Fan Fiction |
by Mimosa
“I’m afraid we’ll have to walk a little, Flora.” Said Gallen as they circled back into Wellington Street for the seventh time, “or maybe I can just drop you at the door?” He turned to steal a glance at her profile.
She returned the same glance, smiling sweetly “I’d like to walk!”
“Oh!” He grinned “So I should now find some further parking space!”
“Stop playing!” she laughed “We’re so late already, they will yell at us I’m sure!”
“Don’t worry… We were working on emergency case while they were out picnicking and playing tennis, right?”
“Right!” She found his mischievous grin just so cute. “Right!”
They finally found a parking spot two blocks down from the restaurant. Yung Kee greeted them at the peak of its dinner rush, with waiters running around talking on walkie-talkie. “Welcome to Hong Kong, Flora!” winked Gallen.
“It smelled so enticing,” Flora exclaimed “must be their famous roasted… duck?”
“Gooses!” corrected Gallen “My first time here too… I have no idea it would be this crowded!”
“The food must be good!” Flora filled her lung again with her eyes half-closed
“It’d better be!” he laughed at her dreamy way “My God, Flora, you didn’t look half that enjoy when I played the piano!”
She pouted, and he quickly put on a straight face “Come, I think I see Nick and the gang!”
It took them a while to finally found their way to a round table stuck at a corner very closed to the kitchen.
“Hi guy!” Gallen greeted cheerfully, and drew out a chair for Flora before he himself sat down next to Nick. “So how many set did you play after I left?”
Only the peculiar silence answered him. Nick appeared to be extremely busy inspecting the menu, Annie played with the wet violet she had just pulled out from the centerpiece. Ada and Kevin were either admiring the patterns on the wall, or checking out their surrounding. Gallen gave Flora a glance, and she was quick to pick up the cue.
“Ada,” Flora nudged her friend “Guess who’s getting married?”
“WHAT?” Ada and Kevin bounced off their chairs, Annie let the violet drop to the floor, while Nick lowered the menu and directed his gaze, not toward Flora, but to his colleague cum buddy.
“You’re serious?!” Ada and Annie were quicker than the guys to recover the ability to speak.
“Ha!” Flora said triumphantly “So none of you has any problem with the hearing, it seems!”
“Congratulation!” Kevin said in a grave tone without looking at Flora, gripping hard on his water glass
“Gallen!” spoke Nick, demandingly
“Huh?” Gallen looked very innocent “Oh, you didn’t answer me just now, Nick”
“Stop playing dumb!” Nick growled “You’d better tell us, or else…”
“But tell what?”
“Oh come on!” Ada and Annie chimed in impatiently “How did it happen? And so fast?”
“I don’t know!” Gallen shook his head “Ask Flora!”
“What?” the group yelled “You don’t know?”
“How could he know?” Flora took a piece of bread and dipped into her butter “I don’t think Nick Gor and Annie know either!”
“Huh? It’s not you and…” Ada pointed at Gallen
“Are you crazy?” Flora gasped “of course not me!”
“So who’s getting married?” Annie was confused
“My cousin Steven, Ada’s old fame!” Flora winked meaningfully, Annie glanced sideway just in time to caught Kevin letting out a suppressed relief sigh.
“Oh my God!” Ada felt back on her chair and exclaimed in a subtly mocking tone “such a devastating piece of news! Should I faint?”
Flora laughed, “He said he’s still having that old picture of you and him at the freshman orientation!”
“Wait wait wait… Who’s Steven?” Nick cut Flora short. His vision had now found Ada as the new target.
“Uh oh” Gallen leaned toward Flora, smiling “I think somebody is jealous!”
Nick and Ada turned their heads, arms crossing, eyes squinting, and Gallen soon regretted he had drawn the attention back.
“So” Nick said after staring at Gallen for a full minute “How was the emergency case this afternoon, dear Dr. Lo?”
“Eh..” Gallen was caught off-guarded “Not too bad..”
“Nobody dies?”
“No, no…” Gallen shifted a little uneasily “we saved them all!”
