from her stool and opened the cupboard that carried the dressings. Clancy continued from where he stopped and she just let him and watched him.

"And voila, here you are, a plate of Clancy’s special sandwich" he said and slid the plate toward her. Selen looked at the surprisingly good looking sandwich and dove in. Her eyes opened in surprise as she tasted it.

Clancy smiled proudly at her expression. When she managed to speak, "wow," was what she said. "Impressive right?" he asked and Selen nodded in response. "Why does it taste so different in a good way? Like it has both sweet and healthy components at the same time. And is that chocolate I taste?" She said at once and went for another bite.

"That is because it does have chocolate," he said, confirming her taste buds. Then he told her a bit about how he got so good at making an ordinary sandwich into a tasteful snack,

"Some years ago, I once had to live with my grandpa for a while before he died. And he was on a strict diet. So since he could not eat lots of things that he wanted, I found an alternative.

One of the things that he was sick with was diabetes. So I made him stay a whole day without any form of sugar, and his reward was this- a regular sandwich with a small drizzle of chocolate syrup as his reward. But our plan was not long lived since his nurse found out and explained to me how my sugar distribution system was not as full proof as I had thought.

I remember how he cursed at her and called those days the days that made him want to stay alive" Clancy said, finishing with a small chuckle. Selen had finished an entire half of the sandwich as he spoke.

Then, she extended the other half to him. "Here, have this" she said to him. "Would you really let me have the entire half? I thought you loved it" he said to her.