Sweetest Touch (ManxMan)

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Ivan’s POV

Almost a week had passed by and Gavin still didn’t show any sign of waking up and I had gone back to work. Gabriel somehow worked up his courage to come and see Gavin, on one condition. Devon was to be with him. I remembered I stared at Devon in confusion and he just shrugged. When I confronted him about it in back in the house, he just said he was Gabriel’s therapy buddy. Okay, whatever. As long as he was comfortable around Gabriel was enough for me. And they both seemed to get along fine.

For me, the nights were dreamless and restless. Blake had repeatedly mentioned about my dark circles and how I often skipped my meals despite Devon’s effort to cook great meals. I was just not into it. My heart felt missing.

I felt a pang in my chest and quickly ignored it. I was in my laboratory and I knew my fellow colleagues were worried about me and I appreciated it. I had to do something to take my mind off the situation for now. It was not helping it anyway.

“Ivan,” Jane, my fellow researcher came up to me suddenly. I leaned up from the microscope and turned to her, her face contorted in worry. She was married and a mother of two and despite her age nearing the 40’s she still appeared youthful with her long blond hair tied up in a ponytail. “Yeah?” I returned. “You look horrible. Did you get any proper rest?” she asked. There it was. Her maternal instinct kicked in. She always tried to take care of all of us, no matter what age. I smiled at her and rubbed the back of my neck. “Yes. I did sleep—“

She rolled her eyes before I could finish. “I said, proper. You have dark circles around your eyes and that doesn’t mean proper to me. Come, let’s take a break,” she said, gesturing me to follow her. I looked down at my microscope, thinking of an excuse so she could leave me alone until another researched blocked my line of sight. I looked up and raised my eyebrows. “I’ll continue recording the rock sample, Wyse. You listen to Jane,” the head of researcher, Mr. Conwell stared at me through his thick glasses. I glanced around and saw my other colleagues nodded their heads in agreement.

“Oh, come on,” Jane whirled around and grabbed my elbow and pulled me towards the door where we hung our coats and jackets. I sighed in defeat and removed my lab coat and grabbed my jacket. “We’re gonna be the café. Do not disturb us unless it’s absolutely necessary,” she reminded the team and they all replied in unison. “Yes!”

Jane walked while wrapping her arm around mine and I let her. I was too exhausted to argue anything and we walked straight towards the café where she told me to go get an empty table for us. Few minutes later, she came back with two hot mugs of mocha and two plates of carbonara pasta. I looked at the time and it was still 10am. “Early lunch. You’re going to go back home and sleep for the whole day,” she ordered and looked at me. “I’ve discussed with Conwell earlier and he agreed that you’re not in a good condition today. Eat, Ivan. Take care of yourself.”

My stomach grumbled at the sight and reminded me that I skipped breakfast this morning. “I didn’t know they serve lunch menu at this hour,” I mumbled. She chuckled. “This café has everything. Too awesome I should say. You know you can get pancakes and waffles for dinner. They don’t judge. Kids tend to have weird cravings in college,” she replied. I smiled at that, remembering Blake had told me one time to eat waffles together for supper.

“Okay,” I agreed and began to eat. “We know it’s hard for you right now. We know Gavin. He’s like a puppy to us,” she started and I snorted at the last sentence. “It’s hard for us too but we need to keep a level head. I know you’re calm but you are not okay. Take some time off, okay? You’ve done plenty of findings that could last us a few weeks. We’re ahead of the schedule. Don’t worry about work, okay?” she persuaded me and smiled, patting my hand. I stared at her and sighed. I made a small smile and continued to eat.