Then she threw the dirty sheet on the ground and quickly flattened the clean one. She turned around and smiled at Cristofer, “See? I can do it. Now, lie on the bed.”
Cristofer slowly lay on the fresh sheet, noticing Estelle also looked embarrassed with her red face.
After cleaning up everything and eating lunch, Estelle took the cold medicine to the bedroom and gave Cristofer the dose required. She said, “Take the medicine first. Then you can sleep for a while.”
Cristofer asked, his hand freezing in the air, “What about you? Are you going to leave after I fall asleep?”
Estelle said, “I’ll stay here with you for a while. After you fall asleep, I’ll go to the study room.”
‘Great. You’re not leaving. That’s wonderful.’ At the thought, Cristofer quickly put the pills into his mouth.
The medicine soon started working, and he became drowsy and was half asleep. In this trance, he heard Estelle move carefully. Subconsciously, he grabbed her arms and pulled her back. “Estelle, don’t go.”
Estelle was taken aback, so she lost her balance and almost fell on his body. She suspected he was pretending to be asleep, so she approached him to look at his face. His eyes were closed, with the long eyelashes slightly fluttering and dark shadows under them, and he was breathing slowly. Knowing Cristofer was sound asleep, Estelle sighed, staying still. She had no choice but to mute her phone and read her emails on it.
It seemed that Vincent and Eva decided to disappear together. Neither of them called her back. Yet, Estelle still sent an email to Eva in case something happened. ‘You can go to Vincent if anything happens. I can’t work now.’
Meanwhile, Eva, sitting in the office, heard the computer’s beep and immediately opened up Estelle’s email. She smiled brightly when she read it and immediately sent Vincent a message. ‘You’re indeed more experienced than me. Vincent, you are right. Let’s keep pretending that we’re busy. Don’t respond to any of Estelle’s calls or emails!!!’
Eva used three exclamation marks to show how serious this was. Although Vincent thought she was too dramatic, he suddenly thought of something and called Mrs. Moorsum and Luke to tell them not to go home too early.
Luke had been hanging out with his friends for almost a day. After Vincent called him, he discussed with Mrs. Moorsum and decided to go to the park to play for a while after they picked up the children so that they wouldn’t disturb Estelle and Cristofer. After all, it wasn’t easy for those two to stay alone.
As a result, no one came home to replace Estelle even though she had been waiting for them in the bedroom for a very long time. As the beautiful sunset gave the curtain a golden luster, she yawned and put her head on her arm by the bed.
At the same time, Cristofer was still pretending to be asleep and didn’t want to let go of her hand. When he finally heard the sound of her even breath, he slowly opened his eyes. And he couldn’t help but touch her face when seeing her sleeping by his side.
Estelle seemed to feel it because she felt a little uneasy. Then she turned over, whispering something in annoyance. She reacted in the same way as ten years before. Seeing that, Cristofer felt like the spring breeze gently puffed across his heart and awakened a boundless flower field.
With a rustling, he carefully got out of bed and carried her to the bed. He then gently put a blanket on her and cuddled with her.
When Mrs. Moorsum and Luke finally took the children back after playing for a long time, night had fallen, and thousands of city lights started sparkling.
Yvonne and Christina ran into the living room hand-in-hand like two little bunnies. They wanted to show their mom and dad the new balloon, but they didn’t see anyone after looking around.
“Mrs. Moorsum, where are mom and dad? Did they secretly go out?” Yvonne asked in confusion, scratching her head.
Christina looked at the stairs and said calmly, “I bet they are upstairs. Let’s go and check it. Then we can let them play games with us.”
“I think you should stay here quietly,” Yohan said seriously, like an authoritative brother. He held each girl’s hand and explained, “Dad has a cold, so Mom stays home to take care of him. Otherwise, Mrs. Moorsum and Grandpa Luke wouldn’t pick us up together today.”
After he spoke so logically, Mrs. Moorsum praised, “Yohan, you’re such a considerate boy. Can you take care of the two girls for me? I want to go upstairs and check how they’ve been doing and ask them what they want to eat.”
The lights were off upstairs, so Mrs. Moorsum had to grope her way in the dark first and then turn on the lights in the hallway. And then, she knocked on the door softly. Since no one answered, she bravely cracked the door open.
Instantly, the light flowed into the bedroom through the crack. Though only a tiny space was lit up, it was enough for Mrs. Moorsum to see Estelle and Cristofer cuddling and sleeping soundly.
After seeing that, Mrs. Moorsum closed the door as softly as possible and returned to the living room with a big smile. Then she told the children, “Let’s not disturb your mom and dad tonight. I’ll read you some stories later.”
Hearing that, Luke realized that some good things must have happened between them, so he was very happy for Cristofer and helped Mrs. Moorsum persuade the children. “Yeah. It’s quite late now. You should go to sleep. Otherwise, you can’t get up on time tomorrow. And I can only let the boogeyman get you.”
Yvonne shouted and looked guilty because she was the greedy sleeper among the three children. She whispered, “How is dad? Will the boogeyman come to get him?”
“I don’t think the boogeyman can beat Dad,” Christina pondered, “But maybe he can beat Dad now that Dad is sick. Let’s check on Dad. Mom must be tired after taking care of him alone all day. Maybe we can help her.”
With an awkward smile, Luke had to stop the two girls, saying, “You’re too young to take care of your dad. You can actually help by behaving well. If you shower and go to sleep now, you’ll wake up early for school tomorrow. Being late for school would be a big problem.”
Yohan, the oldest child, began to understand some of the issues of grownups. He suddenly had an idea and held Yvonne’s and Christina’s hands, suggesting, “Let’s go to sleep. Mom and Dad are probably resting now. We might disturb them if we go to see them.”