Chapter 127: Of Course You're Her Daughter...
But Camila, being the graceful adult she was, didn't take it to heart and just brushed it off, thinking that I was just a brash kid who didn't know what to and what not to say to a woman.
And not only was she not offended, she shook her head with a wry smile on her face and looked like she was going to give me advice as to not say such a thing to anyone else in the future so that I wouldn't be so ignorant anymore.
This also revealed to me her open-minded and kind-hearted nature that most older women possessed, which was the reason I loved them so much, unlike younger girls, who would hold a grudge for saying anything offensive about them for the rest of the time you spent with them, which was always a pain to deal with.
And just as she pointed her finger out and looked like she was going to lecture a student that had misbehaved in her class, I finished what I was trying to say, which made her freeze and look at me with a blank look on her face, like she had never expected in a million years for someone to say such a thing about her.
"...But who would've thought that instead of seeing the older woman that I was expecting to see like my mother had told me, I would see her daughter in her stead instead, which is also the reason I was so surprised when I saw you and not a middle-aged lady answering my call."
"D-Daughter? Who are you calling a daughter?"
Camila looked at me in a baffled manner, as if she didn't know how to make sense of this situation where someone assumed her to be her own daughter.
She then turned her pointed finger towards herself and asked, with uncertainty in her eyes,
"Are you telling me that you think that I'm the daughter of the older lady that's living here?...T-That is, you think that my mother is the one who talked to your mother yesterday?"
"Of course, who else would I be speaking about if it isn't you, unless there's someone who's hiding behind the door and listening to us speak?" I said as a matter of fact and craned my neck out towards the door, as I was checking just in case there was anyone behind her.
My statement and the genuine look I had on my face, as if I had never told a lie before, confused Camila even more, and she looked to be doubting her own hearing, as someone confusing her to be a young girl was a little too absurd for her reasoning ability.
But here I was, her new neighbour's son, looking at her with clear eyes as if I undisputedly thought she was as young as me and didn't doubt that notion one bit, which she didn't know what to make of since it was all so absurd.
After looking at me in confusion for a solid second, a comical smile popped up on her face while she looked at me in wonder, not knowing whether to laugh or cry at this situation that had never happened before.
And seeing that I actually looked to be thinking that she was a young girl made her impression of me increase so much higher than before, which was obvious with the way she was looking at me in a tender manner as if she were eyeing an innocent little boy that she wanted to spoil because of how cute he was.
Camila also seemed quite amused at the current situation she was in and looked like she wanted to take advantage of it as much as she could, since it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity where someone thought of her as a young girl when she was already at the age where she could even have a teenage daughter herself.
So to do that and play with me at the same time, she leaned on her door's frame and asked with a sly smile on her face, which gave off the energy of a mature adult joking around with someone much younger than them and easier to bully,
"Oh~ So you think that I'm the daughter of this household?...Then, what about me made you come to that assumption of me being the daughter and not the lady that spoke with your mother yesterday, if you don't mind me asking?"
"What kind of question even is that? How could I do something as dumb as confusing you to your mother?" I said as I raised an eyebrow, like I was asking her why she was asking me such an obvious question, which seemed to be the perfect response she was looking for, judging by how her lips were trembling in excitement right now.
And then, to boost her self-esteem a little bit more, I pointed at her and said, as if it all just made sense,
"I mean, just look at you...Tender smooth skin that doesn't have a wrinkle in sight, clear blue eyes that are brimming with energy, a lip so succulent that it looks like it had just been picked fresh from a tree, and overall a face that looks so beautiful and vibrant that I'm honestly feeling energised just by looking at it."
"...Would you see such perfect characteristics that scream 'youth', when you look at a middle aged woman?...No, never."
"That's why I'm still confused as to why you asked such a question when you're obviously your mother's daughter." I said in a confused manner while holding my chin, as if I were thinking of any hidden reason she asked me such an obvious question.
While I looked to be racking my mind over an answer, Camila was trying her best to maintain her steady and cool image. But it obviously wasn't working out, as I could clearly see the blush that was forming on her pale face and the corner of her lip that was twitching like she was trying her best to stop smiling like a goofball after being praised in such a way.
"Ahem~...But that still doesn't make sense." She cleared her throat and asked another question to make it difficult for me, not liking that she was the only one feeling conscious about what's happening when she was the adult here.
"Even if you say that you think that I look like a young girl, it still has nothing to do with why you think that I'm the daughter of the person your mother spoke to yesterday...I mean, couldn't I just be someone else that's not directly related to her who's staying in her house for a while?"
She looked like she was proud that she thought of a good question that could make me panic and fumble since I had been carefree this whole while, and looked forward to seeing how I would stutter.
But to her surprise, I didn't even think about what to say and immediately said,
"Oh, that wasn't really hard to figure out since my mother had told me that the lady next door was a gorgeous woman that she couldn't help but admire, and she kept on singing praises of her beauty." I made up some lies that my mother never said, which made Camila even more happy with the way she was tapping her finger against her arm.
"And when I saw how pretty you looked for the first time, it just clicked in my head that you must be Miss Alvarez's daughter since only someone as beautiful as your mother could give birth to a daughter who's just as gorgeous as her, since both of you share the same blood."
Camila seemed to be brimming with happiness in the moment and looked to be having the best day in a long time after hearing my words, as not only was I praising her as her own daughter, I was also flattering her actual self as well.
And while she looked to be in a merry mood, like she was listening to the sweetest music the world had to offer, I said like I just thought of something,
"...Actually, there was one more thing that I thought when I saw you, but-...No, never mind. Forget I said anything." I looked to be saying something secretive but suddenly cut myself off, like I realised that it wasn't something I should say to her, which made Camila look at me with a curious gaze in her clear eyes.
"No, please complete what you were trying to say. I want to hear everything you thought when you saw me." She quickly said, expecting me to praise her more, which she seemed really to enjoy.
But unlike what she was expecting, what I wanted to say was technically considered praise, but it was more focused on her 'physical aspects', and I couldn't wait to see how she was going to react when it's coming from a kid two decades younger than her.