Baby On Board ✓

Chapter 22: Valentine's Day

With her apartment cleaned and everything officially settling down, Valentine's day came a lot faster than Autumn realized. Normally, she wouldn't care about the love filled holiday that made all the couples act crazy. Instead, she would lock herself in her apartment and work overtime on the blueprints and other stuff that she was hired to do. But now that she was officially with Gian, she couldn't help but feel excited. She was finally able to share the holiday with someone she cared about.

Of course this left her with a slight pep in her step as she knocked against the door and waited...and waited...and waited. Just as she was about to knock again, the door opened.

"Hey."

Instead of a bright smile, Gian frowned. "Autumn, what are you doing here?" He ran a hand down his face before he glanced at his watch. "Did we have a meeting planned?"

"No, I just thought...you would want to spend Valentine's day together."

Gian's eyes widened. "Crap, Valentine's day is today! Crap, Autumn, I'm so sorry."

Seeing the bags under his eyes, Autumn raised her hands. "Hey, it's fine, really." She frowned. "Are you alright though?"

Gian sighed before he ran a hand down his face. "No, I'm just...so tired." He waved her hand away. "One of my clients hated everything we did for their house and didn't tell us. Another client wants everything to be redone. We have some orders for another project that just got delayed and now we're scrambling to get everything done again."

Stepping forward, Autumn wrapped her arms around him. "Is there anything I can do to help you?"

"Unless you know how to make shipment for a three story office space come in faster, I don't think you can."

Autumn closed her eyes, giving him a small squeeze. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "You just being here makes it all better."

"You're just saying that."

Gian cupped her chin making her look up at him. "I mean it, Autumn. I'm glad you were thinking about me." Feeling her face warm, she nuzzled into his chest some more before a rumbling noise had him grimacing.

"Sorry, I haven't had time to eat all day." He sidestepped to let her into the room. "As you can see it's been a mess." Sure enough there was paper, scraps of fabric, glue and more everywhere. Making her way to the table, she stared down at the various floor plans.

"These for your new clients?"

"Yeah," He sighed. "I still need to make 3D models of the prints and with the shipment coming in late, I have to redo the designs for them." Gian rubbed his eyes. "This is going to be another all nighter."

"How many all nighters have you had?"

At his raised palm, Autumn was starting to see why he craved caffeine.

She wasn't going to let this be another all nighter as well. "What program do you use?" She made her way to his laptop. "Ok, well I use this program when I'm creating my buildings. What if I create these 3D models for you and you can focus on the other project?"

"Wait," Gian looked relieved. "You will?"

"Yeah, I don't' mind." She pulled his laptop into her lap. With a little manuving around the bump, she had the program set up. "Just leave the blueprints on this table and I can get to work." Gian's smile widened before he scrambled to gather up the program papers. Placing them on the table, he went to work on his other projects.

And that was how the two of them spent Valentine's day, working on various 3D models and projects for his clients. As she saved the last 3-D model, she looked at Gian. "Gian?" His eyes were closed. "Hey Gian?"

Moving closer, she was greeted by the steady inhale and exhale of his breath. With a glance at the remaining projects, she set his laptop aside and threw a throw blanket onto him. Making her way to the kitchen, she shifted through his fridge. "Alright, what can we make for dinner?" '

At the sight of sour cream, her mouth drooled. "Hmm, alright we definitely need to use that." She pulled out the sour cream then her phone. With a shift through recipes, she settled on a nice mushroom cream soup.

While she was a horrible baker, she could at least say she was a decent cook. Chopping up mushroom, carrots, and more, she tossed it into the cream broth and let it shimmer. Inhaling, the smell had her stomach rumbling before a jab to her ribs made her grimace. Easy, she rubbed the area. We're going to eat soon.

"Autumn?" She turned her head. Rubbing his head, he glanced around before his gaze locked onto her.

"Hey, you're awake." She glanced around the kitchen. "I hope you didn't mind me making dinner. You said you haven't eaten all day and I wanted to make sure you had something ready."

"No, it's..it's fine."

"I'll just clean up later." She scooped a second bowl before she went to join him. "I say you got most of your projects done."

"Yeah," He took the bowl from her. "Thanks to you."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't going to let you pull another all nighter." She scooped up some broth. "Not when I could have easily helped out." Blowing on the steaming broth, she hummed in delight. Just as she was about to take another sip, she noticed his dark eyes staring at her.

She turned to him with a small smile. "What are you staring at?" Her face burned as she whipped her mouth. "Did I get broth on me?"

"No, no I was just..." He shook his head. "It doesn't matter." He turned his attention to the soup. "This smells so good by the way."

She nudged him playfully. "At least I'm a decent cook right?"

Gian chuckled at that. His solemn gaze met hers. "Sorry we didn't really do anything romantic for Valentine's day."

Autumn shrugged her shoulders. "I don't mind really." She leaned her head against his shoulders. "As long as I'm spending time with you then I think it's been a pretty good Valentine's day."