Emilia stopped abruptly and crawled to the beautiful lady now sitting cross-legged on the cold floor of Joe's Diner.
"Miss, I am so sor-"
"You can buy me breakfast and we'll call it even." the lady smiled touching the tip of her nose gingerly.
Emilia's face relaxed at the kind stranger's smile. Of course she will. Heck, she'll buy her breakfast everyday for the rest of her life if she wanted to. Although, that would mean taking triple shifts in the ER because doctors are dirt poor for at least the first decade after medical school. But yeah, of course she will. Who can say no to this dashing woman?
"Alright," she agreed "but only after I run one more test to make sure your head's fine. Will you count backwards from 20 for me?"
"That's gonna cost you."
Emilia smiled as she scratched her right eyebrow, a nervous habit. "Okay, shoot."
The pretty lady's face lit up and she clapped her hands together. "Dinner." she said enthusiastically and without missing a beat continued, "20, 19, 18..."
Emilia's eyes were glued to the lady counting backwards. She found her delightful, like vanilla ice cream delightful. Everything about her, her hair, even though it's a tad bit frizzy, her brown eyes, her sunkissed skin and that magnificent... jawline. We're talking model-level jawline. Emilia was so drawn. She looked intently at the goddess in front of her, memorizing every inch of her skin, looking slowly down her neck imagining how it would probably taste just like vanilla ice cream.
She's beautiful and she's scary. She's so beautiful it's scary! Emilia's heart was beating so fast she feared it'll break off of its aorta. And this scared her so much. An aortic rupture wasn't what she was hoping to get today. No, she was hoping for something better.
"3,2,1..."
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"So, Summer, do you have a boyfriend?"
Emilia choked on her scrambled eggs at Matt's very personal question. How did the conversation go from allergies to boyfriends in an insanely short amount of time?
"You mean girlfriend. No, I don't have one right now." Summer answered smiling, staring directly at the space between Matt and Emilia. It was Matt's turn to choke on his breakfast now and Summer let out a sweet chuckle.
Much later, after Matt's coughing fit, he laughed and gave Emilia a mischievous look before turning to face Summer. "You know? Emilia here swings the same way too!"
Emilia sat there perplexed. What was Matt on? She felt the blood rush to her face and as mean as it may sound, she was happy that Summer couldn't see. She was as red as a tomato which made Matt laugh even louder.
"Ah, explains the heavy stare a while ago!" Summer exclaimed waving her fork in the air. "I felt that, doctor." She smiled as she ate the last of her grits.
Emilia pinched Matt on the shoulder. "Why would you out me like that?" She whispered.
"Thank me later." Matt whispered back wincing.
"I wasn't staring. I was assessing you. Okay?" Emilia protested looking at Summer now.
"Okay."
"And maybe okay will be our forever. Or something along those lines." Matt interjected making Summer's sweet laughter ring in Emilia's ears like soft bells in the meadow.
"It's 'okay, will be our always', I read that book too! In braille, of course!"
Matt gave Emilia a thumbs up before he heard his pager beep. "Well, duty calls. I'll see you later, 'Milia. Nice to meet you, Summer". He put his fork down and left a 20 dollar bill on the table before leaving.
"Awkward." Summer finally said a few minutes after Matt left.
"Why?"
"I don't know if I should just leave since you're not talking to me."
"Maybe you should." Emilia said trying to make her voice sound cold. Only God knows why.
"Don't you think you should at least offer to walk me home? I mean, you nearly bashed my head in with that big hunk of brick you probably carry around all day."
"I thought you said we'll call it even after I get you breakfast?" Emilia replied sternly still hiding her amusement.
Summer slumped on her seat holding her temples with the tips of her dainty fingers. "Whoa, I feel dizzy." She groaned as her left hand left her temples to grip the edge of the table. "I think the force of that brick of a book thrown directly at me has caused serious problems with my hearing. I can't be blind AND deaf. Oh, how will I cross the street?" And then she chuckled again.
The sound of her laughter was slowly becoming Emilia's most favorite thing in the world. She gathered all her stuff and put them in her bag before she got up to grab one of Summer's hands. "I'll walk you home."
"Ooh, slow down, partner. What kind of girl do you take me for?" Summer playfully said pulling her hand away but only briefly. She was already addicted to the feeling of Emilia's hand hugging her own.
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Just a reminder that aortic ruptures or transections or whatever the hell you want call them, do not work like I described them in this chapter.
Also, did you catch that TFIOS reference? I just finished reading Paper Towns and like every John Green book, it was epic. So, I put a little something something as a tribute to the genius that is Mr. John Green. Also, on behalf of every Floridian, I would like to thank him for setting Paper Towns in Florida. Nothing ever happens here.
Oooh, one more thing. This chapter was inspired by Little Green Car's song The John Wayne. The first line goes "it's easy to fall in love with you" and that got me started. I put the video up if you guys want to check it out.
And that is all...
