LOVING EZEKIEL

CHAPTER ONE

If life throws you lemons, throw them back at them.

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The vast sea is the witness of all forms of water visits—for fun, for tourism experience, for local’s break, and for foreigner’s memoir entries. With different people coming for a swim for different reasons, throwing a party is not an uncommon occurrence by the seaside.

Gruffind City is prominently known as a good place to spend leisure hours with. And to live up with its fame that reached even the ears of the those in the high society, they host the best parties, provides the best accommodations, and only hire the best employees to serve whoever desires to stay within the area.

“Why do they have to build the resort near my clinic?” as Georgia stared at her left window, looking boredly at the bright, moving lights that accompanies the loud, banging music coming from the nearby resort, she could not help but feel annoyed by how the party is countering the peace reigning inside her clinic that is currently housing four patients—two kittens, a full-grown dog, and a chinchilla, who are all bothered by the loud noises.

Ah, right. The resort’s here since the 1990’s so it came first to my clinic. Sighing, she went from resting her chin on her palm into sliding down until she folded her arms and rested her left cheek on her arm. “Rich people just don’t know what to do with their money, don’t they?” muttering to herself, she got lost in her own thoughts while her honey-brown eyes are blankly staring at the lively party outside her safe space.

Georgia Allison Rose is a woman of virtue and is raised with morals and principles. For someone who believed that using money to do extravagant things on almost every occasion is a waste of time and energy, the very party that is being hosted just a few walks away from her clinic is more than enough to trigger all her beliefs that partly rooted from how she was raised.

“Loud music is annoying. Bright lights are annoying. People are annoying. Money is annoying.” Muttering her frustrations to herself, her eyes then focused on her faint reflection on the window—her messy raven black hair that was once in a bun, but was ruined over spending her day that she didn’t even comb nor touched it, her purple turtle neck underneath her white, vet coat, and her reading glasses, are all enough to show how tired she is for the day.

“Annoying! Annoying! Annoying!” with Finn’s loud, flapping wings and repetitive words, Georgia turned to look at her 8 weeks parrot.

“Annoying! Annoying!” hearing that for the fifth time, she slightly chuckled before tilting her upper body to face her parrot that’s resting on a metal bar with butterflies on its handles—a swing she made just by her table by hanging it on the ceiling so Finn can bond with her if he’s not on cage.

“They’re so annoying, right Finn?” She laughed, since the only time that she’s comfortable saying her thoughts out loud is when she’s with Finn, when inside her clinic or when inside her home.

“Annoying! Annoying!” thinking that her pet is just fond of repeating her words because he feels the same, Georgia just laughed and admired him when suddenly, he spread his wings and flew on the slightly opened window on the other side of the clinic.

“Annoying! Annoying!”

“Finn!” with her eyes widening in pure shock, she rose form her seat and rushed towards the door, aiming to chase after her parrot who never tried leaving the clinic alone yet. Due to her panic, she accidently pushed the door that is supposed to be pulled if from the inside, causing for her to lose more seconds that she intended.

“Ugh!” groaning, she quickly composed herself and ran after her parrot. “Finn! Finn, stop!” because of the people’s chattering, the music from the party, the sound of the waves and the other sounds from the night kiosks that were set-up to let the people enjoy the evening sea, she tried to shout and earn her parrot’s attention.

The sea that is currently being disturbed by the night swimmers, shore campers, and bonfire enjoyers, is being illuminated by a wonderful crescent moon, appearing like a typical fairytale scene with the stars decorating the dark sky, all thanks to the lack of light pollution that is evident in huge cities.

Instead of enjoying the gift of being a citizen by the blessed sea, Georgia is struggling the run past through the people who are either in their swimming or night strolling outfits. As she squeezed herself in, she momentarily stopped when she found her parrot suddenly flying on the direction of the sea shore—on his way to the small cave where she found him wounded on his left wing.

“Finn, for crying out loud…!” cursing under her breath, she excused herself as she took a shortcut and jumped on the sand instead of using the five steps-stairs made of stones. There, she looked at her sneakers before heaving a deep breath, knowing that her and her lack of athletic capabilities will slow her down into running with inappropriate shoe wear.

Bracing herself to run once again, but this time, in the sand, she tucked a lose strand of her hair at the back of her ear before running like her life depends on it. “Finn!” and now that she is by the sea, people are looking at her curiously—after all, it is not every day that you will see a screaming lady dressed in a doctor’s wear that is running around.

“Why is she running?”

“Do you think she’s crazy?”

As the murmurs of the people that are following her with curious eyes spread, the topic of their interest soon shifted into the man that is just a few meters away from the running woman—a man with blonde hair, dressed in a surfing outfit, and is carrying a blue and white surfboard with a white rose at the bottom part.

