He kept on tapping her face as though that would bring back her conciseness. He didn’t know why he felt edgy or why deep within him he wished he had the power to take away all the pain she might have been experiencing. As he moved and called her name frantically, nothing changed, and he sat down there and waited until the elevator made a sound and Emily walked out of it together with two emergency doctors.
She rushed toward Anna and held her hands, “Oh my god, what’s wrong with her, Jack? How did this happen? I mean she came back fine, didn’t she?” So, she didn’t come back until now? How would he know that?
“I came out and found her already passed out on the corridor.” He looked up at the doctors, “You can come over and do your work, please. It seems like an allergic reaction, I’m not certain.” He stood up as one of the doctors moved toward her and he began to examine her whole body while Emily stared at her with a horrified expression on her face.
“Allergy? The first time she came here her secretary has submitted to us her medical report, I’ll go and look into it now, Dr. Help her into her suite, or do we need to take her to the hospital?” She asked as she stood up and one of them shook his head.
“I don’t think that’s necessary since you have her medical report. We’ll get her into her room.” Emily practically ran toward the elevator as the doctors began their work on Anna and she wondered what had happened. She knew the first time they came here with her secretary she told them that she was sick and in case of emergency, they should have her medical report.
Jack stared at the way they were trying to help her back into her consciousness and one of them tried to lift her before he looked at the other, “Help me get her into her room, Emily said the key is with her.” They began to look for the key around her and Jack pulled her bag and brought the key out before he handed it to them and scooped her into his arm in one swift movement.
“Open the door for me.” They wondered who he was, but since it was obvious that he was the one that found her, they didn’t have any other chance but to compile with whatever it was that he said. They rushed toward the door and after they had opened it, he walked into the room, wondering how light she weighed on his arm. She wasn’t as big as her words would ever be.
He laid her carefully on the bed and the doctors weren’t able to take the next move when Emily barged into the room with the documents in her hands. She was a VIP customer they all loved and respected. “Here is the list of her allergies, can we check which one she has taken?” Jack quickly took the paper from hers and the moment he glanced at ‘garlic’ among the list of things she was allergic to, even though he wondered what type of person she was, he knew that was it.
“I think I smelt garlic on her, can you check it for us again, Emily?” He handed the paper to the doctors and Emily rushed toward her. One lean of her face toward her mouth, she smelt garlic and nodded her head at them.
“Yes, she took garlic, I don’t know what happened, she knows of her allergy.” The doctors when to work and gave her the proper injection that would help with the allergy as Jack watched them work. Did her stupidity reached the level that she would have do that to herself? She was crazy indeed.
One of the doctors looked up at a worried Emily and smiled, “You can get back to your work, Emily. She’s going to have some sleep and she will be alright when she wakes up, okay?” They all evacuated out of the room and Emily locked it in a way that Anna could unlock it herself from inside when she woke up.
“Thank you for calling us, Jack.” He knew her, this hotel was the one his company had a contract in, they lodged their pilots here whenever they have to spend a night in Florida. And he knew her since the first year her started working with their agency.
“It was only a humane act, I couldn’t watch someone die, could I?” He chuckled and she smiled at him as the elevator down to the lobby together. A call came through his phone and when he saw it was David, he realized he was late for almost an hour. He palmed his face and shook his head before he picked the call, “I’m sorry, Man. Something got me hooked. I’m on my way right now.”
“Okay, that’s fine, man. I just want you to have a blast and there are beautiful ladies as well, you might get someone to have fun with.” David gave out a naughty chuckle and Jack even though smiled, he gave a shake of his head.
“I’ll be there to see for myself.” He ended the call with a hint of laughter, and he went to the cab he had called already. What would he do with other women when he had Clara already? Even though they had their own fair share of problems and things they needed to work on, she was the woman he would always want no matter what he had become in his life.
He arrived at the location David sent to them and he didn’t have to be told that it was the house, for the music was already blasting two miles away. He smiled and shook his head; David will never change. He silently walked toward the house and the moment he hit the door bell, David opened the door for him and engulfed him into a hug. The party just started an hour ago, but he reeked of alcohol.
❦
Anna slowly began to squint her eyes and when the glaring light shone into her eyes, she weakly hissed and closed her eyes and when she opened them back, she tried as much as she could to have her eyes adjust to the light. It was past midnight, or was it her eyes? She stared at the wall clock; it was almost thirty minutes past midnight. She managed to sit upright and placed the pillow behind her back, what the hell nearly happened? Her throat still itched even though she knew it was no worse like it was when she passed out on the corridor.
