Mr.Right novel Chapter 14

Winter is here.

The droplets of snow cascading outside confirms it, as I rub my freezing hands together and tuck them back in the pockets of my hoodie.

Winter used to be my favorite season of the year, mainly because of the Christmas cookies Mom and Grandma bake, and I also get to see my cousins when they come over for the holiday. We make huge snowmen out of the snow in our front yard.

The holiday decorations were also a bonus. We were referred to as the 'Clark Griswold' of the neighborhood because of the extreme way in which Mom covers the whole house with Christmas lights to 'catch the spirit of the Christmas season'.

I never thought I'd see the day where Winter is traumatic for me. The Christmas wind no longer sounds like music in my ears and the joy that once filled my mouth now tastes like ashes.

Tossing the sheet which covers the lower part of my body away, I hug myself as I walk towards the door. I'm curious about what Maverick is doing right now. I feel bad about ignoring him for half of the week.

I should at least be on good terms with the person I'm living with. I definitely shouldn't not be acting like I'm brain-dead anytime he's five inches away.

I peer through the door, wondering if he's out there and, sure enough, he is.

He's sitting on the stairs with a bottle of Corona in his hand and his head is bent. He shifts slightly to take a sip of his beer and I notice his muscles moving through the yellow sweatshirt he has on.

"You can't sleep either?" he calls out, without even turning his head, so I come out from the shadows and walk towards him.

"How did you know I was back there? I never made a sound," I say and sit next to him on the stairs.

"You were breathing too loudly." He takes an unopened beer from beside him and hands it to me. "Beer?"

I take the beer gratefully and open it, tilting it upwards to let the cool liquid enter my mouth. I lick my lips and his gaze follows the action.

"Have you heard from your brother yet?" I ask eventually.

"No, actually. He hung up on me yesterday and said something about having a booty call," He glances at me when I laugh at that. "I wonder how we're related, but have nothing in common."

"You do have things in common," I insist, taking another swig of beer. "You're just older, that's all."

"Excuse me? Did you just call me old?" He feigns shock. "I'm not even three years older than you, thank you very much."

"All right, all right!" I grin mischievously. "Grandpa Maverick."

Maverick scoffs and drinks some more beer too. "But isn't this cheating?" he says, after a pause.

"What is?"

"I mean, you know I own a hospital and an obnoxious step-brother but I only get to know your name. I literally don't know anything else about you, April White."

I shift uncomfortably and bring the beer to my lips. What am I supposed to say? I got fired from my job weeks ago because of some silly mistake, and now I'm trying to handle my depression in the hope I'll be able to get a new one?

Yeah, I'm not telling him that. I'll definitely look more stupid than the time Tony tried doing a backflip and it went horribly wrong.

Tony...

"You met my ex the other day. He's now a patient in your hospital," I say, before realising it came out much harsher than I intended it to.

I see Maverick's jaw lock at the mention of Tony and can tell he's remembering the club night.

"I'm sorry about what happened. I got you in trouble and acted like it didn't matter," I say as he waves it off with a hand.

"No need to worry about that. He punched like a girl anyway."

I raise my eyebrows at him. "Really? Your nose ended up bleeding. He can't have punched that badly."

"I'm trying to look cool here. Don't ruin this for me."

I try to grin at him but instead, it comes out in a sad smile.

I'm more than happy he doesn't ask me about Tony again. Instead, he lets it be.

We sit together in silence but, surprisingly, it's not an awkward one and I wrap the silence around me like a duvet, feeling it fill some of the emptiness inside.

My thoughts these past days are too messed-up and it's nice to have a moment where I'm not crying, just so I can sort through them a bit.

All I want to do is be left alone. And Maverick is doing fine at that.

In fact, he looks like he feels the same way.

"Hey, don't frown," he tells me suddenly, noticing my expression. He opens another beer. "You never know who could be falling in love with your smile."

I catch his gaze and I must have imagined it but there's this spark of worry in his eyes. He's not telling me that Tony's a douchebag, he's not telling me I'm dumb for running all the way to the hospital because of the said douchebag...

He's actually smiling and, in this single moment, I am able to forget all my worries in the world.

~~~~~~~

I wake the next morning to beams of sunlight and the loud chirping of birds creeping into my room. My head feels so light that I can barely feel it.

I wonder how many beers I had last night.

I toss and turn, then catch a glimpse of a cup, resting on my nightstand with a note glued to it. I ease out of bed and tear the note off the cup, bringing it to my face to read what's written on it.

You had too much to drink last night so I made a home remedy for hangovers.

PS: You sleep like a baby

*baby dragon!

Don't breathe fire on me, will you?

~ Maverick.

I roll my eyes but a faint grin manages to break over my face.