6. Edward Bartlett

A week had already passed since the day of the wedding and also the day that Zia had mysteriously turned into a child.

"Ugh..." Zia grunted as she lay down on the sofa with the laptop on her lap. "As I thought, I can't find anything on the internet." She brought her left arm over her head, covering her eyes. "My head hurts."

As her thoughts wandered on the countless possibilities, the door clicked open and out came Gray.

Zia sat up and moved the laptop beside her. "How is your exploratory military survey of the enemy territory, brave soldier?" She folded her arms acting tough and lowered her voice to sound like a grown up.

Gray dropped the car keys on the bowl atop the countertop beside the door and headed straight to the kitchen with a plastic bag in hand. "Did the kid disease finally get to your head, huh, kid empress?" She took out the groceries she bought and organized them in the kitchen.

Zia hopped down the sofa and headed to the kitchen. "No, but seriously, how are they?" she asked as she struggled to climb up the stool on the counter.

"They're doing fine. Theresa reopened the bakery the day after you sent that email, as well as Regan," Gray said with her back against Zia, putting the vegetables inside the refrigerator. "But--" She turned around to face her. "I heard Edward is still not back to school and he'd been locking himself in his apartment."

"W-what?" Zia's face contorted. "All this time?! Has he been eating?"

"Who knows." Gray continued to arrange the groceries. "Why don't you check in on him?"

Zia slammed the table, her eyes gleamed. "That's it!"

Gray's brows furrowed. "I said that as a joke but you're actually gonna go check in on him?"

"No, you are gonna go check in on him." Zia pointed at her.

"Why me? I'm not his fiancee." Gray scoffed.

"Better you than a five-year-old stranger who barely understands the concept of marriage." Zia crossed her arms, smirking.

"Yeah, whatever." Gray sighed. "By the way, any luck with the internet?"

"No..." Zia burrowed her face on the table. "All I got were Benjamin Button disease, Highlander Syndrome, Werner Syndrome, and there's this man stuck with a child's face but it's not the same as how my entire adult body turned into a child. And others...were fictional movies where main leads turn into a child by some sort of magic or curse."

"Maybe you really are cursed," Gray sneered. "By the fairy that protects children from bad adults."

"I'm not a child-loathing monster like you, you know."

Gray’s shoulders rose. "Maybe the fairy went into the wrong room? It's a kid after all."

***

Gray stood before Edward's apartment with a chicken noodle soup in a tupperware that Zia cooked herself. She knocked on the door three times. "Edward? It's me, Gray."

There was no response. Gray looked down on the passcode. "Zi told me the password was..." After she pressed a series of numbers, the door clicked open.

"Ed? You here? I brought your favorite soup," she called out to him but there was no response. She headed to the kitchen first and put the soup on the dining table.

Then she started looking around for him. "Ed? Bro, where are you?" She searched the bathroom and the terrace but Edward was still not in sight so she headed towards his bedroom. She attempted to turn the knob but it was locked. "Edward?" She knocked on the door. "Zi--uh I cooked you your favorite soup." 

She stuck her ear on the door and she could hear a faint rustling sound coming from the other side. She pulled her ear out and stood by the door with a frown on her face. "Open the door or I'll bust it open. You know I'm not kidding." She tapped her toes as she waited impatiently but there was still no response from the other side.

Getting annoyed with every wasted second, she stood sideways, preparing to kick the door open. Being a former MVP football player back in highschool and college, her leg muscles were more than enough to destroy a doorknob.

"Three...two...on---" before she could finish counting, a rustling sound could be heard inside along with a big thud and a faint groaning of a man.

The door finally opened and Edward Bartlett peeked through the space looking as if he crawled his way to the door. "No violence in my house, please," he uttered in a soft and hoarse voice.

Gray stared down at the bags under his bloodshot eyes and his pale lips over an unkept beard. "Wow, you look like shi---"

"And no cursing, please." He interrupted her.

She just rolled her eyes. "Bring yourself to the kitchen or do you want me to drag you?"

He sluggishly stood up and followed behind her.

She grabbed a spoon and put it beside the soup. "Eat."

He took a seat and grabbed the spoon. She also pulled out a seat across from him.

She just looked at him with her cheek on her palm. "Are you on paternity leave?" she nonchalantly asked, that made him choke on the soup.

"W-what?" he uttered in between his coughing. "W-what do you mean?"

"Well, I heard you've been away from work for a week now. You're not the type to skip a single day with no valid reason so I was just wondering," she said sarcastically.

"I can't face the kids looking like this. Coming to work will only make it worse." He sighed. "And I still haven't heard from Zia."

Her forehead wrinkled. "What? You haven't read her email yet?"

"What email?"

"Oh...uh..." She wandered her eyes around, looking for an excuse. "She sent me an email so I figured she sent you one too."

"R-really?!" He sprung up and sprinted back to his bedroom.

He reached for his laptop and placed it at the edge of the bed while he sat on the floor. As soon as he opened his g***l account, Zia's name popped up. And as soon as he read the message, tears trickled down his emerald eyes like a broken water pipe. "Don't underestimate me, idiot," he uttered in between his sobbing. "I waited twenty years for your hand in marriage, a little longer won't be a problem." He chuckled as he wiped away his tears.

Meanwhile, Gray just listened to his monologue and faint sobbing outside his bedroom as she leaned on the wall in order to give him some privacy. Realizing that the problem had already been solved, she decided to leave his apartment unnoticed.

Exiting his house, she slowly closed the door behind her. Then she took the elevator down to the basement. As she arrived at the parking lot, she headed for her black sedan car. However, as she rummaged the keys from her trench coat, a realization brought her feet into a sudden halt. "Ah, I left my keys."

She took off her trench coat and groped it one more time then she also searched the pockets of her cargo pants, but as expected her car keys were nowhere to be found. "I think I left it in his kitchen, arghhh." She grunted. "But I left so cooly, it'll be too embarrassing as hell to go back there." She tousled her hair in frustration as she crouched down on the ground. Then she abruptly sprung up with a determined look on her face. "Aight, let's go for a walk."

As she got out of the building, she started walking on the side of the street. Although her apartment was not a walking distance from Edward's, her pride had led her to be determined to walk the two-kilometer distance. But for a shut-in like her that only ever leaves home for work or important matters and barely goes out for a breather, the sight was a new perspective for her.

A cool breeze blowing, children playing under the sun, people in suits with their phones minding their busy lives, teenagers chattering down the sidewalk, elderlies having a talk at the park and the smell of pastries knocking on her palate.

Right then, her stomach grumbled. "I'm hungry." She lightly pressed on her stomach as her eyes wandered, searching for a cheap restaurant.

And as she was looking around, a place that held old bittersweet memories and sentiments caught her eyes. An old basement bar that had been standing amidst the rising nightclubs throughout the city.

The unlit neon sign above had the words "Crown Aces Bar" on it.

Gray brought a hand up to brush her hair back as she sighed. Her head dropped to her shoulders, eyes on her feet. "Really, how did my feet wind up here?"

Plucking up the courage, she dragged her feet near the entryway with a stair leading down the bar. She lightly ran her fingertips on the wall. "How nostalgic." She sighed once again.

And then she retreated away from the bar and walked her way in the direction of her apartment with hands tucked in her trench coat pockets. "I lost my appetite."