Tangled Hearts

Chapter 2

Aurora Woods

Grayson walked out of the bathroom shortly after I came out. He found his way back to the living room as he sat down right beside Aunt Isabella. The adults carried on talking with their matter until he spoke up in front of them, for the first time.

"Aunt Isa, can I take a walk around the house?" That was his first sentence to his aunt months after the accident. Everyone seemed to be frozen to their seats as silence filled the air. Aunt Isabella was the first one to break it as she teared up joyfully, she nodded her head profusely, and replied, "Yes, of course you can. Be careful, all right?" Grayson nodded his head as he got up and walked away. 

I followed after him, for I had a suspicion to clear. He walked all the way to the backyard of the house, and stood right in front of the pot of flowers which I had been taking care of since I was 8. 

"You can come out now, there's no one here." He spoke, as I opened my mouth in shock. He knew I was following behind him? How?

I walked out from the shadows, as I crossed my arms akimbo, trying to appear that everything I've heard was beyond normal. 

"You can see as well?" I asked. My mind thinking back to the event just now, hoping that he did not see me peeping at him. 

He shook his head and replied, "Not exactly, but I could faintly make out the shadows ahead of me. Just a little better than being fully blind." My mind ran out of words to reply him, as my eyes landed on my flower pot, I shifted the topic of the conversation. 

I pulled his hand a little so that we were standing under the tree and tugged him down, indicating for him to squat down. 

"Here, this is the flower pot which I've been taking care of since I was 8. I have no idea what these flowers are called, but I picked one of them from the roadside because it looked like it was about to wilt. I then planted it and look, it grew to look so beautiful now!" I may have gotten a little too excited while recalling how the plant came about, that I did not realise how intensely he was staring at me. 

"I wonder how you look like if I could see your face clearly." He tilted his head slightly to his left as he continued staring at my face. 

"Nothing special about my face. Just a pair of eyes, a nose, a mouth, and a pair of ears." I replied as he chuckled at my response. 

"Why don't you describe to me the flowers that you are caring for? I might recognise them." He turned his head towards my flower pot as I pulled myself closer to the pot and examined closely. 

"It has... 5 petals, made up of a sky-blue hue and there is a bright yellow stamen in the centre of the flower. You should smell it! It has a sweet candy smell!" He leaned forward to the pot as he took a whiff of the scent. 

"It's called forget-me-not. In the flower language it means eternal love and remembrance, to serve as a reminder of cherished memories and to keep those memories close to the heart. It was my mum's favourite because dad would always get them for her during special occasions." His gaze turned away from the flowers as he got reminded of his parents.

I would give myself a reward for always managing to bring in awkward silences during conversations.

Picking out the two most beautiful ones, I shortened their stems as I pulled a strand of grass from the ground and tied it around the flowers. I took his hand out and gently placed the flowers in his palm. 

"They are my favourite too, I'll give them to you so that you can cherish them the same way that your parents did." I grinned as I watched him slowly fiddling with the petals carefully, as though one wrong move he could have pulled out the petals. 

We could faintly hear Aunt Isabella calling out for Grayson so we decided to head back to the house. Before we stood up, I reminded him, "Don't tell anyone that I gave you my flowers, because no one can get them without my permission, okay?" 

He nodded at my words as he muttered a quick 'thank you' before heading towards the house while I stayed behind to arrange the flower pot. 

That was the beginning of our friendship.

-Present-

I looked at the food on my plate, mine remained untouched while everyone else had all started digging in. Directly opposite me was Grayson, and beside him was Amelia. Seeing the both of them together was like a punch to my gut in the early morning. 

I started eating my breakfast until Lauren spoke up, "Are you guys going to choose a dress today? There's quite a lot of things to be settled, isn't it?" Grayson nodded as he replied, "Yes, we've been to several stores but Lia was not satisfied with the designs so we have to select one by today."

Amelia looked up from her plate as she shrugged and her gaze landed upon me, "Aurora, why don't you go dress shopping with me today? That's if you're free, if not that's fine too." 

I pondered for a while before I nodded to her request, "I'm free. And also, I would need the both of you to see the cake design that I've came up with so that I can make changes to it before the wedding and source for the ingredients." Both of them nodded at my words as we continued with our breakfast.

Maybe I've forgotten to mention, but I specialised in baking ever since I graduated from university. I spent 2 years in France to learn baking all sorts of desserts before returning to start a business with a university friend of mine, Olivia Huston. We had been running the business for nearly 3 years and I would say that our business was blooming over the years, thanks to a few clients who recommended to their friends and continued spreading the word for us. 

Lauren was the one who proposed to me about baking a cake for their wedding, given that Amelia was a rather picky woman when it comes to important occasions like this. Initially I wanted to reject the proposal, but come to think of it, it was a good way to tell myself to give up on any lingering hopes. 

He would never remember about the past, much less anything about me. But most importantly, the person he loves now is Amelia, and that would never change.