Hi everyone,
This chapter is sort of like a filler chapter. It's not too fun but I do feel like it's a bit necessary. I hope you enjoy nonetheless. :)
This chapter hasn't been edited!
***
"What is your relationship with the Yates?" I asked my father as we ate our dinner?
"The Yates?" my father asked. "What about them?"
"What's your relationship with them?" I repeated.
"I used to be very close friends with Bradley Yates," he said as he set his spoon down. "It's a shame they left so early."
Bradley Yates sounded so familiar but also unfamiliar at the same time.
"Bradley Yates?"
"He used to be the previous president of the Yates Hospital. He passed away in an unfortunate accident with his wife. They left behind their young son," he frowned. "Poor River was left alone in this world with his crazy relatives all alone. That boy deserves so much better than them."
So Bradley Yates was River's father. The parents he was desperately trying to not let down were gone. Somehow, that made me feel very sad for him.
"Do you do business with them?" I asked.
My father turned to me, surprised, "I didn't know you were interested in business. You're always disappearing as soon as the b of business in mentioned," he laughed.
"I'm not interested in business," I rolled my eyes, "I'm interested in your involvement with the Yates."
"Oh, is that so? And why is that?"
I shrugged, not having an answer.
"I own some stock at the Yates Hospital so that makes me a board member. Which means that I'll occasionally have to attend some meetings but that aside, I have no involvement. My ties with that family was completely cut off after Bradley and Jasmine passed."
"What about River?" I found myself asking. I don't know why I had the need to ask that but before I could even stop myself the words just slipped.
"You know I don't like talking business at the dinner table," my mother said, ending the conversation before my father could even answer. I was annoyed at not receiving an answer but I also didn't press on because my mother's wrath was not something I could be bothered with.
***
I read through the list of things I needed to get done as I leaned against the receptionists' desk at the hospital.
The sudden sighs of the nurses caught me off guard so I turned to them and noticed they were lovingly staring at someone. Following their line of sight, my eyes landed on none other than River Yates. He was stitching up some kid's hand and the child bawled his eyes out.
I turned my attention back to the nurses.
"I have never seen you guys behave that way towards anyone before," I noted, a little confused by the River love.
They didn't say anything. Instead they continued watching him until they found something better to do. I turned to Barbara and asked her why they liked him so much.
She smiled, "He's unimaginably kind. He's probably the nurses' favourite doctor around here."
"Doctor Nicholas is really nice to them too but I have never seen them behave like that towards him before."
"Nick is perfect. There is not a single point that anyone can nitpick. However, that perfection of his makes it hard for anyone to relate. The nurses often joke that he's from some sort of evil cult because despite seeming perfect he also seems so insincere," she said before turning to me with raised eyebrows, "did you just call him by his name?"
I assumed she was talking about Doctor Nicholas, "Considering there are so many Doctor Yates in this hospital, I just assumed it would make more sense to call them by their first name. It's confusing when they're all called the same thing."
She smiled at me," No, no, what I meant is that you called Doctor Nick by his name. You usually have strange nicknames for him so it's quite surprising."
I shrugged, ignoring her statement, "Well I'm off to my duty now," I pointed to my to-do list, "I'll see you."
As I completed my volunteering duties, I went over Barbara's words. I had always been so blinded by love for Nicholas Yates that I had never actually realised that he really was eerily perfect. There really was nothing to put down when it came to Nicholas Yates but that was also what made him so scary. Who really was Nicholas Yates? Was he really as perfect as he made himself seem or was it all really an act. For me, my standards for him were unbelievably high so when I got a real glimpse of his true self the previous night, I felt disappointed. But from the normal person's point of view, was his ill-mannered personality what made him seem more relatable to them? Was I simply overreacting because of my high standards? The questions just continued to infiltrate my mind without giving me a break to gather all my feelings together.
"If you continue to glare at the babies like that, your job here is going to end faster than you can even blink."
I turned to the owner of the voice with an over exaggerated eye roll.
"I would have been surprised if you hadn't popped up and said something super annoying to me today."
He chuckled, "And I would have been surprised if you hadn't said something snarky in return."
I bit back my smile, "Don't you have people to save?"
"Dinner break," was his reply.
I checked the time and realised it was time for me to go home.
"I'll treat you."
He halted in his step and turned to me, a very surprised look on him face. He took a step closer to me and placed his hand on my forehead.
"Are you feeling unwell?" he asked, still looking surprised. "You don't seem to have a fever."
I scoffed, "If you don't want it then just say so," I rolled my eyes, as I walked away towards the cafeteria.
He caught up and grinned, "Who wouldn't want free food?"
Our short walk to the cafeteria was silent but I could feel his burning stare at the back of my head.
We took our seats and River still continued to stare at me.
"They say that a way to a man's heart is through his stomach," I sighed, "but I never understood the truth behind those words until now."
River laughed out loud. As much as I hated to admit it, it was a beautiful sight to see. His cheeks flushed slightly red and his laugh floated through the air like a soft melody. I desperately wanted it to never end but all good things must come to an end.
"I'm pretty sure that only stands for when the woman cooks for the man with her own hands," he chuckled.
"Do you want me to cook for you?" I asked, my eyebrows raised.
"Do you know how to cook?" he asked, his head tilted.
I didn't in all honesty. Well I was good at following recipes but I had no creativity when it came to cooking from my own imagination. Depending on what colour the final product of the food was from my memory, I would just add ingredients of that colour until I got to a point where I thought I was close enough to what the food should have looked like. I took me a while to figure out that in most cases it was the spices that gave colour and flavour to food.
I wasn't going to tell him that though. "Just order whatever you like," I said as I passed him three different menus from three of the different food stores in the cafeteria.
After the food we had ordered came, we sat in a comfortable silence as we both ate our food.
"What exactly is this about?" he had asked as I nibbled at my pizza.
I looked up from my food to see he was watching me with an expressionless but somehow warm look.
"What do you mean?"
"This all just seems odd to me," he said as he pointed from him to me before waving at our surroundings.
"I just wanted to treat you," I said with a shrug. To be quite honest, I also didn't know why I was acting this way.
"Why? We don't really have any type of relationship with one another."
True.
He continued to stare at me, waiting for an answer. I sighed and sat up straight.
"I want to change that."
"Change what?"
"Our non-existent relationship."
His eyes narrowed, "Meaning?"
"I know you said you want nothing to do with me but lately you have been the one to initiate contact with me..." I trailed off.
He didn't say anything. He just continued to stare at me.
"Let's be friends," I said with a sigh as I leaned forward on the table. "I think we can be great friends."