How was she in her room then? When she turned around there were medication on her bedside drawer, and she knew they weren’t among the ones she had bought. She took the landline beside her bed and called the reception. “Hello,” she called out weakly and smiled when a frantic Emily answered back.
“Are you alright, Anna? Thank god, I’m so worried that I have to check up on you twice, but you were still sleeping.”
“You called the doctors for me? How did you find me?” Her heart welled with love. She knew there were people that you have no blood relation with, or there was no friendship, but they loved and cared for you, she could proudly say Emily was among those type of people in her life. And she loved the girl, a lot.
“I didn’t, Jack did. He called me and said that you’ve passed out on the corridor and I called the doctors. They said you had an allergy, you ate garlic, Anna?” Okay, this was getting more interesting. That man found her, and he didn’t let her die?
“Thank you, Emily. Can you please call the restaurant for me and order for a light dinner? I’m starving. I’ll hung up now.” She didn’t wait for Emily’s response before she ended the call. She can’t have a second version of her mother in Emily even though she knew she meant no harm. But she wasn’t ready yet.
She took the pills to be able to feel her strength back and when she laid back on the bed for a few more minutes, she didn’t feel as weaker as she did when she woke up. She walked to the bathroom and had her shower and when she came out, there was a delivery from the restaurant and she thanked god for Emily, she knew exactly what she would need. She thanked the man and went to the living room and as she ate, she watched the tv and wondered why Nate didn’t call her. She thought it was only right to ask someone that has spent the whole day with you how he went back to his or her place? Wasn’t it a basic human act?
She shrugged off her shoulder, that should be the least of her worries. Maybe he got carried away with something, or he even decided to work from home to lessen the amount of work he would get tomorrow morning. Or he slept off immediately after she left, it’s all possible. Her phone rang, and even though a conversation with her Mother was the last thing she wanted at the moment, Anna picked up the call with a weary sigh.
“Mom,” she called out weakly and waited for the worst.
“You took garlic, what the hell is wrong with you, Anna? Is your health some sort of joke to you?” She clamored and Anna closed her eyes to lessen the effect of her words in her skull.
“I’m glad that you know it’s my health, not yours, Mom.” She shouldn’t be so harsh, just like how Emily was genuinely worried, then she knew her Mother’s was tenfold genuine. “I didn’t mean to sound rude, but I took it without knowing, Mom. What do you want me to do when it was just a mistake?”
Her Mother sighed, and Anna felt so bad for being rude toward her. “I’m sorry, Mom.” She added, even though she knew it would only be a matter of a few sentences and this woman would make her regret apologizing to her.
“This is the reason why I hate it when you travel alone, because it always tends to be a problem after another. Why can’t you just be the adult you claim you are even for a single day?” There, she wished she hadn’t apologized to her.
She scoffed and massaged her temple, “I need to sleep, good night. Don’t bother calling me again until I’m back, okay?” She didn’t wait for her Mother’s reply when she ended the call. She wished she could know the spies her Mother had hired to keep tabs on her, she wished she could know.
There was a knock on her door, and she wondered who it was. Or maybe her Mother sent someone to bring her back home because she claimed not to be the adult she had always bragged of being? Furiously, she moved toward the door and yanked it open, “What is it?!” She demanded weakly and he looked taken aback by the sudden outburst.
He regretted ever thinking of checking up on her, what was he thinking? Just because she was sick didn’t mean that she got changed with someone else.
“Woah, are you always this dumbly rude that you don’t even know where to take your anger to? Why are you acting like this? I thought you were the educated one here?” He wished he had more painful words in mind to hurt her. Nevertheless, it was his fault that he thought of checking up on her, he really shouldn’t have done that. Who cared even if she died?
She hissed loudly, “Go and get a job, you’re the worst human alive. Talking to you is just a waste of time, unless you have something important, don’t you ever dare knock on my door again. And just because you called the reception for me doesn’t earn you my respect or appreciation, you should’ve let me die for all I care.” She banged the door on his face and out of anger, Jack wanted to roar until the whole of Florida knew about the murderous thoughts he had in his mind.
He hissed loudly when she walked back to the living room and without a second thought, she thought of exhausting her anger on Nate. She hit the dial button and didn’t wait to hear what he had to say first before she began ranting on him, furiously. “Why didn’t you call to check up on me, Nate?!”