How To Love ✓

24.

Amara

"Excuse me Miss? Sir?" My eyes flew open at the feeble voice.

"Mr. Chester's awake, if you would like to see him," the nurse gestured for us to follow her into the room where the elderly man was staying, which was down the corridor.

The smile was weak on his features when he saw us, laying fully bandaged across the small bed.  Lucien absentmindedly intertwined our fingers together, ensuring that he was right beside me, all the way.

"You have to eat something, Mr. Chester," the doctor informed him.

"It's the only way you're going to get better," he added but the stranger didn't seem to drift his weak but cold eyes from mines.

"I'm old. I've had a heart attack...a hip replacement...surgery in both knees. How much better am I going to get?" his voice was stiff and hoarse, maybe from the lack of water and oxygen.

The place went silent after that. I cleared my throat, thinking that it was the best time to talk.

Unfortunately, he beat me to it. "Who are you?" he asked coldly.

"I came to drop this off," I spoke politely and pushed the necklace closer to him.

He opened a dry, wrinkly hand to receive the item and studied it for a moment. "H-H-How d-d-d-did you get t-t-this?"

"From your car," Lucien answered for me and the stranger glared at him. Lucien stood stiffly, not intimidated by the man's harsh demeanour.

"You asked for us to retrieve it and this young man here rescued it when he rescued you," I added.

The look on the stranger's face softened. His eyes were lost and vacant, and I felt sorry for him. Even though I knew it would be difficult to get him back to his previous state, I thought he could at least improve to a point where he could at least remember who he once was.

"Oh, you...You pulled me out?" he stammered, weakly raising an arm to point to Lucien.

I raised an eyebrow. "You don't remember?"

He shook his head no. "But thank you. Thank you very much."

"He seems to like you, which is a first because he never showed us any sort of positivity to me or the nurses. See if you can get him to eat something, would you?" the doctor gave me a light pat on the back and left the room.

"W-W-What's your name?" he called out and I turned my head to the old man, his face crinkled in all places.

"Amara, Amara Belle," I replied and smile softly.

"And is the fella your boyfriend?" I turned to Lucien who was trying so hard not to turn red.

I, in turn, became red and cleared my throat in hopes of covering up the taste of embarrassment.

"No sire, we aren't together."

"She's bluffing. Besides, we don't need silly labels to pinpoint our strong feelings for each other. It's more than that," Lucien cut me across, casually placing a simple kiss to my hand that was intertwined with his.

Not surprised, he has a big ego for a reason.

I go to stand at the edge of the bed, pulling Lucien with me, frightened that the stranger would feel or express contempt or disdain toward us.

"Do you remember anything?" I spoke slowly.

"All I remember.... I-I-I don't know, my name. It's William Chester," he responded in a weak and feeble manner, so I chose to stop putting undue pressure on him.

"You really should eat something," I brought up the subject once more.

Mr. Chester flared his arms around and huff in haughtiness. "I'm done."

"Is that what Josephine would want?"

He widened his eyes at the question, in a split second they squinted toward me. "How do you know about Josephine?"

I noticed that he was getting aggravated, so I took a stand and moved away from his personal space.

"Why do you care? Y-Y-Y-You're done," he stammered forward and passed a hand over his bruised face.

"The name Josephine is etched on the back of the necklace's locket, as I noticed. I acknowledged that opening the locket would violate your privacy, so I refrained from doing so," I said.

My calm voice brought him a sense of pleasure and satisfaction. "I apologise if I offended you in any way, for I only wanted to discover more about you and the moments before such a tragic accident," I said.

"She was a lovely woman in every sense. It was love at first sight," he said, his mouth corners gently turning up.

 Lucien turned to face me as I turned to face him. We grinned at one another.

He asked abruptly, "Do you want me to tell you the story of how we met?"I turn to Lucien once again to ask if we may stay a little while longer, but he brought up the subject of school.

I realised he was correct.I look back over to Mr. Chester.

 "Are you going to be okay without us?" I enquire.

He nodded and gave me a weak smile. "Take heed of the young man. He is concerned about you. I'm going to be OK. Thank you, both of you, for saving my life. I owe everything to you."

This time, he didn't fight back when I went to give him an embrace. After giving him a gentle back pat, Lucien chastised him for not eating.

He pulled a joke, "You go on before you strangle me," and I gave him a final hug before catching Lucien's upper arm in my fingers and following him out the door.

***

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