Love, Amor, Amour

《Chapter 16》

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On a sunny morning, the heat was more than expected from the local news channel forecast. It was a capris and short sleeves type of day, no jackets necessary; the type of day that if you stood in the sun too long you felt the sting of its rays as the moisture of sweat accumulated. If it was up to her, Mina would have worn sandals all day, but it was frowned upon in hospitals and the workplace. Still, she was prepared with a duffle bag in her trunk. Better safe than sorry; she always thought.

The air-conditioned halls of the hospital were like a godsend on days like these. She will miss these halls tomorrow, Elijah had reminded her she could come back anytime she pleased because the nurses had such an appreciation for her. He was right about that and she was sure to return when her life wasn't as hectic. Volunteering was a way to help others in the simplest of ways, though the impact it had was invaluable.

She prolonged her pace to enjoy the day ahead, her mind wandering a thousand miles off. Her destination coming closer, thoughts fled as she heard voices. None too familiar at first but then as she tucked herself back behind the door she heard his voice clearly.

"What're you going to do then? You need to stay and work the contract, its a great opportunity."

There was an edge to the woman's promulgation, but the sense of pleading was there as well. This was evidently an important task.

"Je le sais; I'll do what I can, but I have a life and it isn't here."

She heard the distinctive firmness of Mr. François. He had an accent appearing in every other pronunciation of a word, this woman was upsetting him and herself.

"Jean-Noel, you haven't even given it a chance. Monique would love to spend more than a fleeting week with her only oncle et peut-être devriez-vous acheter une maison—"

"Non. I'll be at a hotel as soon as the contract is set up, but I won't be staying. Tu ne peux pas me convaincre de rester, Emrie," He cut the woman's exclamation short with an asserted refusal. Both their sound of words came out stressed in a french coating.

Mina walked in at the moment no more words were let out as if she had not heard the ending of their conversation just seconds ago. The door was ajar so she validated her actions on that alone.

"Hi, sorry to intrude Mr. François and miss..," she looked towards the woman in question with speculating eyes.

"Hello and it's misses actually, but you may call me Emrie and you might be?"

Emrie had a beautiful face it wasn't just a face of makeup and tweezers, but with highlighted features of an exotic french woman. Oval shaped with a sharply angled jawline but not as sharp as her eyes. The woman's eyes were perfectly aligned to her eyebrows, her cat-eyes flawless. Stunning and added onto a runway she could be a supermodel.

"Mina, it's a pleasure to meet you," She withdrew her outstretched hand after a quick shake with a faltered smile, not meaning to stare.

"Likewise."

She barred eyes with her ex-patient, knowing today was their time for farewells. For it was his last day here too, the freedom was just placed in a couple of signed discharge papers. Her memory served to remind her just how happy he is on this day and how long he had waited for it. Although from what she had heard, the day hadn't started on a high note.

"You heard the conversation we were having, did you not?"

She was caught off-guard by the declaration but chose not to show it, instead, she responded with a calmness only she could pull off, "Not entirely, no."