Chapter 2

The next day, as I had promised Piper, I managed to leave work early to go grab some lunch for the two of us from her favorite restaurant across the street from the clinic. When I arrived to the lobby, I called her to let her know that I was waiting for her but she didn't pick up. I left her a quick message and sat on the bench while I waited with the paper bag full of food on my lap.

As the seconds became long minutes, I decided that I would go up to the second floor where the lunchroom was and wait for her there. When the elevator doors were about to close, a foot slipped in between making them slide back open revealing a man in a suit and tie, clearly in a rush to catch the lift up. Our eyes met and for a moment I felt like the earth had stopped spinning.

The man was dashingly handsome and elegant, not the type of guy you see walking in a health care institution but rather in a business company. He was tall with broad shoulders and a wide chest. His hair wasdark blond and the shade of blue of his suit was a total contrast to the baby blue of his eyes. The features of his face couldn't be more defined or more perfect to the human eye. He caught me staring and I felt the heat rise up my cheeks immediately. His eyes so intense I felt them boring into me, leaving a burning spot wherever they landed on my skin.

I found it hard to hold his gaze but even harder to look away. There was something about him drawing me in like a magnet and I couldn't fight back the attraction. I felt weak in the knees, hyperventilating, out of breath like the air had been knocked out of my lungs making me feel light-headed.Sensing my discomfort, he decided to put an end to my misery and stepped into the elevator as the doors slid shut behind him.

My ride wasn’t long but it felt like forever as we both stood in a deafening silence, the air so heavy in the car making it hard to breathe.

The doors opened and I almost ran out, tightening my grip around the paper box in my arms my body lightly brushing against him on my way out and I could have sworn I heard him make a sound at the back of his throat. I turned around for one last glance before the doors closed and I caught his eyes again, this time, they looked different. Darker.

-Sorry for making you wait. I was caught in surgery.

Piper said walking into the lunchroom. I was too sucked into a day dream, a haze, replaying the two minutes in the elevator in my head over and over again to even hear her come in. A snap of two fingers brought me back to reality.

-Are you alright?

Piper asked, becoming concerned when she saw my face.

-Where is everybody?

I asked, diverting her focus from my face.

-I don't know. There's this important meeting with Dr. Howard and the members of the board. I heard that he's introducing a new member today so I guess everybody is eager to know who.

-Aren't you?

-I don't really care. I heard he is not a doctor.

She replied with a shrug.

-Isn’t it strange that I've never met your boss? I mean, he owns this whole institution. Why haven't I seen him anywhere?

I asked, my curiosity as a journalist taking over.

-Maybe you did but didn't recognize him. He's a pretty discreet guy, rarely appears in the media.

After we finished eating, Piper was accompanying me out when she said:

-My colleagues are going out tonight. Want to tag along?

-I'm not really in the mood to socialize. I have a lot of work to catch up on.

-Oh come on. It's Friday. When was the last time you went out? Don't answer that, I already know the answer.There's this new bar that has just opened at the curb of the street, it's called The Chill so we've developed this new habit of swinging by after shift for a quick drink.

-Alright.

I finally gave in with a defeated sigh. I wasn't much of a squad person. I didn’t even have friends anymore. After I had left California, I lost touch with everybody. Besides, work took too much of my time that I hardly ever went out and when I did, it was either with my father or Piper.

At work, they barely liked me. Maybe because I was the director's niece and they were avoiding me so I wouldn't rat them out. They didn’t even try to get to know me before judging me.

There was only one person who seemed to tolerate me, Hudson O’Connor. At first, I thought that he was being nice to me so I would do him favors, but the more we hung out the more I realized that he didn't want anything from me besides a simple friendship. He was my senior and he often offered me his help, not the other way around.

-Still not finished?

I asked knocking on Hudson’s door. He raised his head from his computer and gave me a sad smile as he said:

-Are we ever?

I chuckled and walked to sit on the chair opposite of him as I waited for him to finish whatever he was typing.

He glanced at his watch and made a face before shutting his laptop.

-Crap, I haven't realized it was this late. Luckily, I don't have to pick up Rosie today from school. My mom is taking care of that.

Rosie was Hudson's daughter, she was eight years old, if my memory serves me right. He always talked about her when we hung out. He had her when he was only twenty years old but sadly lost his high school sweetheart Olivia at birth. Instead of getting married again, Hudson took full responsibility of his daughter and devoted himself to raising her with his mother. The first time I heard the story I was in tears and he spent the next hour or so comforting me when it should have been the other way around. I hated tragedies and sad endings, whenever I decided to read a book, I would always take a look at the last page to make sure there were no heartbreaking endings that would crush my fantasy of a happily ever after.

-I'm going out with Piper and her colleagues to grab a drink, want to join us?

He raised an eyebrow at me and I wondered if I was that obvious to everyone that I was an introvert.

-Yeah, why not.

He replied standing up and grabbing his jacket from the back of his chair following me out the door.

We walked into the Chill and spotted Piper sitting at the back with a group of people. As soon as she noticed us, she waved at us and stood up from her chair.

-Hey, you made it!

Piper said in her tipsy high pitched voice. She introduced us and I waved at the group of people as Hudson and I took the available seats left. We ordered some drinks and Hudson and I tried to mingle and follow the conversation they had already going on.

-What's all the fuss about?

I whispered to Piper when I failed to catch up.

-They're talking about the new board member.

-Apparently, it was on the senior’s will before he died. He left his share of the clinic to Michaelson.

Brooke, one of Piper's colleagues,gossiped.

-Yeah, I heard that Dr. Nathanielwas as shocked as we are.

Maggie added.

-That probably explains why he was late for the meeting.I saw him running toward the elevator when I went to meet Savannah in the lunchroom.

Piper said and her words struck me, scenes of that morning flashed through my head as it downed in on me that the mysterious man she was talking about was the same man I had his piercing blue eyes burned in my mind.