52 Honorable Dream

His hands started applying some medicine on my sprained ankle before he started wrapping tape around my ankle.

“Thank you, Adrian,” I thanked him after he was done.

“If it swells up, I’m going to get you to take medicine for it,” he warned sternly as he got up.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine soon,” I said as I smiled up at him.

Adrian looked down at me from where he was standing right in front of me before he sighed loudly. It was my first day working for him and I’m already causing him so much trouble and concern.

“You don’t need to tend to me next time, you know. I know you’re busy so it’s fine if you get the other doctors to do it. You should only treat VVIP patients, right?” I said half teasingly and half seriously.

“Who says you’re not a VVIP patient?” he teased me back before he reached out a hand and placed it firmly on my shoulder.

“Am I as important as a minister now?” I asked with a small laugh.

“You’re way more important,” Adrian replied.

.....

The serious tone in his voice and the way he looked directly at me made my heart skip a beat. My brain just died, and I couldn’t come up with any smart responses to that at all.

“Why did you decide to become a doctor?” I asked, trying to change the topic.

Although, I was honestly curious to know more about him as well.

“To save lives. To take care of the sick and the weak,” Adrian replied without needing to think.

“How honorable...” I replied with widened eyes.

“I’m not living up to that dream of mine though,” Adrian said and for a split of a second, I think his face darkened.

“Don’t say things like that...” I said trying to comfort him.

“I’m just like a doctor for show now, I don’t take care of real serious cases anymore. As you can see, all I do is take care of VVIP patients that are necessary for business connections,” Adrian said self-depreciatingly.

I could tell right away that Adrian didn’t like how things were, but I didn’t dare comment on it. Afraid that I would offend him or say something insensitive, I decided to lighten the mood through a little joke instead.

“You did heal me for real twice now. I guess I fit in your definition of the sick and weak, right?” I said before smiling brightly at him.

“I’ll drive you home,” Adrian said before he smiled back at me.

“Umm...I don’t think that’s a good idea. It’s ok, I drove here so...” I refused his offer as I struggled to find words that wouldn’t offend him.

“You can’t drive with that ankle. I won’t allow it,” he said resolutely.

Shit. I did put a no-sleeping over condition in the contract. However, I didn’t put a ‘you can’t drive me home’ condition in there. If I told him to drop me off at the intersection close to my place, he’ll probably insist on driving me all the way because he didn’t want me to walk. He also doesn’t know that my building is so old and small that it doesn’t even have an elevator. Now that I think about it, I probably can’t walk up those flight of stairs with this sprained ankle.

“Sorry to bother you but can you drop me off at Justin’s place?” I asked in a sweet voice.

“Sure. I’ll do that,” Adrian agreed.

...

My ankle felt as good as new the next day, so the sprain probably wasn’t that bad to begin with. It rarely hurt anymore, and I had Adrian to thank for that. Perhaps it was because of Adrian’s medical attention that my ankle recovered so fast like magic. I looked at the high heel shoes that I had planned to wear today before sighing loudly to myself. Recalling Adrian’s disapproving face when he asked if I walked on high heels while my ankle was hurting gave me pause.

I wasn’t scheduled to see Adrian today, but it still made me feel quite guilty to wear high heels behind his back. In the end, I made a compromise and wore shoes with a very low heel. Today I was scheduled to work with EROS and his team. Truthfully, I wasn’t look forward to the first day on this job at all. From what I could tell, I was positive that it would be tough working with EROS and even more so with Sean.

“Whatever you do, don’t sprain your ankle again! Seriously, I’ve never had a girl sprain her ankle on her first day at work since I opened up this agency,” Justin teased me before laughing loudly.

“Shut up...” I muttered in feign annoyance.

“Adrian is such a gentleman, I swear. He patched you up and even drove you back. He’s such an angel...” Justin said while clasping his hands together and placing it on the side of his face.

“I’m off. Wish me luck!” I hollered as I walked out the door of Justin’s place.

...

“Let me introduce you to EROS’s new assistant manager. As you know, EROS has been getting more work as of late and we expect him to get even busier in the near future. Miss Elena here, will help out for a few days of the week. Please welcome her to the team and give her your support,” the manager proudly introduced me to the other staff in EROS’s team.

I looked at the small crowd of people that were gathered around the manager and me. Honestly, I never knew that so many people worked behind the scenes to support just one man, even if he was a superstar. The team consisted of almost 20 people, and all fulfilled the various roles that were necessary to ensure that EROS’s professional life ran smoothly.

“I’m Elena. It’s an honor to join the team. I look forward to working with everyone here. Thank you so much for your support,” I said before bowing slightly and smiling to the other team members.

–To be continued...