Imperfect Desires

Darren whose call was suddenly disconnected looked like he was gonna explode now. His fists struck hard on the counter while he closed his eyes to take long and deep breaths. There was no reason to murder your best friend over such a simple thing. Right? RIGHT?! Oh, no! That's not right! He so wished to beat the hell out of Dylan right now.

He hurriedly got up and went towards his bedroom. All this while Cali silently kept her eyes on him. It wasn't really hard for her to figure out what he was planning to do now. And sure enough, after twenty minutes when he came out dressed immaculately, his first words were, "Cali, I need a ride."

Cali who had just washed the coffee cups looked at him and said, "You do know that Dylan hung up on you on purpose, right?" Darren didn't reply. Of course, he knew that very well. If Cali could tell what was cooking in that stupid brain of Dylan's, how could he not? But it was just that... "But even if you know you still want to rush over because someone's heart is not gonna be at ease unless he sees his Sweets."

Darren didn't give any signs of denying her words. He had no reason to do so actually. In fact, he didn't even mind being teased like this at all. "Are you giving a ride or not?" he chose to put forth his own question instead of answering her.

"Where is your car?" she asked.

"I gave a day off to Ben. And I really don't want to disturb him now. It doesn't feel right," he answered. "And I can't... drive as you know very well." Taking a pause, he added, "Don't tell me you got your Harley Davidson bike even here."

She smiled mysteriously. "What do you think?"

"No, you did not..."

After getting down to parking when he saw Cali's ride, he couldn't help saying, "You actually betrayed your love for bikes?" He knew about her obsession with dangerous rides. Considering how rare it was for her to drive a car.

"Shut up and hop on!" was all she replied with as she alighted the grey Mustang convertible of hers. 

Darren silently took the passenger seat and buckled up because the ride was gonna be really dangerous from this moment on. True to his thoughts, Cali's driving was just as reckless as it could have been. She had the perfect control over her car but she really was messing with the speed limit here. And what was with this desire to take over?

Now that he thought about it, it seemed like it was his second time seeing her driving an actual car. They had stopped at a red light when he voiced out, "Cal, are you changing habits after inheriting your father's fortune?" She gave him a fleeting glance as he added, "I mean you never even bought a car in your whole life before."

Cali was about to reply when her cell phone chimed and she had to excuse herself to take the call. Darren didn't mean to eavesdrop but since he was sitting right next to her, he couldn't help it.

When she hung up, she said, "Sorry, it's the hospital's director. I don't know why she's being so stubborn."

"Didn't you resign before moving to Italy?" he asked since the last time they met in Norway, she had told him about her plans to resign.

"I resigned but the director is not taking my resignation seriously. She said I have accumulated a lot of leaves in these past years so she's willing to treat my absence as personal leave."

"So, she's leaving a door open for you?"

"Seems like it," answered Cali with a shrug of her shoulders before she stepped on the accelerator and started her race with the wind again. 

Darren was frowning thinking about something and he decided to just ask, "Do you want to go back?" He looked at the side of her face as he continued, "I mean being a doctor was never your own dream. But you still stuck around for years. So, there must be some attachment to your work."

Cali smiled sarcastically at herself actually. "Do I? I don't think I have the attachment to my work like you do, Regi." Darren wanted to say he was surprised but why didn't he feel like it? "I don't think anything changed in my life after leaving the hospital. I was living a mechanical life even then and even now."

"What do you mean?"

"Regi, do you even know how robotic I felt lately? For the past four years, nothing changed in my life. Patients, emergencies, surgeries, and blood that was all I saw every single day being stuck in the hospital." She suddenly stopped the car and looked directly at him. "The only difference in my life now is that in the hospital, my hands would get stained with blood every day. Now that I have to deal with my dad's business, I can tell you that it's a bloody war out there. My hands might stay clean in this corporate world, but I'm turning into a different person."

Darren didn't have to ask her what she meant. She was used to dealing with life and death every day at the hospital and now, she was stuck with stuck ups which seemed even worse to her.

"Why did you stop the car here?" asked Darren and turned his head to look around. His mouth opened in surprise when he saw that the car was parked right in front of the Qiu Family house. "Hold on! How do you know his address? I didn't give it to you."

Cali looked around everywhere except for his face. She alighted from the car and came around to his side, opened the door, and pulled him out saying, "Don't waste my time asking stupid questions. I've already done my job by dropping you off here."

Darren narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously. "Wanna come inside?" he asked.

"No!" Cali's prompt and loud answer got him laughing hard. She hurriedly got back in the car and said, "I'll call you later."

"Wait!" Darren called out and bent down a little. With his hands holding the door of her car, he smiled at her playfully, "You know he's inside."

"Not interested," Cali said while pinching his nose to irk him. However, Darren didn't react.

"Even if you don't want to flirt with him, I have an alternate plan for you," said Darren. Cali frowned at his words but didn't say anything. Darren took her silence as her interest in wanting to know the rest of his thought. Smiling to himself, he said, "Instead of Dylan, you can use your charms on his parents. Trust me, it's the most reliable way."

Cali slapped his head. "Where are these ridiculous ideas coming from? And by the way, why are you trying to act like a cupid all of a sudden?"

Darren rubbed his head where she hit to show that he was hurt. "Call me cupid or whatever! I'm just tired of seeing all the single souls wandering around me."

"A while ago, you were also one of us. Don't hate the squad just because you got lucky," said Cali playfully.

"I'm not hating on anyone. I just don't want this negative energy of single souls to infect me in any way."

Cali smiled at his reply in a rather strained way before she got out of the car again and kicked Darren's calf making him bent over in pain. "If you kept this up, I'm going to beat you into a pulp!" 

Darren really wanted to laugh at her reaction but he really couldn't because of the pain he felt in his calf. Damn! She never went easy on him!