160416: Chapter 1-2

Tells the story of two people who hold this date dear to their hearts.

Both ingrained this date in their heart for one in the hope that their love would be always and forever, and another promises to never love another again.

When the two meet, both are fearful, but one is eager to love again, and another is learning the meaning of love.

When heaven entwines a bitter-sweet fate between the two…

Chapter One

“Yeah, yeah. I am going to be there in 20 minutes. Tops. I just need to check on my patient and I am out of this hospital with the speed of light,” Allyson answered, cradling her phone on her shoulders as she furiously ticked her medical charts.

Annoyed, she grumbled, “I will only be slightly late. Yes. Yes. Bye, dear.”

“Ughh,” she let out a sigh of frustration as soon as she hit the end call button.

“Out of the way! Out of the way!” a nurse in a light turquoise scrub shouted frantically, pushing the gurney through the hallway, making Allyson stumbled and bumped into another stranger, which then made both drop their phone simultaneously.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, picking up her rose gold iPhone as she hurriedly followed the gurney but not before catching a glimpse of the stranger. Six feet tall, jet black hair with a very expensive Armani suit. “Dashing,” she thought. “If he could lose that frown,.”

“Doctor Allyson!” the nurse called out and read the patient’s medical chart. “Pete Conever, 30-years-old, GSW to the chest,”

“They never mentioned the pain of taking a bullet in the movies,” the patient mildly joked.

“Patient is conscious. As you can see,” the nurse shrugged.

Checking his heartbeats with her stethoscope, Allyson informed the nurse, “Push 5 milligram of morphine and page cardio,” “Don’t worry, the morphine will kick in soon enough. You will be fine. The wound is a through and through,” she said.

“The movie got one thing right though,” the patient said, not taking his eyes off her.

“And that will be?”

“The doctor is always hot,” he smirked.

Amused, Allyson said, “Oh really?” as she wrapped her stethoscope back at her neck. “The movie got another thing right.”

“And that will be?” he quoted back to her with a devilish smile.

Bending down and showing a bit of her cleavage through her scrubs, she whispered to his ears, “The girl never falls for the lame ass thug that got shot,.”

“It’s obvious you don’t watch a lot of movies then, doc!” he shouted just a few seconds before Allyson exited the room. She always liked harmless flirtations, especially during the night shift, where things get tense with little doctors on call.

“Doctor Allyson,” a familiar, clipped voice greeted.

“Doctor Brooks,” Allyson greeted back at the black woman with her hair all bun uptight at the back of her head. “Careful there, we have quite a tongue back in there,”

“I shall be the judge of how charming this guy is,” Brooks, the cardiothoracic doctor, waved Allyson off with a friendly gesture.

And, Allyson’s day went by. One patient after another. The ER keeps filling up with patients no matter how many patients she discharged. Half of the patients weren’t even emergent, much less surgical.

“Don’t any of you have actual jobs to get to? Other than swamping my ER with drunken fools,” she internally groaned. “Comeeee onnnnnn, give me something to cut.” The surgical junkie in her was on edge.

“Oh crap, crap, crap, crap.” Allyson muttered, turning on her iPhone, but it just wouldn’t read her fingerprint. Frustrated with the object in her hand, “Apple product, my ass,” she grumbled as she quickly punched 160416 with her fat thumbs. She could already see the notifications lining up on her lock screen. Hidden, but she could predict as much that it would be angry texts from her boyfriend, shouting at her about her very, very late date.

To her surprise, it was not him. The Whatsapp messages were from what it seems to be .. clients? Asking about delivery dates, plans, and whatnot. Puzzled, she scrolled through her other notifications. There were even more emails on business with numbers that made no sense to her and several missed calls from all different numbers, including foreign numbers. “What in the world?”

Right at that moment, the phone buzzed, showing a new text message.

Say, if you want to break the news to him that you’re ending things, there’s really no need to throw me your phone.

Once again, Allyson was puzzled at this odd message that was unlike the other formal messages until she realized the number that sent that message was hers, and it finally hit her.

Cellphone swap.

How cliche.

It must be from that dude from before.

A small part of her whispered,

“You got to admit. If you want your phone to be swapped with a stranger, that hot guy doesn’t seem like a bad choice.”

Not at all a bad choice, indeed.

Chapter Two

Texting as professionally as possible aka trying to push the image of sexy him away from her mind,

It was a mistake. Where are you? I will return your phone. P/S: Do you mind telling him that we had a cell phone swap? And, maybe add an apology to that?

A few seconds later, the phone buzzed again.

So, you are poking your nose into a stranger’s private property. P/S: Don’t worry. I already did it as a courtesy of the never-ending angry buzz from your phone every 2 seconds.

He inserted a screenshot of a Whatsapp chat along with the text message. There were a couple of where are you?, her name and lines of questions mark, a few spam messages from her boyfriend, and a text of HER replying.

Next time, a girl stands you up for 5 hours, it is a breakup, you retard. Now, F### off.

Anger boiled at the pit of her stomach. How dare he. It may be a harmless joke to some but at this point in her relationship, it might just be the other shoe that they have been waiting to drop. Things weren’t going so well for her and Alex. From her demanding job to just about everything else. She angrily texted back,

You had no right. You better hope I can rectify this. Where are you?? More precisely, where is MY phone??

Still fuming, she took deep breaths to calm herself down. She will not stoop as low as him and cuss. Though she already was internally.

I doubt that.

He inserted yet another screenshot of her boyfriend texting back,

lol.ok.

Her phone buzzed again before she could reply.

Sir, I have confirmed the shipments are ready to be shipped out today as you have urgently requested. May I have your final word to confirm this?

As predicted as it may go, she quickly typed back.

No. Push it back to tomorrow.

