After they had their dinner, Lea parted ways with Ellie as she took a grab to go home. As for herself, she has to drive alone from Quezon City to Alabang and join the long train of traffic along EDSA.
But all these are fine, her body even forgot the feeling of her exhaustion after she had eaten dinner. She really did have a good time spending it with her TVP artist.
She recalled all the things she found out from her protege. At first she couldn't believe that Ellie is actually a scriptwriter that works for a Korean TV channel. Though she's staying here full time in their country, she has her works submitted through her agent who represents her from there. She also gets to know that El just came off from a broken relationship about a year ago.
Lea could somehow see a part of herself on the young woman as there are some similarities between them. They are both homebodies and are an avid gamer. Ellie also seems to be a jack-of-all-trades. Aside from her talent in singing, she could play different woodwind and string instruments. She also knew how to dance as she joined on a dancing troupe way back her college years. El's opinions and perspectives on things are quite on a different level. She might be just a woman on her twenties but her maturity level is that of a forty year old.
All these makes Lea feel fascinated towards this young woman. She felt the urge of wanting to know and spend time with her as she is a good company. She thought that this lady belongs to the world her true self exists privy to the public's eye.
-----
It took her almost forty five minutes to reach her place in a condominium tower in Quezon City. Upon entering the door, Ellie saw her Aunt Faye sitting on the couch watching a show on Netflix.
Since she was brought up by her Grandma as a kid, she doesn't call her mother's siblings as aunt or uncle, but rather as ate or kuya. (sister or brother) She's also closest with her aunt as she's the youngest among her Grandma's children and is only four years older than her. So their age difference isn't that much apart. They grew up together becoming playmates with each other as well.
Now that they've grown older, they got lesser time to see each other since they're no longer living in the same house and they took different career paths. As she pursued her own interests, her aunt Faye engaged herself in the corporate world graduating as a statistician while acting as a road manager to a local band during her work offs.
"Hey ate."
Her aunt then looked up to her then paused the movie she's watching.
"Oh, you're here na. Where have you been ?"
"Ahh. From the studio, there was something that needs to be done. Have you eaten yet?"
"I'm done. Why didn't you tell us? Nanay is disappointed you haven't said a thing to her." (Mom)
"I haven't really expected that I'll go far with the competition what's why I haven't told anyone about it. I'll just call her tomorrow to apologize."
"Okay good. I just dropped by to see how you and your place are doing. I've checked your fridge, be sure to stock up some food, your supplies are depleting." Her aunt then stood up grabbed her bag and walked towards the door attempting to leave.
"Aren't you gonna stay for the night ate?"
"No. I have somewhere else to go. I just happened to pass by the area. Be sure to call Nanay tomorrow okay. Don't forget."
And with that, Ellie once again was left alone on her own pad. She put down her phone and have it connected to a power charger while she went to her bedroom to get some fresh clothes and have her shower.
-----
Upon arriving home, Lea was welcomed by her daughter Nicole and her loving husband Rob. They just finished eating their own dinner when Lea entered their living room. Nicole then kissed her mom goodnight as she's about to retire to her own room.
As for Rob, he motioned for Lea to sit beside him on their couch, puts his arm around her and asked how her day went.
It was evident on his wife's face how happy she is, making it obvious that something good had happened when she went out.
"Well, I had a good dinner with someone from my artists pool. Hmm.. What else? Oh!! I just had verified with Ger how good one of my artists is! He totally agrees that she could be my winning bet for the finals."
"Why, isn't that nice? There are only few times when you're being this excited for an artist you have. I could totally expect that she's real talented."
"Precisely. I just have a good hunch about her. I'll introduce her to you and Nix next time. She seems to be interesting."
"I'm sure you'll do. Why don't you take your shower first. I know the long drive tired you so. I just have to check some work first."
She followed her spouse's suggestion then took off upstairs to their bedroom. After refreshing herself and brushing her teeth, Lea then grabbed her phone which she placed on her nightstand to message somebody.
Originally, she wanted to check if Ellie was able to get home safely, but she doesn't have her personal contact number. Call times and updates are actually being cascaded to the artists and to the coaches by the show's staff members which are assigned to them as their team's custodian.
And so, she messaged staff member Joy and asked her for the list of her artists' contact details. She did this in order for her not to get too obvious that she only wanted Ellie's number. After successfully getting it, Lea's thoughts are torn between either calling her directly or just texting her instead.
She looked at the time, it was almost nine in the evening. "She might already be sleeping." She thought. She just typed a brief text message and sent it away.
Hey, this is Coach Lea. Were you able to get home safely?