He Came Back Running (Maya and Mason) novel Chapter 221

Chapter 221

+15 Bohus

Chapter 221

Maya’s POV

The car stopped in the kind of street that communicated Paris’s relationship with fashion…..

The door of the boutique the kind that was opened for you rather than pushed.

I looked at the facade. At the name above the door.

At Alex.

“You didn’t,” I said.

“The afternoon is ours,” he said

The manager met us at the entrance…. She was perhaps fifty, she welcomed us warmly and without performance…..

“The boutique is yours until five,” she said.

I looked at Alex.

“You closed an entire store,” I said.

“I wanted you to enjoy today without cameras,” he said. “Without crowds or interruptions or anyone watching.” He held my gaze. “Just you, choosing things you actually want, at whatever pace you want.”

I looked at the boutique.

“I don’t need any of this,” I said.

“I know,” he said. “Come on”

The stylists worked with the professional consideration of people who had been briefed and had decided the briefing was accurate.

I tried things on.

Alex was in the chair by the window, coffee in hand, waiting patiently.

He looked up every time I came out.

He didn’t say much.

He didn’t need to say much

The expression he produced was sufficient…. the contained version of someone who was seeing something that affected him and was deciding not to perform the being affected.

“That one,” he said, once.

No elaboration…..

That one was the one I kept.

By the middle of the afternoon, I had a small, honest selection

A dress I would wear. Two things I would actually reach for. A bag that was the right size and the right weight and

1/4

+15 Bonus

had been made with enough care that the making of it was present in every stitch.

The manager suggested more.

Alex said: whatever she wants

I said: these are what I want.

He looked at the small pile….

“You could have anything in this room,” he said.

“I know,” I said. “I want these”

He looked at me.

At the expression on my face, which was the one I wore when I had made a decision and was not revising it./

“All right,” he said.

As we were preparing to leave, the manager appeared with a box…..

Not from the day’s selection… a separate one, wrapped with careful attention, prepared in advance. Not a boutique wrapper. The kind that communicated personal rather than retail.

“What is this?” I said.

Alex smiled.

“Open it later,” he said

The hotel room.

Alex on the balcony.

The box on the bed, wrapped, waiting.

I untied the ribbon….

Inside, tissue paper.

Inside the tissue paper, something soft.

I lifted it

A blanket.

Small. The right size for a newborn, the size that would eventually be outgrown and would be kept anyway because objects that have been close to a small person become something more than objects over time.

White….

Embroidered.

Across one corner, in a script that had been chosen for legibility rather than decoration, the kind that would be readable in the dark, in the half-light of a room where a small person was sleeping:

Waiting for Our Little Miracle.

I held it.

2/4

Chapter 221

+15 Bonus

”

Looked at it

At the words.

I looked up.

At Alex.

At his face…. “You bought something for the baby,” I said.

“Yes,” he said.

“Instead of more things for me.”

“The things for you were for you,” he said. “This was for the three of us.”

I held the blanket….

The small, handmade, embroidered blanket for the person who was still becoming and had not yet arrived and who would eventually be wrapped in this.

“There isn’t anything in this world I want more than our family,” he said.

Not with performance.

I stood up

Crossed the room.

Put my arms around him.

He held me.

The blanket between us.

The baby between us…. I kissed him passionately.

He waited until we had been standing there for what might have been a minute or several before he spoke.

“Put on one of the new dresses,” he said. Against my hair.

I pulled back enough to look at him.

“Why?” I said.

The smile.

“I have one more surprise,” he said.

I looked at him….

At the smile.

“Alex,” I said.

“One more,” he said. “I promise”

I looked at the dress from the boutique….

The one I had kept.

3/4

Chooter 221

“This dress,” I said.

“Please,” he said.

I looked at him for a moment.

Then I went to chatige.

D

Comments

Support

Share

+15 Bonus

4/4