Chapter 8

It had been some weeks already after that first and last time Mr. Grey dropped me off at home. When he gave me that piece of advice, I responded with just a smile. I couldn't pour out all my heartaches to him because I didn't want him to think that he was better than Eric because he was richer. And besides, we were still strangers who just got to know a little about each other. We were neither friends. Eric's shame was also mine because it also meant I was too stupid to allow him to trample my worth and pride.

My mind was all set up. I would be leaving him. I was just waiting for the right time, and I would be breaking it to him gently. I was then slowly taking my distance. Oblivious to him, I was able to purchase my townhouse. After duty, I no longer went home. I just went there sometimes, but I wouldn't take long. I just told him I was accepting another job as a company doctor and slept at the doctor's lounge. It didn't seem to be a problem because he didn't argue with me about it. He didn't even ask the name of the company I was working for.

One morning, I was admitting a case of 30 years old male with complaints of chest pain radiating to the back. He was having a cold sweat and breathing difficulty, so my team and I moved like a flash of lightning. The nurse-on-duty immediately hooked him to an oxygen inhalation,  inserting an intravenous line afterward. I then gave them my medication orders to start while scribbling them down on the patient's chart. Only after he was ready for transfer to a regular room, I could go out to have my breakfast.

"Dr. Red," I heard someone calling out my name as I hurried toward the hospital's coffee shop. I looked over my shoulder, and I almost stumbled when I saw who was coming towards me.

"Mr. Grey," I stuttered a little since I never expected I would see him this morning. 

He caught me up even before I was able to blink. "Breakfast?"

"Yes." Dear heavens, my heart went wild again as I looked up to him.

Mr. Grey grabbed a menu list at the counter before leading me towards a table beside a glass wall. He asked me to choose a meal, and I picked up a breakfast set for both of us. After the waiter collected our order, he stated right away his purpose in visiting me.

"Dr. Red, I need a company doctor for Laminae, Inc., and of course, the first person that came into my mind is you." 

I stared at him, gaping at what he said, and before I could answer, he added. "I know you are applying for the said position at a certain company, but I want you to be in Laminae."

I was surprised at how he happened to know about my application for a company doctor. I never told anyone about this, not even my closest staff in the current hospital where I was working.

"How do you know about it?" I asked seriously, and his chuckle came as his answer.

"It's not important anymore. What I need is your answer to my proposal, Dr. Red. Please, think about it."

I smiled and got lost in my thought as we began eating. I was thinking hard if I should accept his offer or not. Since I was already looking for one so that I wouldn't live forever in a lie, I considered taking it. I was about to tell him I was accepting his offer when he cut me off and told me to give myself more time to consider it.

We talked more about trivial things, and we both ended up laughing hard. He started to make jokes, not realizing that in the process, our personal reservations thinned out. If not for the urgent call from the ER again, we wouldn't have separated earlier.

"I'm sorry to cut you off, Mr. Grey," I apologized. We were still in the middle of an interesting topic when I had to dismiss him off.

"I understand, but can we call each other by our first names?" Mr. Grey looked at me straight in the eyes, and like a magnet, his gaze pulled my eyes into his.

"Sure," I grinned.

Mr. Grey walked with me back to the ER, and just as I stepped inside, a post-graduate intern sprinted towards me. "Doc Red, it's a couple in the middle of their coitus when suddenly, the woman had vaginismus."

I frowned the moment he finished speaking, and I started to feel empathy towards the woman. What could have happened that triggered this punishment on them?

"How are they able to get here?"

"The male partner called up to ask for help, and so our responders went to the hotel where they were staying. The responders scared the woman further, making it impossible to pull out."

"I see," I answered softly as my mind started picturing them out in a heated sexual activity, only to be disrupted when the woman's vaginal walls suddenly clamped the thing inserted between her thighs.

"Give the woman one ampule of..." I gave out a verbal order, picked the patient's chart simultaneously, and began writing stat orders.

Vaginismus is a condition wherein the woman's vaginal muscles squeeze anything inserted in it, such as a tampon or a penis. Most of the time, the reason is unknown, but in most cases, it's related to a woman's stress or anxiety over pre-marital sex or a forbidden relationship.

After scribbling down my orders, I walked towards the cubicle and pulled the curtain aside. As soon as it made way for my entry, I saw a man and woman facing each other closely, a blanket covering their naked bodies. My eyes then fell on the man's face, and my heart began to hammer in painful thuds.

I rushed out of the ER, using the same passage Sean and I passed through a while ago. Just as I began to wail, I got surprised when I saw that Sean was still there. Seeing that I was on the verge of breaking down, he pulled me close to him, providing a shoulder to cry on.

"What is it?" Sean asked as he rubbed my back to comfort me. I sobbed louder when I felt sympathy for my emotional heartbreak, mumbling Eric and my friend's name.