A Step Closer to Love

“Wait no don’t call her,” Arabella said before Kieran could dial the number.

“We shouldn’t call her?” Ryder asked confused. “We have to get back to work now and you can’t stay alone. The doctor gave you some pain killers and they can make you drowsy so you need someone here with you”

“Yeah I know that but can one of you stay instead?” she asked pouting.

“Why?” Kieran asked. He was least interested but he had to know why she did not want his mom around. Was it perhaps related to what went on in the morning?

“Everly and my mom are very close. If she is aware that I hurt myself in less than two weeks of being here then my mom would be all over my case and Everly would be sad. I think I would be a bad child to make both moms worry about me” she explained.

Upon hearing her conclusion both men saw sense in what she said but how would they leave their work for the entire day?

“Please,” she said pulling the cutest face she could muster.

She could not stand a great scolding now. She had missed the opportunity to meet someone she greatly admired. Although she was told she would have plenty of more opportunities she still hated that she missed it.

Both moms scolding her would only make her day worse than it already was. Kieran sighed and slipped the phone back into his pocket. What could he do when he understood her plight?

“I guess I have to go back to work then,” Ryder said.

“I’ll go with you so I can pick up my car and come back here,” Kieran said.

Ryder stood up and dusted the imaginary dust off his trousers. “Ensure not to come into work until your leg is perfectly healed. There is no work to be rushed at this time so take your time to recover well or else I might be forced to revoke your employment”

The way Ryder narrowed his eyes made her a tad bit afraid. She nodded in agreement. Her legs hurt so badly that she doubted she would be able to walk well for a while.

“And if Aurora sends you any work while you are away tell me right away, I will discipline her” he added turning from the door.

She nodded but knew deep within her that she could not do it. How was she to rattle out her superior? She would have it more difficult than it was right now.

She watched Kieran’s back as he disappeared into the doorway. He said nothing and did not turn back.

She wondered inside herself if it was a good idea to have him with her. He barely spoke which meant she would have to entertain herself from within. She wished the drowsiness of the pain relief given to her would kick in immediately but she could not feel it yet.

“I need to tell Seraphina” she murmured as she took her phone from the stand beside her.

“Hello Sera”ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“Ara?? You are calling during work hours? Is something up?”

“Must something be up for me to call?” Arabella asked.

“Yes”

“What?”

“Don’t take it the wrong way but you don’t call or pick calls whenever you work. I remember your part-time job when you were in college. Mom thought something was wrong when you did not pick up”

“And she left me fifty-seven missed calls,” Arabella said.

Talking about those memories made her miss home all the more. She hated that she was away from home. If she was home she would have her two legs to herself.

“I am not at work anyway”

“I knew it, there is no way you could be at work and call me,” Seraphina said.

“Oh yay you know me too well,” Arabella said in a mocking voice.

“Are you already playing hooky? You’ve barely spent a month there”

Seraphina was kind of proud of her younger sister who had always been a stickler for rules. She always followed them to the latter. To hear that she skipped work was kind of a thing of joy to her.

“Well, I’m at the hospital,” Arabella said and the other end of the line went silent. Arabella waited for her sister to process the news.

“At the hospital? Doing what?” she asked quietly and gently returning the same energy the news was delivered with.

“Are you around Mom?”

Arabella was still not ready to get scolded by her mom. She knew her mom would pry and try to know the reason why she had that injury.

Being the goody too shoes she was she would spill and tell her in on all the secrets and then her mom would definitely scold her for foolishly jumping onto the top of a car without thinking about it.

She could hear her mom’s voice scolding and telling her that she always thought she was the wiser one. She shook he head to shake off the feeling of her mom breathing down her neck.

“No, I’m at work”

“Okay, so today Richard and Everly had a huge fight that made me very uncomfortable, and then Kieran said they fought because of me. I was mad and gave him a tiny piece of my mind and then I jumped over the hood of the car because I did not want to go to work with him” she said at once in a summary.

“What?”

“Yeah”

“You mean you made a rash decision? So rash that you even landed in a hospital?” Seraphina could not believe her ears. Her model student sister was suddenly acting strange.

“What made you act that way?”

“I don’t know. I guess I was so pissed that I felt overwhelmed? They have been fighting nonstop since I got here. Makes me wonder if our parents would have been that way if dad was still alive” she ended with a voice that said she was daydreaming.

“No one can tell but I know we would have loved it”

“Do you think if I move out I would still be able to call mom?” Arabella asked out of the blue.

She did plan to move out but she knew it was too soon.

“Is Crescent Bay doing something else to you?”