Bitterly Sweetly (Completed)

Chapter Fifty : Dreams and Disasters

Max had fallen in love with the photo the moment he laid his eyes on it. His secretary had awed at the sight of his doofus grin.

With a scissor, he had then proceeded to cut out the photo and tucked it inside the law-book he kept close-by the most. Since then, it became his sacred routine to stare at the photo every once in a while every day.

Sofia called it "ogling laws".

She would even make minimal noises around him during those ogling sessions of his, thinking he was revising laws, when in reality he just gawked at his wife's photo holding a toddler, and wonder how it would look like when she would, one day, hold their own.

Debbie arrived with his breakfast then. Hurriedly, he closed the book and put it aside with a smile. When Debbie left, absentmindedly he ran his fingers on the hard cover of the book.

Their first night together as truly man and wife, it would be an understatement to describe it as overwhelming. Way beyond control was his hunger; his passion; his madness to love her like a man loves a woman - in the most intimate way, in the most primal way. Heavens knew since how long he'd been holding himself at bay while loving her and longing for her love in secrecy. It had felt like he was cutting his own limbs apart, each day, bit by bit and ever so slowly, and all that while keeping a smile of utter patience and calm in front of her – well, most of the time.

Therefore, when that moment had finally come, when he could take her and in return give himself to her as well while having the chance to, at last, show, to what extent he had always loved her, it was unsurprising that he had forgotten about protection.

He was scared when he realized.

Not because he didn't want a child, it was because he was wary of what Sofi's reaction about the prospect of being with a child would be.

And his fear was proven logical seeing Sofi freaking out and counting the days to her impending woman's time of the month. He was grateful then for mastering the skill of putting on a blank face. For if he had let loose the excitement on his face, Sofi would have probably felt pressured and that was the last thing he ever wanted.

Sure, he wished to have a child, a little someone he and Sofi would be able to call their own. Starting a family, a future with the woman he loved was what he craved to experince in reality, and not just in his dreams. But all that he wished for could never exceed the wish to see his Sofi in the utmost happiness.

Sofia Hayden was like a free bird with her own pair of independent wings, he would rather die than ever witness her ripped off of those feathery freedom of hers and imprisoned within the name and demands of Wilder and marriage.

He would remain happy as long as she returned home to him after her daily ventures across the sky. It was because he wanted to be her nest and never her cage.

Surely he would also be hounding after her to see if she was safe, surely he would stress and scream and frustrate her to no end along the way.

For love is not just sweet words, mind-blowing kisses and sleeping together for an eternity, love is also sour differences, mindless conflicts and making up.

--

Max pulled over his car at the parking of the Wilders. Striding up the stairs to the entrance, he returned the greeting of the guard on duty and walked in.

The receptionist, a skinny girl with a sullen face, dramatically did a double take and beamed at the sight of him, her eyes checking out the entirety of his physic in the meanwhile.

Max politely smiled back.

Did they not know that he was a married man?

He inwardly sighed, but then his eyes trailed off towards the right and fell on their common room. There were a TV, some games and a coffee vending machine in the common room where employees took little recreational breaks every once in a while.