My Gift To You | Herophine Fic

One or Two?

JOSEPHINE

I didn't eat anything until the following dinner time after Martha's mountain of a Sunday roast. It's been way too long since I had one of those, but Martha's have always taken the gold medal for Sunday roasts. I remember when my Mum and Dad tried to do one; they burned pretty much everything and the veg was really overdone. We ended up having a late-night pizza for dinner that night. In school the following day, I was so jealous when Hero told me he'd had one of his Mum's roasts the night before.

Hero and I drove home back to mine during the sunset. He took a detour that took us over Tower Bridge so we could see the sunset over the Thames. With all the hustle and bustle of London, it's really easy to forget about how beautiful this old city really is. The sun was going down, already half-submerged by the river, on its way to my family, down under. I smiled as we saw the view, even if it was only for a few stolen seconds. If we could have gotten out on the bridge I think we would have.

As there's nowhere to park around my building unless you have the garage entrance code - which I don't - Hero stopped quickly outside of the entrance and turned the engine off. The soft purr coming to a sudden halt. He came around to my side of the car, and took me into his strong, warm arms. As I hugged him back a smile crept across my face as I laid my head to the side, inhaling his citrus and bergamot scent. How can someone smell so good? He tightened his hold on me, so I did the same and we just stood there on the street, a cool breeze whipping against us both, causing my hair to blow around us both.

"Thank you for coming today," his voice was soft, caring. I didn't want him to pull away or let go of me, his warm arms shielding me from the gathering breeze.

"Thank you for inviting me. Still on for Tuesday?"

"Wouldn't miss it. Get inside, it's getting colder," He placed a soft kiss on the top of my head and allowed me to walk away. I looked over my shoulder, just before going inside feeling partially empty as I see him head to the driver side of the car. I should have invited him inside. Our eyes met one last time before he ducked his head and got into the Tesla.

***

It's now been 13 days since my embryo transference and I've still not had any symptoms. Not that Dr. Chambers told me I would, but I would have thought maybe something would have shown or I would have noticed a change, maybe somewhere. I've not noticed a change in my smell, what I want to eat or anything. I suppose no news is good news though, right? I can take my pregnancy test tomorrow morning and rather than have any distractions about the result, I've decided to dedicate my day to it tomorrow so I'm finishing work at 1pm today and having tomorrow off. Whether the result is positive or negative, I know I won't be in any fit state to work.

I respond to a few emails in the last minutes of my shift, tying off loose ends before I turn my out of office on and close my laptop down for the weekend. My boss, Emily knows my reasons, but I've decided to leave it as just me and her. She knows about my treatment plan and what I've gone through and all the way through it has been nothing but flexible and understanding about it.

"Have a good weekend Josephine," I nod, wishing her the same and head to the elevator to go down to the foyer. When I arrive, I'm surprised by a figure stood at the front desk, talking to one of our receptionists. Dressed in a white polo shirt and skinny fit jeans, crisp white Air Force Ones on their feet. What's he doing here?

"Hero?" I'm surprised to see him, shouldn't he be teaching? Does he actually teach students?

"There you are. Surprise," he smiles at me, that dimple appearing on his face. I smile as I walk over to him.