❝The most beautiful part is, I wasn't even looking for you when I found you.❞

Ashton stared straight ahead at the dull abstract painting hanging on the whitewashed wall. The painting was bland, lacking human emotion. So, it did no good to bring color to the monotonous atmosphere of the room.

His attention was diverted by the valiant efforts of his client who tried to catch a slither of his attention. Shifting his gaze to those ashen eyes, he tried to detect a sliver of truth in them. When none was found, he stood up from his chair and bid a farewell to his client.

She passed him a small smile before turning around and closing the door to the cabin behind herself.

With a sigh, he sat back on his chair, rolling the paperweight on the table, again and again, his free hand brought upon his chin. Beneath his eyes was an almost non-existent shade of darkness that hinted at the arrival of dark circles. A light stubble covered his jaw, failing to hide the sculpted jawline he possessed.

The clock that hung above the wall behind him ticked, each tick giving way to a new minute, a new opportunity. 

For him though, all it did was make him lose interest in the glassy object in his hands. Leaving it, he took the white paper lying on his desk. The tiny blotches of black spread upon the paper appeared ugly all of a sudden.

Words. Words had always been his solace, but today they were off on the mission to become his poison.

Knowing well that he had no other option left, he picked up the pen with reluctance. His lips twitched as he brought the pen upon the paper, sour droplets of water falling from his temple and making way to his mouth.

With the sour lingering fresh on his tongue, he placed his signature on the bottom corner of the page, where a blank line was given. The signing was quick and the pen was thrown away as soon as the paper held his name in those cursive letters.

A little clank reverberated in the space as the pen hit the wall and another clank joined as it fell on the ground.

His fingers played with his face, and in the end, settled down, caging the bridge of his nose.

The unrest he had hidden from the world was a contrast to the calm of the room, and this made him wonder about the same thing he had wondered of many days.

Was everything as simple as it seemed?

No, it wasn't. He knew it better than the others, he knew that it was wrong to assume or accept the conclusions of the mere vision of a human being. You would never, for a fact, know if a calm sea was calm in real or raging from the insides. Unless you were to take a plunge in it and test the waters, you'd never know. Things on the outer surface had always been simple, but the inner surface, the inner surface had always been the home to unpredictable, creation and reckless thoughts and actions.

So, it was his job, to unfold the pressed papers of outer illusions to find the burnt flowers of the inner reality. But today, even that was getting taken away from him.

The chain of dark thoughts erupting in his mind was broken as the door to the cabin opened with a loud bang. It was clear that whoever this intruder was, he was in a hurry.

With the intruder came a wave of the thick scent of cologne or was it musk perfume.

He wasn't about to look up and identify this stranger who had barged in his cabin. After all, it was his own choice whether to look up or not.

"Ashton, have you heard the gossip? Everyone's talking about it in the hospital."

The light voice belonged to a familiar person, a fellow friend of his in the hospital and a doctor like himself. In his short career at Winston Hospital, he was the only man who had managed to hold his interest.

Joseph Quin, a former young doctor mastered in the field of physiology. He was an amiable guy, with thick-rimmed glasses, and he was a little thick in the middle. 

Ashton had to admit that Winston Hospital did a good job of finding its doctors. There were sections in the hospital, and these sections had doctors who offered various help to their patients. Whether it was cardiologists or psychologists or basic doctors who treated viral infections, the hospital had them all.

Perhaps the very reason why the hospital held a good rank in the world. The hospital was the only reason that he left his home in New York. He wanted to get a job in the hospital. It'd been his only dream.

"Man, you there?" Joseph asked.

"I didn't hear any gossip, and I don't wa..."

Before he could've finished, Joseph intervened, "Oh well, there's a girl. Two girls, to be precise. They got into an accident today. One of them got some severe injuries and fractures while the other one just fractured her leg."

"That's unfortunate, but why are you telling me this?"

"The girl with the minor injuries, man, she's damn hot. I want to see her, but I can't. Doctor Winston is treating her, and he won't like it."

That caught his attention. Why in the world would the founder of the hospital, the best doctor, treating a girl with minor injuries? This was impossible.

"What? Doctor Winston is treating a mild fracture?"

Joseph shrugged. "Yes, and don't ask why because I don't know. For all we know, she must be a relative."

Ashton smiled at his friend's attempts to suppress the bad thoughts. Well, it was time to rub some salt on the wounds for amusement.

"What if she's not a relative? I mean, you just said she was hot."

"Do you like to annoy me? I was just here to congratulate you."

Congratulate him? Did he found out? Did everyone in the hospital find out about it? How could Doctor Winston do this to me, how could he?

But if Joseph knew about it, he wouldn't have been talking about the girl with such candor, not to him at least. It must've been something else.

No, he was sure it was something else.

"Congratulations for what?"

Joseph clicked his tongue, "You get to meet the girl! Doctor Winston called you, and he asked you to bring the papers."

The papers.

A deep, sinking feeling settled upon his stomach as he thought of the papers. Nonetheless, he gave Joseph a confident smile.

"Sure, I'll go meet him."

"Hey, I want the details."

Ashton laughed at the childish behavior of his friend and left the cabin, the papers clutched tightly in his hands. For now, he was going to focus more on not ripping the papers apart than thinking about this new girl who had got all the tongues rolling.

Trudging through the hallway, he uttered a string of curses as he realized that he had forgotten to ask the number of the room in which the girl was put in.

