To Infinity and Beyond

Better off as friends?

Mark's POV

Our brisk steps carried us through the white and green halls of a half asleep corridor. It was almost midnight and the night shift staff at the hospital were lurking around, silently yet professionally performing their respective duties.

We immediately checked at the front office.

"Hi, we are looking for Ms. Rose Petra. She may be here for her delivery." I let out in a husk voice, inhaling deeply to calm my anxious nerves. Alice might have observed my tense body language, I felt her hand of my shoulder, and I suddenly felt a warm feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Her presence and touch made me feel differently. I flinched a bit and turned around to look her in the eye.

"Relax Mark, I am sure everything is fine." She said in a comforting whisper and I nodded giving her a small smile.

"Yes sir, Ms. Petra should be in Ward D. Please take the corridor to your left and walk straight to the end, it will be the third door on your right." The receptionist smiled as she gave me the required directions.

I quickly turned to the corridor and started pacing while Alice tried to match my steps. My mind was wandering when I suddenly bumped into a figure.

"Hey Mark, careful buddy." I saw Casper standing in front of me, as he adjusted himself and stood straight.

"Hey Casper. How's Rose? How's the baby? Is everything alright? Is the baby here already?" I fired all the questions in one breathe.

"Relax. Rose and baby are fine. The doctor is checking on her. She wasn't in labour, it was a false alarm, called braxton something."

"Braxton Hick Contractions." Alice helped him complete the sentence from behind me.

"Yes, precisely that." Casper responded spontaneously before he eyed the unexpected visitor standing next to me.

She suddenly felt nervous as Casper gave her a curious look and then looked back at me. Before his back and forth glances made Alice any more awkward, I cleared my throat and decided to introduce them.

"Umm.. Casper, this is Alice. She is the girl I met the other day. Britney's cousin."

"Oh you mean Alice from Tinder?" He blurted and she chuckled at his choice of words.

"Well.. Hi Casper, I am Alice Smith, from Vancouver but Tinder sounds fun too." A small blush now formed on her cheeks.

"Hi Alice. So nice to meet you, I didn't know Mark would have company this late at night, and that too someone as beautiful as you, else I would have never bothered him to come here. My bad." Casper took a step forward as he extended his hand for a shake, and Alice reciprocated warmly in the very instant.

"Umm... thank you Casper. It's absolutely fine. He was dropping me home anyway."

"Dropping you home?" He eyed me curiously, but before he could say anything further, I cut him and answered instead, "we were at Britney's party and I offered to drive Alice home. That's when you called."

"I am glad you are here though, Rose will be so happy to see you." Casper gave her an assuring smile.

"Really? Does she know about our... blind date too?" Alice gave me a confused look and Casper burst out laughing.

"She knows about it? She is the one who practically orchestrated it."

"She did?" Alice was taken aback. My mind trailed off to our conversation on the day of our date when she predicted that I was forced into this Tinder thing. Now she will know how right she was.