His Favorite Piece Of Art

Chapter 24 | Fireworks

Bella keeps biting her lip and moving her legs nervously as they drive toward the hospital. She keeps running her finger over the prominent veins on Alexander's hand, distracting herself. She always does that when she's anxious about something and he knows it.

"Baby, don't be nervous. Everything is going to be fine." He brings their interlocked hands to his mouth and leaves a kiss on the back of her hand before he lets their hands fall on his lap.

"But what if she doesn't like me? She raised you so it's like I'm meeting your mom. I want her to like me..." Bella lets out in a whisper but makes Alexander smile as he looks away from the road for a second and sees her pout cutely.

Freaking adorable.

"And she will like you, it would be impossible for anyone not to." He makes her blush but he can tell that she is still nervous about meeting Mary. "Love, look at me." He drops the hand that he was holding and cups her chin to make her look at him. "Everything is going to be fine, okay?"

Bella heaves a sigh but nods her head. "Okay." Alexander smiles and pulls her closer to leave a quick but deep kiss on her lips. "That's my girl." He starts driving again when the light turns green but doesn't miss the already existing blush on her cheeks deepening.

Soon they arrive at the hospital and he takes her hand in his as he starts walking towards the entrance. When the sliding door opens for them, he gives a light squeeze to her hand, reassuring them both before he walks toward the elevator to go to the floor Mary is staying at.

Bella takes a few deep breaths to calm herself down and she can feel the nervousness slowly disappearing as they near her room. She looks up at Alexander as he stops them both and he smiles down at her before he opens the door and reveals the woman who raised him.

She is sitting on the bed, a book in her hand. She is maybe in her mid-fifties from what Bella can tell. Her dark hair is decorated with some grey highlights and it makes a perfect hairstyle like she attended to make it that way.

Bella's heart calms down when the woman looks up, a smile pulling at her lips when she sees Alexander first. But then he moves to the side a little, still holding Bella's hand, and the woman's smile grows bigger as her eyes land on the unfamiliar girl.

Well, physically unfamiliar.

But she knows all about her. Every time Alexander would visit her, he would talk to her about Bella. Mary could notice the difference in his behavior, he was more happy, relaxed, and wasn't so moody as how he is sometimes and she knew that it must be someone special making him that way.

"Oh, dear! Is this her?!" Mary excitedly claps her hands, her book long forgotten. Alexander smiles as he sees a happy spark in her eyes that were so dull and almost empty since she got into this hospital. But his smile only widens when he looks at Bella. Her eyes widen in surprise and shock. She didn't expect Mary to already know about her.

"Yeah, this is her." He puts a hand on Bella's lower back and gently nudges her forward. She looks up at him unsurely but he gives her a sweet smile and nods in reassurance. Bella extends her hand towards Mary when she comes near enough, but Mary waves her off and pulls her in a warm hug.

"It's so nice to finally meet you, dear! Now I can put a face to the girl he kept gushing about." Mary rocks them a little bit, still not letting her go but Bella doesn't mind.

"Mom!" Alexander exhales harshly. What is up with everyone exposing him. He had enough of it.

"Oh, don't be embarrassed son." Mary huffs and waves him off too. "Girls love to hear that their man can't shut up about them." She makes them both blush. Bella's cheeks turned red because Alexander loves talking about her, while Alexander's cheeks turned red because everyone keeps exposing him.