Looking around, he found a girl with ashen hair tied in a bun. She wore a plain white attire, and her skin was glowing, just like a rose.

Marie.

Before he could ask her, she noticed him and said, "Good morning Mr. Hard. And, what are you doing here?"

Her tone wasn't questioning. In a manner of speaking, she appeared pleased by his presence. Her joy was clear in her delightful smile and fluttering eyes. So, he showed his respect for her and gave her a good reply, and a conversation was struck.

When the former thought the girl wasn't going to stop with the random talks, he drew the line once again.

"Marie, can you tell me where Doctor Winston is. I went to his cabin, but he wasn't there."

"Sure, he's in Room Seven-oh-three."

Thanking her, he turned around for the elevator but his steps were halted as Marie called his name.

"Yes, Marie."

"I was wondering if you would like to hang out with me tonight."

This was an impossible wish. It was wrong for a doctor and nurse to have a relationship on a professional level, and he was almost going to apologize and decline. Almost.

"I would love to."

You won't be a doctor here anymore, so it won't hurt.

"That's awesome. I'll call you, on your professional number since I don't have the private one."

She went away after that, and Ashton almost ran to for the elevator. The metal gates were closed, the digital screen showing the number thirteen in green light. He pressed the upper button and was happy to see the digits lessening down.

When the count had come to four, the metal doors slid open, giving way to a luminous interior, the kind where one could lose himself and his sanity if the lift stopped functioning.

The doors closed once he entered inside. Pressing the button with the number seven written over it, he waited.

His eyes stay unmoving fixed in the metal gates.

Soon the two doors slide open and he, like a reluctant child, steps out. As soon as his shoes touch the tiled floor, his feet wander off in the search of the reason number seven-on-three. As expected, it's on the very front.

The door to the room is painted white, like all the other rooms in the hospital. The only thing that set it apart was its number followed by seven.

A couple was sitting on the chair set in front of the room. Judging from the deep dark circles and the veins sagging of their arms, they must've been the girl's parent. A part of him felt bad for them. They had hospitalized their girl in here with trust, but all they received were comments on their daughter's physique. He knew that if he were to put himself in their shoes, he would have been raging by now.

He would have been overprotective with his daughter, to a point where she would have got annoyed but he would've understood her as well.

"It must be tough to raise a daughter," he said to the distraught couple.

"You won't know the annoyance, Doctor-" The man, who was presumably the father squinted at the tag on his shirt before continuing. "Hard. Doctor Hard."

"I know I won't, but one can always imagine. And don't worry, your daughter will be fine."

They nodded at him and entwined their hands together, murmuring prayers for their daughter. If it wasn't for their unawareness about their daughter's injuries, they wouldn't have been so agitated. After all, a minor fracture wasn't about to cause so much distress. He would make sure to tell Doctor Winston to inform them of the injuries.

With a smile plastered on his face, he turned the doorknob and entered the room. The smell surprised him, the strong smell of the disinfectant that always lingered in the air had been replaced by the sweet fragrance of lilac and sandalwood.

But why is there the smell of lilac and sandalwood?

So, this girl was special after all. This was something that you did not see every day. Getting a room scented for a patient was very unusual.

Doctor Winston, in his white coat, was standing ahead. Fortunately for Ashton, the silver-haired man had yet not seen him.

Beside the standing figurine of Doctor Winston was the bed for the patient and in it lay a girl in the blue hospital gown. Her leg had a plaster over it which was lifted off in the air by ropes hanging off to the metal rod nearby.

Moving up his vision, he finally found her face.

So, the rumors were right after all.

It wasn't that she wasn't hot, but it was wrong to attribute a woman's look to such lame words. To define this girl with pale cheeks, long eyelashes and soft pink lips of the perfect shape would've been unfair.

More prominent and beautiful features were her hair. Yellow locks of beauty curled into precision by nature herself. As they fell on her face, he felt a constant urge to brush them behind her ear, something he had never felt before.

"Ashton Hard, what is this?" Doctor Winston's sharp voice cut his observation short. He sounded infuriated.

If it was because of the girl, Ashton was ready to apologize. Had he known the girl belonged to Doctor Winston, he would've never stared at her for too long.

Yes, she must be his, and it was plausible too. Because there was no boyfriend outside waiting in the lobby with his arms crossed, and it was impossible and downright stupid to assume this girl had no boyfriend.

It was his duty to apologize.

"Doctor Winston, I apologize-"

"You let Jenny come for the appointment today. Can I ask why did you call her?"

So, it wasn't because of the girl. But, if Doctor Winston had no interest in a girl so young than himself, where was the boyfriend?

"Ashton, I'm asking you something."

"I'm sorry, Doctor Winston. She wasn't listening. Moreover, I didn't want her to get suspicious. We still need to contact her parents."

"Very well. Have you signed the papers for your leave?"

The papers for his leave. He didn't want to take this short period of leave, but he had no other choice. He needed to be absent until the whole Jenny controversy settled down.

"Yes."

He gave the papers to Doctor Winston, and stood there, waiting for Doctor's next order.

"Ashton, before going, I expect you to finish your one last task."

"It will be done, Doctor Winston."

2299 words

Author's Note

I'm sorry. A week turned into a month, and I feel so bad for leaving you all hanging like that.

Can you forgive me?

By the way, this chapter is in the POV of the male lead, and this whole book will keep switching between the two points of view. I hope you enjoy it.