Chapter 20: Greg's POV

We left the hospital past 9 p.m., Miss Wyatt's father had just gone back to sleep, after another visit from the doctor. Miss Wyatt looked exhausted, and I had a hard time convincing her to drive her home. But she ended up agreeing. We first went to a fast food restaurant to eat something as promised.

"I never would have guessed that you were the type to like fast foods." she said once we had settled inside.

"Why? I'm human." she laughed at my response.

"No but seriously I thought rich people didn't go to fast food."

"To tell you the truth, I rarely go there. But when I was a teenager, my father used to take me and Gina to play tennis and right after we will go to a fast food restaurant to eat." I rarely talked about my father, but today after seeing Miss Wyatt with hers, it made me think a lot about mine. It was nearly a year since he died and it still hurt because since his death our family had deteriorated.

"Gina told me about him, he must have been a good father."

"He was, even though he was often busy with business he always made time for us. But he was closer to Gina than to me. She was very devastated after his death."

"I understand her, I would die too if my father were to die." I noticed that a few tears had formed in his eyes. She looked away so I couldn't see it. At that time they brought our order.

"You must have been scared when your friend called you." speaking of which, I had the impression that there had been something else between them. I was surprised of how I had become jealous when I saw her smile at him or when he stared at her without her realizing it. I'm sure he too hadn't been happy to see me there all the time.

"I was going frantic since the day before, dad usually call me every Saturday but he hadn't called me that day, I had been telling Flo that something had happened to him. " she took a bite of her double cheeseburger.

"What matters now is that he's okay." I reassured her.

"It's the results of tomorrow that will tell us."

"Your father is tough, I'm sure whatever happens he'll be fine."

"The problem with him is that he can be stubborn at times."

"Just goes to show, the apple does not far from the tree fall." she frowned with a smirk she was struggling to hide.

"What?? you mean I'm stubborn?"

"It's you who said it." I laughed and made laugh her too.

"No, that's what you were implying" I noticed that she only had crumbs on the corner of her mouth. I reached out to wipe her and she stopped laughing and I don't know why but I licked the finger that had just wiped her. She put on a surprised face for a second then suppressed it, and we continued to eat as if nothing had happened.

I liked the staring game that had been installed between us, I had the impression that it said a lot. And while we were discussing i realized that when I was with her, I wasn't the same person anymore. I laughed more, and made jokes, but above all I felt soothed. I remembered the words my psychotherapist told me a few months ago, after I took over the business. She told me that in the midst of all the stress that work brought me, I had to find something that soothe me. Could it be that Miss Wyatt was that "thing"?

***

We finished eating and asked for the bill. I took out my wallet to pay. But she held me back wanting to pay herself.

"After all you've done, it's the least I can do." I was surprised by her suggestion. This is the first time a woman has offered to pay the bill for me. I hesitated a bit.

"Please sir, I know it's not much but this may be the only chance I'll have to thank you." she insisted

"You've already thanked me and that's more than enough."

"But I insist." she begged me with her look.

"Okay, but only if you stop calling me Sir and start calling me Greg. Can you imagine if your father comes to hear that?" she smiled and pulled out a wallet that was in her jacket pocket.

"Okey Greg!" she repeated, taking money out of her wallet. "But no more Miss Wyatt either."

"And what should I call you? Baby?" I teased her by referring to what her father had called her earlier.

She burst out laughing covering her face as we got up to leave.

"He never misses one to embarrass me in front of people."

"Unless you prefer Meggie." we arrived at the car and I opened the passenger seat.

"Oh no please Meghan will be enough or just Meg ." then she get in and I walked around the car to get in.

We drove in silence while she showed me the way to take until we arrived at her house. It was a quiet neighborhood, unless it was because it was 10 p.m. I got out of the car and took her suitcase from the car boot. The lights in her house were on. She walked towards the door and twisted the doorknob. It opened easily and we entered. Inside there was a tiny bit of mess.

"Thank you for taking me home, sorry for the mess." She walked into the house doing some inspection, she realized that towards the dining table there was a broken glass.

"I would gladly offer to buy you some coffee, but I'm not sure there's any." she had entered a room which I imagined to be the kitchen. I stayed in the living room looking at the photos.

"On the other hand there is some tea if ever you are interested." she came back with a broom to pick up the broken glass. She was going to clean it. But I stopped her.

"You must be tired, what if you go take a shower, and let me do this?" I took the broom from his hands.

"You're kidding me, you want me to believe you know how to use a broom." she asked me mockingly

"Of course, I was a boyscout."

"Ah yes of course Sir was a boyscout." she let me took it. And I put it on the side, then picked up her suitcase.

"Just tell me where to put this, and I'll stick to it right now."

"You know I can take that right?"

"I know, but you've let me take care of you all day up to the point of letting me open the door for you, so please let me finish on a high. We're not going to ruin this now." She laughed and walked past me

"Alright, but don't get used to it so much, because it's not going to be this way all the time." She went up the few stairs and I followed her, then we arrived in a small corridor, there were three doors, she opened one and entered. It was a small room painted in yellow. There were some wallpapers and lots of photos too. In the middle there was a small bed, and in the corner there was a big black and white teddy bear.

"I'm warning you, this room hasn't changed in appearance since I was 12." she said to me, noticing that I was inspecting the room very carefully.

"Oh but I think this room is very good." I smile at him.

"Unless you're a twelve-year-old girl who doesn't care what her room looks like. Flo put everything you see there." She showed me the wallpapers.

"So your friendship goes back that long." she nodded.

"Okay, I'm going to leave you take your shower." I left her in the bedroom and went down the stairs. I picked up the broom and took care of removing all the pieces of glass on the floor. Then I put a few things in place here and there. I put back the books that were piled up on the living room table and put them away in the cupboard that contained other books.

If someone had told me this morning that the same evening I would be in the depths of Idaho tidying up in the childhood home of the girl who has been making my brain spin for some time, I would not have believed it. And yet here I am, Greg Davis, tidying up.

"Who are you and what have you done with the Greg Davis I know." Max's words came back to me, and I smiled. I have to admit that I didn't recognize myself too.