"Pretty." Yale gasped, looking at the dress Alexis held out to her.
I am just sitting in front of a white table and chair with little, delicate pastries in front of me and a teacup with golden handles in front of me.
The rim of the cup is shaped like a flower petal with gold all around it. I remember going shopping for this cup set with Yale on our day off.
I shudder just remembering that day. It was very long and … memorable.
"Right?" he mirrored her excitement. "You could wear this even the sewers and look like a goddess."
I almost spat out my tea when he said that, remembering the night before vividly.
The moment we got back home, Rumant stripped himself off his clothes and jumped into the bath, complaining the entire time as I helped him wash his hair.
I don't think I ever heard him complain that much. No wonder he was so mad this morning too.
He's cute when he's mad.
"Don't talk about sewers, please." She said, averting her eyes from Alexis as I could see the anger fuming in her.
"Of course not dear." He said patiently. "Would you like to try this dress on?"
"Yes!" She took the dress and ran into the changing room faster than you could say try.
Chuckling to himself, Alexis took the seat beside me, "Is she still a handful?"
"Hasn't she always been?" I asked, raising an eyebrow as he poured tea for himself. "How's business?"
"It's going fine." He said, taking a biscuit shaped like a flower petal with pastel blue icing and bit into it. "Mmmm. This is not bad. I should change the amount of sugar though."
"I am glad your baking has improved," I said, not meaning to sound as deeming as it came off as. "I mean-"
"I understand," Alexis said, grinning at me. "You have this hard exterior, Zion. That is why people always mistake your intentions. Like I said, I knew you were a good kid the day I met you. Don't worry, I am not misunderstanding your words."
"Thank you," I said, playing with the teacup. "Aren't these a year old? We should be getting you a new set."
"Aww~ you both spoil me," Alexis said, laughing.
"You are a very important person to Yale," I said plainly. "Why would we not try to repay you for everything you did for her?"
Alexis fell silent and stared at me for a second before he patted my head, "You really are such a good boy, Zion. When I have a child, will you and Yale help me with him?"
"I almost forgot that your wife is pregnant," I said quickly. "When is she due? It's a boy? How is her health? The medical bills-?"
"Whoa. Whoa. Zion. Calm down." Alexis laughed, putting his hands on my shoulders. "I didn't think you would be this … invested in my wife's pregnancy."
"Sorry," I said, shaking my head. "I am not very good with this … bringing to life things."
"It's alright. The baby is healthy. Though I can't say the same thing about my wife."
"Is she getting worse?"
"She is a little sicker so she is at the hospital." He said, rubbing his temples. "But she is a fighter, that wife of mine. Don't worry too much about her, alright?"
"Ok," I said, but I could tell from his subtle expressions, she is not doing very well.
And that was enough to make me worry.
___________________
Alexis and his wife got married a year into my relationship with Yale. They have known each other for years and she was the one that designed all the dresses in Alexis's store.
She had always wanted to be a seamstress and Alexis wanted to support her so he used his savings to buy the place they have now.
Once their business started to take off and they made a decent income, they decided to get married.
Yale had a field day planning their wedding. I still don't know why they let her be the wedding planner. There were so many budget constraints and Yale wanted the biggest wedding possible with too many ideas.
I had to walk her through everything for a couple of days before she finally agreed to tone it down a little bit. And even that little bit was not much.
I helped make some changes and we both secretly added to their budget, to give them their exact dream wedding.
In the end, they were happy and it turned out quite well so I guess it worked for the best.
They've been trying to have a child from that year and when we hear they were finally pregnant, we sent them countless gifts.
Maybe Yale is starting to influence me with her spending habits because I only realised how much I spent when I looked at the money deduction from my bank account. The worst part was that I didn't even care.
I just hope I don't get myself into debt by mistake, I have just paid off everything already. I don't need more.
___________________
That was what I thought. But … if she is not very well. I wouldn't mind taking some money out of my savings for her hospital bills.
Though, Alexis will never accept money from me or from Yale. Hmmm … maybe we can pay her a visit.
"What do you think?" Yale walked out of the changing room, twirling with the dress on.
"Beautiful!" Alexis clapped, showing her over and over with praises. "That dress was made exactly for you."
"You are the only one she allows to talk to her like that," I remarked, watching her look at herself in the mirror. "Not even I can talk like that to her."
"I am sure it is just because you will sound like a robot trying to give a compliment." Alexis teased, biting into the other biscuit.
"I tried." I insisted, turning to Alexis the moment I saw something move in the corner of my eyes.
"What did she say?"
"That I shouldn't even try anymore. It is making her doubt my love for her."
Alexis almost spat out his tea, holding the liquid in his mouth as he tried not to spill the liquid. Shaking his head, he ran out the back door most likely to spit the tea out.
"What was that about?" Yale asked, walking to me. "Alexis just ran out with a funny look on his face."
"We were talking about compliments and I told him that you don't like mine."
"Of course not." She took a flower petal biscuit and bit into it, handing it to me immediately. "Too sweet. And you are awful at giving compliments."
"I am not."
"Try to give me one now then."
"Fine." I looked right into her eyes, forcing a smile on my face as I said, "You look lov-"
"Stop." Yale quickly clasped a hand over her mouth, bursting in a laugh. "What the hell was that?? You look like you just bit into a lemon and are trying to speak normally."
"Was I really that bad?"
"It's alright, Zion!" Alexis walked back into the room, wiping his mouth with a handkerchief. "It is all the heart that matters."
"You almost choked."
"We are not talking about me."
"She burst out laughing."
"We are not talking about her too."
"Then, what are yo-"
"Goodness, look at the time," Yale said suddenly, looking at the non-existent watch on her hands. "I will change out of this as quickly as I can. We need to hurry for classes, Zion."
And she was off to the changing room again, leaving us two in the store, alone.
Clearing my throat, I decided to just let this problem about me giving compliments be for now.
"You still haven't told me when your child is going to be born," I said, changing the topic as quickly as I could.
"Oh right." Alexis paced around the room, thinking. "Maybe around next week? That was what the doctor told me."
"I see." I thought for a second. "Can I have her room and hospital name? In case she gives birth and you start to panic, forgetting that you are even in a hospital. Then you will call us and give us the wrong address."
"What? I wouldn't do that." Alexis scoffed, not looking me in the eyes. "I am a very calm and rational person."
I raised my eyebrows at him, "Right. You didn't forget where your wedding venue was on the day of the wedding. Making us late by going to every random location you could think of.
"You didn't panic when you both were going to announce that you guys were pregnant and accidentally blurt out that you were the one that was pregnant?"
"Stop!" Alexis crumpled to the floor, cringing. "Why did you have to bring all those up? I'll send you the room number and name of the hospital right away!"
I looked at my phone as it dinged with a message from Alexis.
Good. Now, to actually get there.