Brandon’s Pov
The news of her pregnancy seemed to have buried the hatchet; she had forgotten about my jealousy outburst and was preoccupied with the pregnancy. She even forgot the part where she wanted to run away.
She was ecstatic, despite her best efforts to suppress it. She also allowed me to accompany her to buy new clothes, though she refused to take my money because I burned her previous clothes.
She applied for a job at my company, online of course. Because Josh’s case was still going on, she still needed to be in hiding and not showing her face everywhere.
We went out shopping in blond wigs using the money she earned. Except for my persistent coughing, which forced us to rest and take seats, it was a lot of fun.
Useless Nestor even had the audacity to tag along; perhaps he needed to be elevated to bodyguard or something, but I wasn’t willing to take that chance.
We’d all seen the movies where the hotwife, yes I was referring to Thalia as my hot wife. Anyway, stories were the hot wife got sick of her dying husband and sought out the hot bodyguards for a steamy top headline marital affair.
I had no intention of helping them construct their love nest in my house or my beach. Yes, we discussed my jealousy, and she answered all of my questions. I trusted her, but she was only human, and humans were prone to errors. So it was better she made those errors when I was six feet beneath the surface.
We ate lunch at one of my favorite places after the terrible shopping experience. I termed it a heartbreaking experience because the woman had a bad fashion test. Even Nestor agreed that the woman had a bad taste in fashion, so I labeled it heartbreaking.
She was a total Grandma hiding in a young person. She was choosing everything and leaving everything that showed off her hot body. Yes, she needed maternity clothing but it was too early for that, she needed to embrace her body before it bubbled up.
The sad part was that I was not allowed to say anything about what she was choosing, I was the culprit that burned the previous outfits and neither was I permitted to choose anything for her. Thalia was going to hold that little mistake over my head for the rest of my life.
Anyway, I let her choose because it was only fair and I noticed a little change in her taste, it was better than the old sweaters I found her with. She definitely learnt something from me, even if it wasn’t about my cleavage sort of clothing.
We had our lunch quietly in the back, and to my annoyance, Nestor Invited himself for the food as well. I had a lot of questions for him, and he probably thought we were his friends at the back of his head.
Thalia, perhaps, but not me. He had caught me staring at him furiously more than twice, he was spoiling my special days with my Thalia, he should have known that I wanted to spend time alone with her and he was doing it on purpose.
I decided to talk to him when we went back to the beach house while Thalia entered the house. But before I could say anything, he cornered me.
“The building I took you to a week ago? It belongs to Dr. Wilson? Doesn’t it?” he inquired.
I said, “It’s none of your concern.”
“You should inform Thalia,” he began with a smile, “she’d be glad to know you’ve started seeking treatment.”
I stared at him, unsure if he was amused or pleased with me, so I played it down. “You’re upset, I get to live and keep Thalia.”
He chuckled and patted my back, saying, “To me, you are like the older brother I never had; every day I pray for you; Thalia deserves you; and if you die, please know that I will treat her like a sister.”
As he walked away, I just stood there, staring. I clenched my teeth and walked inside the house. He was so annoying, he needed to get a life, or maybe if I hired a girl for him he would be too busy to poke in my business.
As I walked into the house Thalia asked, “What were you two discussing?”
“Men stuff,” I replied.
She gave me a sidelong glance before deciding to ignore me, she was too preoccupied with her ice cream. I hadn’t told her yet about doctor Wilson. I didn’t want to give her a false sense of optimism.
Perhaps if the doctor was successful or granted only limited success, I would reconsider. I followed her and took a spoonful, but the ice cream seemed like water on my palate. I stared at the ice cream while rolling my tongue around..
I took another scoop, but it didn’t feel any different. I took another and another but the ice cream tasted like sand. It was weird, especially since I was just from enjoying my steak at the restaurant.
I didn’t want to alarm Thalia, I didn’t want my illness to worry her, she was pregnant. I excused myself and went straight to the sugar bowl in the kitchen. I scoured as much as I could, but it was also unappealing like sand.
I placed the bowl of sugar back and went to get some fresh chili, which I chewed on like it was nothing. My sense of taste was completely gone.
I hurriedly reassembled everything before Thalia found me and I texted Dr. Willson. The moron had no idea what was going on, and he wanted me to go and see him in person so he could perform a series of tests.
I shrugged and scheduled an early appointment for the next day.
“What are you doing, Brandon? You’ll find I have finished the ice cream?” From the other room, Thalia yelled.
I replied “I’m coming!” and returned to my thoughts. Something wasn’t right; I had hoped to be turning normal and healthier, but it appeared that things were becoming worse.
I clenched my hand, irritated since I was weary of the stupid condition wrecking my life. But I needed to reveal my face since Thalia was becoming concerned.
