11: Elise (i)

**The apartment building** was a four-storey building with one unit on each floor. My family owned it. My mother and stepfather privately invested in real estate—renting houses and apartment buildings—in many places. This was where I lived. Otherwise, I would be staying in one of the condo buildings/towers of the Von Schillers in Metro Manila. My father’s side invested in real estate, too, in partnership with the Verrazzanos so we kind of owned shares there. But this particular apartment building was reserved for the family when we visited Manila so I kind of have a floor I as already familiar with and I opted to stay here.
The first-floor unit was occupied by my cousin, Jason. The third-floor unit was for guests visiting from the province. The higher level on the third floor was a semi-covered deck. I kept my plants there in container boxes and big pots. On my free days, I could be found tending to my plants or reading in my rattan hammock. We also do our barbecues there, drink there, and generally relaxed there at the end of the day.
I was talking about me, my cousin Jase, and my childhood friend Alia who was also my housemate. 
Alia still didn’t know about my “accident.” She was working the night shift in a BPO company and had just started her shift two or maybe three hours ago and I didn’t want her to get so worried she couldn’t concentrate on her AHT. I decided to let her know in the morning. She would surely get angry about it but I also didn’t want her driving anywhere during the night. Not with the disappearances of young women going on. If she found out about what happened to me tonight, she would drive home no matter what.
I grimaced as I straightened to get ready to go out of the car as we parked in the driveway,. My head had started to throb. Of course, that didn’t escape the eyes of the angry hawk on my left side.
“What is it?”
“I’m okay.” I slowly moved to take my seatbelt off and opened the car door. I could already see an anxious Jason running out of his unit. It felt like my head was going to fall off and roll away.
“Wait.”
He turned after turning the engine off and quickly got out on his side. He rounded the hood and was soon opening the door on my side. He helped me alight the vehicle with as little head movement as possible, then he closed the door with very minimal sound.
I appreciated that.
And then, he carefully scooped me up in his arms again. I wanted to protest. My unit was on the second floor. Was he going to take me up there? For real? The building had no elevator!
“Ahhh... I remember the doctor said it was my head that got the concussion and my feet were okay. I can walk, Gian.”
It was like I hadn’t even spoken. I had to close my eyes to counter the dizzying feeling caused by him turning us towards the house. “Complaining again. It would be easy if you weren’t such a whiner,” he grumbled as he started to walk. Jase was hovering and looking very worried. My cousin was extremely handsome—the tall, dark and serious type. And the extreme worry and guilt on his face multiplied this. He didn’t come to the party because I was going to be with the Verrazzanos at their house, one of the supposedly safest places for me to be in.
Wro-o-ng! me and my inner voice said together. I could have snickered with her if I could. I thought she was as drunk with my meds as me.
“Mang Karding called me while you were having your stitches. So, no hospital?” he said. He knew about my issues with hospitals, too. Then he frowned. “You got beaten up by his Ex.” Not a question.
Gian seemed to trip. He just stopped, and then there was that growling sound. And then he sighed. If there was anyone who could imply to Gian he had not been perfect about something, it was Jase. He just didn’t care or acted like he wasn’t fazed by Gian. And Gian never ever got irritated or angry with him. Not really, even if he sometimes made inappropriate, weird noises that sounded like it. They’re kind of like two peas in a pod. They understood each other almost like… in the gut.
There you go… the sweet bullies in my life.
Jason was a policeman. He was pulled from his service when I started my apprenticeship for Gian so he could be my civilian bodyguard. And driver, most times. If I happened to be with Gian, then he didn’t need to be with me. He also took care of the building for my mother, and he checked on the other caretakers on our other properties. He was known in the office as one of Gian’s personal staff so there was an excuse for him to be seen coming in and out of VerraCom.
Since he was kind of a woman’s man, every female in the building knew him by now. They knew he grew up in Puerto Galera, which was also my hometown, and that he lived in the same building I was living in. That was the excuse we used about why he drove me to work before he went to his own workplace, which was supposedly the Verrazzano Tower. He was single, and when I quizzed him—quite persistently—about any woman he might be interested in, he said she lived back home and was a school teacher.
I felt guilty that working for me took him away from the woman, but he said it was okay because they were also getting well through Messenger, and he was not rushing to marry right away, anyway.