A Step Closer to Love

It took a whole lot to convince Everly that Arabella was fine. She was bothered about what Ava would say. Arabella had spent barely a week and she was already getting injured. She loves the company of the young girl and does not want the mom to get paranoid about it and ask her to come back home.

She had to report the incident to her friend. Despite the pleas from her son and Arabella she still went ahead to tell Ava about how injured her daughter was. Trust a mom to exaggerate the situation.

Ava demanded a video call to see her daughter. She did not believe that her daughter fell down the stairs. At the end of the day they both went with the easy option because they had no intention of over-explaining anything.

“Mom any can fall down the stairs,” Arabella said the nth time.

“If you insist,” Ava said shortly. “So you spent your day in the hospital? Barely three days after starting at your new place of work?”

“Shouldn’t you be more bothered about my well-being than my place of work?”

“I was bothered about you but you are hiding things from me now”

“Mom come on what is so hard about believing that I was so excited to meet my best author in the world and I missed my step and fell off the stairs breaking my ankle,” she asked.

“The story is believable alright” Ava started. “What is unbelievable anyway is how you keep saying the same thing as if you had it memorized”

“Oh well, it’s kind of sad you think this way” Arabella knew that the best way for her to successfully of the situation unharmed was for her to guilt trip her way out of the situation like a child would do.

“Arabella, do not try that with me” Ava warned. Arabella stuck her tongue to the roof of her mouth and tsked in annoyance.

“Okay, so I want to freshen up and then go to bed. Some I still want to sleep even after sleeping for so long at the hospital” she explained.

“Let me know once you are done”

“I will leave a message for you” She did not want to speak again with her mom because she was so close to making her spill the secret. How could the classic guilt trip formula not work? She wondered if it ever worked or if her mom always just let her have her way.

“Send my love to Seraphina too,” she said before cutting the call. She dropped the phone on the bed and plopped on it. She enjoyed how the soft sheets molded into her skin. She loved the scent of the room. She closed her eyes and hoped she did not fall asleep in the comfort of the sheets.

She needed to wash off and then she could enjoy the sheets. She stood up before she was tempted to sleep just like that. She entered the bathroom and cleaned up before she came out and dried off. She wore her nightie and sent a text to her mom.

She laid on the bed and her eyes closed but a text on her phone woke her up. She was usually less concerned about text but she needed to know if her mom was the one replying to her message.

‘Hey it is Mark, I was your doctor today at the hospital. I know it is unprofessional of me to take your number and text you out for personal reasons but I thought you were really cute and I would love it if we could have some coffee sometime soon

She wanted to scream out in disbelief. He thought she was cute? It was a miracle because she thought him to be a Greek god in human clothing. She quickly saved his number.

She might not be looking for anything long-term term but she could not pass up the opportunity to meet up with him. Who knows they might not even click when they meet. She sent a text back to him.

‘Oh Hello Mark, it’s Arabella, I guess you already know that. Thank you so much for the compliment and yes I would love to have coffee with you sometime

‘Oh my god, I am so relieved to hear it. I had my fingers crossed, because what are the odds a pretty woman like you would be single I guess the stars are on my side tonight. I do hope you feel much better than when I left you

To her, it was a miracle that he texted in the first place and here he was sending a reply. Maybe this was a sign? She did not believe in coincidences.

‘I do feel much better, I want to go to bed now, can we fix a date during the day tomorrow? Probably sometime when I have healed fully’

‘Sure, pardon my manners for keeping you awake so late. I will give you a call if that is okay with you

He was going to call her? She had never had such an experience before and it felt surreal like she was above watching her body do all things.

‘Okay then Good night Mark’

‘Good night Arabella’

She stood up with a sigh and plugged her phone into the wall socket. She did not want to have a flat battery when he might be trying to reach her. She lay down and waited for sleep to take her to dreamland. It was less than ten minutes when she was now sleeping so very soundly.

Since she was not going to work she had no plans of waking up early but the call from Chole who was calling to check up on her. She lazily answered the call but was unable to go back to bed because now she had woken up against her will.

She was staring at her phone when a text from Mark dropped. She heard her heart rate increase and butterflies flapping in her tummy.

‘Hi, Arabella I have to go to work this morning. I will give you a call during my lunch break, I hope that is okay?’