I strolled back into the room and acted as nothing had happened. I wasn’t very good at hiding, so I turned on the television.
I had ruined the previous one, so I brought in a replacement. Josh and Jessica were a fantastic shield behind which I could hide.
“Come on, Brandon?” Thalia let out a scream.
“What?” I asked confused.
“Can’t we get through this night without those two idiots?” she wondered. I glanced at her, realizing that she had never questioned about the couple or how far I was with ruining Josh’s life ever since she got the news that she was pregnant.
“Josh and his lawyer are having an affair,” with a phony grin on my face, I declared.
“Oh, my,” she replied.
I was expecting her to burst out laughing or demand that I expose him to Jessica, but she was busy with the stupid ice cream.
I cleared my throat and added, “according to the investigator, Josh is paying his legal fees with sex. I have them on tape, and I’m going to expose them in court tomorrow,” I added.
“No, don’t expose them; let the idiot cheat as long as it puts the skank in a hellish marriage,” she ordered. I averted my gaze as she spoke. I cocked my head, I was expecting her to remain silent.
“What I’m saying is that they’re on their way to self-destruction, so let’s just pose a little and enjoy the arrival of this baby,” she added, tapping the bed for me. I approached her and sat down next to her.
“What about the stock options?”
“After the baby is born, we can discuss it more,” she replied.
“No, I’m talking about the public shares, the 40 or so. My men have Gentex shareholders willing to sell privately,” I said.
“Oooh, those shares? Buy them,” She replied and handed me an ice cream scoop. “Open up please?” She added as I opened up my mouth and swallowed the watery flavor.
“All right,” I said and sent an email. It was clear that she merely said that to get me to change the subject. She walked up to the television, took the remote, and switched the channel to Tom and Jerry.
“Seriously?” I cried out.
She explained, “The baby needs to be hearing pleasant things.”
“I’ve lost my appetite,” I admitted as I walked to the bathroom with my towel. I could hear her laughing, but I didn’t pay attention. I had my own problems to worry about.
I awoke early the next day, and yes, I was still alive. I went to see Dr. Willson in the new lab under the guise of meeting with the shareholders. I had no choice but to take Nestor with me; hiring another pilot for the visits would be too risky.
I hadn’t told Thalia about my early visit, I felt confident in entrusting Nestor with the new location. Of course, I made him sign some papers stating that he would never reveal the lab or my plans to continue the therapy search.
He was irritated, but he signed it nonetheless; certainly, he had held many secrets for me in the past, but now there was a lady between us, and he was compelled to suppress his feelings because of me.
I noticed the way he looked at her or the way he held Thalia the day I shut them both out, no matter how hard he tried to hide it. So I decided not to put all of my eggs in one basket.
When I got to the facility, I strolled straight to the Doctor’s office without knocking. I hoped he had everything.
By the time I went in, I hoped he’d figured everything out. But the imbecile, however, had no answers, much to my chagrin. He began extracting more and more samples from my body. That was the part of my illness that bothered and angered me.
The physicians always took a lot of blood, urine, CFS, and even a biopsy, but they never had any answers. It was always your white cells this? The red cells that. It was so aggravating that I had to put everything on hold in the end.
But there I was, redoing the ridiculous process for the second time, only this time it was different. There was a special somebody and I was determined to meet the little human growing inside of her.
As I awaited the findings, I kept telling myself that it was worth it. I had instructed Nestor to stay in the chopper and he was outside.
The door swung open, and the doctor walked back in, more perplexed than before. I didn’t have to ask, but I could tell he was stumped. I jumped out of bed immediately.
“Hold on, Mr. Fraser,” he stated.
“What do you think happened to make me lose my sense of taste?” I enquired.
He sighed but handed me a pineapple to eat.
“What exactly is this?”
“Give it a shot,” he replied.
“I’ve already gone through everything with you.” But he kept insisting. I snatched it and shoved it into my mouth, but to my surprise, I tasted the sweet acidic pineapple flavor.
“Is there anything more you have to eat?” I asked.
He handed me a sandwich as he proceeded to his drawer. I took a large chunk, and oh my goodness, it was fantastic. My obnoxious taste bugs were back, and I was relishing every bite.
“What exactly does this imply?” I asked.
“Loss of appetite can be caused by gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), heartburn, or radiotherapy, but all tests came back negative,” he tasted.
“I’m not sure why you lost your ability to taste food, Mr. Fraser,” he replied.
I simply turned around and walked out, regretting the hours I had wasted at the inept facility. I would have dismissed him and set fire to the facility if it hadn’t been for Thalia.
The one saving grace was that my taste bug had returned.
Nestor greeted me as I approached the aircraft, opening the door for me and asking, “Hope you received some answers?”
I just rolled my eyes and turned away, my face pressed against the window, wallowing in my sadness.
