Filed to story: Healing My Disabled Husband Novel
Although shopping together wasn’t something they did often since most times when shopping came up, Damion always seemed prepared ahead of time.
Most of the time, Ivy just needed to receive. She wasn’t really someone who enjoyed shopping and couldn’t remember the last time she had gone out to shop on her own initiative.
Damion would sometimes take her out for a stroll, but Ivy wasn’t much of a walker and would stop after an hour or two.
Today, they were only here because they had to wait in line, so they settled for the nearest mall.
The mall wasn’t very big, but it had everything one could need. They walked from the first floor all the way up without much interest in anything until they reached the baby store on the top floor where Ivy perked up.
She was holding Damion’s hand as they walked towards it when she suddenly let go upon seeing a pair of blue shoes that caught her eye – small and adorable.
Damion looked at his empty arm with resignation as Ivy became engrossed in examining them closely.
Ivy brought two little shoes to Damion and asked, “Aren’t they cute? Should we buy them?”
“Sure,” Damion replied. He had bought a lot of things for several children in the past two years, some of which he really wanted to buy more of so that he could use them for their own child. However, he didn’t want Ivy to feel like he was pressuring her into having a baby, so he only bought one of each item.
Now that Ivy showed interest in buying baby items too, Damion didn’t hold back anymore. He directly bought duplicates of everything they would need in the future.
This left Ivy dumbfounded.
“I’m not even pregnant yet. Are you sure we should be buying all these now?” she asked.
The problem was that they didn’t know if it was going to be a boy or a girl yet and it would be wasteful if they ended up with the wrong color scheme.
Damion said, “Whether it’s a boy or girl is just an arbitrary label society has put on colors. Who says girls have to wear pink and boys have to wear light blue? We can buy whatever we like and let our child choose their favorite color later.”
Ivy couldn’t argue with Damion’s logic but she felt even more guilty because she realized how much Damion wanted a child and how much he loved kids.
But at the same time, this made her feel worse because she knew it was her fault for not fulfilling his wish earlier on.
Damion noticed Ivy’s change in mood without needing an explanation from her.
He pulled her close into his arms and said reassuringly, “Stop blaming yourself. I’ve never blamed you for anything before and as I’ve told you before, now is the best time for us both. If you keep blaming yourself, then I’ll start feeling guilty too.”
Ivy grumbled softly as she hugged him tightly around his waist saying, “But I’m ready now… and nothing seems to happen.”
This was what frustrated Ivy most – despite being fully prepared with everything needed along with Damion’s support- why wasn’t anything happening yet?
Damion curved his lips and said, “It means I haven’t worked hard enough yet. When we go back tonight, I’ll work a little harder, okay?”
Ivy couldn’t help but think of what Damion had said at the dining room, and instantly her face turned red.
If Damion was not working hard enough, then she didn’t even know what real hard work looked like.
Ivy said, “Going too far is as bad as not going far enough. It’s better for us to take it slow.”
Damion said, “Okay, take our time.”
Originally, Ivy was upset when she wasn’t pregnant after taking a pregnancy test, but now she was no longer in a hurry.
She now saw clearly that Damion was never going to take it slow, and her pregnancy was just a matter of time.
Since all the physical indicators in her medical examination were normal, there was no reason why she cannot get pregnant.
Two people bought a bunch of small things and left their address for someone to deliver them to their home.
Damion took Ivy around again, and also bought maternity clothes for Ivy directly.
Ivy was not cooperating as much now.
She didn’t know if she will gain weight when she got pregnant. If she was like Averi who didn’t even have a big belly, then there was really no need to buy maternity clothes.
After wandering around for two hours, Ivy and Damion returned to the restaurant. They were only five tables away from their number, so they found a seat and waited to be called. This restaurant didn’t require ordering; whatever the chef made that day was what they would eat.
Soon enough, it was their turn to be seated. Damion turned to Ivy and said, “Let’s ask them if they’re interested in opening up a restaurant together.”
Ivy replied, “I don’t know about anyone else, but Mikayla seems like she might be interested. She’s been obsessed with cooking lately and her Facebook feed is full of pictures of all the food she’s making.”
Damion chuckled and said, “Yeah but Ash would probably blow up the kitchen as soon as he stepped foot in it.”
“Well let’s ask Mikayla anyway,” Ivy suggested. “If she’s interested, I’d love to invest.”
“Sounds good,” Damion agreed.
As they chatted away, their food arrived at the table. When Damion saw it, he couldn’t help but laugh.
This dish looked nothing like it did in the pictures online – if anything it looked worse! Even though he wasn’t picky when it came to food, this was just too much for him.
Ivy noticed his hesitation and offered to try some first saying confidently, “Don’t worry. I’ll try some first.”
Damion watched nervously as Ivy took a bite of the blue-colored dish that looked so unappetizing on her plate… but then something strange happened – her eyes lit up!
“I know you won’t believe me if I say this is delicious,” Ivy told him with a smile on her face after swallowing another bite.
But even though they were married now, Damion still thought his wife might be trying to trick him into eating something terrible, so he hesitated before finally taking a bite himself… and much to his surprise found out that she wasn’t lying at all ??this dish really was quite tasty!
However, no matter how delicious it tasted, the fact remained that it looked strange.
“Should we go somewhere else to eat?” Damion suggested.
“No way, we’ve been waiting for so long. It would be a shame not to try it,” Ivy replied.
The thing was, she actually thought the taste was pretty good.
Damion had no choice but to stick with his wife and endure the meal together. The restaurant’s specialty was that all of their dishes were oddly shaped and people couldn’t tell what they originally were supposed to be. However, the taste wasn’t bad at all – just mediocre enough to get by.
