13. Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Thirteen
Nik
The sound of sizzling bacon filled the air. Nik flipped each piece on the hot surface and then stirred a small pan of eggs. While breakfast cooked, he squeezed a couple of angelfruits over two glasses, filling them with sweet pink juice.
In the bedroom attached to the open kitchen, Ali was still nestled in the thick blankets. Despite the summer heat, the homes under the mountain stayed comfortably cool. Nik watched her breathe, her chest rising and falling with each peaceful inhale and exhale.
She’d been extra tired lately, and he wanted to do something nice for her. Breakfast in bed seemed like the best idea to allow her to sleep in and show her how much he cared.
As he removed the pans from the stovetop, he heard rustling from their bedroom.
“Nik?” Ali’s voice carried through the quaint apartment.
“Don’t get up,” he called, rushing to dish the food onto plates. “I’ll be right in.”
After placing the plates and glasses of juice onto a small server, he carried it into the bedroom and sat it at the end of the bed. “Surprise,” he said, rounding the end of the mattress to crawl back into bed with her.
“You did this for me?” she asked with tears in her eyes.
Nik felt a little uneasy. “Yes…”
She wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. “That’s so sweet. Thank you.”
Then she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood, sliding a pair of shorts over her bare legs.
Nik stared in confusion. “Where are you going?” The tray of food sat untouched in the middle of the bed.
Ali walked into the bathroom and shut the door without another word.
Each second that passed caused Nik to worry.
Was it morning sickness? He’d heard that was a thing pregnant people went through. Maybe he should check on her.
He was just about to get up when the door opened again and Ali strolled out, no sign of tears on her face.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
She crawled back onto the bed and leaned against the headboard. When she realized he was still staring, waiting for some sign that she was truly okay, she sighed. “I just have to pee all the time right now.”
Nik chuckled. Thank god that’s all it was.
Ali playfully smacked his arm. “It’s not funny. It’s actually very annoying.” He laughed even harder, and Ali joined him. “You won some points with this breakfast, but I think you just lost them.”
Nik reigned in his laughter and passed her a plate. “Would I win them back if I tell you there’s also a cinnamon bun with your name on it in the kitchen?”
She paused, raising a forkful of scrambled eggs to her mouth, and her lips curved into a wide smile. “Yes, that would win you a lot of points.”
Once Ali had finished her eggs, bacon, and a slice of toast, Nik fetched the cinnamon roll as promised. He hadn’t been certain that she would be hungry enough to eat it all, but he should’ve known she would always have room for sweets.
Before he left for the day, he kissed her lips—quickly at first, but then he went back for seconds, relishing the way her lips formed to his. The softness and the taste of sweet cinnamon that still lingered there. “I’ll see you later.”
Since he’d settled into his job as Grace’s newest guard, he’d gotten into a routine.
Each morning, he met her outside of the cafeteria and followed her around as she took care of her various responsibilities.
Sometimes it meant standing outside of meeting rooms, while other times it meant tagging along to watch Eli train.
Those times always ended up with him taking an active role in helping Eli rather than watching from the sidelines.
He had a hunch that Grace and Ali had planned it that way.
Today they’d be assembling food packages for some of the less fortunate members of Berland.
It was a surprise that anyone would struggle here since he and his friends had been taken care of so well.
But Grace explained that not everyone adapted to life in Berland so easily.
Regardless of whether they were newcomers or had been here for decades, some struggled to find the right job to fit their skills.
Some had large families and needed more to provide for their children, while others had just fallen on hard times and needed help getting back on the right track.
In the same way that the newcomers had been provided for, the community came together to help those in need.
When he met Grace outside the cafeteria, she bounced on her feet and greeted him excitedly. Was she ever calm? She always seemed to have enough energy for an entire army.
Nik did his best to put on a smile, but it paled in comparison to her excitement. “Lead the way,” he said, gesturing for her to move into the cafeteria.
Grace chattered the entire time they walked to the attendant at the register. Nik hardly heard a word she said, but nodded and furrowed his brows to make it seem like he was fully engaged in the one-sided conversation.
Grace exchanged a few words with the worker stationed next to the buffet, who pointed to a semi-hidden door behind several stacks of wooden crates.
Nik followed Grace through the door to a small storage area.
The walls were lined with fruits and vegetables and an assortment of non-perishable items. In the center of the room, a large rectangle table stretched from one wall and stopped only an arm’s length away, leaving very little room to maneuver around.
One elderly man waited for them. He held a small clipboard and read it with the utmost concentration, biting on the end of a pencil.
He scribbled something and then looked up, perusing the shelves on the wall.
He jumped when he caught sight of Nik and Grace waiting patiently by the door.
Clutching at his chest, he nodded politely toward Grace.
“I’m sorry, Miss Grace. I didn’t see you there. ”
She smiled and squeezed her way around the table. “Preston, it’s so good to see you. How have you been?”
“As good as an eighty-year-old man could be, I suppose.”
She laughed and gave him a quick one-armed hug. It was all she could reach in the crowded space. “Preston, this is Nik. He’s a new guard assigned to me, and he’ll be helping out today.”
“Nice to meet you,” Preston said, stretching an arm toward Nik. Nik had to reach around Grace to shake his hand.