“Them?” Ada asked with a raised eyebrow “How many cases?”
“Two” said Flora, looking away
“Three” said Gallen at almost the same time “er… two” his face was a shade red
“Actually” Nick leaned back and spoke slowly, keeping a steady gaze on Gallen “I called Grantham right after you left!”
“Hmmm… I smell trouble” Annie shuddered comically
Nick bobbed his head in agreement “Somebody is asking for it!”
“What are you talking about?” Gallen chuckled nervously, began to see what this was heading to
“Guys,” Nick leaned back and turned to address the whole group “he asked what I’m talking about!”
“Who?” Kevin tilted his head and looked at Annie
“The one who lies blatantly to his best friends just so he would sneak out with his girl!” replied Annie in the same affected voice
“What?” Ada gasped “he ditched his best friends for his girl?”
“Yup!” Annie nodded firmly “Not only did he ditched his best friends, he’s totally abandoned his sister, who he’s supposed to give a..”
“Sorry Sai Mui, sorry…” Gallen said, smiling rather sheepishly “I’ll bring you and Kevin back to Nu to fetch your cars right after this dinner…”
“I can’t believe it!” Ada shook her head dramatically, looking from Gallen to Flora
“Guys…” Gallen attempted again “I didn’t mean to…”
“You’re not allowed to speak, defendant!” Nick hold up his hand and spoke in a stern tone “Not until we decided on a penalty for you!”
“I demand a lawyer!” Gallen joked nervously “or at least the right to defend myself.”
“Sorry, you don’t deserve any of that!” Annie shrugged and turned to the group “Okay guys, what should we do to him?”
“I’m hungry!” Kevin claimed, causing the others to look at him strangely
“What’s your point, Kevin?”
“We’ll just order and make him pick up the tab”
“I’ll do that!” Gallen said with bright eyes
“That’s too easy!” Annie was the first to point out “He’s always picking up the tab, it’s hardly a penalty for this grave violation”
“Annie!” Gallen cried “What are you doing? It’s not helping.”
“Sorry Dai Gor, I don’t intend to help you” Annie cracked, causing Flora to giggle softly. Her giggle soon turned into a nervous chuckle as the group redirected the attention toward her
“You have your share, don’t worry girl!” Ada winked “And I agree with Annie, making him pay for dinner was too easy!”
“I have an idea” Kevin raised his hand “Another idea, I mean…” he caught Ada’s little action of the eye “A better one!”
“Just say it away, Kevin!” Nick sighed
“Well, we make them promise not to do that again!”
“That’s genius!” Annie and Ada felt back on their chairs, not even bother to hide their disappointment….
Nick looked around the table, then sit up straight and signal the waiter “Look like we’re all having brain freeze!” He explained “We’ll come up with something to do to these two after we have something in our stomach, I’m sure!”
“Good idea” the others agreed whole-heartedly
They devoured the food just as whole-heartedly. No idea was generated until dinner ended and the group walked out of Yung Kee sleepily.
“I don’t think I want to walk!” Nick claimed, tossing his car keys toward Gallen “Go get my car!”
“Why?” Gallen tossed it back “I have mine to get, too, mind you!”
“You’re not going to get my car?” Nick titled his head, crossing his arms
“No” said Gallen simply
Nick turned, the rest followed him, saved for Flora who stood in her spot, not sure of what to do or say.
“Hey!” Gallen called after them, nobody answered “Hey!”
The four kept walking straight, giggling among themselves and took care not to let Gallen see.
“Guys, listen to me!” Gallen’s voice trailed behind “Okay… so I lied, I’m sorry! I won’t do that again!”
“People are looking at us!” Annie pointed out
“No, they’re looking at your brother!”
“Should we stop?” Annie asked “I think he’s really sorry!”
“No, don’t soften Annie!” Ada warned “Remember he broke his promise to you!”
“Oh no” Kevin stopped short “That reminds me that your brother has to bring us to go get our cars!”
“Kevin!” Nick shook his head “Has it ever happened to me that I could just do the same job as Gallen would?”
