When There Is Nothing Left But Love

“Sure. What’s up?”

“Can you send me the address of the company? I’m bringing lunch for Armond today. By the way, I can’t enter the office without an appointment, right? So you’ll need to come downstairs and get the food from me when I arrive!”

“Sure!” I was just thinking about what to get for lunch. “Armond has gastric problems, and they’re flaring up now. If you could bring along some gastric medication, that’d be great!”

I heard her cackling laughter through the receiver. “Leave it to me. I’ll be there in half an hour.”

I hung up and finished preparing the milk. Linda showed up at the pantry to get some coffee, looking exhausted.

I couldn’t help but ask, “Linda, did you have a rough night?”

She took a deep breath and nodded. “School’s starting in a couple of days. My daughter hasn’t completed any of her assigned work, so I’ve been up the past few nights making sure she finished them properly! Really, women shouldn’t have kids at all. They’re adorable when they’re still young but become absolute nightmares when they’re older! Here, look at my wrinkles. There are so many extra ones now!”

She moved her eyes closer to me and pulled on them dramatically.

I burst into laughter. “How old is your daughter?”

“She’s entering third grade soon. I’m telling you, you can never run out of things to worry about them!”

“My daughter’s entering first grade soon!” I replied on instinct as I thought of Summer. Though judging by Summer’s nature, I probably won’t be the only one worrying about her.

reply startled her. “You have a daughter? Wait, are you

grew. “I’ve

clicked her tongue and immediately launched into gossip mode. “Then what’s going on between

must be mistaken. I laughed as I explained, “He’s just my boss. We seem familiar with each other because we’ve met on a few occasions before

rubbed her temples and sighed, “I should’ve known. Men like him are hardly approachable by women. He’s almost forty and

response and

office before entering. He was still reviewing documents as I walked in. I

the table were gone, and I saw sweet wrappers in the trash can. So he ate the sweets after all. Who knew a

when he heard me. His gaze fell on the glass

of milk. It’ll help to soothe some of

adamantly. “I’m not

paused for a moment and stared at me.

I shook my head.

gestured for me to bring the milk away. I pursed my lips and retorted, “Even if you don’t normally drink milk, a little bit

and left

spy a

hurried downstairs. She ran towards me when she saw me and pushed

said in a rush, “Scarlett, I prepared lunch for both you and Armond. Don’t tell him I made it, or he might