A hundred times before

Just as predicted Maria ignored the question altogether and changed the subject by bringing up the need to change his bandages. Still looking quite flustered, Maria performed her job as his live-in nurse perfectly. She alcohol to loosen the tape which directly touched his skin, and carefully removed it all without pulling on any of the stitches. Then she cleaned up all the yellow-brownish traces of iodine, before wrapping up his stitches once more. Steve just quietly watched at how meticulously Maria worked and was impressed with the swiftness of her actions. She made it all seem so easy, so effortless. As if she had done it a hundred times before.

When she was done and was putting away the bandaging necessities, Steve asked her, "How are you so good at this? You told me to hire a professional, but you aren't far from one yourself." Maria let out a soft exhaled laugh before she answered, "Don't be silly. A professional nurse can do much more than this and can do it much better I assure you. I just happen to have worked at a nursing home for some time. Back when they were even more understaffed than they are now and when the rules weren't as strict. I was allowed to replace the bandages of some of our residents. You would be surprised at how often older people manage to get hurt or are in need of a surgery of some kind which requires after care. Of course an actual specialised nurse would come to check up on the wounds from time to time, but with the necessary instructions, the routine care was left to the staff of the nursing home."

Steve was pleasantly surprised to learn this about Maria, and smiled gently as he stared at how she carefully put everything away. Doing everything as slowly as possible in order to avoid his eyes and hide her embarrassment from being complimented like that. But unfortunately for her, he wasn't done complimenting her. "You truly are amazing, do you know that? Every time I think you can't become more dazzling a creature in my eyes, you turn around and surprise me with another side of you, another fact, another wonderful discovery. Now that I know this, I am even more confident that I made the right choice in letting you take care of me, instead of hiring someone for the job. It is clear that I am in good hands."

Maria cleared her throat and then got up from the couch as she said, "Yeah, well, uhm, I will go and throw these gauzes and bandages away before they dirty the couch." Of course Steve wasn't one to let her escape so easily and he grabbed her wrist before she could walk away. She turned around, her cheeks as red as can be, but looking him in the eyes as if nothing was different about her at all. That is when Steve added, "I mean it Maria. You truly are amazing." Maria gave a quick nod and turned back around before freeing her wrist and walking away. As she walked off she said, "I heard you the first time. No need to repeat yourself, you know." Then she glanced over her shoulder and added with a cocky look, "Besides, you should have already known how amazing I am, yet you only realized it now? If this simple feat impresses you this much, you will be in for quite a surprise when you discover what else I can do. As I told you before, I am a woman of many talents."

Once her act of confidence and downplaying her skills, as well as Steve's compliment, was over, she immediately turned back around and continued her fast-paced march to the kitchen. Steve chuckled and said, "I look forward to it already.". His words causing Maria to smile from ear to ear just before she pushed open the door and entered into the kitchen, revealing just how happy Steve's compliment had made her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While Steve and Maria were having a blissful morning despite the challenges so early on in the day, Noah was facing bigger challenges of his own at the office. No sooner had he stepped into his office, or did Max walk in with a serious look on his face. When Noah asked him what he wanted to say, Max informed him about how the warehouse that Harold's goon had told the bodyguard about, had been found. "It was exactly where he told us the warehouse would be and you won't believe all the things our team discovered over there."

Despite his excitement over this news, Noah had no time to get into the findings at the moment. He had an important meeting scheduled with a new client, one that could not wait and had already been postponed once before because of the whole Harold situation. So, instead of letting Max tell him all about what they had managed to discover, he had to restrain himself until after the meeting. He just told Max, "That is great news. Ask the team about everything they have managed to find there, if you haven't already done that, and I'll listen to your report once I finish my meeting with Westfield Incorporated".

Max nodded and said, "Of course sir. Right away.", before Noah placed down his bag and made his way over to the meeting room. Although he already knew that this piece of news would be on the back of his mind the entire time he would be in there, he could only hope that it would be a smooth and swift meeting. Because he could not wait to use their newest findings to hit even more nails in Harold's coffin, making sure he has no chance of escaping the punishment for his crimes and that there is no way out for him, even if he confesses to his crimes.