Loving Him

Chapter 24

Sophie didn't see Alex for the rest of the day and Raymond had warned her against seeking him out. She knew better than to ignore his warning a second time.

For a long time after Raymond and Alex both left her alone in the living room, she stared down at the treacherous cake that had caused the whole problem. Okay, maybe she was mostly at fault but anyone would admit the cake and the baker both shared a huge part of the blame.

With anger in her heart, she got a knife from the kitchen and sat down to give the cake a befitting punishment. Alex and Raymond both might be angry at her, but fact still remained that she spent money on making the cake and she was not about to let it go to waste.

Angel arrived at a point where she'd decided she'd had enough and was going to save the rest. The girl's eyes shone in excitement the moment she set eyes on the cake and she dived right in without even dropping her school bag. Sophie shook her head and laughed, watching the girl gobble down the cake, both hands filled.

Raymond surprisingly came back down to join them in devouring the cake. He shrugged when she gave him a questioning look and said, "It's already here. We can't let it go to waste, I'm doing you a favour here."

Sophie was shocked at what danger the three of them collectively could do to one whole cake when she saw what was left after they'd all had their fill. At that moment, all she could think was that they'd done a good job of celebrating Alex's birthday for him.

*     *     *
Morning came and the sugar rush from eating the delicious cake was gone and in it's place was the harsh reality of Alex's impending wrath. That thought alone was enough to cloud her morning, if not the whole day.

So when Alex came down that morning and greeted her like nothing had gone down the day before and everything was fine, she grew suspicious and a tad paranoid.

But when the day dragged on still without him unleashing his anger and was even interacting with her as normal, she was downright going crazy.

"Okay, I can't take it anymore!" She exclaimed when she felt like she was about to burst. He was watching a program on TV and she'd been staring at him for more than fifteen minutes. She knew he was aware of her gaze on him but he had apparently resolved to ignoring her.

Her outburst however, caught his attention and he lowered the volume of the TV, turning so he was facing her squarely. He didn't say anything, waiting for her to expatiate.

She'd wanted his attention but now that she had it, she had no idea what to do with it. "Aren't you going to yell at me or something?"

He replied with a question of his own, "Do you want me to yell at you?"

She blinked rapidly, unsure about how to answer that. "Uh, no...yeah...no, I don't know," she admitted.

He seemed almost amused at her response. "Do I look like I'm about to yell?"

"No. But there's no way that you're not angry--"

He clucked his tongue to avoid chuckling. "I'm not that angry, at least not anymore. I think I've gotten used to how stubborn and meddling you can get so no, I wasn't that surprised when I saw that cake. To be honest, I was grateful it wasn't a party you'd decided to throw instead."

She wasn't about to let him know the idea had occurred to her. Astonished, Sophie stared at him. Her mouth formed an 'O' and her hands rose and fell on her laps. He wasn't angry? He'd been expecting her to mess up? Sophie wasn't sure whether to feel happy or insulted. One thing she knew she was though, was relieved.

She contemplated asking him about why he had been angry in the first place but decided it wasn't a good idea to test the full extent of his patience just yet. She was at a loss of what to say to him just then.