Loving Him

Chapter 23

She'd sent the address to Eliza the day before but with her phone off, she probably wouldn't be able to locate the house. Sophie silently prayed for that to be the case even though she was lowkey pissed that Eliza could have been so careless to let her battery die 'cause she assumed that was what had happened.

Her prayers seemed to have been answered because for a couple hours after that, there was no delivery. And after a while, she began to relax. A new plan had formed instead: talk to Alex and make him open up to her.

Her thoughts were occupied with how she was going to go about that and unaware, she fell into a blissful sleep. What woke her up however, was the sound of the doorbell ringing. She grudgingly sat up, yawning and disoriented. She chanced a glance at the clock to see it read 3:24 p.m.

3:24?! She jolted awake fully, her eyes wide in realization. How exactly had she slept that long? The doorbell interrupted her thoughts again and she stood up after yelling, "Coming!"

She walked over to the door and opened it to reveal a petite young woman that didn't look much older than she was holding a rectangular shaped cake box.

"Hi. Sophie?" She asked, smiling. They'd never met in person but Sophie had seen a few pictures of her and recognized her as Eliza.

"Yes, and you must be Eliza," Sophie replied, although she knew very well that it was her.

"Yes, I am," Eliza confirmed, smiling. Then she launched into an barrage of explanation before Sophie could get another word in. "I'm so sorry that I'm late with your delivery. My phone battery died and electricity at our side is just so awful, thank goodness I wrote the address down somewhere and I underestimated the traffic getting here, it was massive and--"

"It's okay," Sophie declared, cutting off her ranting. She didn't entirely believe Eliza's story but she didn't like her running mouth even more. Sophie sensed Eliza was going to be a bit of a blabbermouth. "Actually, I tried calling you to see if you could deliver the cake to Ama instead but since you're here already..." She trailed off with a shrug.

"Oh? I'm so sorry, Sophie," Eliza said, a look of remorse plastered all over her face.

Sophie felt she was indeed remorseful and couldn't find it in her to be pissed so she nodded, stretching her hands out for the cake which Eliza gently placed in her arms. "It's fine really. I'll transfer the balance to you immediately."

"Don't bother with that. I owe you for my lateness and all."

Sophie raised her brows at her, a smile making it's way unto her face. She could see clearly Eliza didn't mean it and was only saying that to make Sophie feel better so Sophie decided to humor her. "Oh, no, that's fine. I'm not going to be needing the cake till evening anyway."

Eliza's face lit up, unable to hide her happiness. "Thanks, Sophie, really."

"No need to thank me, it's your balance," she teased making Eliza laugh. "Take care, then."

"Bye Sophie. Thanks for your patronage," Eliza replied with vigor.

"Bye," Sophie replied with a nod before stepping back in and closing the door. She settled back down on the couch and placed the cake beside her before opening it. It was a plain white rectangular cake with 'Happy Birthday, Alex' written on it with blue coloring but it was so simple and pretty Sophie loved it.

Did she really want to hide it from Alex? It was beautiful. Could he really reject such a kind gesture?

She was still contemplating on her options, unable to reach a decision when Raymond arrived back from work with his signature smile and cheery greeting.

"Hey, Raymond. You're back from work early today, hope all is well?" She teased.

He grinned back at her. "That's just the way it is today. Where's Alex?"

"Out," she replied simply.

"Of course," he muttered, sighing then his gaze caught on the cake beside her, "No way..." He stepped closer to get a better view. He groaned, covering his face with his right hand in exasperation. "Please tell me that's not a birthday cake, Sophie."

"Uh... But it is?" She replied although it sounded more like a question, scratching the back of her head and taking on an innocent expression.

"Sophie, what am I going to do with you? Didn't I tell you not to do anything like this?" He sounded pissed, not so much but enough that she could sense it. And it was rare to see Raymond angry.

She felt like a child being reprimanded for doing something bad. But then, maybe she was. "In my defence, I was going to cancel the order?" That excuse sounded weak even to her ears.

"Alex's going to freak," was his response.

"But why exactly?!" She whined, tired of the whole secrecy thing. Why couldn't anyone just give it to her straight?

The universe was definitely not on her side because who decided to get back home right then? Yep, Alex and he wasn't looking thrilled.

In their panicked state, neither Sophie nor Raymond thought about hiding the cake from him so he saw it almost immediately, in all of it's cake-ish glory.

Sophie waited on bated breath for him to say or do anything. Yell, smash the cake and demand why she'd gone ahead and made one despite the fact he'd made it clear that a celebration was the last thing he wanted.

What she wasn't expecting was total indifference, but that was what she got. He glared at the cake so hard she feared it was going to go up in flames then turned the glare on her, making her cower slightly behind Raymond. He then turned and went upstairs without any word to either of them.

Sophie understood right there that silence could indeed speak more than a thousand words.

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I was initially going to make Alex yell and all but then I realized that wasn't Alex-like. Do you guys agree with me?

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Show your support, fam❤.