Important note: Don't rush to make assumptions yet. I know what you are thinking, and no, Grant's not the one she called. Enjoy! And, I don't mind the critics actually, but an f word about the character is hard to pass by. Love ya!
***
2 years later...
Blue skies, green leaves on the trees and chirping birds were enough to make a day good and peeaceful for Alexandra. She had waited for a year and a half for this very day to come and now, she couldn't even describe the joy she had felt ever since she had woken up from her sleep this morning.
There, she stood on the tarred road looking up to the building painted in royal blue and baby pink. It was her dream came true to finally own a bakery. Today was the big opening and she couldn't wait for customers to fill her bakery, having a bite on the sweet and delicious baked goods with various kinds of drinks served in her new bakery.
"Alexandra, come! We are ready for the photo." Rae said from the doorway.
Rae was one of her employees who had recently graduated from high school with a valedictorian. She came from a low-class family and needed money to provide for her sick mother and her little brother who's now in elementary school. Alexandra had met Rae at a nearby supermarket when she had went down to buy some groceries for dinner.
She had come upon Rae who stood on the pavement, looking directly into the supermarket with a longing look on her face. When she was asked, Rae had tried to flee away from her but instead failed to do so since Alexandra had captured her arm in her hands. She then had come clean about her life and how she had no money to buy her family food and medicines.
Ever since then, Alexandra had helped Rae in the most possible ways she could in order for her to complete her studies and eventually be able to provide for her family on her own without having to lose her little brother to the social workers.
"So, have you receive any letters from the universities you applied to?" Alexandra asked as she sipped on her latte.
Rae nodded, "I had two from Oxford and LSE."
"That's good! I know you are one smart lady. Which one would you choose?"
"I'm not sure yet. Maybe I'll just stay here and work at the bakery for a year then continue my studies. Jojo needs me anyway." she explained.
I sighed and stared at her for a while. She had her head down as she fiddled her fingers looking guilty all of a sudden.
"Nonsense. I can take care of Jojo and Lola while you are not here. Your studies should not be put to stop." Alexandra scolded Rae softly. "It's best for you and I know your mother would love for you to be successful one day. It would be devastating for her to find out that she's the one who holds you back from all your dreams."
Rae nodded as she hugged her tightly in her arms. A few seconds later, someone snapped them out from their moment with a cough.
"I thought we have stopped mourning over Rae's pet cat's death."
Alexandra chuckled and got up from her seat to hug the tall, fair-skinned man. He softly pressed his lips against her rose, plump lips before doing the same on her temple. Rae had sneaked away from the both of them and back into the kitchen leaving just the two of them at the table.
"Do you want some tea?" Alexandra asked while putting some cream puffs onto the plate.
Grant hummed, "Chamomile, please."
After serving the tea in front of him, Alexandra sat down beside him as Grant circled her waist with his left arm.
"I thought you couldn't make it today." she said, munching on the cream puff.
"Father had granted me with a day off this morning. He said you could use some of my support with the grand opening of the bakery." He said with a smile on his face. "How's your head? No headaches or anything?"
"You can stop asking me that, now. All the pain had stopped a year ago, remember?"
"I can't help it. It's my job to care about people."
"I'm fine, Dr. Carson."
He chuckled and continued to sip on his tea while devouring the handmade cream puffs. Alexandra watched in amusement as the man in front of her didn't take a minute to take a breath nor stop munching on the cream puffs made by her especially for the special day.
She raised her left brow, "Hey, take it easy on the puffs."
Squinting his eyes tightly, Grant laughed in response with his mouth still full of the delicious pastry. He took a playful glance at her before sneaking his hand towards the plate just to have another one, or maybe another two and three of them since he had skipped his breakfast that morning when the hospital had summoned him for a sudden emergency surgery that early dawn.
Alexandra shook her head while amusingly watching Grant kept on sneaking another and another puffs into his mouth. Pulling herself up from the seat, she disappeared through the door that led to the kitchen before coming back out with a pink bag hanging on her arm.
As he watched Alexandra slowly approaching him with the bag and a sneaky smile on her face, Grant swallowed the cream puffs quickly and sipped his tea.
"Here!" Alexandra smiled as she pushed the bag full of containers towards him.
Grant was eyeing the bag like a predator when all of a sudden his eyes glinted with pure happiness. He quickly pushed a kiss onto Alexandra's cheek before arranging all the containers onto the table in orderly manner.
