Flowers//Elavan

~6~

He watched closely from outside her window as she chewed on the pen that she was using to write down whatever it was that she writing down. Her forehead wrinkled and she shook her head to herself and scratched out something harshly in the paper which she later rips out of her notebook, crumple and toss to the nearest bin.

Avan sniggers to himself at the sight of her frustrated self stick out her tongue subtly as she started to write things down again. In between writing, she looks up and her eyes catch a glimpse of him. A warm smile makes an appearance on her face as she tucks a strand of stray hair behind her ear and waved at him. She flips her notebook to another page and roughly jots something down. When she finishes writing, she lifts it up for him to see.

Nice hair

He grins widely at that and signs thank you while he mouths it as well. She flips the pages of her notebook again and sticks her tongue out slightly as she wrote down again.

See you lunch!

Avan sucks in a deep breath before nodding and forming a heart with his hands. His gesture makes Liz giggle and so she does the same thing and then raises her middle fingers at him because that's just how she was. She was a sweet, polite girl that had a great sense of humor.

He pretends to be fishing something out of the pockets of his scrubs and then flips her off through the window, laughing all the while. It was great that Liz was finally warming up to him somehow. She still thought of him as nothing more than her best friend but Avan would take what he would be given as of the moment. No matter how little that may be.

Tapping on her window once more, he waves her a temporary goodbye and heads downstairs to treat another child. He wasn't very excited because it was a pediatric case but he found comfort in the fact that his next patient was his favorite, a cute two-year-old little girl with down syndrome who had a tiny bit of a crush on him.

The whole time he was in the toy-filled room with his young patient, Avan's mind was set on one person. He was counting down every minute, every second until his lunch break so that he could barge into Liz's room like he owned the place and spend as much time as he possibly could with his wife.

When lunch finally comes, he sprinted towards the employee lockers and check his phone to see how his offspring was doing under Ariana's care. He opens his messages to see a cute little video of his daughter reciting her ABC's as she ate alphabet soup.

Tell her I said good job

He sends it and tosses his phone back into his locker and grabs the packed lunch he made.

"Lunch!" Liz gushes as he walks into her room.

"Oh, okay. I see how it is now," he rolls his eyes jocularly, feigning hurt and handing her a small lunchbox with food.

"And Avan! See? You didn't let me finish," she stick out her tongue at him.

This was the same silliness that Liz used to pull on him when they were 21. She would always show her affections towards him by poking fun at whatever it was he was doing. It was funny to think about but getting made fun of by Liz has become the highlight of his day again, like when they were younger.

He just really loved how a glint of mischievous victory would sparkle in her eyes and made him think of the stars in the night sky. There was something about the way she laughed that sounded better than any symphony Bach or Bethoven could ever string together.

"What were you writing down a while ago?" he asked, breaking the long silence that sat between them.

"Just felt like writing a journal," she shrugged. "It feels kind of like prison in here and I was extremely bored."

"Did you know you're a really talented writer?"

"I wanted to take up journalism in college. Did I ever finish that?" she stabs a piece of gluten-free pasta with her fork and presses it against her lips.

"Yeah," he smiles. "Graduated with Latin honors too, smarty pants."

She coughs, choking on her food. He immediately grabs the water bottle from the baggie and makes her drink its contents, soothingly rubbing her back.

"Are you serious? That's always been my dream!"

"Yeah, you've told me," he smiles at how happy she looked.

He remembers the day she graduates vividly. Never in a million years could he forget that look on her face when she was handed her diploma and how stunning she looked in her cap and toga. She dominated the stage as she gave her speech, intimidating those who could not bear her power with her intelligence. Her words came spilling out of her like rivers of knowledge and wisdom that day and the moment she stepped off stage, she ran right into his arms and he had twirled her around in pride.

"I'm really proud of myself for that. Yay me," she said in the most modest tone one could possibly imagine.

Avan had to stop himself from telling her that she had lots of reasons to be proud of herself because she managed to take great care of their family and still have a name for herself in the industry.

"You should be! You used to write for this really famous online magazine and you were planning to write a novel too," he informs her, finishing the last bite of pasta on his dish. "You're an amazing woman, Elizabeth Jo-Gillies."

He internally cursed himself. If he hadn't noticed the weird look she was giving him, he would have let it slip that they legally had the same last name now. That would have lead to a whole explanation about how they were married and had a daughter which would soon lead to her being overwhelmed and put up a wall between them.

Avan didn't want that. He was only starting to get his relationship with his wife back. There's no space to mess it up.

"Avan, Avan," she taps him on the hand. "It's time for you to go. You're going to be late."

He didn't even realize he was just sitting there, staring at her. His eyes dart towards his wrist watch and realize he only had 5 minutes to spare before his next appointment with a patient.

For some reason, he found himself smiling at the fact that Liz was the one to remind him of that. It was such a wifely thing to do.

"Alright, I'm gonna go now," he pinches her cheek, fighting the urge to kiss her. "You keep writing, 'kay? The world misses the great Ms. Gillies."

She chuckles and waves him goodbye.

As he left, Liz's thoughts circled around his words. She knew she should have been focusing on the fact that she actually made a name for herself after all the years of hard work. It wasn't easy getting where she did, especially with the amount of people who have discouraged her and plagiarized her works. But her mind was stuck on the way he said her name.

Elizabeth Jo-Gillies

Was he trying to mess with her or was that just a genuine slip up? What was he going to say before he cut himself off?

Avan Jogia, although sweet and kind and handsome, was a bit of a mystery. Then again, everything was a mystery to her right now.

But so far, Avan was her favorite puzzle to solve.
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plagiarism isn't okay, loves, alright? especially not when it's fckn poetry bec that's an extension to my soul. so to my irl friend who plagiarized my poem and got a good grade out of it, i hope you're doing well, babe😙

Hope you enjoyed this. Don't be afraid to comment down your thoughts! Lots of love! Be kind, y'all!