[ ONE WEEK LATER -- ]

            Ron flipped through the pages of the newspaper he was holding and browsed through it. After a few minutes he sighed, frustrated. He threw the newspaper on the sofa, and rummaged through his other pile of newspapers.

            “Gee Ron, thanks for making such a mess around here. You know Sammul’s not in the mood to clean these days. It’s already messy around here!” Benny yelled on the sofa.

 He was lying down on the sofa comfortably watching television and on his vanilla ice cream. Ron ignored him. Benny was fed up with the silence in the house for the past week. What’s wrong with them? He thought. He understood that Sammul would react this way, but what’s up with Ron? Still thinking that he had seen Tavia in the hospital the day Leila died? What a coincidence…

“What are you doing Ron?” 

“I’m trying to find job offers. I don’t seem to qualify for a lot of them though.”  Ron growled, running his hand through his hair.

“Oh why didn’t you say so? Why don’t you try my insurance company? My boss is really nice; I’ll talk to him about you.”  Benny says, now munching on chips.

“Really? Great. I seriously need a job.” Ron says.

“Yeah…And a life too.”  Benny mumbled, but Ron overheard and threw the nearest pillow in Benny’s face.

They both broke into a laugh, but it fell short as they both turned to Sammul’s closed door, feeling awful as he was going through a rough time and they weren’t able to get him out of his room.

 - - -

            Bosco hid behind a patient as he saw Bobby walk down the hallways and right by him. He then casually strolled up to the receptionist.

“Eh, Macy.” Bosco winked. Macy blushed. “So…do you need help with any of the patient files and whatnot?”

“No no. We’re good. Say… Are you free tomorrow? My friends are having a party…”

“Uhm, gosh what time is it? I got to get back to work before Steven yells at me!” Bosco interrupted, scrambling away before Macy could ask him out.

 He honestly didn’t know why he reacted that way. The only reason he was flirting with her for the past few days was so that he could get around to finding Tavia’s file as to where she lives.

            Bosco wasn’t the kind to be committed to a relationship. His relationships don’t tend to last long – his last girlfriend with Natalie Tong, which was his longest relationship, only lasted three months. He just didn’t like to be tied down. However, oddly enough, he couldn’t stop thinking about Tavia. There was just something about her that attracted him and he needed to go find her somehow. He has searched in many places such as the bar and various clubs, but after a while he figured she doesn’t go to these types of places.

            He hid behind the wall, and as he took a peek, he saw that Macy  has walked off. It was his chance, but with so many patients as witnesses, he didn’t know how to get by. Casually, he walked up to the desk, pretending that he was searching for a file for some patient. He went up to the cabinet, and with the key that he was able to snatch away earlier, he glanced around before he opened it.

            He rummaged through the Y section of the files, and after a few minutes he finally found Tavia Yeung’s file. He opened it, and indeed it was her. He copied down her address, and was about to copy her phone number, when a shadow appeared behind him. Bosco froze in his place.

“BOSCO! What are you doing?” Steven yells.

“I..I was um.” Bosco snatched the file shut and placed it back into the cabinet and quickly closed the cabinet door. He did this so quickly that he accidentally banged his pinky in between the cabinet door.

“OUCH!” Bosco yelled in pain.

Steven shook his head and took hold of Bosco’s hand, inspecting his pinky. “Serves you right for snooping around. Patient files are confidential. I’ll let you go this time, but you better not be caught doing it again. I don’t know what you’re up to Bosco, but it better not be of pursuing some girl of yours. Bobby warned me about you.” 

Bosco smiled weakly. As painful as he may be, he has finally succeeded his mission.

 - - -

            After two exhausting hours of shopping, Tavia walked out of a clothing store and sat herself down on one of the benches in the malls. Shortly after, Selena walks out of the store.

“Why are you sitting down? We still haven’t gone to my favorite stores yet!” She cried excitedly. Selena was holding onto three shopping bags, one in each hand. She was what Tavia would call a shopaholic.

            Tavia, on the other hand, just brought a green tank top and was satisfied with her day of shopping. She wasn’t fond of wasting money, she felt guilty for spending Patrick’s money and she doesn’t have a job of her own.

“You go first. I’m exhausted.”  Tavia whined. Selena rolled her eyes.

“You weren’t like this before.”  Selena said, before stalking off.

Tavia thought, was I as a mad shopper as Selena was? Tavia winced at the thought of this. I must be super broke!

As Selena entered a store a few stores down from where Tavia was sitting, a Swarovski jewelry store caught Tavia’s eye. She walked over to the store, bent down and peeked through the glass. There was sparkling jewelry of all sorts, and a heart locket with Swarovski crystals caught her eye. It was beautiful, yet extremely expensive.

“Why can’t you understand that I don’t love you anymore? Please, would you just leave me alone?” 

A voice echoed through a crowd of people.  Tavia turned around as she heard this and saw that more people gathered around the crowd.

Curious, Tavia walked over to the crowd and tiptoed to get a view of what the crowd was looking at. She saw Raymond, who had tears streaming down his face. Tavia gasped, and then she saw a beautiful girl standing beside him. She looked extremely irritated, but she was calm.

“You cheated on me! Why did you treat me like this? Is there a reason behind this? You knew that I loved you with all my heart…How could you…”   Raymond broke down even more, his hands covering his face.

            The girl looked at him with sympathy and pain, but as he glanced up, her face expression changes and hardens once again. He looks her, wipes the tears with the back of his hand and with fire in his eyes, he stalks off.

            Tavia wanted to call after him, but she knew that it wasn’t a good time. Instead, she followed him down the escalator, afraid that he was going to do something silly.