Unknown to them, the man they are talking about is none other than the most favored bachelor in the country—Ezekiel Finn Hendrix. As the epitome of wealthy, handsome, heir of the biggest incorporation in the city, his face is widely known in the high society, but is often hidden in the public eye due to his strict order of only showing his name and face if he gives them the permission to release articles about him.

“Who is he? He’s so beautiful.”

“I’ve never seen those eyes before…so hot.”

As they admired his unusual gray orbs that greatly resemble white, gasps them filled the air when Georgia suddenly bumped into the stranger who was not paying attention to his surroundings, and is just staring at the sea while he walked barefoot on the sand.

With Georgia losing her footing and eventually fell on the ground, and the man took a step back because he slightly stumbled due to her impact, they became the center of attraction to the nearby crowd who’s been confused about the two of them for two different reasons—one was being questioned about her sanity, and one was being questioned admiringly.

“Sorry. I was chasing after my parrot, Finn.” Georgia quickly apologized while rubbing the sand off her coat, then, she lifted her orbs that appears to be graced by honey, making her see a strikingly handsome man who’s looking down at her without saying anything, but have his hand held out to offer a help for her stand up.

Just as when she’s about to take his hand, her eyes took notice of the surfing board that he planted on the sand beside him so he could hold her. With that, her eyes widened and she felt her head being clouded by dizziness as the memories she wishes to be buried deep within her started to resurface.

For the man in front of her, he saw how her eyes widened, suddenly brimmed with tears, and saw how her body started to trembled in fear while staring at his surf board. “Miss?” when he spoke, she flinched and looked at him with her eyes expressing shock and pain. “Why are-” before he could even finish his question, she fell unconscious, earning gasps and murmurs once again.

Bending one knee, he leaned down and tried to shake her shoulders. “Miss? Miss!” with no response, he looked around in hopes of seeing anyone who will recognize the woman in front of her. But with only seeing whispering and curious crowds, he looked back on the woman, then he looked at the sea that seems to be inviting him.

Ruffling his hair, he then proceeds to gently carry the girl to bring her in a safer place. This woman. “Damn.” Sighing to himself, stood up and began walking back to the only place he can think of while in a foreign place—his hotel room.

While walking away from the scene, he looked down at the woman he is carrying. She has dark locks that appears to be a veil of the night, her skin is unusually lighter than the other locals, a delicate body that seems to break if he were to hold her with more strength, and her orbs captivated him due to the fear that enveloped her soft, brown eyes. What is she so afraid of?

As he pondered about the connection between her reaction and his surfboard, another thought crossed his mind. “Sorry. I was chasing after my parrot, Finn.” Remembering the apology that she offered him, a smile crept in his lips.

Finn’s her parrot? Thinking about it, he chuckled as he walked back to the hotel. “To think that someone named their parrot with the same name as me. What a weird coincidence.”

***

“Georgia…she won’t be coming back anymore.”

Waking up from her nightmarish memories, Georgia sprung up the bed, panting and holding on to her head because of the headache that occurred to her the moment she opened her eyes. “Not again.” Muttering to herself, she took deep breaths in hopes of calming her racing heart down.

“Please, not again.” Fear enveloped her heart, and the pain that she wanted to be sealed within her exploded and caused her heart and mind throb.

While she is doing her best to not get overwhelmed by the emotions she wanted to be gone, she slowly roamed her eyes. The white ceiling, soft mattress and blanket, warm colored lights, sky blue curtains that are tied on both sides to showcase the beautiful ocean outside, and the entire interior and furniture are all unfamiliar to her.

“Where am I?” whispering to herself, she sat up properly and heaved a deep breath before lowering her gaze. There, in her periphery, she saw a sticky note placed in the alarm clock beside her. Curiously, she took the note off, revealing the digital lock that showed 8: 44 am in its screen.

Hello, miss. I know this is a shock to you to wake up in a hotel room, but please don’t panic.

You bumped into me and suddenly fainted. I don’t know your name or address, and no one from the people last night seemed to know you so I decided to bring you in my room so you can rest. I am not in the room now because I’m busy with business works (I also didn’t sleep in the bed, I slept in the couch so rest assured).

You said you were looking for your pet parrot, right? I’ll feel bad if you can’t find him because you fainted after bumping to me, so I looked for him and found him (he’s with me now and he’s testing my patience). To take him back, let us meet in the Walter’s Steakhouse at 7 in the evening.

-Ezekiel

Ps: I want to meet you in person again because we met in an odd way.



“Ezekiel?” The name sounds rich. Muttering the name in question, she looked around the hotel room once again. Yes. This man is definitely rich. Then, her eyes looked back at the note with the words written neatly and well. “He seems nice.”