The Best Candidate

Chapter 8

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Third Person POV

"Are you anti gay?" Ella asked Tul, her face showing a mixture of anxiety and disappointment. "Because if you are, I'm leaving right here and now and I'm gonna try to make friends with that lovely co worker of yours over there."

Tul looked in the direction where Ella was pointing.

Ella was right. Sandra was indeed a very lovely person. At one time Tul had entertained the idea of asking her out to see if they could eventually be a couple. It turned out though that she was not into men. Then Ella came along, only for him to discover that she was not into men either. Which was really such a pity because they had so much in common and they would have gotten along so well. It wasn't too late though. They could still be good friends.

"Listen, Ella," Tul looked Ella squarely in the eye. "I am not anti gay, get that clearly into your brain, okay? We could be really good friends, best buddies. I believe I could get along better with you than with Max. It's true Max has been a close friend since that time that he had ran over to my house to borrow my jumper cables, but it had been more Max than myself who had made the effort for us to keep in touch. There's nothing wrong with Max. It's just, you and I have so much more in common with each other."

Ella studied Tul carefully while Tul was making his little speech.

"So how about it ... friends?" Tul asked, extending his hand to Ella.

"You're a precious gem," Ella said, giving Tul a hug instead of accepting his outstretched hand.

"Here let me discard this wasted platter of spicy chicken wings and fix us a new one," Tul said getting up and walking over to the trash bin at the other end of the covered area that his company had rented for the day.

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"I'm so stuffed," Ella complained after finishing up the last piece of barbecued pork from the stick that she had been holding.

She lay on the sand in a prone position.

"You look like a beached whale," Tul teased her.

Tul managed to dodge the empty bottle of beer that Ella threw at him.

"Tul! Come and join us!"

Tul heard his co workers calling.

They were playing a water balloon game. Some of his co workers had filled up several balloons with water and they were playing dodge ball with them.

"Go on, join them," Ella prompted Tul. "It looks so much fun. I'm just gonna lie here and watch you getting soaked with burst water balloons."

It was getting dark when Tul's group decided to call it a day. They all filed into the charter bus good and knackered but very happy and satisfied with how the beach party played out.

Ella slept most of the trip while Tul listened to music on his phone.

Tul and Ella had just settled into Tul's car and Tul was getting ready to bring Ella home when Ella's phone rang.

"It's Mook," Ella said. "I can tell from the ringtone that it's her."

Ella quickly pulled out her ringing phone from the front pocket of her mini backpack.

"Ella!" Mook cried without bothering to say hello or to ask how things were going with Ella's beach party. "I need you to come quickly and meet me at the hospital! Max slipped and had a bad fall in the driveway earlier and his forehead needed some stitches!"

"To which hospital did you bring him?" Ella asked.

"The Royal Medical Center downtown," Mook replied, her voice sounding like she was in tears. (A/N: the hospital name above was made up, author doesn't know if such name of a hospital exists.)

"Do you know where the Royal Medical Center is?" Ella asked Tul.

"Yes," Tul replied.

"Can you take me there instead of to my apartment?" Ella asked.

"Sure," Tul agreed. "You wanna tell me what happened?"

"Mook had to take Max to that hospital because he fell in his driveway and suffered a big gash on the side of his forehead and it required several stitches," Ella explained quickly.

"Let's go," Tul said, making his car go to the highest legal speed on the busy streets of Bangkok that led to the Royal Medical Center.