That Guy from Nursing - (Ongoing)

Fifteen

It was not even five minutes since he departed, and yet, he already adhered a reminder of which the way how Robert grabbed the door-handle and pushed it open for me.

The way he placed his hand on the upper door trimming to safeguard my head from slamming, up to how he made sure that I seated comfortably in his car with fair amount of warm air blowing from the ventilation, Eric's doubtful gestures were just too good to be true.

Perhaps, he didn't like me touching his car or, maybe, he got paranoid after what happened earlier tonight. However, these caring or manipulative deeds were rather displayed regularly if Maureen Anderson was around.

I sighed — brushing off speculations before I'd get to overthink them. Whatever gain he's trying to achieve with this eager-friendship, I should not play dumb but must outsmart him.

When I made my way inside the house, I noticed that there was a familiar silhouette casted in our receiving area. As I examined closer, it was a form of a man seating on his favorite recliner. 

"Dad?" I figured.

"What are you doing? It's late," I said, acting surprised, although, I had a gut-feeling that he would be upset after learning what happened with our rehearsal this afternoon.

In truth, days before our dinner with the George's last Sunday, he called me "stupid" for joining the pageant. He's rather convinced that this activity was a "waste of time", and he even argued that instead of focusing on my curricular, I lavished fame among my colleagues while indulging to this nonsense.

However, it appeared to me that Dr. George was able to change his heart upon learning that his director's eldest son, Eric, had been joining countless pageants and they'd been supporting him ever since. 

As if he got struck by Dr. George's comment, he later mentioned to extend his support with this endeavor which made a huge difference, especially in front of everyone, and, thus, meant so much to me.

Though this sweet triumph eventually glided into a curve. 

When the news broke out, he was redetermined to pull me out of the competition, but Eric convinced him otherwise. Withdrawing now when it's already near-coming would be putting all the practice and preparations I went through into wastes, he explained to him. 

I exhaled deeply, wondering what would he say now.

His glowering face became more vivid when Robert turned the overhead lights on. He remained quiet, staring at my face, before his arms folded to his stomach.

"It wasn't that serious," I said, almost muttering, but his silent pursuit was just deafening.

In his stillness, my heart pounded the loudest as it synchronized its beats with the tapping of Robert's shoes when he took off. 

My fists clutched before my fingers started twitching. 

He cleared his throat. 

"That nursing jacket suits you well," he said while continued studying my late-night appearance before his narrowing eyes.

I chuckled . . . not intentionally, as I cleared it up to him.

"It was from Eric," I said with his puppy face flashed in my mind, that's why.

"He let me borrow it when we got caught in the rain earlier," I elaborated then began squeezing some parts of the jacket where mostly got dried from the warm fanning of air inside the car. 

"Ah . . . " he gasped.

We both muted to his wristwatch ticked as he checked the time. When he's finished, he returned his stare to me.