Chapter 3

"You are a genius, Becky," Colin said to her on Saturday. They were standing beside his car after the education congress at around 3:00 pm. “I enjoyed the activities so much, they should give you an award for this."

"Thank you," she beamed, impressed that he made it as he promised to. "I'm surprised that you came today."

"But I told you I would come," he took her hand and smiled. "I never failed at my words." 

Becky just smiled, feeling light-headed; she hadn't felt like that in years. 

She hadn't even thought about him at all since they met three days ago, but she had been feeling funny since he arrived for the program a few hours ago. 

"Listen," he squeezed her hand. "I know you are still on duty and I won't want your boss to quarry you." He looked over at Evelyn and her twin brother, talking beside Edgar's. "Can you give me your phone number so we can talk later?" 

"He wants my phone number!" Her heart leaped. She put up a little reluctance, though, "my number?"

"Yes," seeing her reluctance, he asked, "or you want me to beg for it?" He held her second hand. They were now facing each other, with him holding both of her hands. "Please, Becky, please give me your phone number."

Becky could not help herself. She burst into laughter. 

"Okay, okay," she covered her mouth with her palm. "I will give you, just stop, stop." She burst into laughter again as she collected his phone to punch in her digits. 

"Thank you," he winked at her. "You don't know how much I needed this." He made a face as if he had received something so precious.

Her heart fluttered in her chest at the way he winked at her. She burst into another fit of laughter. She was actually enjoying herself. She couldn't remember the last time she laughed heartily, like that with someone who wasn't a family member. 

"I really have to go back now," she already saw the other staff members' impatient gaze lingering on her. 

"Yes, okay," he put his hands in his pockets. "I will call you later at night."

She nodded, and they said their goodbyes. 

Hours later, Becky came out of her bathroom refreshed after a well-deserved bath. Though it wasn't even eight pm yet, she planned to retire to bed early. Soft music played from one of her laptops on her desk. 

She sat at her dressing table and applied her night cream on her body and face. 

When she was done with that, she powered up her second computer. She needed to send some emails. 

But instead of her doing that, she caught herself for the umpteenth time thinking about Colin Blake. His face kept flashing back at her. 

It was so surreal because no man had caught her fancy in three years. She had sworn off men after her ex-fiance betrayed her three weeks before their wedding. 

Her parents were getting worried because they hadn't seen any man with her since. To worsen her state of mind then, a few months after Felix broke up with her, she met the woman he cheated on her with at the supermarket when she went to buy some groceries spotting a wedding ring and a very visible pregnancy. That set Becky's emotions on the edge. She almost lost her sanity. She felt cheated all over again, thinking she was the one that was supposed to be carrying Felix's pregnancy, not her. 

At some point, she had to see a therapist and her father insisted she must return home and leave her rented apartment. 

Her therapist, too, said it was the best for her. That it wasn't a good idea for someone in a state of emotional trauma to stay alone. She knew the therapist was right, because she had already started doing things that she shouldn't be doing.

Her phone rang on the nightstand, where she was charging it, startling her out of her reverie. She reached over and picked it up. Glancing at the screen, she saw it was an unsaved number calling her.

She was so sure it must be Colin. Her face broke into a smile and she swiped across the screen. "Hello."

"Hey Becky," she heard him say from the other end. "I hope you are back home now?" He asked.

"Oh yes," Becky laughed a little. "We all left not too long after you left." She told him. 

"That's good." There was a bit of silence before he asked, "I hope you will have time to rest next week from all the stress?"

“Sure," she replied. "We are going to resume back at work on Wednesday, so I have from now till Tuesday to rest."

"That's good." He said.

She suddenly remembered about his dad and asked, “how about your dad's health? I hope he's getting better?"

"Yes," he replied, happy that she even recollected his conversation with Evelyn about his father. "He's getting better. Thank you." 

"Is any family member with him over there?" She asked him.

"Oh yes, my mom is there with him," he told her. "Though she came home to sort some things out last week, she's back with him now."

"Okay." She got up from the chair and sat more comfortably on the sofa by the window. "At least with her around him, he would recuperate well."

"Yeah," he agreed with her. 

His parents had traveled to Spain for their bi-yearly holiday out of the country as usual, with the plan to stay for a month. Everything was okay until his dad broke his ankle when playing lawn tennis one evening. 

"Oh, no!" Becky exclaimed when he finished telling her. 

"It's going to be about three to four months before they can remove the cast," he said to her. "You know it's the ankle and his age too will affect the healing process." 

"That's a really long journey," she said. 

"You can say that again."