By the time they reached their fourth dish, Damion finally spoke up, “I don’t have any other requests except that if you’re really going into business with Mikayla and opening a restaurant together, at least make sure your menu is reliable.”
Ivy burst out laughing and swallowed her food before responding, “That’s hard to say. Mikayla is pretty creative when it comes to cooking.”
When did Mikayla start studying cooking? It all began when Ash fell ill one day and Mikayla took care of him for a night. However, their fridge was empty except for drinks and fruits. There was nothing to eat. That day, Mikayla felt like takeout wasn’t good for Ash’s health, so she decided to cook herself.
She went to the supermarket and bought a bag of ingredients. She spent half the night in the kitchen making a mess but eventually managed to make a pot of vegetable porridge with only green vegetables left from the bag.
It was late at night, and there were no more places open where she could buy food. Fortunately, Ash couldn’t eat anything too heavy because he was sick anyway.
Ash ate most of the pot of vegetable porridge that Mikayla made and praised her cooking skills. When someone was praised in an area they were not familiar with, it was easy for them to get carried away with themselves.
Mikayla thought that if she could cook this well just by trying it once, then surely she must be some kind of kitchen genius! Cooking was either something she can do or can’t do; there was no middle ground!
So Mikayla immediately started challenging herself in the kitchen because she had never experienced any setbacks before in life; everything came easily to her naturally. She didn’t think conquering a small kitchen would be difficult either.
With this mindset, Mikayla began researching recipes seriously. Not only did she waste many ingredients along the way but also replaced pots after pots at home as well. If Aimee lived with her, then Aimee would definitely forbid her from entering the kitchen.
However, Ash loved her dearly so he supported whatever idea or activity that made her happy without thinking twice about it. This further fueled Mikayla’s confidence as well as arrogance towards cooking – believing that anything was possible if she put her mind into it.
Fortunately enough though – luck seemed on her side – because many dishes turned out better than expected even though they weren’t necessarily delicious per se. But now that simple home-cooked meals were mastered by heart already; creative dishes became next on line.
Ash’s indulgence towards Mikayla was completely mind-boggling. He would praise anything she made and be extremely supportive, devouring every dish she cooked.
This made Mikayla truly believe in her cooking abilities even more.
As a result, her passion for cooking only grew stronger.
However, she never thought about opening a restaurant. After all, facing customers would mean dealing with people who wouldn’t indulge her like Ash did without reason.
When Mikayla received Ivy’s message, she stared at her phone screen for a while before realizing that she wasn’t seeing things. She then called Ivy directly in confusion.
Ivy and Damion were still at the restaurant when they received the call from Mikayla. They had just discussed the idea of opening a restaurant and sent the message to Mikayla right away.
Upon answering the call, they heard Mikayla ask incredulously, “Ivy, are you sure you’re not mistaken? Are you really suggesting that I open a restaurant?”
Ivy said, “I’m serious. Damion and I were eating at a restaurant and we brought up this topic, so I wanted to ask your opinion.”
Mikayla replied, “The only person who thinks my cooking is good is Ash.”
Damion added, “Trust me, it’s definitely not worse than that this restaurant.”
Mikayla chuckled and asked curiously, “What did you guys eat? It couldn’t have been that bad.”
Damion was at a loss for words. Ivy gave Mikayla the name of the restaurant they went to. Coincidentally enough, Mikayla knew exactly which one it was since she had gone there with her roommates before.
She said, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I would’ve advised against going there. The food really isn’t good.”
Ivy and Damion couldn’t stop laughing; they were both feeling pretty embarrassed.
Mikayla joked, “Well then maybe I should open up my own restaurant since apparently my cooking skills are better than theirs!”
At least her food was edible.
Damion suggested to Ivy that if she wanted in on the investment opportunity with Mikayla’s potential new business venture they could discuss it later.
Ash took Mikayla’s phone from her hands and said jokingly, “Don’t try to fool her into thinking otherwise! She already gets tired just cooking for us two; running a whole restaurant would be even more exhausting!”
But Damion interjected confidently, “With us around, how could she possibly get too tired?”
Ash retorted, “So what you’re saying is you want Mikayla herself to be doing all of the cooking?”
It took all of Mikalya’s energy just making meals for them two alone; opening up a full-fledged restaurant would require so much more effort. Ash felt sorry for her already.
“I know my limits,” admitted Mikalya as she continued on about how only people close to her could appreciate her culinary talents while strangers wouldn’t enjoy them as much unless she reached Aimee or Kelvin’s level of expertise.
However neither Aimee nor Kelvin seemed interested in starting their own restaurants anytime soon- especially considering how busy Aimee had been lately working back at the hospital again after taking some time off.
Patrick regretted not giving Aimee something better when he had the chance- like opening up a hospital himself instead of leaving everything solely on his wife’s shoulders- but now he knew better than anyone else just how talented his wife truly was when it came down to performing surgeries herself without having someone else do them instead.
Patrick was still following Aimee’s list to find some powerful doctors. However, those few were all stubborn and no matter how much he tried to reason with them or appealed to their emotions, they refused to come over and work for him.
Patrick was really at a loss as to how he can convince Aimee to push the patients back a bit.
When Aimee and Kelvin were mentioned, the four of them fall silent. Everyone knew that they put their own priorities first and it was impossible for them to discuss opening a restaurant.
Mikayla said, “I haven’t seen my sister in so long.” Recently she hadn’t been able to see Aimee even when she went over to the Hayden family home; she can only stare at Ridge and Rosemary instead.
