CHAPTER 4

“SHE WAS CROSSING the street and was about to walk to the curb when the car, which was at the middle lane, suddenly swerved towards her direction and hit her,” Edmond explained. “When she fell, he scooted away and vanished, without attempting to see what happened to her or help her. I wanted to run after the car but I thought she needed my help more so I stopped my car and attended to her. She stood up and tried to walk but I was able to convince her to get into my car. She got disoriented but she was able to give me a number to call.”

“Thank you for what you did, Sir.”

“It’s nothing, it was just the right thing to do.”

“Did you get the plate number of the car?”

He shook his head. “Unfortunately, I did not but the make and color of the car, I can tell you.”

“Please tell it to the cops, sir.”

“I will.”

“What’s your name, sir.”

“Edmond.

“I’m Ambert. Thank you again, sir.”

It was at that moment that she saw Anika walking towards them. He politely excused himself from the man and walked towards her.

“How is she, Ambert?” Anika, looking utterly worried, stopped walking and asked her.

“She’s okay,” he answered as he continued to approach her. “She has no serious injury, it seems.”

“Are you sure? Have there been tests already? X-rays?”

“She stood up and walked after the accident,” he said. “She’s just a bit disoriented, which is understandable.”

“Oh, thank God!” she exclaimed putting her face on her hands. “I could not forgive myself if something tragic would happen to her. It was me, a matchmaker wannabe, who sent her back to your office.”

“She’s safe so no reason to punish yourself now,” he said as he led her to her room. “But please don’t leave your day job, don’t be a full-time matchmaker, even part-time, no.”

Anika chuckled. “I’m your exclusive matchmaker, mind you.”

Ambert walked behind Anika as they entered Layla’s room. Layla was still asleep they saw a nurse checking on her. And just like what Edmond told him, the nurse told them that Layla didn’t have any serious injury and would be discharged that day, once she awakened.

Ambert introduced Anika to Edmond and while they were all talking, Layla’s mother and older brother, Cedric, arrived. Anika greeted them and the first thing she told them was the good news that Layla was safe. Then, he introduced Ambert and Edmond to them but before they could talk, the nurse went out of the room and announced that Layla was now awake.

Anika and Layla’s mom and brother rushed inside while he and Edmond remained outside.

“Aren’t you going inside?” Edmond asked him while he was looking at the slightly-opened door of Layla’s room, hoping to catch a glimpse of her. But hearing her voice, bouncing energetically from her mouth, was enough for him to confirm that she really was okay.

“I think it’s her family she wants to see first,” he smiled.

“And her friends, of course, she would love to see her friends.”

“Of course,” he agreed. But he wasn’t her friend. He was someone she just used to advance her career, he joked to himself. Let me tell you how she rejected my innocuous lunch invitation and unfriended me in F******k a few seconds after accepting my friend request, he thought. For a second there, he thought of embarrassing himself to his new acquaintance by really telling him that little incident. But no, you shouldn’t humiliate yourself to a new friend if you wanted that friendship to continue and blossom. And Edmond, it seemed, would be a good friend, especially with his testimony on what happened to Layla. If the accident wasn’t really an accident but intentional, a frustrated murder, the culprit must then be apprehended soon to pay for his crime. It was also possible that he or she would try harming Layla again.

He stretched his hand towards Edmond as he thought of leaving. He really needn’t stay long as he had accomplished his mission in going here: to make sure that Layla was safe. “Nice knowing you, Edmond,” he said as the man took and shook his hand. “Please continue helping Layla.”

“I will.”

“I have to go now. I’d just talk to Layla once she is discharged.”

Edmond nodded and Ambert started walking towards the elevator.

Of course, it was a lie, his statement about talking to Layla once she was discharged. A half-lie, to put it succinctly. He would really love to talk to Layla but she sure wouldn’t wanna talk to him so there would be no conversation happening between them. He felt a bit cold while waiting for the elevator door to open, like someone had put some little ice cubes on his heart. Cold here meant sad. He felt like he was abandoned. Layla had abandoned him even before they could be together. He shook his head as the elevator door started opening. When did he become this sentimental? How many girlfriends he had had? Four? Yes, four. And in all these relationships, he had never used a corny metaphor like tiny cubes in heart.

True love will make you a very corny person, he remembered a love-struck cousin telling him.

From the hospital, he went straight to a restaurant where he and his driver, Mike, ate their lunch. They were still eating when Ambert received a call from Anika.

“Where are you?” she asked when he answered her.

“In a restaurant, eating lunch, finally,” he said. “How’s Layla?”

“She’s fine, she’d come home this evening,” she said. “I don’t know when the results of her tests would come, but it seems she’s really all right.”

“That’s nice to hear.”

“So why did you leave without talking to her?”

“I don’t think she’d be happy to see me,” he shrugged.

