The Edge of Us

Six

"Where there is care, there is hope."
***

I fluttered my eyelids rapidly when I felt a ticklish warm breath in my nape. Ibinaba ko ang tingin sa aking beywang nang maramdaman ko ang mabigat na braso ni Alexander mula sa aking likuran.

Is he still sleeping?

I managed to took off his arm and get off from bed without disturbing him. Despite from being disheveled he managed to look appealing. He must be still in a deep slumber until now.

Well, I can't blame him, even me had barely rested and it's just 5:43 in the morning for Pete's sake.

I fixed myself  before I strode out to make porridge. Praying that I can really make an edible one.

"What brings you here, Miss?" I gasped when the voice of the cook echoed from the entrance of the kitchen along with the three maids behind her, scrutinizing me from head to toe.

"Is she the woman who ..." the maid behind her whispered her but didn't fail my hearing to decipher. She was stop mid-sentence when the cook who asked me elbowed her aside.

"I want to cook something. Hope you don't mind." I said, more like statement than question.

"But Miss, we're not allowed to let you cook. As you can observed that's our duty to fulfill not yours." she retorted, eyeing the white apron I put on just awhile ago.

"It's on me." I averted my gaze to the middle-aged woman appeared from the other side. She's the maid from yesterday who was assigned by Alexander to attend my needs.

I huffed.

" Did I ask your shoulder to carry me? No one can tell me what to or not to do right now, not even all of you..."

"But, Miss..." the cook interfered but refrained to continue when the middle-aged woman reached her slender arm and nodded her head a little.

I keep my gaze at them until the others leave me and my personal maid that was now watching them walk away.

"Need a hand?" she asked.

"If you insist." she sauntered forward to check what I started to sliced earlier.

"Do you think I'm doing it right?" hopeful yet anxious of her answer. Of course I never tried to cook before, I only watched our maids do it back in my father's house.

"Not that bad." then she teaches me the procedure as I keep my ears and hands worked together.

I don't know why but after what happened last night when I felt that he needed me and I was able to help him out,  I get this sudden drive to do something for Alexander, to continue to be useful and be at his back when he needs someone to look after him.

Maybe, this is the feeling I always crave to have, the feeling that I could be someone who can be useful, someone who can rely with, someone who'll cross others mind when they needed help, someone who can be valued because I mattered, someone who is worthy to keep and fight for.

Maybe.

It's already 6:53 in the morning when I knocked on Alexander's door with the anticipation that he somehow in his good shape now.