Someplace To Stay

"Thank you for the compliment, Doc, but whatever Mr. Spencer told you about me, it's all nothing but a lie." I cracked a half smile on my face to lessen the awkwardness of the situation. "Anyway, please, advise if he was allowed to get discharged tonight. He still has an important appointment to attend to."

"Who said it's a lie? I love you because you are my best friend, Elaine." Dylan insisted, "What's wrong with that?"

"Am I just a joke to you, huh, Dylan?" All the doctors and nurses with us were taken aback by my response, but I simply ignored them before I added, "Don't proclaim such heavy words if you cannot carry its weight."

Dylan immediately shut his mouth and he avoided getting eye to eye contact with me. I believed he sensed the sensitiveness of my words.

Then we all glance at the doorway as soon as we notice Mr. Dex and Don Romualdo step foot into the room. They even lock the door to make sure no paparazzi can take a single photo of Dylan.

"Doc?" I breathed.

"Of course," the doctor replied before he helped Dylan hop out of the bed, "Everything in his body functions normally. There's nothing to worry about him."

"Thank you so much for all your help, Doc," Don Romualdo extended his sincere gratitude by clapping the doctor's shoulder. "We'll discharge my son now."

The doctor nodded his head before he evacuated the room. As soon as Don Romualdo's security guards appeared and shooed all the paparazzi, we immediately attended to Mrs. Spencer's death anniversary.

Everyone in the Spencer family tree was already present and had their respective seats at the humongous wooden table. Even Mr. Frost was present as well. He was seated next to his younger brother, Dylan.

On the other hand, I stood still in the corner with my eyes on the floor. I was not supposed to be part of the family event but Dylan begged me to come with him.

"I guess everyone was already here. Shall we start now?" Don Romulado announced.

All of us, including me, suddenly fix our confused and curious gazes on the empty seat next to Dylan. He then wags his hand at me, asking me to come over.

"Kindly wait for a second! I invited someone to come over," Dylan replied, "Muaren just arrived," he whispered to me as soon as I slid my face closer to his face. "Please, assist her for me."

I could not help but frown upon hearing her name. He even spoke up with excitement. Dylan never mentioned anything to me about her joining the family's special event.

But then again, reality slaps my face like a bolt of lightning when I just realize what is bound to happen. Even a first-grader student can understand that Dylan is going to introduce her to the entire family as his girlfriend or worse his fiancee.

Great.

But then again, he possesses the most powerful position in the company that helps me with my bills. So I was left with no choice but to obey his order. I went outside and greeted Mauren.

"What's with that look, Elaine?" she scoffed right after she dropped the car keys, not to my hands, but to the ground. Then she smiled at me. "Serves you right, my dear friend. By the way, I already packed up all your things. Dylan and I will be living together in the apartment soon. Unless you want to want to get nightmares every night we spend together in one room."

After letting out those words, Mauren disappeared from my sight, leaving me on my spot with my entire well-being trembling in front of the car Dylan gifted me for my 24th birthday.

I could not believe he pursued my piece of advice to give the car to Mauren instead of returning it to the store and getting a refund. Right now, I regret not smashing the windows with the stone at that time.

Tears in my eyes began flooding my cheeks as I kept staring at the car keys in my hands, feeling their weight and sharp metallic features. I was lost in thoughts, asking myself what Mauren had that I didn't.

Dylan and I have been best friends for years yet after just a month of having a relationship with Mauren, everything changed. I don't even know if I can trust his words anymore.

After parking the car, I forced my feet to get back to the meeting. A part of me wanted to run away but I couldn't. I just can't because I promised Dylan to finish tonight's most crucial event of his life.

As soon as I got back to my spot, everyone was praising Mauren. They love and support her to be Dylan's fiancee. He did not even put a bit of his effort into glancing at me.

"Who could have thought my son had a better taste when it comes to women, huh?" Don Romualdo eagerly announced.

"So you mean you knew her parents well, Dad?" Utter excitement was written all over Dylan's face. He and Don Romualdo were supposed to be mortal enemies but it seems that they have agreed on one thing now.

About Maureen.

"Of course," Don Romulado replied before he fixed his gaze at me in the corner, "Her parents were major shareholders in some of our businesses. Well, not as wealthy and powerful as the Spencers, but her family was not that bad after all. You even manage to get your secretary to shut her mouth all this time. Are you aware of their relationship, huh, Ms. Fisher?"

Dylan and Ghino turned their heads toward me with an ear-to-ear smile on their faces. Mauren followed with a devilish grin. The feeling was like her eyes were stabbing me with a sharp knife straight into my chest, forcing me to say something that was music to her and Dylan's ears.

"The truth is... I'm so sorry, Don Romualdo, I just found out about them recently as well..." I did not get the chance to finish my statement when I flashed outside and rushed to hail a cab.

The last image that my eyes captured before I finally evacuated the room was Mauren holding Dylan's hand when he was about to move out of his seat.

While waiting for someone's unlucky cab to stop in front of me, my arms and legs were trembling in unison as though they were in a race to achieve the last lap - to give up.

Even wiping the tears in my eyes was very hard to achieve when every time I removed the tears, a new tear flooded my cheeks like an open faucet.

"Ms. Elaine, get in! It's about to get rain." Ghino's voice vibrated in my ears. He then opened the door of the car next to him in the driver's seat and smiled.

Without any signs of hesitation, my entire body voluntarily moved on its own and obeyed his command. Ghino's instinct was definitely right. The heavy rain descended from the sky as soon as I put on my seatbelt.

Then we took off.

"Do you want to go somewhere? Name your place and I will take you there," he proposed with his undivided attention focused on the road ahead of us.

I slowly blinked my eyes as if in slow motion while thinking about Ghino's proposal. It was tempting similar to what he proposed to me the other day on my birthday.

"Apartment," Even my own mumble cut deeper into my heart. "I badly need to get back to my apartment before she could see me there."

Ghino did not ask further questions. Instead, he authorizes the utter silence to swallow the screeching sounds of the wheels on our way back to my apartment.

Thirty minutes later, Ghino and I found ourselves standing still inside my apartment staring at the luggage bags and two large boxes filled with all of my things.

Four years. It took me four years of staying in peace in this very own apartment until someone forced me to vacate, my once-called "safe haven".

Ghino cleared his throat before breaking the silence between us in the room. "Sorry to interrupt this moment but, umm... Do you have someplace to stay, Ms. Fisher?"

His profound question even added fuel to my burning world which resulted in me dropping my knees to drip to the floor and began bursting into tears.

Everything happened so fast. Even faster than the speed of light. Fast enough I kept stumbling every time I raced with the tick-tock of the clock.

Accompanied by the implication of the truth of having nowhere else to go, everything seems to have fallen apart.

"I'll take that as a yes then," without asking further questions, Ghino grabbed my luggage bags and brought them outside. Next to them were the two large boxes.

Last on the list was scooping and carrying my trembling body and brought me back to the car. He even voluntarily puts my seatbelt on.

A few minutes later, I was sitting on the couch in a huge condominium unit with a glass of cold water across from me on the table.

"You can stay at my place in the meantime, Ms. Elaine," he continued, "I already booked a hotel room for me not far from here. If you need anything, all the contact information about the building is in the phone directory."

Then he snatched the phone from my hands and registered someone's number. "It's mine," he uttered, "If you need something the building doesn't have, don't hesitate to call me, okay?"