Way Back Into Love

Chapter 15

When the two arrived at the house, unharmed. Estelle wanted to get herself out of the car on her own but because Luke was determined to win over Estelle's trust, got out first and open the door for the lady which made Estelle shocked at the doctor's sudden action. But she still thanked him and Luke only replied with a smile. "I'll go and retire for the night doc-" Estelle suddenly remembered what Luke told her on their way home.

"You have to call me Luke and not doctor, please," Luke pleaded Estelle with his puppy eyes which Estelle thought was strange for someone older than her.

"Why?" Estelle asked, very curious at what the doctor is about to reason this time. "Because I told you that it makes me feel old...and I don't want to be called as an old man because I'm young and still sexy," he whined and Estelle just sighed at the doctor's nonsense but she eventually gave in, "all right...Luke," it felt strange, Luke's name coming out from Estelle's mouth but it made the doctor happy and so they became quiet again and Luke just driver his way back into his house.

"...Luke," Estelle averted her gaze from the man so that he could not see her blushing face. It was really weird for Estelle to call a man by his name, especially if that man is someone who has a title attached to his name.

Luke was beyond satisfied when he heard his name come out from Estelle's mouth and so, he smiled at the girl whose figure is slowly disappearing from his sight, "I think I'm one step closer," he said while smiling before going into his room and also retired for the night.

Morning came faster than expected, Estelle woke up from her sleep which she found strangely peaceful. Ever since that event occurred, Estelle rarely had a peaceful sleep. "Ah, it's morning already," the girl stretched her whole body and proceeded to arrange her bed before taking a bath.

Estelle almost finished her morning routine and all that's left is her breakfast. After changing herself with the clothes that Luke provided for her, she then went to the kitchen and was planning to cook breakfast for both of them, she wants to cook breakfast as a thank you gift for Luke for treating her to dinner last night.

"What should we cook?" she asked and then opened the fridge when she noticed that there was almost nothing but packed food inside of it, waiting for them to be re-heated or to be put in a microwave. "Just what does he eat?" she asked again and closed the fridge before releasing a breath of disappointment but her eyes caught something that was stuck unto the fridge, she grabbed the note and read it aloud, "I already prepared food for you. I know that you're disappointed that there's almost nothing in the fridge, well, I'll make it up to you when I come home, we'll go shopping together and I'm sorry if I wasn't able to eat breakfast with you together, its because I suddenly got a call from the hospital saying that it's urgent," Estelle found the note long for it to be called a note and it wasn't even finished yet, "Ps. I'll be back at 4 in the afternoon," after reading the note, Estelle found herself smiling because of the doctor's silly doings.

"I'm pretty certain that he just re-heated the food on the fridge," Estelle mumbled and went to the table. She then saw the table filled with different types of foods, but all of it was only processed food which Estelle hated. She wanted to leave it be but considering the effort that Luke poured into making this made Estelle guilty if she won't eat it. So she sat on the chair and ate the food that Luke prepared.

"My cooking tastes better than this," she complained but continued to munch the food that she shoved into her mouth."Maybe I should surprise him..." Estelle thought of how she should surprise Luke when an idea came into her mind, "I should surprise him with dinner then so that he can realize how appetizing my cooking is," she thought but she didn't stop there, she continued brainstorming ideas but eventually went with the first idea, to make Luke taste her cooking.

"Maybe I should go tell my boss," the girl remembered that she had work and that she missed many workdays and she's planning to go there and ask her boss if they could exempt her since many things had occurred in her life for the past few days. She also promised to herself that she'll attend work today so that she can earn money for herself since she cannot keep depending don't the doctor since she's sure that he also has someone to take care of, maybe not here but in another place.

Estelle then stood and washed her waste and cleaned her leftovers before changing into other casual clothes that are meant for her to wear when she goes for a stroll or outside and of course, it's also from Luke. That thought alone made Estelle's determination lit up like fire since she needs to pay back Luke for what he did for her. The man even treated her and brought her into his home when she was kicked out of her apartment.

