Sincerely, Dr. Cruz

Twenty Five: Just a Bit

Chapter Twenty Five: Just a Bit (Neal’s POV)
Rhode Island Hospital: Providence, Rhode Island

“Reina, we’re all here for you, I hope you know that.” Armando told Reina for the millionth time that day. Call me impatient, but this lunch break just seemed to be dragging on forever.

Maybe it was because Armando wouldn’t shut up.

Kat hadn’t shown up to work today, and though it was a bit of a relief for the rest of us, Reina visibly seemed off. This seemed to catch the attention of Armando, because he had been pestering her all of lunch in attempts to comfort her. She was visibly uncomfortable, but obviously Reina wasn’t the type to tell people off.

You see, most days, she was happy—happy enough to fool people. But the days she was gloomy, you wanted to know if she was truly happy with herself. Which, as Jaya and I had found out last night, she wasn’t. Part of me wanted to be optimistic and say she’ll get better, but with deep on and off depression like she has, it would take a long, long while before she would ever be herself—whoever that was.

“Armando, I think that that’s enough for one day.” Jaya said, resting a hand on his arm while looking at him like he was a god or something. I know they would never say it out loud, but Jaya and Armando were totally head over heels for one another. You could tell by the way they looked at each other. They were like annoying best friends who were dating—a subtle relationship. They didn’t show off or anything, which was nice. I guess.

Armando did enough showing off for the both of them anyway.

Ugh, Neal, stop being a sour ass.

Maybe it was just the fact that I hadn’t slept in the past few days—especially last night—but I was really cranky today. I felt like I needed a break from reality. Apparently I had been drowned in my thoughts long enough, because I was startled by Reina shaking my shoulder.

“Neal, are you okay?”

“Um, yeah.” I said, looking at her worried eyes.

She was so freaking beautiful.

Shit, Neal. Stay on track.

We walked back to my office in a comfortable silence. She had to walk a bit faster than me just to keep up with me. I guess it was because she was so short, which was cute.

Oh, my.

These thoughts had been stuck in my head ever since last night, when she was smiling and laughing again. They got worse when she picked Ben up and let him sit in her lap. They were like best friends, and it seemed like every time Reina came around, Ben was all smiles. It made me feel all weird and tingly on the inside, and I have no idea why.

“Hey Neal, are you seriously okay? I’ve been talking to you for like five minutes and you haven’t shown any signs of life.”

“Y—yeah, I’m fine. Just tired.”

“That’s understandable. We were all up really late last night.”

“Yeah. It’s a good thing today’s Saturday. I know that it would’ve been a nightmare trying to get Ben to wake up at seven.”

“You can say that again.” She said with a small smile.

We worked for the next few hours, and I figured that if we were going to get off of work early that day, we might as well make use of our free time.

“Hey Reina, I uh… know that you spend like all day with me anyway, but I was wondering if you would want to maybe go down to the pier with Ben and me?” I asked nervously.

She looked up from the file she was reading, a faint gleam in her eyes, her lips tugged into a small smile.

“That sounds great.”

A wave of relief flooded over me, but in all reality, what was the worst that was going to happen? She was going to say no?

Neal, you need to get a grip on yourself.

“That’s great!” I said a bit too excitedly. “I uh—I mean we’ll come get you at around five?”

“That’s perfect.” She said, with a small smile.

I smiled back, enjoying the glimpses of her happy self she was showing again, and I was hopefully going to see more of that later on today.

Now, if only I could not take Ben with me…

_________

It was suddenly five, and I was in Reina’s driveway, nervously waiting for her to come out of her apartment. Ben was in the backseat singing “London Bridge” for no apparent reason, and while it was cute, it wasn’t helping the nerves I had at the moment.

I don’t think it was healthy for one person to singlehandedly make me so nervous.

“Hey Neal. Hey Ben.” Reina said with a smile as she sat down in the seat next to me.

I was about to reply, but Ben beat me to it.

“Hi Reina!” He said, wrapping his small arms around her neck from the back.

She smiled and kissed him on the cheek, and I smiled because I had that weird tingly feeling again. We drove down to the pier while Ben and Reina sang London Bridge, and once we were there, Ben immediately ran off to the sand, wanting to make sandcastles which were really just sand lumps.

Reina and I said down about ten feet away from him, easily sliding into conversation.

“How have you been doing?” I asked genuinely.

“Better. Real better.” She said confidently.

I smiled because I felt reassured that she was trying. “That’s good.” I said. “I just wasn’t sure, you know? Especially the way Armando was practically throwing questions at you.”

“Oh. Well it wasn’t that bad.” She said, a bit hesitant.

“Are you kidding me? He was so annoying!” I said without thinking, immediately regretting it.

Reina paused to look at me, raising an eyebrow.  “Are you jealous of Armando?” She asked with a smirk.

“What!? No, it’s just—”

“It’s just what?” She said with a look of amusement.

It’s just that I think you’re incredibly cute and I really like you okay?  

Get a grip on yourself man.

“It’s just, I don’t know. I’m selfish and I’m used to being the only one around you at work, you know?”

 “Yeah, I get you.” She gently laughed and nodded. She looked back down at her feet swinging above the water. Her long curly black hair fell from her shoulder and covered her face.

 I am such an emotional sap right now.

I reached out and tucked pieces of her hair behind her ear. She turned to face me, and I noticed how her nose was faintly red as well as the top of her cheeks, and her eyebrows furrowed as I continued to stare at her perfect facial structure.

And to be honest? I just really wanted to kiss her.

Whoa.

AN: OHEMGEE well that was unsuspected huh and oh my gosh Ben is the cutest thing ever but then again he must get it from Neal like they live together and okay bye I’m leaving before I keep blabbering on and please just tell me if you liked it and if you haven’t already please do check out my next story it’s called Habits and okay bye

PS: I KNOW IT WAS SHORT, but school started again and I just wanted to get something up right quick before I’m drowned in schoolwork