“You as well.”
Preston pulled a sheet of paper from his clipboard and offered it to Grace. He pointed toward the top and Nik leaned to see what Grace was seeing. It appeared to be some type of fulfillment sheet with a log of items required.
“I’ve filled these boxes already.” His finger traced the first few lines. “We still have these to go.”
More than half the page had yet to be crossed off.
Grace read through each line, nodding occasionally. “Right. I’ll start with these. Nik, you can take the next three. The items are clearly marked on the shelves, but if you need help finding anything, you can ask Preston or me.”
Nik nodded and claimed a crate, searching for items along the walls and filling it until each item had been crossed off.
By the time he was done with the first crate, its contents looked very similar to the items he and Ali had been given when they first arrived in Berland.
Nik hoped the recipient would find as much comfort in it as he had.
Nik worked quietly while Grace and Preston sang unfamiliar tunes off-key. Their energy was so contagious that by the end of the first hour, he found himself tapping his toe to the beat.
Between filling crates, he was tasked with taking the fulfilled orders outside of the small storage room and stacking them neatly against the wall behind the buffet line. Then he’d grab a few of the empty crates to replace the ones he’d just moved.
Shortly after their lunch break, another worker knocked on the door frame.
He was a young man, barely out of his teens, with short blond hair and a patchy beard.
“Sorry for the interruption. Miss Grace, your mother sent me to tell you she just received word of a small group of newcomers arriving in a few days. She says that we’ll need four rooms prepared. ”
Grace frowned. “Okay. Why is she telling me?”
The man straightened and his cheeks flushed. “She said that you would take care of it.”
Not requested. Not asked. Just demanded.
In the few days that Nik had spent working as Grace’s guard, he’d noticed the immense pressure her mother put on her.
He almost felt sorry for her, though she rarely seemed fazed by it.
She kept the pep in her step and her cheery demeanor almost to spite her mother.
He would’ve found it admirable if her sunny disposition wasn’t too bright for him to handle.
“I’m a little busy here,” Grace said, but the man wasn’t deterred.
He cleared his throat, and Nik could tell he did not enjoy being the messenger between two ferocious women. “I’m sorry, but Lady Ellen insisted.”
Grace sighed. “Fine. Let her know we’ll be there soon.”
The man let out a big sigh of relief. He nodded and left the room. Grace apologized to Preston, but he waved her off. According to him, any help was better than nothing.
Before they left to prepare the rooms, Nik carried two more crates full of food and toiletries to the stack of completed packages.
His chest swelled at the sight of more than a dozen crates ready to be delivered to those in need.
It was worth spending hours listening to Grace and Preston’s awful singing.
“What do you think?” Grace asked with a bright grin.
“It’s…empty,” Nik said, glancing around at the dusty floor and four blank walls. The only thing to break up the monotony were two white painted doors that separated the main living space from the bedrooms.
“Yes, but when we’re done, it’s going to be a cozy little home for the next family to walk Berland’s streets. I’m going to make a list of the furniture we’ll need—the shop will have everything brought down—and then we can start cleaning.”
“Sounds great,” he said.
While she wrote, Nik wandered around the empty apartment.
It seemed bigger than Ali’s and his. He reached for the door handle, expecting a bathroom, but instead found a second empty room.
Unlike his studio apartment with Ali, this home had more than one bedroom.
He went to check the second door and, sure enough, another separate bedroom lay beyond the living room.
Each bedroom had a bathroom attached as well.
For a moment, he pictured himself and Ali living in this apartment, taking turns getting up in the middle of the night to check on their baby in the adjacent room.
It was small, but there was enough space to add a chest full of toys and still be able to play in the center of the room.
He could see it so clearly—him teaching his kid to walk across the smooth floor with a smile on his or her face while Ali cheered them on.
“That should do it,” Grace said, reviewing the list of items she’d made. The image of his future faded as she left the room to send the message along.
When she returned, she carried a handful of cleaning supplies. She offered a broom to Nik. “Do you have a preference on which room you’d like to clean?”
He chose the main room and began sweeping the floor, but something nagged at him. “Grace?”
She popped her head out of the closest bedroom. “Yes?”
“How does Berland distribute apartments?”
“Well, there’s a registry and we keep track of which units are available for whenever more newcomers arrive.”
“But what about those who already have homes? Like children growing up and leaving their parents. Or—”
“Or a couple in need of a nursery?” she asked, one corner of her lips curving upward.
Nik’s brows rose and his neck turned so fast he heard a crack. “Ali told you?”
“No. I guessed it, but she confirmed it.”
Nik was surprised. He had assumed Eli would be the first person Ali told. “And Eli?”
“He doesn’t know. And I won’t tell him either. As far as the apartment goes, I’ve already looked into it for you. There’s an older woman who just lost her husband and will be downsizing in the next few weeks. I’ve made sure that once she’s moved out, it’ll pass to you and Ali.”
Nik suddenly felt horrible for every occasion he’d ever considered Grace annoying. She was more thoughtful and generous than he deserved. He made a vow to be more kind—to be a better friend and live up to the man that Ali believed him to be. “Thank you, Grace.”
She beamed, and for once he smiled back.