            Raymond was extremely upset, his vision was blurred and he felt like throwing things. He didn’t feel like going home yet, or seeing any of his friends, he just wanted to be alone but he didn’t know where to go. As he walked out of the mall, he felt that someone was following him. He speed-walked and turned the corner and hid. A few moments later he jumped out and bumped right into Tavia.

“OW!”  Tavia and Raymond both cried out at the same time.

They glanced at one another and slowly, Raymond broke into a smile. Tavia returned the smile, and soon they both broke into a burst of giggles. A few minutes later, Raymond’s face turned dark and serious again. He turned around and walked away. Tavia followed behind, but then he stopped short and turned around again.

“Don’t follow me.” He growled.  Surprised, Tavia stepped back and knocked into the bus stop pole.

“OUCH!” she yelled again, this time rubbing her head.

Hearing this, Raymond rushes over to her, takes a hold of her head and inspects for any bruises or blood. Tavia froze in place, unsure of how to react. Raymond notices her stiffness, and then let go of her head. “You’re fine.” He mumbled, walking off again.

“But are you fine?” Tavia whispered.

Raymond heard this, but he continued to walk.

An hour later he reached the Hong Kong ocean, and leaned against the railing, admiring the scenery. A moment later he saw Tavia run towards him, a panicked look on her face.

“You know, I’m not going to commit suicide if that’s what you’re thinking.” He jokes.

“I knew that.” She said, her face softening. She held out her hand in which she was holding onto a bag.

“Here, take it” 

Suspiciously, Raymond took the bag and peeked inside. There were about 10 small cups of green tea ice cream.

“Ice cream? Really? These things don’t work on me.” He chuckled.

Tavia’s face formed into a frown. “You don’t like ice cream?”

“I do…It just doesn’t change my mood.”  Raymond says, sighing.

“Well…It’s not the food that’ll cheer you up; it’s the friend that accompanies you while you eat it!” Tavia joked. “Come on, let’s gobble it up!”

“Until we throw up?” Raymond joked.

Tavia laughed. They spent the next hour or so quietly eating ice cream and admiring the scenery. The night sky looked so mesmerizing with the bright colorful building lights and countless shining stars. They both stared at the night sky, completely lost in the beauty of it.

Tavia’s gaze suddenly broke away and she reached into her jeans pocket. “Oh my god!” Raymond stole a glance at her side to see her face widen in shock.

“What time is it?”

“10pm. You’re in a hurry to go somewhere?”

“No…It’s just that I was shopping with Selena before..and I totally forgot about her! And my cellphone doesn’t have any more battery! Selena and Patrick must be worried sick about me!” Tavia’s face turned pale. “Do you have your cell?”

Raymond shook his head. He had left it at home this morning. Tavia started to run away.

“Wait up! I’ll walk you home. It’s not safe for you to walk home alone so late.”  Raymond says, running after her.

Ten minutes later, they continued to walk in silence. “I don’t see why we didn’t take the bus.” Tavia says. From their walk from the ocean back to her apartment takes at least twenty minutes.

Raymond rummaged his hair with his left hand. “Isn’t it nice to have some exercise once in a while?”

“Yeah, just not today.” Tavia sighed.

“Don’t worry, you’re a grown woman. They’ll understand.”

“For the past week, everywhere I go I have to ask Patrick or at least inform him where I’m going and what time I need to come home. And he has to know who I’m with – basically I have to be with someone that he knows and trust – which is him or Selena.”

“He just really cares about you.”

“I know.” Tavia says, smiling. “I just wish they would trust me…I can’t even go to the convenience store around the corner alone.”

“He will, just give him time.”

Tavia nodded. She glanced at Raymond, glad to have an understanding friend to confront. She could see the sorrow in his eyes, that despite dealing with his own problems, he was listening and advising her.

Raymond noticed her stare and smiled. “You saw and heard everything at the mall today?”

Tavia nodded timidly.

“That girl Linda, she was my girlfriend. We dated for three years, and I really love her…At least I did. Recently, she broke up with me and told me she didn’t love me anymore. Then I saw her with another guy. I really thought she cheated on me. But today, I bumped into her at the mall. I saw her and I wanted to ask her why, what exactly went wrong in our relationship. But then someone bumped into her and her wallet fell out. It fell open on the ground, and there staring at us was a picture of us. Tell me….If she doesn’t love me anymore, why does she still have a picture of us in her wallet?”

Raymond paused, watching Tavia’s reaction. Tavia gasped.

“I mean…She obviously see’s it every day…Wouldn’t she replace it with her current boyfriend? Or is there a reason to why she broke it off with me? Maybe the guy was threatening her?”

“Maybe they aren’t dating. Maybe this is all just a misunderstanding.” Tavia said.

“I don’t know…” Raymond sighs, frustrated. “I just need time to talk it out with her – but it’s like she doesn’t even want to talk. She doesn’t even want me in her life at all.”

Tavia watched Raymond as his eyes began to turn red again. She didn’t know what to say to comfort him. She didn’t feel sympathy for him, but she felt pain.

They stopped when they reached Tavia’s apartment. Raymond turned to face her.

“Thanks for staying with me the whole day. It was nice to have a friend when you need one.”

“Anytime.”

They exchanged smiles, and then waved goodbye. As Raymond walked off, Tavia watched him leave. He suddenly turns around and says, “Oh yeah I almost forgot. I still need to treat you for dinner for saving my life…2 years ago.”

Tavia giggles. “Of course.”

“When are you free?”

“Whenever. Just make sure I’ll be home by 8pm.”

Raymond chuckles, “I’ll call you then.”

They once again waved goodbye and Tavia felt light and happy, a feeling she hasn’t experienced ever since she had awoken.