Bobby and Nadia ran towards their parents as soon as Nancy and Charles appeared by the door.
"Where were you? We were so scared! Nadia is even crying!" Bobby said with grievance.
"Oh, I'm sorry, kids. We went out to watch a movie!" Charles held Nancy's arm, helping her keep a decent posture. The children were still young, and he didn't want them to see Nancy that way, drunk and wobbly.
"Nope! We went to a bar!" Nancy was too drunk to think straight.
Nancy spoke with a grin, her eyes squinting.
Nadia had never seen her mommy get drunk. Seeing her that way terrified her. Her lips were trembling. "Mommy why would you go to a bar?" she cried.
"For fun, of course! You understand? Your father had been drinking too, but not as much as I did because he had to drive us home. But not me, I didn’t drive..."
"Did daddy drink too?" Bobby frowned, obviously disappointed.
"Kids, we just went out to have some fun. Oh, it's also because today is your Uncle Jay's birthday. We celebrated with wine. Your mommy had a little too much so she's a bit tipsy. She needs to get some sleep now. You two should go back to bed and let mommy have a rest, okay?" Charles could only think of one thing, and that was to have Nancy take a shower and then get her to bed without saying anything inappropriate in front of the children.
"Okay, we just needed to know that mommy is fine. Come on, Bobby, let's go to bed!" Nadia said and walked back to her room.
Bobby walked cautiously to his room and murmured to himself, "Uncle Jay just celebrated his birthday recently, didn't he? Yes, he even asked us to call him godfather instead of uncle during his birthday party!"
Charles didn't dare to say anything because Bobby was right. Jay didn't celebrate his birthday today at all.
Charles helped Nancy into the room. Afterward, he boiled a mixture of brown sugar and water according to the doctor's advice, but they had no warm water bag at home.
He wrung a warm towel and placed it on her belly.
After a little while, he helped her up and fed her the brown sugar water.
Nancy was struggling and moaning in discomfort so Charles looked after her until she calmed down. He took a quick shower only after she started to feel better.
Nancy couldn't sleep. She held on to Charles' arm, tossing and turning in bed all night.
Fortunately, she woke up feeling better the next day. The aches and sores from the previous night had subsided.
Charles was up early. He already made another batch of brown sugar and water mixture for Nancy and put it aside.
He then proceeded to prepare breakfast.
Nancy rubbed her eyebrows and pressed her thumbs against her temples. She got out of bed lazily and noticed that her clothes had been changed.
A quick recap of the previous night's events then flashed through her mind.
Barman? Charles?
Huh? Wasn't Charles supposed to be furious after seeing her with the barman? How come he was kind enough to take her home and even change her clothes?
Nancy was lazily walking down the stairs when she got a whiff of something savory. She sniffed and walked into the kitchen where the aroma was coming from.
Upon entering, the busy figure of Charles was the first thing that caught her attention.
He carefully took the eggs out of the motherwort and put them away.
There were hawthorn berries in the brown sugar. Freshly baked slices of bread were on one side while steaming chicken drumsticks were on the other.
With her arms crossed over her chest, Nancy leaned against the kitchen door and gazed at Charles.
In neither humble nor pushy voice, she asked him, "Charles, what have you done wrong that you're cooking such a scrumptious breakfast?"
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