There, lined up in front of him, were containers of food Alexandra had packed that morning after Grant had left for work. For a moment there, she almost bursted into laughters if it weren't for the customers in the bakery when she had witnessed the imaginary tears that Grant had pretended to wipe with his fingers as he stared at the containers full of food.
He gasped in awe, "You even cut the crust the way I love my sandwich to be! Mashed potatoes, I always love your mashed potatoes!"
"I told you to eat your dinner before you lie down on the bed." Alexandra scolded him softly.
Listening to her scolding, Grant smiled sheepishly at Alexandra while shoving a spoonful of mashed potatoes into his mouth, savouring the soft texture of the creamy goodness.
He had come back late the night before feeling all tired after the hectic life at the hospital. Alexandra had been a sweetheart for preparing dinner for him and had shouted from the kitchen for him to come and sit at the dining table before walking into the bedroom.
Yes, he was hungry, but the hearts wants what it wants. He had fallen asleep on the bed in his work clothes having no care about the world as he dozed off throughout the night until his phone had rung at dawn that morning. As a result, his stomach had been empty since the night before until now and to see the food Alexandra had brought for him just now was a great happiness to his stomach and heart.
Gulping down his tea one last time, a grateful smile graced Grant's face as he grinned towards Alexandra in a child-like manner. He leaned in his body against Alexandra's, savouring the warm heat from her body as he sniffed in her vanilla scent.
"Before I forget, father invited us for a dinner tonight. Mother had been pestering him about it, complaining about not getting to spend time with you that much like before." Grant stated.
The laughters Alexandra emitted brought wonderful joy he had longed to experience as he softened his gaze while watching Alexandra's flushed face. Never had he hoped for this day to come - even far from longing it - but came in Alexandra in his life two years ago had been a blessing in his life after the death of his fiancée.
She had brought an immense of joy and happiness in his life and his parents were thankful and grateful that Alexandra had made a presence in their lives. Her presence in the family had welcomed a lot of sunshine and blue skies in their lives that had long vanished throughout those many years before.
Grant smiled softly as he continuously bore his eyes into Alexandra's brown ones. "I love you, Alexandra. I truly do with all my heart."
The laughters died down as Alexandra brought her right hand and palmed Grant's left cheek with full of love. The love his eyes had shown brought a great warm feeling to her heart as she ran her fingers through his hair at the back of his head. The action had Grant closing his eyes and sighing in pleasure, loving the delicate feeling of Alexandra's fingers brushing through his hair and scalp.
"I love you too." She whispered softly as she enclosed the gap between them, resting her forehead against his.
Click!
Grant and Alexandra were snapped out of their stare when a picture of them was taken by none other than Rae. She was giggling in awe, and so were the rest of the bakery's employees. Some of the customers even snapped a picture and typed something on their phone before bursting into a fit of giggles, mostly the girls.
Grant laughed, "Looks like we have become the center of attention."
"I'll print this and put it on the wall with the rest of them!" Rae stated before skipping into Alexandra's office to print the picture she just took.
Alexandra groaned while Grant just chuckled and turned his head to face the wall at the back where they were seated. A smile graced his lips as his eyes zoned into all of the pictures hanged on the wall in a collage manner. All of them were pictures of him and Alexandra that were taken by Rae each time they looked at each other lovingly and sometimes even laughed at each other's silly jokes.
The girl really had a knack in capturing these wonderful moments happening between the both of them.
"It's okay, Alexandra." Grant said and rubbed soothing circles on her back. "I love them. It's a nice reminder of how much I love you ever since you appeared in my life. Our life."
She smiled softly, followed by her eyes that were twinkling with full of love towards the man who has been there through ups and downs in her life. Waking up after seventy-two hours of anaesthetic induced sleep two years ago, his unattended and full of stubble face greeted her vision the first time she had opened her eyes.
She remembered clearly how the corner of his eyes were crinkled up immediately when he had noticed she was staring at him openly. The joy on his face was so visible when he had lunged towards her from the couch where he had lied down before. Recalling back the memories, she giggled funnily while clutching onto Grant's warm hands.
"What?" Grant asked amusedly.
"I remember how awful you look when I woke up on the hospital bed. Your hair was tousled and very wild, and so does the dress shirt you had on at that time. I was waiting for you to speak a word but all you did was shedding tears at my bedside while burrying your head onto my chest." She said.
