He smirked and stated, “Fundamentals of computer science don’t really allow you to detect hostile infiltration of the system through a glance.”
I wanted to say something to defend myself, yet he got ahead of me and asked after he put the agreements aside, “Are you hungry?”
“Yes!” “What do you want to have for late-night supper? I’ll make you something to eat!” After he offered to prepare me a meal, he got up from his seat and switched off his computer.
I didn’t have cravings for anything in particular. Hence, I told him that anything would do.
We walked downstairs, but he was the one who had entered the kitchen, whereas I slouched against the couch in the living room. I couldn’t help but wonder about the goals of the hackers who were behind the incident. There were only a mere few who possessed such capabilities to infiltrate another company’s system without being exposed.
I had a hard time comprehending the hacker’s true intention of infiltrating Fuller Corporation’s system; nevertheless, the only person who crossed my mind was John.
He was a prodigy in the field of information technology, but that was a fact that was merely made known to a mere few.
All of a sudden, Ashton yelled and invited me over. “Hey! What’s bothering you again? The meal is ready. Come over and join me.”
I decided to cast my thoughts aside for the time being as I walked to the dining hall. Initially, I thought that he would merely prepare some simple dishes that could be easily whipped out within a few minutes, but I was astonished once I saw the feast on the table because he had prepared a complete meal for both of us.
Since we were way past the ordinary mealtime, I didn’t expect him to cook up a feast in the middle of the night.
Handing my cutleries to me, he was quick to serve the dishes as he offered, “You should hurry up and finish the meal. Mrs. Eriksen will drop by to get our breakfast ready in the morning. Let’s have our breakfast before we drop by the cemetery.”
If he hadn’t brought it up in front of me, I would have forgotten about the agenda I had suggested a few hours ago. I nodded and affirmed, “Okay!” I had a few mouthfuls of the food he prepared, yet that was it because I wasn’t in the mood to eat anymore.
He asked with a sullen look since I stopped savoring the dishes he had prepared, “What’s wrong? Do you not like the food?”
I shook my head and rebutted, “No, but I’m not really hungry anymore…”
He stopped insisting on me finishing the meal since I seemed to be at my limits.
…
After we had our meal, we returned to the bedroom.
As I had been sleeping over the past few hours, I couldn’t bring myself to sleep anymore. After Ashton took his shower and walked out of the bathroom, he noticed that I was wide awake at two o’clock in the morning, staring at the ceiling while lying on the bed idly.
Looking at his disapproving expression, I was certain that he was irritated again. A few seconds later, he told me, “You’ll have to adapt to a normal lifestyle within these next few days. Apart from an afternoon nap, you’re not allowed to sleep anymore in the upcoming few days.”
I pouted my lips and beckoned for him to get his phone. “Rebecca called earlier. I think she that has something urgent to tell you.”
After that, I returned to our bed and tucked myself in, closing my eyes in an attempt to lull myself to sleep.
He chuckled as he cast his phone aside, lying beside me after he wiped his hair dry. Ashton placed his head on my tummy in an attempt to detect our child’s fetal movement. There wasn’t any obvious fetal movement since our child was merely six months old. In spite of that, Ashton insisted on spending time with our child.
I grew irritated as I grasped his shirt, telling him, “Hey! You’re getting in the way of my sleep!”
He took a peek at me and moved over to my side, placing my head on his arm as he told me, “I have bought our tickets to K City. We’ll depart in two days’ time. Before departing, let’s drop by the hospital for one last prenatal care. Perhaps the baby will join us soon when we’re at K City.”
Truthfully, I was pretty glad to have him by my side because he would always have everything sorted out. Hence, I nodded and suggested, “Why don’t you revert back to Ms. Larson’s call? I suppose that it must be an emergency, seeing that she has called you in the middle of the night.”
He cradled my head in his arms as he responded, “Are you trying to push me away?”
Since he had made himself clear by saying that he had no intention to revert back to Rebecca, I decided to stay out of his way as I told him, “Fine! I guess that it’s none of my business too! Good night!”
Nestled in between his arms in the middle of the night, I felt a strong sense of security overwhelm me; nonetheless, I couldn’t fall asleep. On the other hand, Ashton, who had to deal with a lot of things on a daily basis, was completely worn out. A few minutes later, I could hear him snoring as he had fallen into slumber.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t bring myself to sleep due to the extended nap that I had earlier. I was afraid that I would rouse him if I were to browse through my phone by his side.
Eventually, I started thinking about all sorts of things. What else could I do in the middle of the night? Insomniacs would often start to overthink the events in their lives. Otherwise, they would start thinking about the foods they were craving.
Needless to say, I was part of the latter.
I started recalling my younger days when my grandmother had all sorts of fruits and vegetables in her courtyard. Whenever it was time to harvest the crops, we would have endless supplies of them.
Tomatoes were my favorite! Occasionally, I would have tomatoes for dinner whenever Grandma had to work for extended hours. I would have lots of them if I were extremely hungry because I couldn’t cook on my own.
After I reached J City, I didn’t have the chance to savor any freshly harvested tomatoes anymore. The ones that were available in the supermarket tasted nothing close to the ones I had.
Wait! I should stop thinking about it! I get hungry whenever I recall the wonderful taste of the fresh tomatoes!
Suddenly, my phone that was on the nightstand vibrated. Since I couldn’t fall asleep either, I decided to get out of bed. Upon retrieving my phone, I noticed that I had received a text from Macy, stating: Letty, I can’t sleep, and I’m craving mangoes all of a sudden!
I found it hilarious because we had the exact same thing in our minds when we were in a similar situation.
Scarlett: Me too! I’m craving the freshly harvested tomatoes I used to have in R Province!
Macy: Arghh! Me too! I have been craving for the mangoes that we used to have in front of the house! I’m very sad because I can’t have it anymore. I heard the entire residential area will be revamped soon.
Scarlett: Well, I guess that we’re unable to do anything apart from reminiscing about the good old days we had.
We were rather aware that we couldn’t get our hands on the things that we were craving easily due to all sorts of realistic factors that stood in our way.
The room was pitch-black, and I couldn’t bring myself to fall asleep no matter what. In the end, I tiptoed my way out of the bedroom and walked downstairs to see if I could get myself some tomatoes. If I couldn’t get any of them, I would get something similar to satisfy my cravings.
As I strode down the stairs, I had the shock of my life because I received a call in the middle of the night. I furrowed my brows because it was a call from John; I had no idea as to why he had decided to call me at such an odd hour.
I answered the call and asked callously, “What?”
“Do you want to have some tomatoes?” Judging by his tone of voice, the man on the other end seemed to be wide awake as well.
