Chapter 14 Sweet Looking Chocolates

• "Miranda. Wake up. Hey."
• I groaned inwardly, stretching a little bit and realized that I had fallen asleep as soon as I began to feel someone moving me. I slowly flutter my eyes open and see Lettie waking me up. I stretched my arms out above my head and pulled myself up. "What time is it?" I asked while yawning.
• "It's already six in the morning."
• I stared at my watch and it really is morning already. I looked around and saw nobody inside the room. "Where's Mrs. Anne?" I asked Lettie nervously.
• "She's having her CT-Scan at the moment."
• "And Mr. Saintclare?"
• She smiled at me quickly. "He went out to buy something."
• “Something?” I barked.
• “Mm-hmmmmm..” She grinned at me.
• I looked around and noticed that I was on the couch which caused my eyes to widen quickly because I was lying down on the same couch where Hugo sat down last night doing all his work. I don't remember sleepwalking to the couch last night at all. And, as a matter of fact, I don't, I never, ever sleepwalk. And I don't even remember that I had fallen asleep last night, either.
• I stared at myself and noticed that a black blazer was placed over me. It was covering me from the cold last night, I think? I sniffed it and it smelled a strong scent of a man’s perfume which is kind of a better smell than coffee in the morning because this was Hugo’s blazer. Oh the urge of wanting to hug his clothes right now is overflowing. But I can't because Lettie is here with me and that would be embarrassing. Moreover, I know she is already suspecting of something because of this stupid blazer on me.
• She quickly sat down next to me and moved me with her shoulder. "So what happened last night?" She asked curiously, grinning as she tried to grab the blazer from me and sniffed it as well. “Oh shit, it smells like a thousand dollar perfume.” She muttered.
• My brows creasing. "What do you mean what happened last night?"
• "Oh come on Miranda, Hugo Saintclare literally choose you instead of Mara to guard his mother for the entire night.”
• “And?” I barked.
• “And that means something. It's impossible that nothing happened." She whined.
• "Well, except for that Starbucks coffee that he bought me, nothing else happened." I told her honestly.
• She smacked my shoulder with her hand. "Liar.”
• “I am not.”
• “How come he chose you?”
• “How would I know?” I asked her back.
• “You two might have a connection or something." She wiggled her brows at me.
• "Lettie.” I hollered. “I don't know what exactly you want to hear from me but all I did last night was guard his mother while he was busy typing on his laptop. That was it."
• I pulled myself up from the couch and started folding Hugo’s blazer as perfectly as I could. I carefully placed it on top of Mrs. Anne’s bed while Lettie was forcing me to tell her about the juicy details that happened last night.
• Juicy? Nothing special happened last night. Nothing that I hope for.
• "Lettie stop annoying me with what I should tell you because there's nothing. Mind your own business." I told her, annoyingly.
• She sighed heavily, sounding defeated.
• "And your shift's about to end. Go home." I told her but gasped as soon as I remembered, "Speaking of home, I need to go pick up my son and drive him to school. I really have to go, Lettie. Please tell Mrs. Anne and Mr. Hugo that I had to leave before telling him. Bye!"
• "Take care Miranda!"
• I walked out of the room and rushed to the pantry to grab all of my things then rapidly ran to the parking lot. When I got inside my car, I drove to Vivian's to pick my son up as quickly as I could. As soon as I arrived, I grabbed some clothes disinfectant to avoid my son from contracting any diseases from my shift. As I was about to get to her house, Ben was all ready out when I marched my way to the front door.
• "Mommy!" He chimed and ran towards me. “Mom!! You are here!”
• I opened my arms for him and hugged him as tight as I could. I kissed his hair and squatted down in front of him, trying to look as apologetic as I could because I did feel sorry for what happened. "Didn't mommy tell you not to hug me when I come from a night shift?" I told him.
• He pouted. "I am sorry. I just missed you so much, mom. I was so scared last night t. You weren't here when I woke up."
• "I'm sorry sweetheart. Mommy was just busy at the hospital last night. But are you ready for school?"
• He nodded. "Yes! I brushed my teeth, see, mom? I fixed my hair too. And I was even the one who put my clothes on me, mommy."
• I smile at him. "Wow sweetheart! And I'm so proud of you. Now why don’t you go grab your bag, because it is time to go."
• Ben obeyed and happily ran to his bag while Vivian walked to me. Gosh this woman is huge and I meant in height, I envy it a lot. I hugged her and she hugged me back.
