Awkward.

I felt freaking awkward when Georgie parked me right beside Vicky.

Hey, I said to her.

Silence. Utter silence.

How is your manicured bumper?

Okay, so I probably asked the wrong question because she shouted at me with all the foul words she must have picked up from our own neighborhood.

Okay! Okay! Gosh, you don't have to shout! No one but me and that Fortuner will hear you anyway! Women!

So my solitary days started all over again.

Oh, how I missed my friends!

*****

"Why are you not dressed for work?" George asked when she saw Jordan lounged on a reclining chair in the entertainment room.

She had forced herself to get up early and drive as fast as she could so as not to experience his nagging again only to find out that he was still in his white v-neck shirt and stripes pajamas, holding a toy car remote.

"Watch out!" he shouted at her and before she knew it, she felt something bump her sneaker. She looked down and saw an off-road toy car trying to climb over her foot.

"Get it off my foot or I'll send it flying in the air you'd wish you were playing with a helicopter instead."

Jordan was now leaning his elbows on his knees, his feet bare against the wooden floor. "I am trying. Just move your foot away."

"It's an off-road toy car. It should be able to climb over my foot. Where did you buy this thing?" she said instead, inspecting the obviously expensive toy.

"It's because your foot is too big," he muttered as he tried to go on reversed.

Having grown impatient, George gave the toy a little kick.

"Careful!"

She did not hear him and walked to the couch beside his chair. "I thought you're going to work?"

"I called in sick."

She rolled her eyes. "Why? To play?"

"No, because I haven't recovered yet from last week's ambulance runs." He maneuvered the toy around the coffee table. "Stretch your leg. I wanna try it again."

George slouched on the couch and did as he asked, too glad to have the opportunity to not go to his office. She felt his toy car bump against her sneaker once more but failed to climb over it. She sighed and reached out to grab the remote from his hand. "You are not doing it right. Let me have it."

"I can do--" but she already had the remote in her hands and reversed the toy car at one corner of the room. "Stretch your leg."

"It better not hurt," Jordan said, his voice still flat and without emotion.

Without a word, George zoomed the car toward his foot and it climbed over without a problem. "It's not the toy. It's you who has a problem."

"You're wearing shoes. I am not."

"Why do you play this sort of games anyway? I never took you for someone who plays games."

He grabbed the remote from her hand once more. "I never played a game when I was growing up. This is how I compensate."

George stared at him in silence. So Jordan Ledesma had his own quirks. And all the while she thought he was boring.

*****

While Jordan was busy playing upstairs, George took the time to chat with Lita, Dioning and Tippy.

"Aren't you wondering why I am here?" she asked them. She had sensed that they had been too careful around her and it was better to clear things up once and for all.

The three women looked at each other but did not answer.

"I am here because our parents want us to get married."

Tippy gasped in disbelief.

"Like in the movies?" Dioning asked.

"Yeah, like in the freaking movies."

Lita finally got the courage to ask, "Then you are here to...?"

"Get to know each other," she answered with a quoting hand signal in the air. "Well, now you know. But don't worry, I won't be your mistress. Jordan has a girlfriend and we will make sure that--"

"He has a girlfriend?" Tippy and Lita asked at the same time, both their faces looking even more shocked.

George frowned. "You don't know?"

Lita and Dioning shook their heads but Tippy said, “Maybe she means the lady who sometimes comes by? But they don’t look like they are in a relationship when I see them.”

"Well, whether it is her or not, now you do know he has a girlfriend."

"But you are marrying him!" Tippy cried out.

"As what I was about to say, we will make sure that no wedding is going to happen. So, now you know our story. You can all relax around me. Consider me a transient visitor every other week."

The three women just nodded and smiled at her.

George's phone beeped as she listened to the ladies talk about Jordan's semi-obssessive-compulsive personality. She frowned when she the message was from him.

Do you want to watch a movie?

Her brows furrowed some more.

What movie? She texted back.

Yes or no.

Fine. Yes.

Upstairs now. Ask Tippy to bring us something to eat.

When she realized they were going to watch a movie in the house and not somewhere else, George felt a bit of disappointment but she shook it off immediately.

"Tippy, Jordan wants you to bring something to eat upstairs. We're going to watch something."

*****

"It is getting tiring to watch," Jordan commented with a frown.

The entertainment room was dark and he was still in his pajamas and shirt, his legs stretched out on the coffee table.

George was doing the same thing, but her mind was more focused on the movie. "It's because everything is being repeated," she said just to say something.