            “Ambert, she refused your invitation because she really doesn’t know you,” Anika said. “Talking to her at the hospital will give her the opportunity to know you, to know that you’re a nice man, that you mean no harm, but sadly, you wasted it.”

            “Can’t blame me.”

            “Aren’t you being too sensitive, Ambert.  Refusing to have lunch with you is not a big deal, it will only be a big deal if you’ve known each other for a long time and still, she refuses to go out with you. That means, she already knows you that’s why she doesn’t wanna be with you. And I would advise you not to pursue her if that’s the case.”

            “Speaking of advice, I followed your advice.”

            “What advice?”

“Befriend her on F******k.”

“What happened?”

“She approved my friend request and then, after less than a minute, she unfriended me,” he said, failing miserably to hide his annoyance in his voice.

“Seriously?”

“Yes.”

‘Oh, my God!”  For a moment, he got confused on whether she wanted to burst out laughing or crying. “What is her problem with you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you told her a lot of bad things about me,” he joked.

“Ambert,” she said laughing. “You know I wouldn’t do that to you. Beside, you don’t have a bad thing in you. I love you and I like Layla, she’s a nice girl, so I’d love for you to be together.”

“Does she have any suitors?”

“As far as I know, she doesn’t have one right now.”

“She probably has a problem with men, all men, not just with me.”

“Probably,” she said. “I haven’t reached that confidante level to her so I really don’t know much about her personal or past life. But I know that she had boyfriends before so saying that she hates all men is probably inaccurate.”

“She used to like men,” he said. “Now, she hates them.”

“Maybe not, maybe yes. If yes, don’t you want to know why?”

He winced. “I really don’t think she would want to have anything to with me now,” he said. “He’s on his way to see me when she met an accident, so I wouldn’t be surprised now if she’s thinking that it’s my fault, that being with me would bring her unlimited unfortunate events, that I’m her unlucky charm.”

“You’re being too harsh on yourself, Ambert.”

He chuckled. “I’m just trying to preserve the little dignity left in me with regards to Layla, pity is a man who has no dignity,” he said. “And I think it’s a world record.”

“What is a world record?”

“Layla unfriending me a minute after accepting my friend request.” He chuckled, trying to make light of what he just divulged, though he really felt annoyed.

Anika laughed. “World record, my golly! I’m sure it had happened to a lot of people,” she said. “Don’t make yourself so special.” She chuckled again. “Anyway, do you know that according to Edmond, what happened was not an accident but intentional?”

“Yeah, he told me that.”

“He also told Layla and her parents that.”

“What did they say?”

“Layla was dismissive, saying that she thought it was just an accident.”

“You believe her?”

“I don’t.”

“Why?”

“Why don’t you just finish your lunch?” Anika suggested, “And then, let’s have dinner together tonight so we could talk about Layla and what happened to her face to face and extensively.”

“Okay,” Ambert agreed.

“Bye,” she said. “And don’t be too sensitive when it comes to a girl you like. When you already have everything, sometimes, a little rejection would be refreshing and stimulating. And inspiring.”

Ambert chuckled. “I don’t have everything,” he said and put the phone down when she vanished from the other line. No person has everything, he thought. Even a god has flaws, and is deficient, and wants something they can never have.

Anika ‘s intuition had always been strong. If she thought Layla was lying, then, there was a big chance that she really was lying. But why would she lie? Why would someone deny that someone was trying to harm them? What happened to her self-preservation? And the bigger question was, and the more disturbing, why would somebody intentionally harm her? The driver, it seemed, was not trying to give her just a slight injury. You couldn’t do that with a car. If you want to hurt someone a little, you do that with a stick or a small rock, not with a car. You use a car to harm somebody, you’re either trying to paralyze them or kill them. But why would someone try to seriously injure her or kill her? Did she rebuff someone harsher than what she did to him? Did she insult, too, the driver of that car? It wasn’t really far-fetched. Some men would get insulted with the slightest offense, like a girl refusing to be his friend on F******k. He smiled an annoyed smile. Just last week, he read that news about a man who killed his girlfriend because she unfortunately exchanged some harmless text messages with an ex-boyfriend.

If it was true, why then was Layla so cruel with men? Did an ex traumatize her? Okay, it was probably not the time to overthink about it, on why Layla would be so cruel because he really had no way of finding if it was true at the moment however long he argued and brainstormed with himself.  He would only know that if he decided to pursue her and know her, which would take a bit of a time, aside from the fact that it—pursuing her— remained far from his mind at that time. Once bitten, twice shy, that’s him. All he wanted now was to know if somebody really intentionally tried to kill her, and then give her justice, and help it prevent from ever happening again. Layla might be the ultimate snob when it came to men but no one had the right to harm her.

He finished his lunch and went back to his office, busied himself and temporarily dislodged everything about Layla from his mind.

At seven in the evening, he met Anika at the Italian restaurant just across his office building—to talk about Layla and her, it seemed, dangerous stalker.