The Numbers That Brought Our Fates Together - 308 A Secret Gift.

Nick walked down a long corridor along many doors that looked like entrances to medical wards; there was a smell of antiseptic and medicine in the air. Stopping in front of the room he needed, he knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

“Manisha, hello! What’s up?”

Nick saw a girl looking at something under a microscope. Hearing his greeting, she stopped her research and smiled in response, “God, has the sun risen in the west today? Nick Teser showed up five minutes earlier than the appointed time! Or am I sleeping and all of this is just a dream?”

“Ahaha, stop it. I’m not late that often.”

“Hmm, well, if you consider coming here half an hour later than the appointed time not being late, then yes. Every second time you come here right on time,” the girl got up from her chair, took out gloves and a syringe from a desk drawer and put on her goggles. “Sit here.”

Nick came to the chair, as he had long been familiar with the procedure. He lay comfortably and closed his eyes, despite his age, the guy couldn’t calmly watch a needle pierce his skin, at that moment he even bent his teeth.

Feeling that the unpleasant part of the process was completed, he opened his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief, a thin stream of blood flowed through the tube into a special tank.

The doctor smiled and went back to her desk, the electronic clock on the wall was blinking, counting the seconds.

“How do you feel today?” she asked after she filled out the necessary documents.

“Hmm, as usual, I think. What, are you saying, there must be reasons for me to feel different?”

The girl went to Nick and checked the pulse rate on his free hand, “At night the planets will align and the Sun activity will also be above average. Doctors were warned about a possible electromagnetic flash. But this is confidential information, don’t tell anyone.”

“Yes, ma’am. Damn, that means I’ll have to donate more than usual,” Nick rolled his eyes, he already imagined how in the coming week his normal daily routine would be sleeping-blood donation-sleeping again.

“Sorry,” the girl said with a guilty look.

“Never mind, you have nothing to do with it. In the end, there must be some benefit from me, right?” The young man winked playfully and closed his eyes to relax. He heard the rustling of the doctor’s dressing gown as her pen was writing something on paper, the faint ringing of test tubes hooking one another when moving.

“Manisha, do you regret staying here and not returning home?”

Nick’s question interrupted the girl’s thoughts, she put the pen on the table and turned to the young man. Her eyes froze on a small picture of the Taj Mahal, hanging on the wall.

“To be honest, I do not know the answer to this question. When the outbreak occurred, I studied as an exchange student at a school in New York. I remember everyone was in a panic, after the pandemic began, and the air traffic was closed. Mom sent me money and we waited for all this to end, so I could return to India. But the restrictions only intensified, we kept in touch for three years, and then the Internet and communications were blocked.

And now I don’t know if my family is alive and how they are doing. I can only ask God to support them when I am not around. Something like this.”

“Sorry for asking you about this,” Nick was sorry to have reminded his doctor of such difficult moments in life. She, like many children left in a foreign country without parents, had to adapt to rapidly changing realities and become more independent and adult ahead of time.

“All is well, I’m not the only one who has encountered this. Our team has many who could not once return to their homeland, and this place has become like a home for us. So if you bothered yourself with such thoughts, your parents would be upset to learn about it.”

At the mention of parents, Nick’s face was noticeably sad. He was already accustomed to various conversations about his family, and most of them were far from the truth since no one knew about the real personality of the young man. But that was more difficult for him to listen to all this since everyone would discuss the Anderson family as often as they wanted.

“Manisha, tell me honestly, do you also think that I have dirty blood?” he asked in a whisper. The girl was ten years older than Nick, and he treated her like an older sister.

The doctor silently got up from her chair, went to Nick’s chair and squeezed his ear with force.

“Auch! It hurts!”

“Serves you right! You are twenty years old, and you are paying attention at empty rumors, like a little kid? If it weren’t for your blood, that guy Mitchell would have long been in the better world! Do you have any idea how precious your plasma is?! This is the best vaccine I’ve ever seen!”

Nick looked down guiltily. His blood was the only thing he could offer. He was not affected by illnesses, his body did not respond either to radiation or to smog, as if he was completely protected from external influences.

No, he was not invulnerable, like Armand, and was an ordinary person, like everyone else. But his body easily adapted to all changes. That is why his blood was so priceless.

“If it weren’t for your blood plasma, I would have died two years ago. So dare not think that it is dirty! You got me?! Otherwise, I’ll make a second hole in your body now!” Manisha looked at the young man with a stern look and brought a syringe with a needle over him as evidence of the seriousness of her threat.

“Doc, Doc, I get it! I don’t need more injections!”

“There you go,” the girl hid her weapon back on the table and pulled the needle from Nick’s vein, “I’ll be waiting for you at 11 o’clock tomorrow.”

“May I come the day after tomorrow? I have plans for tomorrow.”

The doctor narrowed her eyes and, by the appearance of the young man, she immediately understood everything, “Yeah, did you decide to arrange another surprise for your Ashley? Common, tell me what you thought up there,” she moved closer to Nick and leaned forward, ready to hear the secret information firsthand.

The young man scratched behind his ear and looked away. He looked around, although there was no one in the room except them, and said in a whisper, “Golden pendant.”

“Golden?! Where did you get so much money from?!”

“Shhh, that’s a secret. I told you only because we are friends. So,” he ran a hand over his lips, showing that the girl should keep her mouth shut.

“Okay, my lips are sealed. Oh, Nick, she certainly won’t resist such a gift! I’ll wait for the good news the day after tomorrow!”

“Heh, I also really hope so,” the guy narrowed his eyes joyfully, anticipating the surprise of his beloved Ashley when he will hand her a beautiful pendant in the shape of the letter “A” tomorrow.

Then she will definitely give him her answer.