An hour has passed until Nickel received an inter telecom call from the security office.
"Good afternoon, Sir. Are you expecting a visitor? There is a Leonardo Cortez here, he said you are waiting for him?" The security guard politely informed Nickel about the arrival of his friend.
"Yes, I am. I'm sorry for not being able to go down and log him in. I have flu right now. I'm sorry and thank you for understanding."
"No worries, Sir." Nickel noticed that he ironically contradicted his principle of not getting any pity from others. Why did I mention that? He asked himself.
Later on, his doorbell rang and because of his condition he just sent Leo a message and giving him his passcode.
"Aren't you worried that I might trespass your sanctuary by giving me your passcode?" Leo asked after entering his unit and welcomed by his pitiful and weak body on the bed.
"Not a chance. You might not be able to pass through the security downstairs. See how many doors are there with scanners?"
Leo looked at his friend with amusement that despite his condition he can still scrupulously rebut or answers him. "If I'm not a good friend, I probably take a picture of you and I will show it to some of our friends that there is a time in your life that you became weak as a puppy."
"Try it and that will be the end of your family line." Of course, Nickel values his appearance and dignity. He hasn't taken a bath for four days and even though you cannot smell the person on the photographs, his appearance is still a mess.
Leo helped him drink his medicine. "What the hell happen to you?" He looked at the laying man before him and tried to dig what was the cause of this.
"Technically, your cousin gave tons of worries to start with. See how troublesome Michael Cortez is?" Aside from that he also hasn't rested a wink for the past weekend. Nickel hesitated whether he should tell him, his best friend, the incident that occurred last Friday night. Although, Leo has already a hunch about what was going on between him and Zoey ever since he first saw the way Nickel looked at her during his wedding.
"Do you know how that motherfucker annoys my wife?" Leo stops Nickel when he remembered the reason why he was looking for him the entire weekend.
Nickel looked at him with his questioning eye, lost from what he was saying.
"Shane was mad as fuck because she had learned that Michael is still bugging her best friend like a disgusting insect from the wild. Also, he even gave Zoey some bruises on her body from forcing her about something. I don't know the details for that." Nickel couldn't break a sweat as he listened to Leo's wife's sentiments. 'What if Zoey spilled everything to her friends, leaving him with no redemption from his stolen kiss.
"And because of that, Shane is also mad at me all because I am sharing the same bloodline with that asshole. I've been sleeping on the couch since Sunday, did you know that? It isn't comfortable if you will ask."
Hearing his friend's hardship due to his own cousin makes Nickel wonder of what will Shane do to Leo once she learns that he, himself, also took advantage of her.
"Poor you." The only comforting words he said that time. "Before you share me all your sentiments, can you please cook something. I haven't eaten anything other than cereals and cup noodles for four days. I'm already longing for real food."
Nickel moved place and set himself on the couch adjacent to the kitchen counter. "What else happened?" He is trying to gossip what else Zoey shared to her friends while Leo starts cooking.
"Zoey had a big bruise behind her back, which, if you will ask, is bad for her condition because she has a Thoracic Scoliosis." Nickel crumpled his face after hearing that Zoey has Scoliosis. He thought that he already know half of everything about Zoey. "But it's not as bad as you are thinking." Leo saw the face he made which makes him conclude that his friend really cares about his wife's best friend.
Leo, on the kitchen, was slicing parts of the chicken he bought to prepare him a chicken porridge. He thought that because he has been eating to light these past four days, his stomach will not be able to handle if he will eat solid food.
As for Nickel, he will eat anything other than cereal and cup noodles. He really wants something other than those two.
"I've also heard that Michael is staying in your company? Is that true? How did that happen?" Leo continues its topic.
"Jeez! You remind me of that bullshit again. I also don't know why they want to put one representation here. I have a speculation that it's your cousin's doing how all this shit happened. When ASC was still forming Michael never bats an eye in helping us process our documents. He attends a meeting but does nothing. I even ask his management before what kind of representative he is. He even had the audacity to attend our ribbon cutting and opening ceremony despite being a parasite from the start.
I think it's all because Zoey in under my roof that is why he wanted to mingle with my company affairs."