Loving Him

Chapter 21

Avoiding Alex was harder than she'd expected; one disadvantage of being stuck together in the house all day. He'd tried talking to her at first but he must have caught on to the fact that she wasn't ready to have that conversation yet so he let her be, something Sophie was most grateful for.

Raymond got back around two p.m and while he didn't look exhausted as he'd been the previous day, he did look like he wasn't particularly thrilled to be back home.

"Hey, Sophie," he greeted while simultaneously climbing up the stairs so she didn't really get to respond.

Alex, who was in his study must have heard Raymond's voice because he came out shortly after. He asked, "Raymond's back?"

She nodded in response, eyes trained on the phone she was holding, hoping to come across as occupied.

It didn't seem to work however as he sighed then came over to sit beside her on the couch.

"You know you're going to have to talk to me eventually."

She chanced a look at him and saw his face was set in a hard line. She didn't need anyone to tell her he wasn't happy with her at all.

She was saved having to reply as they both turned on hearing Raymond's footsteps as he came back down. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs, staring at them with a disturbed look on his face. The tension between the three of them could practically be cut with a knife.

"Raymond," Alex finally said, breaking the silence that had settled between them.

That seemed to snap Raymond out of whatever trance he was in as he smiled, although forcefully and walked over to take a seat beside Alex. "What's up, bro?"

Alex shrugged, his full attention now on Raymond. "You left rather early this morning, considering how tired you were yesterday. What was so important?"

"Oh, nothing. I guess I was really eager to get everything over and done with," Raymond replied rather vaguely.

Alex didn't look like he was buying it but before he could ask anything else, Raymond continued, "But you... How long have you been able to walk?"

Alex blinked, momentarily caught off guard but he recovered quickly and replied, "Uh, around two weeks now?"

"Two weeks!" Raymond exclaimed, an octave too high. "And you didn't think to let me know?"

Alex rolled his eyes at him, scoffing. "Stop being a drama queen, Ray. I knew you were going to make a big deal out of it so I wanted to put off your drama for as long as I could."

Sophie's mouth almost dropped in surprise. Alex was so good at lying through his teeth. She really needed to take lessons from him.

Raymond snorted in response to his brother's reply although his lips tilted in a smile. "So does this mean you're okay now? You can get back to work?"

Alex shrugged nonchalantly, still playing it cool. "Yeah, I guess. I have an appointment with Andrew in a few days so I guess whatever he says goes."

Raymond cocked his head to the side, his brows raised as he asked, "And when exactly did you start listening to the doctor?"

Alex just shook his head in response. "You're unsatisfiable, Raymond."

Raymond chuckled, hitting Alex playfully on the shoulder. Sophie smiled at the gesture even as her mind was replaying their conversation in her mind. It then occurred to her that now that Raymond had found out that Alex could walk, there wasn't really anything to fake anymore and then... Would she have to leave?