LOVE BUG

CHAPTER 43: CONTRAST

She is watching the busy scene with big eyes like an outsider, yet she isn't. She has work to do, and she doesn't need to bring herself into more trouble. So even if it is pulling on all her being, she lets the phone slip from her finger back in her bag, and she finally finds her key in the middle of the disorder there.

However, contrary to the small rectangle of metal that quickly gets placed in its right place, in the lock, she is getting lost farther the second she opens her locker, and a white square catches her gaze. 

Her thoughts and her heart are once again picking up their pace in front of a plain item, which hasn't been there yesterday. There might have happened a lot since her last shift, but she is sure of this, and it makes the folded piece of paper even more mysterious.

It could be from anyone and about anything; that's why her fingers are instantly jumping on it to find an answer, and after a glance around to make sure that everyone is still busy with their things, and not hers, it's her heart that leaps.

'Meet me this morning in room 768

N.'

She has never seen his handwriting, yet she knows it's him, and the only question left is: what does she do now?

Five minutes later, she still has no answer, but she is walking down the hallway, her hand gripping tightly her housekeeping cart and a pronounced frown etching on her features.

The silence around is a deafening contrast with the locker room she has just left. Though the turmoil inside is even louder with a mix of her thumping heartbeats and her screaming doubts, and even her skin is buzzing against the familiar cotton of her white uniform as the room numbers she passes by are growing.

With each door she glimpses, everything intensifies.

760. What if it isn't him? Does she know another N? And what if it's a trap? Cold sweat is adding up and pearling along her skin with each what-if. But she tries to reason with always the same answer: if someone knew, she wouldn't be here right now.

762. What if someone sees her now? Her frown deepens to take in frantically her surroundings, yet except for her quiet steps and the cart rolling on the floor, there is not a move or a sound around.

764. Why does Nathaniel want to see her? Has he found a solution? Could there be any? Or has he changed his mind? The bangs of her heart are threatening to engulf all the rest.

766. She should be working right now. This is against all her principles, and she is tightening her grip around the cart like not long ago she has been holding to a scale pendant and all her beliefs.

When she stops in front of the room 768, she realizes her mom is right. She is different. All the emotions boiling inside are different from what she has ever felt before. The itching on the tip of her fingers to just open the door and find Nathaniel behind is different, and she has changed because she lets it take over, grabbing the handle and discarding all the doubts.

Yet her impetus, her hope, and finally, her heart drop when she enters the room, and there are no strong arms or tender chocolate eyes to greet her, just the emptiness of what looks like a bathroom.

Her gaze slides on the row of washstands where she vaguely catches sight of her deep frown and tired features in the mirrors above, and she grips the note in her hand as if grasping she hasn't imagined it while she tries to find some sense in all of this.

Some benches and four lockers are standing near the sinks, but except for a few white towels, her gaze has glided all around the room without catching any clue about what she is doing here, at least until its journey ends on the stalls by her right, and a hand comes out of them, and she is the one caught, being pulled behind.