「 The Professor & I 」VOLUME II

(176) Vulnerabilities

Laughlin City, 24th December 1993

Lynn's POV

The lonely night crawled torturously, rendering me relentlessly sleepless with the recurring thoughts of a significant occasion in my life being spent in a starkly variant manner from anything I have ever wanted to remember on this very day. It kept me so painfully awake, I could nearly count every second that past, hoping they would act like sheep and send me off into a fluffy imaginative dreamland made of unicorns and everything perfect, especially Charles.

With the sounding of the grandfather's midnight strike brutally blistering my eardrums, my endeavours were fruitless.

"Happy birthday, Charles," I mumbled quietly as a tear bounced off my cheek.

My quivering voice crumbled into the calm warm air under my duvet as I tightly hugged a pillow and habitually stroked my wedding band. The autonomous routine seemingly prevailed until exhaustion gradually took over, and according to the chimes, I probably only fell asleep at dawn.

Groggily waking up to my clamorous alarm, I lethargically drew myself a bath and freshened up. Approaching my nightstand after a sluggish round of dressing myself, I cursed as I noticed the time on my wrist watch lying atop the sleek marble nightstand. Quickly accessorising myself, I rolled towards the kitchen to make up for time lost to my listless behavior, merely downing a glass of calcium-loaded milk before my doorbell promptly rang.

"You look flustered. If you're not ready-" James commented after I rushed to open up for him.

"I'm fine. I just need to get my stuff," I stated in a hurry, unintentionally cutting him off as I swiftly thrusted back to room to grab my purse, not yet giving him a glimpse.

Yanking off my navy wool coat from beside the door, I casually slipped my arms through, leaving it unbuttoned for the sunny weather outside and whipped out my shades. As I was about to slide the tinted glasses up my face, I finally gave James a good look and immediately noticed he was oddly alone.

"Where's your sister? I thought you said she'd be joining us?" I investigated curiously as I scrutinized the vicinity, confirming I had not missed detecting a lady I had never seen before.

"Her flight has been delayed. But she'll be here tonight," James informed with certainty.

Heeding Jean's advise to treat James as a friend, I refrained from penetrating his mind anymore and simply placed my trust in his words instead. I nodded with a smile and we proceeded down the front porch, heading towards to mall to get the ingredients for the cheesecake I was meant to contribute to the night's gathering.

With James flaunting himself as an absolute veteran in shopping for baking essentials, we efficiently combed the supermarket, indeed yielding everything we needed and departed the checkout in a matter of fifteen minutes. Surely, I insisted to foot the bill to supplement my input for the feast and the stubborn gentlemen's cash only beat his paraplegic companion's to the cashier because his hands were not haphazardly preoccupied propelling a chair towards the counter while incompetently struggling to retrieve money from a wallet.

I glared and frowned at him again, almost flaring up, when James refused to let me help with the bags but he playfully flashed a snooty expression that was genuinely funny, unknowingly appeasing my rage.

Making considerable effort to communicate and get better acquainted, our entire morning's interaction was not as awkward as I had anticipated, until we arrived in his front yard. Strenuously wheeling up half of his roughly cemented walkway, aiming to stay within the poorly constructed narrow path that parted the vast gardens on both of its sides, I abruptly halted my chair as I discovered another daunting sight.