“Nick, thanks for your offer!” Gallen chimed in, he had caught up with the four “But I think my sister and Kevin want me to drive them. So thank Nick, and bye Nick. Good night! This way to my car everyone!”
“Not so fast buddy!” Nick extended an arm to stop Gallen “Not so fast!”
“What do you want?” Gallen groaned
Nick said nothing, simply jiggled the keys in front of Gallen suggestively
“Fine!” Gallen snatched it “Where did you park?”
“Not very far, 2 blocks up, then 3 blocks right… You know how my van looks like!”
“What’s wrong with you?” Gallen cried “Why did you have to park that far?”
Nick shrugged…
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[Ada’s apartment – kitchen – midnight of the 12th day]
[Flora]
If my phone knew how to talk, it would cry out loud for being stared at the last half an hour or so.
I couldn’t make up my mind of whether or not I was willing to talk to Dr. Johnson. Part of me was anxious to know his process in finding my donor, yet the other part of me chickened out. What if he said there was no matching found? More than once I felt like slapping myself for withdrawing from the waiting list just before my trip to Sydney. Well, before I met Gallen, it hadn’t bothered me much, if at all, about how long I, or rather the faulty valve of my little heart, would last. Dreamily, and a little unintentional selfishly, I had told my Mother about my almost-unshakable decision of living “a short but memorable life”. Dr. Johnson had assured me that with good exercising and a careful diet, I would certainly look into my thirties. Well, at the time thirties didn’t seem to be that bad. By then I’d have finished my professional training, and still had 8 to 10 years to do what I wanted to do - traveling around the world as a volunteer physician by joining some group along the line of Peace Corp or Unicef.
“What about me?” My Mom had questioned rather tearfully on every possible occasion “I have only you!”
“Mom,” I would laugh every time, amusing “Where have all my brothers gone to?”
“But they’re boys,” My Mom had sighed rather ruefully “you know your brothers! Could your brother and I count on any of them?”
My mother was only being a little over-dramatic, I thought. Any of my four brothers would be capable of taking care of my parents way better than I would. Needless to say, being the baby of the house, I had not really had to “take care” of anyone, myself including.
Yes, so I was only thinking of living until just before I turned old and wrinkled. That would just work fabulously, don’t you think?
How it suddenly sounded utterly silly and selfish! It was easy for me to be gone… but how hard life would be for people who loved and cared for me!
Eileen didn’t have a choice, but I did!
And I had not only my family and my friends to consider now, I had him. I had Gallen!
With all the excessive additional motions he had forced my heart to undergo, I might not even be able to reach my original-planned 30-year-old mark. Blame on the irresistible charisma in his every way! My poor heart would race up just from the mere mention of his name. How silly was that? It would skip, or even stop beating completely when he exercised his mesmerizing gaze. If my heart valve failed before its time, it would entirely be his fault! Gallen’s fault!
Fine, I wasn’t being rational as I should be. Would I want to let the little heart valve tell me when to leave him? Would I want to leave him, ever?
“Wouldn’t you wish to be with him, Flora? Not till time, but beyond it!”
I nodded to myself, and pressed the talk button.
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[Lo’s residence, evening of the 13th day]
He was being so daring, yet gentle… so sweet! His caressing felt so wonderful on her bare arm, his breath so warm and tantalizing below her earlobes.
Flora let out a soft sigh. How willing she found herself to be his accomplice! To give him her heart, her soul, her everything… holding nothing back!
Wish she belonged to him! Wish they belonged to each other… more than they’d already been!
She knew she was making it almost impossible for him to keep the ever so delicate line.
He forced himself to break free from her embrace, his breathing came a little short when he asked her whether she wanted any drink… Then without waiting for her reply, he turned and walked out. His walking soon broke into a run. A few seconds later he found himself flashing cold water carelessly on his burning face.
She sat motionlessly where he left her, in his home office. Her face flushed a deep red and her heart drummed wildly inside her chest. A mixture of feelings engulfed her…
She was glad he had stopped before they both crossed the line… Or was she?
Flora slowly lowered her eyelashes…
It was undeniably, amazingly wonderful…
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