Don't Love Me, I'm Straight

Chapter 18

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Up's POV

While Boat was busy hugging his 'sweetheart' I quietly stepped out of the ER cubicle and made my way to the Business Office on the same floor as the ER.

I approached the staff at the window and told her that I wanted to pay for the hospital fees of Poom.

She looked up his name on her computer.

"You cannot pay the hospital fees yet," she informed me. "He has not yet been discharged so there are no figures on his account yet."

"Can I leave you my credit card information and then apply to it whatever hospital fees need to be paid when he is discharged?" I asked, handing her my credit card.

"Sure," she replied, taking down my credit card information.

"Thank you," she said as she handed me back my credit card.

"Sure," I replied before walking away towards the lobby to wait for Joss to arrive.

I sat on one of the couches in the lobby, looking at the entrance sliding doors to see if Joss was coming in.

I pulled out my phone from my pocket to text Joss to let him know that I was at the lobby already.

As I was texting I realized that my fingers were shaking. What was the matter with me?

Of course I knew what the matter with me was. but I was in denial.

I had told myself from the day that Poom had declared to me that he was straight that I would never ever allow myself to feel anything for him.

But here I was, obviously hit so hard by the fact that Poom and Boat were 'sweethearts' to the point that my fingers were shaking, making it hard for me to send a proper text to Joss. My fingers were tapping on all the wrong characters making my message sound like a whole lot of gibberish.

Finally I gave up and placed my phone back in my pocket and resigned myself to waiting for Joss.

When Joss finally walked in through the sliding doors, I quickly stood up from the couch and walked over to him.

"Are you okay?" Joss asked. He must observed the distressed expression on my face.

"Of course," I replied testily. "What makes you think otherwise?"

"Nothing, sorry," he sounded apologetic but at the same time concerned.

There was an awkward silence as I walked alongside him to where he had parked my car.

"We have a bit of walking to do," he broke the silence. "I had to park the car at the farthest end because so many cars seemed to have arrived since the last time I was here."

"Not a problem." I said. "Walking is a good way to de-stress."

"What are you stressed about, Up?" he asked.

Shit, I made a slip of the tongue.

"You ask too many questions," I scolded him.

"I'm sorry," he said. "We're getting close to where I parked the car."

"Yes, I can see it from here. You don't have to tell me," I said grumpily.

"I'm sorry," he said again, in a tight voice.

I felt guilty for snapping at him. This was the first time ever that I had snapped at him or any one of my employees.

When we reached the car, I climbed into the back passenger seat and covered my face, not bothering to put my seat belt on.

"You wanna talk about it?" Joss asked. just sitting in the driver's seat, not starting the car.

His soft and gentle voice was my undoing. I had tried to keep a brave face the whole time but now suddenly I was bawling like a baby.

I heard rather than saw him step out of the car and climbing into the back seat, sitting very closely beside me.

He put his arms around me without saying a single word.