Attentively listening, Grant chuckled together with Alexandra. "You got me worried for not waking up for three days."
As the day went by, Alexandra had bid her goodbyes to all the workers as she locked the door to the bakery. Each and everyone of her workers have their own side of the story that had yet to be shared and Alexandra was more than happy to take them in as her loyal workers despite of their broken and tainted past lives.
She took her time to drive home where Grant was waiting. He had went home a few hours after conversing with her at the bakery to revive his energy from the overnight's sleep deprived.
A sight of Grant in his white dress shirt covered with a slick baby blue blazer with beige khaki pants greeted her when she first entered their loft. He was so busy observing the chest radiograph in his hand to even notice her presence in the loft.
"Hey, what are you up to?" She asked him as she placed a chaste kiss on his cheek.
"Just observing my patient's x-ray. He had a few broken ribs after taking a blow from his opponent during friendly match." He mumbled, not taking his eyes of the radiograph.
"Okay. Just give me fifteen minutes to get ready."
Exact to her words, Alexandra was clad in a midnight blue knee-length evening gown while her hair was put up in a tight ponytail. That's the thing he loved about her, she always keeps it simple and elegant without having to try hard dressing up. Albeit, if she had chose to do so, he wouldn't be complaining because every women deserves to feel pretty and confident about themselves.
By the time they reach his parents' abode, Grant's beloved mother, Patricia, had engulfed them in a big warm hug before shooting a thousand questions towards Alexandra about her health and well-being. Both Grant and his father, Jerry, stood by their significant others keeping quiet and attentively listening to the women's chattering.
Patricia pouted as she glared at her son, "Don't be selfish and keep her to yourself, Grant. It's been a long time since we last having dinner together."
Jerry laughed while Grant remained flabbergasted. He frowned upon his mother's remark before turning himself towards his love. "You do realise that we just had dinner together over a week ago, right mom?"
"What? That is long enough. It's been like seven days already and I need my Alexandra to go decorating with me."
Before Grant could reply to his mother, Patricia was more quick to snatch Alexandra from Grant's grasp when the both of them walked ahead of the two men left behind. Patricia was too busy telling her son's girlfriend about her clients to even care about her husband and son who were standing there, not being attended by Patricia.
"Your wife steals my girlfriend from my hands." Grant mumbled incoherently but Jerry was more than quick to catch what he was trying to say.
Jerry chuckled, "Don't mind your mother, son. She's just missing Alexandra for not being there with her to go shopping for decorations. You know your girlfriend always gives the best advice when it comes to decorating her clients' place."
"I understand." Grant said as they walked side-by-side towards the dining area. "Don't worry. I'll make sure to bring Alexandra every now and then after the bakery close if I do have spare time on my hands."
He smiled as he looked at Grant's loving stare towards the woman beside his wife. Alexandra was chatting animatedly with his wife to even notice that Grant was staring at her with lots of love from the bar situated in the corner of the room.
"She does brings a lot of happiness into the family, doesn't she?" He stated, swirling the bourbon in his glass.
Grant hummed, "She does. I have never feel so in love with someone after Serena died. I thought I could never find someone as close to Serena, but here she was standing in front of me looking so vibrant and beautiful."
Just then, Alexandra looked away from the plates and towards Grant as she smiled sweetly at him. He was startled at first, but smiled back before approaching the love of his life. He slowly took out his left hand from his pants' pocket and rested it on the back of Alexandra's hip.
"Do you need some help?" He whispered softly.
Alexandra smiled, "No, I'm good. Here, sit down." She pulled out a chair for him.
Before Alexandra could leave, Grant immediately pulled onto her hand and tugged her towards him. Alexandra gasped in surprise as she landed on Grant's lap. Her cheeks were now in a shade of pink hue as she felt the heat risen. The man quickly pressed a kiss on her lips, ignoring the presence of his father who was now witnessing the scene in front of him.
The kiss got deeper and Alexandra's hands were now clutching tightly onto the lapel of his blazer. They pulled apart a few minutes after, sucking in some air as they tried to catch their own breaths. Alexandra's face was flushed and her lips were swollen from the kiss.
"What was that for?" She whispered sensually.
Grant smiled and snuggled into her neck. "Je t'aime, mon amour."