Toto and the Boys II: George

Chapter 11

Awkward.

I felt freaking awkward when Georgie parked me right beside Vicky.

Hey, I said to her.

Silence. Utter silence.

How is your manicured bumper?

Okay, so I probably asked the wrong question because she shouted at me with all the foul words she must have picked up from our own neighborhood.

Okay! Okay! Gosh, you don't have to shout! No one but me and that Fortuner will hear you anyway! Women!

So my solitary days started all over again.

Oh, how I missed my friends!

*****

"Why are you not dressed for work?" George asked when she saw Jordan lounged on a reclining chair in the entertainment room.

She had forced herself to get up early and drive as fast as she could so as not to experience his nagging again only to find out that he was still in his white v-neck shirt and stripes pajamas, holding a toy car remote.

"Watch out!" he shouted at her and before she knew it, she felt something bump her sneaker. She looked down and saw an off-road toy car trying to climb over her foot.

"Get it off my foot or I'll send it flying in the air you'd wish you were playing with a helicopter instead."

Jordan was now leaning his elbows on his knees, his feet bare against the wooden floor. "I am trying. Just move your foot away."

"It's an off-road toy car. It should be able to climb over my foot. Where did you buy this thing?" she said instead, inspecting the obviously expensive toy.

"It's because your foot is too big," he muttered as he tried to go on reversed.

Having grown impatient, George gave the toy a little kick.

"Careful!"

She did not hear him and walked to the couch beside his chair. "I thought you're going to work?"

"I called in sick."

She rolled her eyes. "Why? To play?"

"No, because I haven't recovered yet from last week's ambulance runs." He maneuvered the toy around the coffee table. "Stretch your leg. I wanna try it again."

George slouched on the couch and did as he asked, too glad to have the opportunity to not go to his office. She felt his toy car bump against her sneaker once more but failed to climb over it. She sighed and reached out to grab the remote from his hand. "You are not doing it right. Let me have it."

"I can do--" but she already had the remote in her hands and reversed the toy car at one corner of the room. "Stretch your leg."

"It better not hurt," Jordan said, his voice still flat and without emotion.

Without a word, George zoomed the car toward his foot and it climbed over without a problem. "It's not the toy. It's you who has a problem."

"You're wearing shoes. I am not."

"Why do you play this sort of games anyway? I never took you for someone who plays games."

He grabbed the remote from her hand once more. "I never played a game when I was growing up. This is how I compensate."

George stared at him in silence. So Jordan Ledesma had his own quirks. And all the while she thought he was boring.

*****