They started walking out the waiting room. “Nah, you’re getting better every time we play.” Walter said as they walked behind her. “You’ll get it. You just have to practice.”
They walked into a room where an elderly frail-looking man sat in a wheelchair, wearing a robe by the window. He was reading the paper and didn’t notice them immediately. “Roberto,” Natalie’s cheery voice called out, “look who’s here.”
The old man looked up, his dreary eyes cheered up at the sight of them.
“Hey, Grandpa,” Walter walked over and hugged him.
After the introductions, Natalie excused herself, saying she had to go get started on Roberto’s lunch. She offered to bring Walter and Hector sandwiches, said she’d make them herself. While Hector passed, Walter said he’d take one. She was short and a little on the chunky side, but she was full of energy with a smile that seemed to brighten even that depressing place.
“Isn’t she a little young to be a nurse?” Hector asked once she was gone.
“She’s not actually a nurse yet,” Walter explained. “She just got her L.V.N.’s certification. And as soon as she did, this guy,” Walter waved his in his gramps’ direction. “He insisted my dad hire her as his exclusive nurse. She’s been working here for what seems like forever now. Did her high school R.O.P. program here and was assigned to my gramps a lot.”
“She’s better than any nurse I’ve had so far,” Roberto said with conviction. “She’s got spunk too. That girl; as young as she is, she don’t take shit from the other older nurses. She’s always on time; she’s never in a bad mood.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Walter teased. “She’s perfect. I’ve heard that a million times.”
“She is. I tell her all the time, and,” his grandpa lifted a finger, “she’s the only one that makes my soup the way I like it—with extra Tapatio. None of the other nurses do that.”
Walter smiled, shaking his head. “That’s ’cause you’re not supposed to have any, Grandpa. It’s not good for you.”
His grandpa waved his hand at him. “There are few things in this life left for me to enjoy. That’s one of them and she knows it. Another one is playing you, boy. I just might get you this time.”
They wheeled him out into the community room where there were a lot of other old folks hanging out as well. Walter introduced Hector to a few of them, and the day of playing chess with the oldies started.
Hector had to admit it did feel good to be able to provide these guys with some much-needed entertainment, though he felt bad about beating them. After a few quick games, Natalie came over and started setting up Roberto’s lunch. Hector took advantage of the distraction to try and get a little more info on Charlee.
“So did you at least try to talk to Charlee about something other than the robot?” He tried to sound as casual as possible. “I mean she stayed over at your place long enough to eat. I’m sure you guys had time to talk about something else.”
If he had to go by Walter’s expression, as usual, it didn’t look too promising. But Hector waited, making an effort to not show his exasperation again. “She asked about some of the photos in my room.”
Hector smirked. “At least you got her to go to your room.”
“It’s where I’d set up the demonstrations,” Walter said with a small smile. “But we did stay in my room the whole time. And we ate on my bed.”
“Nice move,” Hector pretended to be impressed and winked. “Setting up the demos in your bedroom.”
“Mija, that’s too much.” Walter’s grandpa held his hand out, waving it above his soup.
From where Hector sat, he could see that there was more red in the bowl from the Tapatio than there was soup. Walter glanced over and laughed. “You trying to kill my grandpa, Natalie?”
Her face was bright red as she hurried to put the top back on the small bottle of chili sauce. “No. I just . . .” She picked up the bowl. “I just got distracted. I’ll bring you another one.”
She hurried away, glancing back at Walter with a regretful smile. Walter laughed. “Don’t worry about it, Nat. You can’t always be perfect.”
“You leave her alone,” his grandpa said.
She eventually came back with another bowl of soup for the old guy, this time getting it right as Walter continued to tease her.
Hector hung around and played a few more games with the old guys, including one against Walter’s grandpa. As expected, none were able to beat Hector or Walter. Hector might’ve gotten out of there earlier, but he agreed to play Walter, and they had quite the audience by the time Hector beat him more than an hour after they started.
Spending the afternoon with Walter at the old folk’s home had served as somewhat of a distraction. But by the time he got back home, he was back to thinking about Charlee nonstop again. It was irritating as hell. Spending the day with Walter and watching the way he genuinely enjoyed spending time with his gramps and the other old guys only served to demonstrate further evidence of one thing: Walter was a real good guy, too good for Hector to even consider backstabbing.
~*~
It had been impossible. After sobbing in her car for as long as she had Friday night, Charlee had finally sucked it up, wiped her face clean, and insisted she was done crying. No guy was worth this amount of grieving, not this time and certainly not the first time.