Just when she finished changing she went outside with her sling bag hanging from her shoulder. Estelle was wearing a simple white sweatshirt paired with a skirt, she also wore white sneakers and if only someone would see her right now then one might say that she's very young and is enjoying life and also a girl filled with positive energy. This current Estelle was very different from Estelle back then. Before, she would always wear shabby clothes that people even mistook her as a single mother with many kids to feed when in reality, she only did it for herself even though Calyx persuaded her not to. "Let's go," she walked away from the house and went to her workplace.

When Estelle arrived at her workplace, she could feel the piercing gazes that she encountered. Almost all of the people inside her workplace were regular customers that she had served before and truth be told, no one was gentle to her, most of them would even bully her to the point where the manager would deduct her salary because of the 'mistakes' she committed even though she did nothing but did her job perfectly. When she reached the counter, she saw her colleague shooting daggers at her.

Lyra, her colleague would also encourage the customers into saying bad words to Estelle. She would do her best to make Estelle suffer in their workplace and the reason is that she wanted the customers to only praise her and kick Estelle out of the picture that she's about to capture. Even though most of the customers hate Estelle because of the false rumours that Lyra had told them, there are still regular customers who liked Estelle and hate Lyra. Estelle wasn't moved by what Lyra did to her because according to her, what Lyra did today was incomparable to what Minerva did to her when they were in high school.

"Look who showed up after many weeks of disappearance?" Lyra asked her with a mocking tone that just makes you want to pull the hair out of her. "It was only days," Estelle replied with her usual tone when talking to Lyra. She did not talk to her because she knew that it would only waste her time, so Estelle passed by her and proceeded into their manager's office.

Estelle knocked twice and a voice saying 'come in' was heard and without wasting any second, Estelle turned the knob and pushed the door open revealing a man in his early 50's doing some paperwork on his desk, making him unable to know who just came in. "Good morning, manager," Estelle called out and hearing the familiar voice, the manager then looked up and saw his employee who showed up after many days of absence.

"Estelle," he called out in his cold voice and looked down for him to focus on his paperwork. Estelle took a seat and apologized to the manager who is also the owner of the cafe where she works. "Manager, I'm really sorry for my absence...it's just that many things had happened to me for the past few days and I knew then and there that I should take a break from work," Estelle explained but only heard a sigh from her manager.

The manager then put his glasses down and looked Estelle in the eyes, to see whether she was lying or not. "What happened to you that made you leave work? As far as I know, you wouldn't even let a fever stop you from coming to work so tell me, what happened to you that made you stop working for almost a week?" the manager asked Estelle. He really wanted to know because he knew Estelle as the type of worker who would not let something hinder her work, no matter how serious it was but considering that the girl hadn't shown herself for the past few days, the manager's curiosity was brimming its way.

Estelle felt uncomfortable telling her manager the reason since it affected her deeply but for the sake of her job she has to. "Calyx...died," that was the only thing she said because she cannot bring herself into talking about it anymore since it's still a sensitive topic for her. The manager was too stunned to speak, he now understood Estelle's side and decided to not question Estelle anymore. He knew how special Calyx was to Estelle so he totally understood the pain that Estelle is currently going through.

"...so I'm here manager to ask you if I could still continue my job here," Estelle asked the manager who was still staring at the girl with pity in his eyes. "Yes you can, I'm sorry for what happened about Calyx," Estelle's manager offered his sincere condolence to Estelle who thanked him.

"Thank you manager for your condolences and also thank you for not firing me from my only job," Estelle bowed to the manager to show how grateful she really is but the manager helped her stand properly and told her to not bow to him like that and so Estelle stood up properly and gave the manager a faint smile.

Estelle was happy that her manager made her keep the job. Little did she know that there was someone spying on them from the door, eavesdropping on their conversation and was prepared to sabotage Estelle's name once again.