Ricardo's POV:

"Alright. Now we have to put the tray in the oven." I told Nico, who was sitting on the counter top; his hair messy with flour and melted chocolate chips on his lips.

"Okay, Daddy." He said, picking up the tray with his little hands.

"No, no. I'll do that." I said, stopping him from doing it.

He retracted his hands and I picked the tray up, placing it in the oven since I had already preheated the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit ten minutes back, at least that's what the recipe said.

When I did, I turned behind and saw my son licking his fingers, eating off the cookie dough left on his hands. I smiled and picked Nico up, carrying him out of the kitchen and into his room to give him a shower.

Once I finished giving him a shower, I stated clothing him into a new pair of pajamas but he stopped me. And I just stood there, astounded by his next sentence.

"I don't want to wear pajamas. I want to go to Xia's house."

"Why? What's wrong?" I asked him, wondering why he would want to meet her late in the evening.

"I want to give her cookies." He smiled, making the dimples on his face appear; something that he had inherited from me.

"Alright. We'll go." I agreed and wrapped the towel around his waist. If I'm being honest, I wanted to see Xia too.

When I had told her about Luciana, I felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders and I'm not sure why I had opened up to her in the first place.

Also, being in her embrace made me feel something that I can't exactly put into words.

Walking into his closet, I chose a yellow colored hoodie with black overalls to pair it with. Nice.

I went back into the bathroom and dressed him up. Since his hair was still damp, I blow dried it with warm setting on the blow dryer, not wanting to damage his hair. I then ran my hands through his curly hair to style it.

Since it had already been ten minutes, I went to downstairs to the kitchen and took the tray out of the oven.

"Can I have one?" A voice asked. I looked down and saw my son looking up at me with pleading eyes.

"They're still hot, Nico. We'll have to wait for a while." I replied.

"Okay." He sighed and I went upstairs to get ready after telling him not to touch the cookies nor the tray to which he agreed.

Twenty minutes later, I was dressed up in a casual black tee paired with a black jeans after having a quick shower. And if you couldn't tell yet, my favorite color is black.

When I went downstairs, I saw my son running up to me.

"Let's go!" Nico said, dragging me towards the main door by holding my hand.

"Nico, wait. We haven't taken the cookies yet." I said, stopping him.

He looked up at me and smiled sheepishly. I swear, he is so adorable when he does things like that.

He ran back to the kitchen and I followed him. When I entered, the amazing aroma of a warm and fresh chocolate chip cookies filled my senses.

I saw the tray of cookies placed on the counter. It looked untouched.

Then, I walked over to the counter with Nico who was trying to look at the cookies by standing on his toes. He couldn't see because he was only about 3'5.

Picking him up, I placed him on the counter so that he could see now. I'm not gonna lie, these cookies look really good.

Seeing that Nico's eyes were glued onto the tray in front us, I took a cookie and fed him.

I expected him to love them but instead he just smiled a little. "It's nice but I like Xia's better."

Confused at his reaction, I took a bite too and nodded, agreeing with him. I mean, they were good, but not as good as Xia's.

Yes, I eat those cookies too. I never really liked cookies but after I tried them on the day she left some for Nico, I haven't been able to stop eating them.

The batch she had given us got over which was why we tried making them today.

"I want to give Xia." He said, snapping me out of my thoughts."Alright."

I collected a few cookies and put them in a container to take. I put Nico back down on the floor and held the container in my hand.

Minutes later, I parked in front of Xia's apartment with Nico in the backseat. As we got out, he started jumping with joy.

"I'm going to meet Xia! I'm going to meet Xia! I'm going to meet Xia!" He exclaimed in a sing-song voice.

I chuckled at his excitement and held his little hand in mine. We walked into the apartment complex and just as we were about to enter the lift, I realized that I didn't know the apartment number.

Great. Now I'll have to call her and ruin the element of surprise.

I thought of calling Callum but decided against it. When I first met Xia, I had asked Callum to do a background check on her because I wanted to be sure about letting her anywhere near Nicolas.

When the results came back, I didn't see the file he had given me but only asked if she had a criminal record, to which he replied with a 'no'.

I didn't want to know everything about her by literally stalking her. That's just an invasion of privacy that is not necessary. I wanted her to tell me; wanted her to trust me for some reason. A reason that is still unknown to me.

Huffing, I dialed her number.

"Hello!" She chirped into the phone.

"Hey, um..what is your uh..apartment number ?" I asked, a little lost for words.

What just happened ? Why am I nervous all of a sudden ? What's wrong with me ?

"Why ?" She asked.

But before I could answer, she said, "819."

"Okay. I'll be there soon. Bye!" I said quickly, not allowing her to say anything further.

"Let's go!" I told Nico and off we were.

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