They were watching The Edge of Tomorrow and for her, it was going great.

"I bet you five-hundred pesos everything would end up okay."

"I bet you five-hundred pesos Cruise would die."

He turned to her, his expression unreadable, and held out his hand, "Deal."

From then on, he focused more on the story, waiting for the finale.

"Ha! I told you!" George cried out when Tom Cruise's character turned out dead. She held out her hand toward Jordan. "You got to pay up."

"Wait, wait, there is more..."

And he was right.

Cruise ended up waking up again, alive.

"Ha!" Jordan cried out in victory. For a few seconds, George saw excitement on his face. "I won. Pay up," he said, holding out his hand with palm up toward her.

She slapped it away. "He still died."

He looked at her incredulously as the credits rolled. "You said if he ends up dead. He did not end up dead. He woke up alive."

"I said and I quote, 'I bet you five-hundred pesos Cruise would die.' He did die, didn't he?"

"But he lived."

"He still died. He just returned from the dead. I won."

"I said everything would end up okay. And it did. Pay up."

"I am not paying anything because technically, we both placed our bets on different things that turned out to be right. We both won."

"Sir?" Tippy's voice interrupted them.

"What is it?" Jordan asked, his voice back to his default flat tone.

"The kitchen faucet has a problem."

*****

Everyone was looking at the flooding kitchen.

"I'll call a plumber," Jordan announced, his eyes looking around the kitchen with disgust.

George walked through the flooded kitchen opened the cabinet under the sink. "It's just the pipe problem. No need for a plumber."

But Jordan was already working on his phone so George turned to Tippy and asked, "Do you have a wrench?"

Tippy nodded and walked away to retrieve it.

Dioning and Lita were busy with the floor which continued to flood.

"If you know where the water system control is, you better get there and turn off everything, else you'd be working on that for a long time," George told them.

"What do you need a wrench for? And the water system is at the back. Dioning, turn it off," Jordan said, frowning at his phone.

George did not bother to answer him about the wrench but signaled for Dioning to go to the control. The lady did that and withing a few seconds, the water running through the loose pipe came to a stop.

Tippy was back with a wrench and George bent down to work on the pipe.

"What are you doing?" Jordan demanded.

"Fixing your damn sink!" she answered.

"The plumber can do that."

"Plumber my ass. Dioning, can you turn the system back on?"

When Dioning came back, she said, "It's on."

Everyone checked the pipe. No drips.

"Plumber," George scoffed at Jordan, slapping the wrench in his hand and walked out the kitchen. "You can start de-flooding the kitchen, ladies."

She was back upstairs to go to her room when Jordan's voice said behind her, "Were you trying to humiliate me before my own servants?"

"What? Of course not," she answered nonchalantly.

"They now think I am incapable of little things as fixing my freaking sink."

"Why the hell would you care what they think?" She turned around to face him this time.

"Because they work for me and if they as much as think that--"

"No one is going to judge you just because you cannot fix a sink, Jordan, so relax. I need to take a bath and so should you. You're still in your sleeping clothes."

He must have realized it because he shook his head and walked passed her and into his room, slamming the door shot.

"What's wrong with him?" George wondered aloud before she stepped inside her room.

*****

Okay, so Vicky had to endure Vicky's presence for the whole day that Monday morning.

And the next day, I rejoiced because Jordan finally decided to go to work and he brought Vicky and Georgie with him. The grand garage was all mine. Well, there was the Fortuner but it must be mute or deaf or something.

On Wednesday, I sensed that Jordan and Georgie were getting used to being around each other because it was getting rare and rare to see both their faces getting home looking sour.

On Thursday, they brought home a dog.

A freaking Rottweiler.

It will be the death of me! I will be the death of me!

Vicky, for the first time in three days, finally talked to me, telling me to calm down and that the dog was trained and was a gift to Jordan.

"What do we do with it?" Jordan asked Georgie as they watched he dog run around the lawn.

"Why do you ask me?"

"Well, since you know a lot of things, I figured you might have an idea."

"Why did you accept it anyway?"

"Benjamin had always been offering to give me one and I got tired of saying I'll consider. Now I have one."

"At least give it a name."

"Benjamin said it is called Mallows."

Georgie looked at him incredulously. "Mallows?"

"It's still a puppy and his little niece found it cute so she is Mallows."

Who would call a freaking rottweiler Mallows?! Come on, it is a monster!

Vicky told me to calm down once more and I got the hint that I should probably do a bit more of freaking out to finally get her to talking to me again.

