Love My Friends with Benefits novel Chapter 60

Half an hour later, Leonard came to the hospital.

He led me to the cashier and gave them his card.

Now that there was money, Grandma was immediately arranged to undergo the operation.

The nurses pushed her into the operation theatre.

I hadn't stopped crying since Leonard had shown up. Once Grandma was in the operation theatre, I sobbed harder.

Aunt Nancy sat next to me and wept as well.

...

"Stop crying," Leonard glanced at me and said rather awkwardly.

I ignored him and cried harder.

His expression stiffened. He looked a little helpless and angry as he patted me on the shoulder awkwardly. "I said, stop crying."

...

I wasn't even paying attention to him.

I had never imagined that Grandma's condition would deteriorate so suddenly. If the operation were to fail, the conversation we had earlier today would become our last.

How could things have suddenly become like this...

Aunt Nancy wiped her tears and stood up, saying hoarsely, "Thank you, Leonard. If not for you, Mum would've been in trouble."

I noticed that she addressed him differently now. Calling him Leonard instead of Mr. Nell was definitely much more affectionate than before.

He stood up and nodded politely. "It's no problem. It's only natural to help."

"How can it be natural?" She sighed. "I doubt that even blood relatives can do what you've done."

Choked up, I reminded her, "Aunt Nancy, you're saying too much."

After all, Leonard was an outsider. Regardless of Bell's shortcomings, it was still better to keep things between him and Grandma private.

Aunt Nancy realised that she'd had a slip of the tongue and felt a little embarrassed.

Leonard looked like he didn't understand what she'd said and changed the topic. "It's late, so you two should get some rest. Especially you, Queena. You're still sick, after all."

Aunt Nancy asked, "How'd you know that she's sick?"

I pointed at my hospital gown. I hadn't had the time to change out of it.

"Oh, right." She looked a little embarrassed. "I forgot about that."

Leonard didn't react. "Go get some rest first."

Aunt Nancy shook her head. "No, it's fine. You should get going, though."

He smiled. "Phoebe's my fiancée. It's only right for me to take care of her grandmother."

Despite my sorrow, I still felt disgusted at him referring to Phoebe so affectionately.

"I guess that's fine, then." Aunt Nancy didn't insist.

She picked up her wallet. "You should be hungry after waiting around for so long, right? I'll go get you and Queena something to eat. I think there are two shops downstairs that are open round the clock."

Leonard walked over to her and said, "I'll do it."

Aunt Nancy shook her head. "No, it's fine. I want to get some fresh air."

Well, it was only normal that she wanted to get out. She'd been cooped up in the hospital for such a long time while caring for Grandma.

Leonard moved out of her way. She sniffled and walked away.

We were left alone. He sat down next to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

I felt a little strange and twisted a little. "What are you doing?"

"Don't move and don't get me riled up," he said indifferently. "I'm just allowing you to have a little cry. Don't think too much."

I just knew that he'd been pretending to be polite. Now that Aunt Nancy was gone, he was back to his usual self.

"There's no need, really." I pushed him away and said sincerely, "You know that I'm not interested in sharing shoulders with Phoebe."