Wing Of Change
Chapter 34

*

Henry has been avoiding Aria the very moment she introduced Frank to him and somewhat hinted that they were now in a relationship even though he was still nice to her whenever they run into each other every now and then at the parking lot or during the weekend.

Aria couldn’t understand his sudden change in attitude but she didn’t read much meaning to it either. She has always considered him to be a good friend and that won’t change any time soon.

Maybe he has been busy with work at the hospital but even at that, he always found time to hang out with her back when he was working double shift at the same hospital which kind of brought her to the realization that he could be avoiding her on purpose.

That faithful evening, Aria decided to confront Henry about his sudden change in behavior as she patiently waited for him to return from work as usual.

She waited for hours for his return and as soon as she heard his foot steps along the corridor, she took another minute more before grabbing the box of pizza she ordered earlier and head over to his apartment.

Standing in front of his door, she took a deep breath and gave a little knock and waited for response but none was forthcoming. She knocked again but got no answer. Just when she was about to turn around and walk away, the door cracked open.

“Hey you!” Henry smiled, looking somewhat out of breath.

“Hey!” Aria smiled back

“Sorry, I was in the shower” he gestured at his body with his hands.

Just about then, Aria noticed the blue towel wrapped loosely around his waist and another hanging around his neck causing her to dart her eyes immediately to anywhere other than his hard rock abs.

Henry on the other hand had noticed her reaction to his half naked body and decided to change the topic.

“Is that what I think it is?” He asked smiling mischievously at the item in her hand.

“Uhm, yeah! It’s pizza. I thought maybe we can each grab a bite before heading to bed?_I mean, that’s if you are up for late night snack?”

“Of course I am up for it Aria_I mean who wouldn’t?”

He stepped back a little to let Aria through but she didn’t move.

“Uhm, do you want to come in or..?”

Henry made sure to leave the rest of his sentence to Aria imagination as he continued to wait for her to decide.

She replied with a smile as she stepped towards the door way.

“Thank you” she walked by him and stepped into his living room with her eyes immediately taking in her surrounding.

Henry’s living room looked really simple yet exotic with pretty expensive interior decoration. His space was nothing compared to that of a bachelor.

The wall was painted in ash color and splashed with a bit of white. The cushion matches effortlessly with the curtains not to mention his dinning area.

Everything was just in it right place.

“Welcome to my humble abode” he told her.

“Thank you. I must say your place is really nice”

“I’m glad I could match up to your interior expertise. I mean, considering how nice your place really is”

“Well this is not a competition mister and that wasn’t a compliment either. I was just stating the obvious” she shrugged both shoulders.

“Alright, if you say so then I must say thank you so please do make yourself at home while I go change into something more decent”

“Oh! yeah you should do that”

Henry was aware of how uncomfortable his minimal clothing was affecting her . He hurried over to his bedroom while Aria just settle down in one of the cushion still staring at whatever was playing on the flat TV screen on the wall.

Aria only had to wait a few more minutes before Henry emerged from the bedroom dressed in sweat pant and a basketball jersey with a bottle of wine in one hand and two glasses in the other.

“Sorry I kept you waiting”

“Oh it’s nothing” she gave him a small smile.

“Well I got these” gesturing with the items in his hands as he settled down on the table right beside Aria.

“It seem you have lot of these in there”

“Actually yes! It helps me sleep better at night”

“Oh okay”

“Yup”

They talked about random things as they ate their pizza and slipped their glasses of wine. Aria hasn’t laughed this much in a really long time. Henry was such a comedian. It was as if he had a long list of jokes and he just kept pulling them out one after the other causing her to laugh so hard.

“Oh my God, you should have been a stand up comedian Henry. I seriously don’t get why you are still a doctor” Aria had told him through fit of laughter.

“Oh I don’t understand it myself. I guess I just love my job enough not to quit and besides I still get a chance to put smiles on my patients faces” he reasoned.

“You are one amazing guy you know that?” Said Aria

“Oh yeah? Tell me about it” he probed himself forward to face her.

“I don’t know what else to say other than you are amazing and I guess that’s why I have kinda missed you this past weeks” she told him honestly

“You kinda missed me?” His brow raised in confusion.

“Yes! I even thought you were avoiding me” she told him quite frankly.

Henry just burst out laughing which kind of startled Aria a bit.

Has she said something funny?

“I’m sorry!_ sorry but I can’t help it. You really thought I was avoiding you?”

“Of course I did”

“Okay I believe you. I guess that’s why you are here?”

