She's My Sleeping Pill

Not long after, the dishes were finally served and they started eating their not-so-late lunch. During their meal, they talked about so many things that has happened in the past but none of them mentioned about the competitive feelings between Arthur and Seiji when they both likes Cayenne in the past.

Although the two of them haven't moved on from their feelings yet, they no longer pushed themselves to their death. Cayenne's married and she loved her husband so much. The two of them have realized that they didn't have the slightest bit of chance to obtain her.

"I heard that you're living here in City D with Veronica. Didn't you move back to your parents' home?" Arthur asked since they last news he received was about Marian staying with her parents. Apparently, this wasn't the real case.

Marian chewed the food in her mouth before letting out a faint sigh. "I realized that I still don't want to live in an empty house. I'm fine living with Veronica."

"Wow! I salute to your parents. Despite the fact that this happens to you, they still love going on business trips and business meetings." Arthur's words were laced with obvious sarcasm and none of them could refute that because they all knew it was true.

Marian smiled, the kind of smile that could tear someone's heart apart. She gripped the spoon in her hand while thinking of her words properly. "We can say, my parents have great sense of adaptability. Learning of my illness, they fell in great despair, worry and trouble. They had sleepless nights because of me, too. They tried their best - consulting doctors from all over the world just to find a way to cure me but, things weren't working according to their wishes. Since they can't do anything about it then, might as well accept the fact that I won't live much longer."

They were dumbstruck upon hearing her words and even Veronica felt a stinging pain in her nose, holding back the tears that were threatening to escape in behalf of her young mistress.

Seiji poured himself a glass of wine, despite the temperature outside, he still ordered wine in the middle of the day. He looked languid but when you look clearly in his eyes, you could see his hatred and distaste. "How about you?" He asked Marian. "How are you holding up so far?"

"I'm good." Marian answered almost instantly. "Well, I wasn't at first. Of course, that is to be expected for patient like me." She added while picking up few more dishes and placed it on her plate. "I was depressed for several months and I had anxiety and panic attacks because I was really afraid to die. I was scared that I'd never see En-en again and I was afraid that I haven't been doing the right things. I still have so many things I wanted to do in my life yet I have a very short time to live. But later on, I gradually accepted this harsh truth."

"Which was why you started painting." Arthur commented before shoving food inside his mouth.

"You hit right on the spot." Marian retorted with genuine smile. "I started painting which I have never tried before and guess what? I never thought I have a knack for it but I actually painted pretty good."

"Ah?" Cayenne blinked her eyes several times and remembered the paintings hanging on the walls in the living room when she visited Marian's place. "So, you painted all of those things?"

"Yup!" Marian answered with a proud expression written on her face. "I learned how to make pots and other things. I did a lot of little things here and there. I must say, I have so much freedom because of this illness. I can practically do anything I like to satisfy myself and my parents wouldn't say anything about it."

"Well, as long as you're happy about it. I won't say anything either." Arthur blurted out. He wanted to say something else when he noticed the melancholic look in her eyes but in the end, he kept quiet about it.

They shifted their topics to different things while Stefan merely observed them on the side. He didn't want to join in their conversation because he's not close to any of them and as much as he could, he'd only pay attention to his wife.

In the middle of their meal, a delivery man came inside the restaurant and talked to one of the staffs, handing them a bouquet of flowers and a cute little rabbit stuff toy. However, the staffs were shaking their heads and refused to receive the wonderful gifts which made the delivery guy crunch up his face.

"This is weird." He muttered while looking at the address entered on the website. "This is clearly the place that is written in our site."

"But we don't have anyone named Marian here." One of the waiters stated with a gloomy look while throwing glances on the beautiful flowers. "Is there no other instructions or maybe notes from your customer?"

"There's none." The delivery guy scratched the back of his head and turned to leave the place. "Thank you for letting me in."

"Uh.. S-sure." The waiter replied but his gaze was still on the flowers. "Uhm…could you wait for a while. I have a hunch of who might be the receiver of your flowers but I am not sure. Just give me a sec."

"Okay." The delivery guy stood near the counter and watched the waiter walked towards the table with six customers.

"Excuse me. Sir, ma'am, we just want to ask something. Who among you here likes pink carnation flowers?" The waiter asked softly, afraid that he has disturbed their meal so, he didn't dare make so much noise.

"Me." Marian answered because among them, she's the only one who likes pink carnation.

"And, who among you here likes little rabbits?"

"Me, again." Marian answered with faint giggles. "Did you guys prepare a surprise for me?" She asked her friends but none of them answered her. 'Weird.'

"By any chance, are you named Marian Wyatt?"

"Yeah?" Marian couldn't stop herself from showing doubts now. She felt something was really weird. Instead of answering her, the waiter looked towards the delivery guy and signaled him to come to the table where the customers currently eat. "Did you have a promotion or something?"

"No ma'am." The waiter answered politely. "I just helped someone make a delivery."

"Oh." Marian turned towards the delivery guy who was holding a huge bouquet of pink carnations. In flower language, pink carnation means 'I'll never forget you'. And as she received it, she really had a bad feeling about this sudden delivery that none of her friends admit of doing so. "Thank you." Marian smiled faintly as she signed her name on the delivery form. The flowers were still fresh and she could still smell the sweet scent coming from them. "So, none of you placed this delivery for me?"

They were shaking their heads while looking at the flowers and while Seiji and Arthur had no idea of who could have sent the flowers and the stuff toy, Cayenne and Stefan had looked each other in tacit understanding. They have a very faint idea of who the person was but they didn't say anything.

Marian looked at the flowers and found the small pink paper among the lovely petals. As soon as she caught sight of the words, her doubts were solidified because she guessed it right.. The sender was her ex-boyfriend; the only man she loved in the past ten years.