In an instant, he found himself at the door of the gym room and what he saw broke his stony heart into tiny little pieces.
There was Phoenix, punching hell out of the punching bag without stopping. Covered in sweat, it was as though she was pouring all of her anger and pain on the punching bag and remembering that she wasn't supposed to be doing anything strenuous at all, he stopped her in her tracks by calling her name.
"Phoenix,"
Phoenix turned to him with sharp reflexes and only then could he see the tears that flowed down her beautiful brown skin amidst the sweat. Broken by what he saw, he dropped his office bag on the floor and rushed to her, squashing her in his warm embrace, patting her back and telling her that everything was okay; whispering sweet nothings to her ear.
He never wanted to see her like this, ever.
Phoenix on the other hand couldn't take it anymore. She had been home all day doing nothing except eat and rest as per the doctor's instruction. Everything was okay until she started thinking about everything that had happened from the Christmas festive season up to that point and she was livid.
She was angry at Allen for all the pain he had caused her. Now she had to deal with a child, not just any child but Allen's child; she just couldn't believe it. It was like a betrayal on her part, she felt like she had betrayed Sterling because she knew how long Sterling had been giving her hints.
What was she going to do; she wondered how Sterling was coping with everything that was going on. Engulfed with rage, she changed into her gym wears; not caring one bit about her present body condition, she went to Sterling's gym room.
She worked the treadmill, the dumbbells, the weightlifting and finally the punching bag. While landing punches on the punching bag, she envisaged Allen in place of the punching bag and punched even harder. She didn't care about time neither did she care if she was crying or not crying; that was the case until she heard her name, she turned and found Sterling looking at her.
The look on Sterling's face broke her heart more. He had the look of pain plastered all over his face. Not waiting for her to respond, he engulfed her in his warm embrace and only then could she really be free with herself, breaking down and turning into puddles.
Her heart was telling her to accept Sterling but her head reminded her of everything that had happened and was still happening to her.
She was letting her past haunt her.
"Do not worry, Phoenix, I won't leave you alone; you don't have to do this on your own, you have me. I could hire extra hands if you want. It hurts me to see you like this,"
"I'm sorry Sterling; I'm so sorry," Phoenix didn't know what she was apologizing for, all she knew was that she needed to apologize to this man who had always gone out of his way for her.
"There's no need for you to apologize, just don't do this again. You're not fully recovered yet and you could harm the baby if you do this. The baby is still in its early stages and strenuous activities could cause a miscarriage and I know that you don't want that laying on your conscience,"
"Okay, I won't do it again,"
"You got me worried sick,"
"I'm so...….," Phoenix suddenly saw the world turn black.
Sterling saw this and became restless. He picked her weightless body and took her to her room, placing her on her bed before hurrying downstairs to call the doctor.
**********************
Hours later, Phoenix woke up from her state of unconsciousness and saw Sterling sitting on a chair beside her in an awkward position. He was sleeping but the position he was in proved rather painful to be in.
"Sterling, wake up," she shook Sterling in an attempt to wake him up and he did. When he woke up, he was flustered which made him look so adorable. Phoenix couldn't help but smile at him.
"Hey, you're awake. Stop scaring me, would you?"
"It wasn't intentional," Phoenix gasped in horror. That couldn't be the sound of her voice, could it? It was horrible. Thankfully, Sterling understood and got her water.
Phoenix gulped the water down in a matter of seconds and gave the cup back to Sterling.
"You've been out for a while and it's almost midnight but Doctor Hailey said that you'll be okay,"
"Oh, what did she say? Me being here and not in the hospital means that the nothing happened to the baby,"
"Yeah, nothing happened to the baby but she advised you don't do anything again that will put the baby's life in danger. As long as you're the mother of this child, I want it; I'll treat it as my own,"
"Sterling, you really do not have to. What exactly do you want me to say when you say stuffs like this," Phoenix couldn't stop blushing. At this point, she was thankful that she had brown skin, so the blush could not be seen visibly on her face but one could see it through her expressions and Sterling was not an exception.
"I don't expect you to say anything. I'm sure you must be hungry. It's pretty late, so you'll have dessert instead or a snack, which one do you prefer?"
"None, but I want one thing though,"
"Which is?"
"Cuddle me until I fall asleep; stay here with me tonight,"
"Sure. You know I wouldn't pass on such an offer. I'll just go shower and change into something more casual than this and I'll be back, in the next 15 minutes," Sterling said all those words hurriedly while trying to go to his room and be back in the next 15 minutes.
While Sterling was away doing his business in his room, Phoenix couldn't help but smile at this man's childish behavior. He didn't give her that cold aura he did with other people or when he was in a place. It was like he was a completely different person when he was around her and she probably knew why.
Still waiting for Sterling to come over, she too had a quick bath and changed into her pajamas and picked up her phone to surf the net when she came about a trending video; a video about Sterling and it was a recent video.
She clicked on it and started watching it. She was so engrossed in the video that she didn't know when Sterling came back into her room.
"I'm here," he said
"When did you do this; why did you do this?" Phoenix couldn't explain why he did that so she had to ask.
"Oh. You saw this, well, to answer your question; first, I did it because I love you and secondly, I did it because I didn't want any scandal spreading when the baby bump became visible," Sterling explained.
"But I told you that you didn't have to do it, you didn't have to do all of this,"
"And like I have said a million times and I'll keep saying it, nothing will make me leave you; not this child because I'll be a father to him or her and definitely not something else because I'll still love you either way,"
Phoenix just couldn't explain why this man loved her so much.
"I have something to tell you; I'll know how much you love me after you've heard about my past,"
"Everyone has got a past, no matter how little it is. I'm not one without secrets either, I have them and I know some day that I'll tell you all about it; hopefully, you'll reciprocate my feelings for you then,"
"You're right; no one is without a past,"
"I suggest we skip that part for now and do it some other time; it's late and we need to sleep, at least for your own benefit,"
"Yeah, sure," Phoenix had to make way for Sterling to lay on the bed and cuddle her and not long after that, she was taken into the dream world where for the first time in what felt like forever, she dreamt about butterflies.
On Sterling's' end, he watched her sleep and while doing that, he sniffed the scent from her hair which strangely calmed his nerves and not long after that, sent him into the dream world too were he felt peace and contentment.