• "Thank you Viv." I told her as I was pulling myself away from her.
• "Oh Miranda, it's not such a big deal. You know how I love you and Ben. You're like a family to me." She responded right away with a sweet smile on her face.
• "I know. And I do not want you to think that I am taking advantage of your kindness.”
• “Oh please, hun, never!”
• I smiled at her as she smiled back, “Thank you again. Remember when I told you last night about me staying up for a patient?"
• She nodded and looked at me more curiously. "Yes. Why?"
• "I don't know if fate is playing fire with me.”
• “Intriguing, what does that mean?”
• “Well, you see, last night the patient who asked for me was…”
• “Was?”
• Her eyes widened with more curiosity.
• “Hugo’s mother." I finally answered her.
• She gasped with her jaws wide open. "You mean the Hugo who got you preg–"
• I urged her to interrupt what she was about to say. I cast a glance towards Ben, who was engaged in conversation with Vivian's husband, Arthur, and immediately felt like I have always been an awful, awful, mother to him because of the secret that I have been hiding from him. Ben enjoys attracting the attention of fathers, maybe because he never really had a father figure ever since and it incredibly pains me to see my own son doing so since I'm such a cowardly mother who can't stand up and tell the whole world the truth, not even to my own son. But I appreciate Arthur's kindness.
• "Mommy look! Uncle Arthur gave me five dollars!” He said so proudly with such innocence in his smile. “He said I can use it to buy toys but I want to use it for the two of us to have pizza for dinner tonight mommy!" Ben told me happily as he ran to me.
• I smiled at Ben. "Of course, we should, should we not?” He answered me with a vigorous nod. So I looked back at Arthur, “Thank you Art."
• He smiles back. "No big deal Miranda. Ben is like a son to me."
• "Thank you. Let's get you to school, honey. We need to go, Viv. Art. Thank you once again for everything." I told them sincerely.
• "You owe me something about what happened last night and you're welcome anytime in here honey. Be careful. Goodluck at school Benny!" Vivian kissed Ben's forehead.
• We both exited their house, and I drove my son to school who looked more excited now than the last time I drove him which was an absolute great thing. He told me about his aunt Vivian and uncle Arthur and how he wished I had been with him last night because he was sure I would have enjoyed it as much as he did.
• Later that day, I was relieved as soon as I realized that it was finally my day off and I had plenty of time to rest and get some great sleep, as well as spend more time with Ben. Eventually, I had spent the entire day at home, waiting for the time to pick up Ben from school, when a buzz came by my door and I raced out the front door.
• "Hi ma’am.” A delivery man greeted me as soon as I swung the door open.
• “Uh, hi,” I greeted back.
• “Are you Miss Miranda?" The delivery man asked with a box in his hand.
• I nodded to respond. "Well, yes. May I ask why is that?"
• "You have a package ma’am.”
• “A… p-p-package?” I parroted in confusion.
• “Yes, ma’am. Could you sign here ma’am?" He handed me a pen and I signed on the part where he pointed to right away but then at the same time I am wondering who it could be from. As I was about to ask him about it, he said right away, "Here you go ma’am. Thank you so much and enjoy the rest of your day." He walked away from my front door while I stared at this box in my hand.
• I walked my way back inside the house with wandering thoughts inside my head about the small package and who it might be from as I sat down in the living room, still staring at it for a while. I began opening the delivery and it was a box of sweet looking chocolates with different shapes and sizes, perhaps a few different flavors in here as well since there were different colors like white, orange and lavender along with brown. Oh Ben would love this, I thought right away.
• But who would it be from? I didn't know I had secret admirers. I giggled thinking at the words secret admirers. I never had those, ever.
• I quickly grabbed the small greeting card attached to the box and thought immediately that it might be from Vivian and Arthur since they are usually the ones sending things here for Ben and I.
• Nurse Miranda, it said from the top and I knew immediately where the letter came from based on the greeting.
• I shaky my head sideways and thought to myself, “Get your shit together Miranda.”
• I continued to read: Because you left so early today, I was unable to express my gratitude for what you did last night for my mother. It must have been too much to ask from you considering your shift had finished. But, before I depart for England tomorrow night, please accept my invitation to dinner tonight at Alfonso's by 8 p.m. I am expecting you to come so I'll be waiting for you.
• Signed: Hugo Saintclare x
• Holy. Fucking. Shit!
• Hugo just asked me out for dinner!