I will never live another day living with a dog. AND IT'S A ROTTWEILER!

My acting skills were getting pretty good, thanks to Jackie, and from that night on I became friends with Vicky. AGAIN.

The next day, Friday, Jordan asked Georgie if she knew how to build a dog house.

She said it was a simple task and they skipped work once more. Good thing I was friends with Vicky so we sort of spent the day talking and watching Jordan and George shout at each other over a pile of wood planks and nails.

"You know what? Let me do everything! You're just ruining the work!" Georgie shouted, slamming the hammer down the ground.

"I bought these. And it's my dog."

"You asked me for help."

"Yes, HELP. It means working together. HELP."

"Then I am offering my free service. Just stay away from the saw! What are you doing?"

Those were the same lines we heard throughout the whole morning.

And in the afternoon.

"What are you doing?!"

"I am painting the--"

"The painting is for after! You haven't even sanded the planks yet!"

"Why are you shouting?"

"Because you pretty much need a  lot of yelling! Go play your games or something and leave me to do this."

Yep, that was pretty much how they both spent the whole Friday afternoon.

And I got this very heavy feeling, right at the very bottom of my engines, that they would both end up falling in love.

Just an old Beetle Volkswagen's gut feeling. No need to panic.

Still 80% Team Ja!

*****

That weekend, George skipped her visit to her mother.

She was tired building the dog house the whole day yesterday and she needed a rest. She was not able to finish her reports because Jordan had asked her to play his Arcane Soul. She was not allowed to play the Adventure Mode, just the Defense and Survival Modes because they would help increase his experience levels.

She got engrossed playing the damned game that she totally forgot about her reports.

"You haven't done it during your stay at Ayala?" Jackie asked her that morning.

"I play Arcane Soul when we are at his office and we watch a lot of movies when we are at home. And I made Mallow's dog house."

Dannie peered at her through her reading glasses. "It seems you had a good week there."

George did not comment.

She couldn't say she had a bad week because she enjoyed most part of her stay with Jordan.

She was glad to be back home. It brought her back to her own kind of reality.

*****

When Jordan arrived the next week, he came with another bag full of clothes more appropriate for ambulance rides, he said.

Georgie did not mind and just shrugged, telling him to get inside me.

It was then that Jam came out of his apartment, his torso bare, showing off his tattoos.

He waved at Georgie before she climbed inside me.

I saw he saw Jordan and he seemed reluctant at first to say something. "Next weekend?" Jam shouted anyway.

That's my guy! Go Team Ja!

Georgie nodded and waved goodbye.

"What's with next weekend?" Jackie asked aloud.

"We're going trekking," Georgie answered.

Jackie looked over her shoulder at Dannie who was sitting beside the silent Jordan and gave her teacher friend a secret, triumphant smile.

What amazed me during that Monday morning was the fact that everyone seemed more at ease in Jordan's presence. Jackie was more open about not liking him, but it was in a friendly sort of way. Hard to explain, actually.

And Jordan seemed less attached to his phone and he spent the whole ride looking out the window or butting in on the conversation.

But still, majority of the people inside me, including yours truly, were still in Team Ja.

And Team Ja would be stronger this coming weekend, especially after Georgie told Jam the truth about her and Jordan. That would give the guy more reason to pursue Georgie if he was planning to.

*****

"You can stay here or you can observe inside the training room if you want. But don't say a word or do anything that would interrupt my class," George told Jordan.

Her team collectively turned their heads at her in confusion.

"What?" she asked them.

"Why would he be observing?" Fred asked.

"Why wouldn't he be?"

Jordan's face seemed amused and she was not liking the look of it.

"Hasn't he signed in for the training?" Dan inquired, looking at George and then at Jordan.

"Training?" George asked in confusion.

Mike sat looked at her dryly, "He signed in for the training two days ago." He then looked at Jordan and asked, "You didn't tell her?"

Jordan shrugged. "I was not able to talk to her last Saturday."

George shot Jordan an accusing look. "You want to be trained?"

He shrugged. "I ride the ambulance with you guys and I feel stupid not doing anything. So yes, I will get the training."

She arched her eyebrow. "You know I will be in-charged of the training, right?"

He nodded.

She forced an evil smile on her lips. Jordan must have realized his mistake and the amusement on his face turned to alarm. "Well, then, Mr. Ledesma. Get ready for battle." George turned on her heels and walked to the door.

"Stay alive, man," she heard Fred say to Jordan.