“Yeah plus the late night snacks too”

“Maybe you are right.. We haven’t been seeing much of each other lately but it’s not because am avoiding you. I have other things am doing apart from my work at the hospital so am either coming home late or going out early” Henry had explained calmly.

“Really?”

“Yea..but am sorry if my new schedule gave you the wrong impression. I have no reason to do that”

“Okay”

They were both quiet for a moment. An unknown fog seemed to be clouding the atmosphere and Aria realized it was probably time to leave as well.

“So,thank you for the wine and the uncontrollable laughter. I don’t think i have had that much fun in a while but it’s getting late, I should let you rest”

She got up on her feet.

“It’s always a pleasure to put a smile on your face Aria so thank you for coming. I really do appreciate you checking up on me. It truly warms my heart to know that you care” he had both hands on his chest just to emphasis his point.

“Of course I do care silly” Aria told him before smacking him across the shoulder and causing Henry to chuckle at her comeback.

“Thank you Aria”

“You too Henry..good night”

He walked her over to the door and hugged her goodnight.

“Do have a nice rest” he called after her.

“I will..and you too”

**

Aria woke up the next morning with a slight headache as she crawled out of bed and reached for her phone. She noticed she had over six missed calls from Frank.

How she didn’t hear her phone ring was beyond her as she kept staring at her screen in shock.

It must be the wine. She thought to herself as she got ready for work either way.

She got to the office and dived straight to work after speaking with Frank for a few minutes. It seemed he was really worried about her after she didnt respond to any of his calls.

Aria was working on a new deadline that was due in a week and she was nowhere close to getting it done.

She was still busy editing with her laptop when a familiar voice and head popped into her office.

“Now I get why I couldn’t convince you to come back to our company” He made the comment and just kept looking at the office setting with both his hands tucked into his trouser pocket.

Her space wasn’t that large was big enough to house a mahogany table and a black comfortable desk in which she was currently seating on.

A water dispenser stood by the side with a metallic cupboard that hold some important documents and a red waste basket by the left.

Aria had a silly wide grin on her face as she stared back at him.

“You didn’t try hard enough”

“Is that so?” Each step taking him closer to her desk.

“Yes”

He spin her desk around to face him before pulling her back on her feet and into his arms in a tight embrace.

Frank buried his face into the croak of her neck and just breathe her in. She fitted right into his arms, like she was made just for him.

“I missed you” he cooed at her ears.

“I missed you too” she hugged him back even tighter. she didn’t realized how much she had missed him until he showed up out of nowhere…

Wait!

How did he know where to replace her?

She pulled back a little and raised a suspicious brow at him.

“How did you replace me?”

“I have my ways”

“Ohh?..did you threaten someone to get here?”

Okay! That actually got him to chuckle a bit. It’s funny to think he’d go as far as having to threaten anyone to replace her when he can just put one or two calls across and just get the information he needed.

“Like I said before, I have my ways and threatening anyone is definitely not one of it”

“Alright, so why did you come” she asked

“I already told you, I missed you plus I wanted to do this” He kissed her on the lips a few times before capturing them completely within a blink of an eye. He continued to nimble on it softly and gently as he had her pressed against her desk and standing in between her thighs.

Frank was a good kisser as he had Aria moaning out his name without realizing she had.

He pulled back a little and just kept smirking at how embarrassed she was at her own reaction.

“I see you like my second reason for coming to see you my Lady”

“Yeah, your reasons for coming are quite convincing” Aria was blushing so hard as she said those words.

“Then I guess you will like this one even better”

“Okay”

“Let go grab lunch together. I’m starving”

The offer sound tempting but she knew she had to finish at least a quarter of what she was doing earlier.

“I’d love to but am not sure that is a good idea..I still have tons of things to finish”

“Aria..my sweet hard working miss Davis_some things never change do there? Now c’mon, I already talked to your boss and he has given permission for me to take my girlfriend out for lunch”

Aria mouth was agape by the mention of her boss.

“You did what now?”

“I said, I talked to your boss and he agreed to let you eat lunch with me”

“But how did you?”

“I already told you, I have my ways”

“And I don’t doubt it, just give me a few second lemme finish up and I will meet you outside” he gestured back at her laptop.

“Okay, see you outside”

He placed a quick k**s on her cheek and head for the door leaving Aria to stare right after him.

Aria could only see how happy Frank has become. Even the way he looked at her has changed.

Her fingers went to circle around the diamond bracelet around her wrist and smiled.

That kind of happiness is contagious because she was feeling it too.