1 for stranger hot guy . 1 for Miss. Fantastic

“An eye for an eye,” she muttered under her breath, knowing this will most likely get him into trouble and of course, she was no idiot. She wouldn’t send this to him. Yet. What are the chances of him returning her phone in one piece, then?

She texted him back,

He knows it’s a joke. We joke. And, for the 3rd time, where is my phone?

Sure thing, hun.

It is 3600 miles away from you, Allyson Addington who lives Aicon, California or should I say States of California Hospital?

Creeped out by his knowledge of her, she quickly typed.

What the hell-

But before she could hit send, the answer to her question popped out on her screen.

9/10 of your Facebook pictures are in the hospital.

P/S: Looking good there on Halloween. Vampire and all.

Kinky.

“Damn, Mark Zuckerberg.” Allyson cursed Facebook’s creator, but two can play this game. All she gotta do is find his Facebook…. Page.

“Who the hell doesn’t have a Facebook app!” she shouted in disbelief, gaining a few sides looks from patients, which Allyson awkwardly smiled away.

Let me guess, you tried doing the same and pathetically failed, hun.

Just name me a place. And, we will meet halfway and exchange this shit, you ancient-piece-junk-who-doesn’t- have-a-social-media-account-which-btw-even-my-grandad-has-em-you-dinosaur.

Allyson was honestly growing weary of this and only wanted her phone back and to fix things up with her boyfriend. But, the stubborn part of her still wouldn’t let the opportunity to add something extra of her own just slide away.

Dinosaur, huh? Nice lil reference, there. How about a rawr of love, too?

And, if you can meet me in Washington, sure. Else, deal with it, hun, until next Tuesday. I will be back by then.

“Next Tuesday,” Allyson grumbled. That’s at least 3 days more to go, but knowingly, there’s no way around this. Begrudgery, she typed,

Okay. Next Tuesday, it is.

And don’t you wish for it? I am in a relationship if you are not aware of it.

Quote. If you are not aware of it, it just ended.

“Crap. Right,” she muttered, forgetting for a moment that she still has a relationship to fix. If it is still there.

Packing up her things, she left the hospital for her boyfriend’s place just because she couldn’t remember the number she had been texting for two years.

Doctor, my ass.

Standing in front of the familiar mouldy-green door, she rehearsed all of her lines in her mind again for the 3rd time with a soon-to-be extra effect of tears and running mascara later. With the entire scene she pictured replayed in her mind successfully, she unlocked the door with the spare key she owned.

“Are you serious?”

She could hear him.

Probably on the phone.

Getting her drama ready to go, she burst into tears at the sight of him, “Babe! I am so sorry. My….” Allyson’s voice trailed off at the sight of a naked blonde tangled in her handpicked bedsheets from Ikea.

“What are you doing here?” Her boyfriend appeared body blocking the blonde girl out of her sight.

“Who is that?” Allyson’s voice turned fragile. Truth be told, she always expected her to scream and possibly commit murder if he ever cheated on her.

Guess not.

He pushed Allyson out of the room without needing much effort, “None of your business. We broke up. Remember?”

“Some guy took my phone and broke up with you….” Her soft voice trailed off again, not knowing what to do.

Should she walk out?

Should she apologize?

“Allyson, let’s face it. Thing’s aint exactly going that well these few years. It was inevitable. Today was just the last straw,” he said. “And, I broke up with you. What are you even sputtering on about some guy and your phone.”

“What?”

He broke up with her? But, the screenshot …

“Seriously, Allyson. Enough with your excuses,” he exasperated, waving her off. “You wouldn’t even let me have the last word on break up. Insisting that you are the one who broke it off which was fine but coming to my house?”

Trust.

To think of it, he never really believed her. He always agreed to disagree. Deep down, she knew he just did it because he didn’t want to listen to her anymore. Okay. Admittedly, Allyson may have spun a few tales from time to time whenever she was late to dates, but it was always because she was trying to save lives or dressing herself up for him!

Enough.

Maybe it was her pride or the inner strength that kicked in to shell her inner fragile girl in her. Without any words, she simply left the apartment.

“Anyone who jumped into bed with another girl right after their breakup isn’t worth it anyways,” she consoled herself.

Fishing out her phone, she was about to call a couple of her friends to drink it out tonight to realize she didn’t have any of their numbers.

Great.

Heartbroken and all alone.

Just great.

So, she texted the only stranger-friend she knew and could reach the moment.

Why did you lie? It was him who broke up with me. Ain’t you, buddy.

Felt sorry for me, maybe?

A couple of hours ago, I was your love of your dinosaur, and now, I am downgraded to just a buddy? Girl, I’m upset.

Smiling at that text, she replied,

Love of your dinosaur? I can’t decide. Am I texting a kid or an elderly?

I would settle for a sexy, hot guy who doesn’t need social media.

Says every old man

Watch it, kinky vampire.

Old man doesn’t get Halloween, don’t you?

Allyson hit send and walked herself back. Their childish taunts kept her mind occupied, which would otherwise have drowned her with misery. Still waiting on his reply, she dropped by the convenient store and grabbed a bottle of booze and a tub of ice cream.

The two things she needs to mend a broken heart

Even after she reached home, there was yet a reply from him.

Sadly.

So, she turned on her Netflix and played the first show on the recommended list and drank her heart away.

“Okay. Seriously girl! That dress looks absolutely horrible on you!” the ever-present fashion critique in her slurred, downing another gulp of alcohol.

“What’s with people and the obsession on fishnets?” she mumbled with another spoonful of Early Grey Tea ice cream. “Do guys actually find it sexy?”

One way to find out.

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Thank you for reading! Chapter 3 to 4 will be out soon. Follow the author for updates.