Second Arrangement

CHAPTER 10 - DIGGING THE PAST

JACKSON

I was coming home late last night so I didn't want to disturb Ellie. But I was still curious with that male friend of his. I paced in my room, waiting until it was considered normal to call someone in the morning. It was still 7 AM, was it still too early? Should I wait until 8 AM? Or should I just call her now? Ah, the hell with it..

"Hello?" her voice was still laced with sleepiness. I felt bad for waking her up.

"Good morning," I chirped cheerfully. "Did I wake you up?"

"It's okay, I have a morning report at 8, so you actually do me a favour. Anyway, why are you calling me so early in the morning?" Her voice was clear now. It was amazing how quick she could gather herself.

"You didn't text me last night," I muttered quickly. "I was worried, but it was late already so I didn't call you. Anyway... About your friend. Was he a close friend of yours?" I was waiting nervously as she took her sweet time to answer my question.

"Not really, he's just someone that I knew from my medical school days." I finally exhaled after hearing her answer. Okay, I might be exaggerating on this matter, but better be careful, right?

"What's his name? What does he do? Do you work with him?" I bombarded her with questions.

Instead of answering me, she dared to laugh, "Are you jealous?" I took a sharp breath, was I jealous? Did she just dare to ask me whether I was jealous?

"No," my voice came out in higher pitch than I intended, "Why would I be jealous?"

She laughed again, "If I don't know you any better, I'd say you're jealous. It's amazing to see the day that a Jackson Wang can be jealous of a mere man."

I felt my cheek warmed by embarrassment, "What can I say? I'm just a human after all. Anyway, stop dodging my questions and answer me already."

"His name is Jasper Chang. He was my classmates during my medical school, but we went our separate ways after medical school. I thought he was going to pursue plastic surgery, but turned out he's a pediatric surgeon now. He's a consultant in a case here, so he'd be around for quite some time. And no, I'm not working with him. I'm not in the team that's handling the case."

"Then good. There's no reason for you to hang around with him."

"Uhm.. About that...," her voice trailed off.

"What's wrong?"

"I might offer him to drive him if we happen to get off work at the same time and eat lunch together," she said softly. I bit my tongue to stop me from cursing out loud. "He has no one else here, so I know how hard it is not to have someone else around."

"But you're not his mother nor his girlfriend. And he's an adult anyway. It's his choice to be here for his job, so he should face the consequences for accepting the offer," I barked back as I tried not to pull my hair out. I couldn't believe that we haven't even gone on one date yet here she was, making a promise to another man. Could she be more dense?

"Are you mad at me? I'm just trying to be nice to him so he'll feel welcomed," her voice was flat, as if it wasn't a big deal for her.

"No, I'm not mad. I just can't see why you should make it your responsibility to make him feel welcomed," I tried hard to contain my anger. "It'd be nice if you give me a heads up before deciding on your own. I'd like to be in the loop." I puffed out a breath. "So, what about I picked you up if he's carpooling with you after work? It's safer to have someone else in the car to avoid unnecessary rumours, isn't it?" She thought about it for awhile before agreeing to my proposal. I moved on to the next agenda, "And, try to get someone else around if you're having lunch with him. I know you don't have feelings for him, but you haven't agreed to come out to be in a relationship with me, so please.. get someone else around to be with you so it won't be just the two of you. For my sake?" I added the last part so she wouldn't reject my request. "And, I'd like to see him if he's going to be around for awhile. It won't hurt to know your friend, right?"