18 A drunk Caroline - 1

Around seven in the evening, Caroline heard a light knock on her chamber door, and from the glass panel, she could see that it was Dr. Van.

"Come on in, doctor," she beamed, and as he came inside, Caroline closed the flap of her laptop.

"Ready?" he asked, his eyes gliding towards her laptop. He had already discarded the traces of work from him. No scrubs or stethoscope. Even his jacket was hanging on his arms while his formal shirt was neatly folded to his elbows. 

"Always ready for a glass of beer!" With a cheery smile, she picked up her bag from the cupboard and followed him out.

Their nurses and staff had already reached the restaurant, which was exactly opposite City Sun's motel. Caroline glanced at the neon sign of the hotel, flickering atop the awning, and took a deep breath.

"Morpheous didn't come?"  Elora questioned as soon as they arrived. And seeing how she was craning her neck to look behind her, Caroline could easily guess that she had eagerly awaited for Morpheous to come.

"He left early today," Caroline replied with a curt smile, taking her seat next to Dr. Van.

"Oh, I see," Elora replied, her shoulders visibly dropping.

"What happened, Elora? You seem disappointed," asked Caroline, taking a dig at her. Her jealousy had kicked in unceremoniously.

"Erm… No. Since he was new, I thought it would have been nice if he knew that we are fun to work with."

She couldn't understand if that was an indirect jibe at her or just her way of speaking. She remembered how that female was leaning onto Morpheous with a coquettish expression on her face that morning, and she instantly opened her mouth to say something terse, but Dr. Van interrupted her.

"A long island for this lady," and raising his hands, he pointed at Caroline.

"Are you planning to knock me off, doctor?" Caroline narrowed her eyes as she turned toward Dr. Van.

"Yeah, for the greater good!" and with his one line, he dissolved all the awkwardness around. The inflow of beer with fried chicken added up and lightened everyone's mood.

After a fun-filled banter for over an hour, her cocktail started kicking in, and Caroline started feeling a bit light-headed. Grabbing a fried chicken leg and pointing it towards Dr. Van, she asked, "From where on earth do you get the courage to fight with the board, and .... and why, I always keep acting like a lamb around them?"

"Well, can't you be just happy that you got an assistant, Carol? I am not sharing my mojo."

"Happy? That would be an understatement. I am ecstatic about that. Can't you see my ear-to-ear grin?" She offered him a wide smile. "Now tell me, what's your secret?"

"Someone seems to be in a good spirit now," Dr. Van eyed her as he took a bite of fish fingers.

"Oh, hush now! Just tell me already." She turned towards him, lifting her right leg and placing it under her left thigh, "Why does everyone have to be so secretive around me? So mysterious. Do you know how hard it is to read people who just won't open up?" She leaned closer to Dr. Van and, looking into his eyes, parted her mouth, "Why?"

Dr. Van raised his eyebrows, gesturing for Erica to replace her cocktail with plain water.

Fishing his silence, Caroline let out a deep sigh, placed the chicken back on her plate, and grabbed the pitcher of beer. She filled an empty glass and took a deep swig.

"Caroline!"

She heard Dr. Van gasp, but she put that into a pile of ignoring.

In her head, she kept on replaying every conversation with Morpheous. The more she did, the more she got annoyed. 'How could he be so calm all the time? Why wouldn't he defend himself when she shouted?' At least, that would have lessened the pile of guilt that she had.

She was never good at drinking, and neither was she fond of it. But today, it seemed like she was making a desperate attempt to clean the slate of her mind. But no matter how much ever she drank, she couldn't numb her anger for Morpheous.

Maybe it wasn't anger. Maybe it was just guilt or a combination of both. Not that she knew which or what.

"Eat something, Carol. You cannot drink so much with an empty stomach." Erica's voice was concerned, but Caroline abruptly got up from her seat instead of replying to her.

"Where are you going, Carol?" Dr. Van got up as well.

"You know what, you guys enjoy. Anyway, I am no fun to be around, right!"

And no one dared to speak.

"Come, Caroline, I will drop you at home," Dr. Van said and picked up her bag before giving his credit card to Erica.

"No, you see, this is exactly what I don't want. You didn't even touch the beer because you had the obligation of dropping me home safe. But you know what, I don't want to be an obligation."

Everyone around her tried hard to suppress their laugh, for this was probably the hundredth time they were hearing the same 'obligation' speech from a drunk Caroline.

"I don't want to be the grinchy boss."

"You are not!" And supporting her waist in one hand and holding her bag in the other, Dr. Van struggled to steer her out toward his car.

"I need my house keys. Grandpa has gone fishing. So get me the keys!" she almost yelled.

"They are in your bag, Carol. Now get in!"

"Let me check first," and she started fumbling with the contents of her bag for a second. But the dizziness started to overpower her.

"Why are you moving so much Dr. Van?"

"What!"

"Uggghhh!" she groaned and kicking her shoes off on the pavement she flopped into the backseat of the car.

Closing her eyes, she mumbled, "Do you know how much my ankles hurt?"

Picking up her shoes he silently got in the car and held her legs in his lap. His hands slowly removed her socks, and he rubbed her bruised ankles tenderly with his fingers.

"Mmm…" she mumbled feeling relieved.

He lowered the window shield so that she could breathe the fresh air. That actually helped. Inhaling the fresh breeze, she blabbered,

"Dr. Van… How… How are you driving from the back seat?"