Chapter 17 a suprise visit from Alex

The place already smelt celebratory. What with the vanilla essence and the chocolate and then the spicy heady scent, it made her feel at home? Her diced meat followed the rest of the ingredients and going on with the cooking procedure left her pilau to simmer as she freshened up. She had not arranged her things after her shopping, but she felt excited. Looking back, it had actually been so long since she had anticipated doing something just like this and even feeling giddy about it.

Opting to take a shower instead of soaking in the tub, grace worked up her body, and she relaxed into the water, her mind just turned to Alex, and what a gentleman he had been. He had not pressurized her as she had initially thought, on the contrast he seemed almost god sent. All her plans were falling into place and she could have never been happier.

Just as she set the last of the plates on the table, the doorbell rang and she went on to answer. Thinking that it was her friend anna, she opened the door while just talking. After opening the door, she didn’t look and just kept walking until she realized that anna had not replied. That was when she turned back and who did she see, Alex standing right on her door, dressed relaxedly in faded jeans and a white polo shirt. On one hand, he held some flowers while the other hand had a bottle of wine.

In what looked like an I’m sorry I interrupted you gesture, Alex moved in. “hi I hope I did not come at the wrong time. I kind of assumed that we could celebrate your new house.”

“It is no problem; the thing was I was actually waiting for my friend Anna and that was why when I opened the door, I did not pay attention. Please do come in and make yourself comfortable while I put the flowers in a vase. Thank you for buying them they are beautiful.”

Looking at her nearly red face, Alex sleekly moved to occupy a seat on the dining table as he watched her look around trying to find somewhere to keep the flowers. He knew that he should not have shown at her place but damn, he had wanted to see her today. Every time he was doing work in his office, it felt like his mind had gone on a vacation with her, probably accompanying her as she made her purchases.

As Alex sat on his desk, the day could not have gone slower. His meetings felt almost boring, thinking of grace having the day off gave him a spontaneous idea. First, after work, he would pass by a place to see her but, of course, wrap it in the housewarming thing. Afterward, give a few days he would move into one of the penthouses just near her because they were empty and he was an asshole for scheming into her life but so what.

She opened the door to her house looking fresh and excited, he had almost not heard a word of anything she had said until he heard say she had expected her earlier. That didn’t sound like a welcome for him and at a loss for words, he just watched her move in as she talked. Alex did not know what had made her turn but she had become a stuttering mess. Her eyes widened and as she took efforts to calm down, he had to take some breathing exercises to lower the guilt eating him up in his mind. He could see that she had her own plans and there he had been, just out of his selfishness intruding. Maybe she had a boyfriend, why had he never thought to ask about that.

That thought did not sit right with him but, after a few minutes of talking with grace, and her delighting him in stories of her university as well as entertaining him with her hospitality, he totally forgot about that. Here at this place, she was in her element. She had offered him some of the wine he had brought as she took to having a lemonade, something he could not understand. Maybe she did not take alcohol.

After a few minutes, Anna had come and by had grace come alive at that moment. After the initial introductions, he had come to love the beauty who grace seemed to love like a sister. They had such a strong comradery that he had been surprised. Grace then rose to serve the food and he could never have thought better of her. The food had been heavenly though he had been scared because of the several spices in the food she had called pilau. The food had been exotic, the cake and the drinks that followed afterward, heavenly.