3. SEARCH

Fiona spurred her car on the streets of the city. This year's end has been the worst in her opinion. The plume of snow that covered the road and made the wheels of her vehicle slip many times irritated the woman. One hand was holding a white envelope. Her face looked anxious while holding back tears.

All those memories came out so clearly. About how the One Night Stand she did with a man named Steve almost two months ago met her. Fiona couldn't figure out why she didn't remember the Mariposa Hotel, even though Steve had given her a very clear clue.

"Fuck you, Steve!" she quipped as she hit the wheel.

Fiona didn't know where else to go. She didn't find Steve anywhere. Let alone meeting the man, asking for his phone number or even his home address alone Fiona didn't know. If only there was the most stupid female coronation event in the world, maybe she would be the champion now.

However, the other side seemed to make her remember. The tavern where the two ate at that time. That's right, Fiona should be there now.

***

"Steve?" A man who is both a chef and a tavern owner frowned. "He hasn't been here since a month ago."

Fiona dropped her buttocks roughly on the chair. Her hands held her head to attract the attention of the man in the chef's clothes. The man sat in front of her.

"Why? What's the matter?"

"I should meet him now," Fiona said.

The man was silent and thought for a while. He then flicked his fingers. "Just a moment," he said as he went to the receptionist’s desk and wrote something down on a paper, then back to Fiona. "Here. Go to this address."

Fiona accepted the paper. She looked at the chef.

"I've known Steve for a very long time. He's one of the campus alumni in the city and has often eaten here since he was in college," the man said with a sleek face. "That was the address of my old house before I actually moved here because of the busyness in the tavern. I once took Steve on vacation there. Hope you can find it there."

After finishing his sentence, the man moved away and returned to the kitchen. Fiona sat alone with a paper in her grasp now. Without thinking, the woman immediately went outside the tavern and drove her car towards the address.

***

A simple house was seen before Fiona's eyes now. The piled snow made part of the side of the building invisible. Fiona tightened her thick jacket and stepped up to the house.

She really hoped that Steve would be there. Fiona wanted to tell this shocking news to the man immediately. After all, even though she was anxious and afraid, Fiona was very curious about Steve's response regarding the baby in her womb now.

The woman knocked on the door. The cold temperature made Fiona exhale into a thin puff of smoke that was airborne. Her bead occasionally circulated a view around where there was no other house there. Fiona realized, quite a distance away from her with a sense of turmoil in her. Her car waited in the snow-covered yard and was seen snoring with exhaustion there.

Someone seemed to open the wooden door, making Fiona immediately stare at him. "Sorry, who—"

It didn't take long, Fiona immediately rushed to hug the man. She inhaled deeply the masculine scent that for about two months had never been lived by him. The fragrance is still the same. The shape of the pectoral muscles that hugged him at that time was still the same.

The woman let go of the hug and looked at the man in front of her with teary eyes. "Where have you been?"

Steve took a gulp. He cast a strange and curious look at the woman in front of him. "You...."

“Fiona. Don’t you remember me?”

A breath of breath just escaped. Steve nodded. "Of course, I remember you," he said.

Fiona carved a smile. She knew that the man must remember her. The bead slipped into the house. "You won't let me in?" she asked.

"For what?"

"Huh?" Fiona clucked irritably. How come? He had come all the way here and instead found a stupid Steve in front of her now. The woman then took out a white envelope that had been tucked into her jacket. "You have to look at this," she said, handing the envelope.

Steve sighed, then let the woman into the house. He noticed the envelope in his hand just now. Meanwhile, Fiona is busy exploring the main room of the wooden house. It turned out to be quite warm to be in it with a bonfire burning in the fireplace. Fiona turned to look at Steve who had already seen the contents of the envelope she was given.

"How is it?" she asked,

Steve's bead looked twinkle. The man stared at Fiona, carving something in the look in her eyes that the woman before her knew the meaning of her had no meaning in front of him. Steve sighed, then smiled. He snatched the woman into a hug.

"I'm sorry," he whispered to Fiona. "I didn't know that...."

Fiona let go of the hug. "I was shocked," she said.

Steve clasped both hands on the woman's cheeks. "You shouldn't be surprised, Fiona."

"I'm surprised, Steve!" Fiona then snapped, making Steve flinch and remove her hand from Fiona's cheek. "How could I be pregnant now?"

"What do you mean?" quipped Steve. He didn't understand the change in Fiona's attitude, which originally looked like a happy person, and then now a different person.

"I'm working, Steve. I am a child of the Aubrey family! If I work pregnant, what do the people out there say? What about my family's response later?"

Steve then took hold of Fiona's shoulders. "We can explain later."

"It's not that easy, Steve! What if the public finds out that I got pregnant out of wedlock? What is my father going to do to me? What are people going to tell me?" Fiona whined like a little girl overthinking her exam results. Her eyes filled with tears looking at the man before her.

Steve took a sip of saliva. He knew about the Aubrey family who was a wealthy family at this time and the girl in front of him was now the child of the family. "Stay with me," he said.

Steve knew that his current state might not be worth the wealth Fiona had. However, he knows one thing. If only the woman is willing to live with him, then he can protect Fiona from the public.

"And then?" Fiona's tongue was out. She couldn't say anything and just left everything to Steve. Her heart rumbled, in a dilemma that made her mind messed up.

Steve looked fixedly at the woman in front of him. "If you think about your job, then stay with me until this child is born," he said.

"And then?"

"After that, you can return to your world."

The two beads met. Steve knew that Fiona was more burdensome about her job now and that woman wasn't necessarily thinking about marriage. With him who has nothing now, where is it possible? If her family knew, then Steve would definitely be kicked out and the child Fiona now conceived would be aborted directly without waiting for the public to find out.

Steve didn't want that to happen. He loved Fiona as well as the baby. She didn't want anyone to disturb her love now.

***