Chapter Four

Eliana Brown

~•~

We were on the side of the road and passersby stared at us like we were crazy.

The tears flowed freely and my sobs became harder that it was even hard to breathe. I tried to stop but I only ended up crying even more. I tried to level my breathing but it was no use. It felt like the world was closing in on me.

I leaned against the wall, trying to steady myself since it seemed like my legs couldn’t carry me anymore.

“Are you okay?” The stranger asked.

I looked at him through my lashes but I could barely make out his face through my blurry vision. I inhaled and exhaled. I tried to count. I tried to list what I could see, and what I could feel, but my brain was blank. It was only good for replaying every bad thing that had happened to me today; my five-year-old relationship was gone, and my five-year-old employment was gone. I was forced to apologize to a thief. All in one day.

I crouched to the ground and covered my ears with my hands. It was too loud, but I couldn’t hear anything. I saw the man crouch to my level as well. His mouth was moving but he wasn’t saying anything.

My head started to ache and my vision became even more blurry. I’d been strong for far too long and for the first time in a while, I welcomed the darkness as my eyes fluttered close.

~•~

The next time I opened my eyes, I was greeted by a bright light. My eyes shut on their accord before I slowly opened them again, getting used to the brightness.

I didn’t need to be a genius to know I was in a hospital. What confused me though was how luxurious it was. I hadn’t been to the hospital much in my twenty-three years of living, but this wasn’t what was shown on TV.

The room I was in seemed more like a bedroom, but the walls were the standard hospital white and the bed was rollable. An IV was connected to my right hand.

I let out a sigh as I sat upright on the bed. I was tempted to rip off the IV and leave because I knew d*mn well I couldn’t afford such medication but I was alone in the room, without any of my belongings. If I ran away, they were likely to trace me with my ID card.

The door to the room opened and a man in a white doctor’s robe approached me. “You’re awake.”

I nodded carefully, still trying to make sense of exactly what was going on.

“You fainted due to stress.” He informed me. “You haven’t been eating well but you’ve been overworking yourself.” Not necessarily. My brain just overworked itself. I didn’t have to do much at work except make people buy stuff. “I’ve already given your boyfriend a list of food you should eat regularly as well as the vitamins to take.”

My eyebrows furrowed. Boyfriend? Was Harry here? How did he know? Did the stranger call him?

I didn’t even want to see him. Not now, at least. If I did see him, he was going to increase my stress level and I’d never leave the hospital.

He eyed me carefully. “Did you hit your head when you passed out?”

I shook my head.

“Then why aren’t you speaking? Are you…” he trailed off.

I cleared my throat with faint cheeks. “Nothing. Where’s my…” I couldn’t complete the sentence because I couldn’t refer to Harry as my boyfriend anymore.

“He went to get you food. You haven’t eaten today, have you?”

My cheeks flushed even more. How could he tell all those just because I fainted? “Yeah.”

“I don’t know what your work is like but try to take a break from it and take your meals very seriously.”

“Yes, doctor.” I had quit my job so I had enough break. However, I couldn’t stay jobless for long. The longer one stayed jobless, the harder it was for them to find jobs later on. Besides, my savings couldn’t last me for long. If I stayed without working, it was going to be all gone in a few months, considering the situation I was in with Harry.

The door opened again. “Here he is.” The doctor announced.

My eyebrows shot up when I saw that it wasn’t Harry but the stranger. He had changed clothes and was no longer wearing the stained shirt from earlier. The man spared me a glance before looking at the doctor. “Is she fine?”

“She is. She just has to eat well and rest well.”

“Thanks. You can leave us.” My mouth fell open at how easily he dismissed the man.

However, the doctor didn’t care about his attitude. When he saw that the fluid was exhausted, he removed the IV and placed a bandage on the spot before leaving us.

The stranger took a seat on the chair next to the bed and I was finally able to look at him properly. He was handsome; next level handsome. He was the kind of man who made you do a double take if you saw him in the streets. He had sharp features but his eyes were cold. Most of all, he looked expensive.

“Who are you?” I blurted out.

He stared at me for a few more seconds before speaking. “You ran into me and fainted. Shouldn’t I be asking you that question?”

He was right. Lost in my thoughts, I ran into him and ruined his shirt. I wondered how much it cost. I wondered how much this room cost. I wondered if my day could get any worse. I had jinxed it earlier but there was no way it got worse than this. “I'm really sorry about that,” I whispered.

He handed me a brown paper bag and I hesitated to take it. “Eat.”

It carried a command that had me taking it from him.

“I don’t want you to faint again.”

I nodded and opened the bag. It contained a plate of pasta that had too much cheese in it and it just happened to be the way I liked it. I took a peek at him and he was already staring at me. I couldn’t eat when he was staring at me like that. I wanted to do something else with my hands because he was making me nervous but that was when I remembered I wasn’t with any of my belongings.

“Where’s my phone?” There was a drawer by the side of the bed and he opened it, bringing out a box. He tossed it on the bed and I was more than surprised to see that it was a new phone. “I meant my phone.”

“That’s your phone.”

“What?” I was lost.

“We ran into each other and your phone broke beyond repair so I replaced it.”

“What? You didn’t–“

“I didn’t have to?” He completed it for me and I nodded slowly. It was my fault for running into him. “If I was watching my steps, I could have avoided you but I didn’t. I don’t like owing people and I also don’t like people owing me.”

I didn’t like the way that sentence came out. He sounded logical but there was something about his words that made my mouth run dry. “What do you mean?”

“You ruined my suit.”

“You want me to pay for it?” He nodded. I swallowed, afraid of asking him the question. I knew I owed him that much. He had gone out of his way to bring me to the hospital on a busy workday, but I hadn’t even paid the bills yet. Where would I get the money to refund him? “How much does it cost?”

“It’s pretty cheap.” I doubted our definitions of cheap were similar. “It’s just fifteen thousand.”