Chapter 1: Hope Of Hope

PART 1: THE MALDIVES HAS A STORY TO TELL

Emily entered Green Bells Hospital and easily found Damian's office. She opened the door and saw the young, handsome doctor. She had heard that Damian was one of the best cosmetic surgeons in Los Angeles, but his physical appearance was not mentioned.

"Doctor Damian, it's a pleasure to meet you," Emily said, extending her hand for a handshake.

Damian shook her hand with a smile. "The pleasure is mine. Please have a seat and tell me your name."

"My name is Emily."

"Great, let's dive into why you're here."

Emily thought Damian was too perfect, with his above-average height and handsome looks. She believed he would have been a model instead of a doctor. Damian noticed that Emily was lost in thought and stopped talking.

He had experienced this before, where women would ask him out for coffee. Damian rejected most of them because of his busy schedule, but he agreed to meet Emily at 10 pm.

Damian rarely had time for relationships, but he decided to make an exception for Emily. He had never been in a relationship that lasted more than three months.

Emily asked Damian what he was looking for in a woman, but he couldn't answer. Emily then asked if he needed a woman who could satisfy him in bed. Damian hesitated, but before he could respond, Emily stood up, walked towards him, and kissed him.

Damian resisted and suggested they take things slow. Emily then invited him to dinner at her place after work, and Damian agreed.

Damian was able to meet up for dinner at Emily's place. Seeing him made her smile because she was a little doubtful that he wouldn’t make it due to his busy schedule at work. She walked towards him and planted a kiss on his cheek, welcoming him. They both exchanged pleasantries and headed for the dining table. The evening was welcoming, full of life with the ambient light looming from the moon to complement the night as they sat outside after the meal, staring at the stars.

“They are beautiful, aren’t they?” Damian asked.

“Yes, they are,” Emily replied.

After long hours of discussion and laughter, the night was over. Following their romantic time the previous evening, they both kicked off their relationship with a series of texts, calls, and the love he showed towards her was exceptionally great. But Emily was disturbed, asking herself if she wasn't good enough to have given in to her sexual desires. It had been two weeks, but no physical intimacy had happened.

“Sorry, I forgot to tell you that I’ll be coming home very late. So I got this while coming back,” Damian said, presenting her with a gift.

“It's so nice of you,” Emily said coldly.

“Don’t you like it?”

“I do, but when are we going to have sex?”

With that question, without appreciating the gifts, he was sure she wasn't the one, even though he sensed it all along.

“All the time I spent with you, I wanted to feel something, I wanted to feel a spark, but I didn’t feel anything, no connection, I –“

“You know what, you watch too many romance movies, I'm out of here,” Emily said, walking out of his bedroom, carrying the bags she brought in with her and his gifts, and left his house.

***

After a busy day, Damian got a ticket to watch poets recite their poems on lovers' day, but a certain girl caught his attention. He paid full attention because of her beauty. When she began reciting her poem, he stayed motionless, letting poetry fill his soul. She ended the poem by saying, “Love is being crazy about someone, a state of sleeplessness and distraction. Love is delicate, elusive, and above all, it is spontaneous. Love thrives on honesty, sincerity, coupled with being mutually responsible and concerned. It comes, at first sight, most times, but for it to grow, you must flourish it by putting your open heart and soul to it.”

Their relationship lasted longer than the usual three months. He took her out for a ball party. She wore a white dress, full of filmy material, high at the throat. She rounded her waist with a black ribbon, wearing also a good chain that glittered on her neck. She felt like Cinderella, as everyone was stunned at her glory, adoring her. Damian nevertheless appeared bewitching, stumbling after her in his drab evening dress. He pressed her cool hand, circling her tiny waist and whirling her helpless in his arms about the floor. He smelled the perfume of her hair as they danced to the beat. After the dance, he complimented her on her beauty, her dancing, and thanked her for an unforgettable evening.

They had supper and then strolled on the terrace. He caught his breath, dazzled by the splendor of her limitless eyes, and began spitting poetry. "I can never look at a drop of dew in a buttercup without beholding shafts of love in the retreats of your eyes," he said. "In you, there is unity; your face and form are a blend of perfect line and contour. In you, there is equality; your features are exquisitely proportioned, modeled as no sculptor could model them. I think of God when I see you," he admired the creation of such perfection. "If, as he believed, harmony must give each of its works unity and equality to produce beauty, then before he was a living emblem of harmony, and so of beauty. You're so lovely, how deliciously feminine and provocative you are! What incomparable blending of form and color in your divine features!

"Your beauty is ecstasy, giving me intense pleasure. Your beauty is eternity, gazing at me in every image of you. Your beauty is heart inflamed, burning me in your eyes which one shade the more and one ray the less. Your beauty is soul enchanted. Filming like brilliant irregular rainbows in the memory of your image which I see though I close my eyes. Your beauty is life when life unveils your face. Rose, your beauty is a garden forever in bloom and a flock of angels in flight." He paused for a while.

Her cheeks mantled with delicious blushes. He kept filling her with wonderful words, so tender and intense. He swept her into his masterful arms and planted a kiss on her warm lips, sending extraordinary stimuli through her whole body, his strong hands protecting her from the coarseness of the world. She felt her love rise in her like a flame. She felt her whole body tremble, emblem with the excitement and the ecstasy of the thrill that swept over her.

"Was that original?" she asked.

He smiled. "You just made me a poet like you. Of course, it was original."

"Mine wasn't original on the day we first met."

"What are you saying?"

"I plagiarized words from Carina Sanders. She's a writer, not a poet."

"Well, it doesn't change anything now." His lips met hers once again. For a long moment, she had the taste of heaven on her mouth.

"I love you," she said.

She expected him to tell her back, but he didn't. His silence made her upset as she pulled away from him. "We've been dating for months, and you're still not sure of your feelings for me!"

"I'm sorry. With time, I will grow to love you."

"With time, you say. I don't have time."

Just then, without thinking of his action, he left her without saying a word.

***

Damian started dating Judith, whom he met on Instagram and brought from New York to live in his house. As he got to know her, he found out she was also a cosmetic surgeon, making him take her as his assistant since he lacked one.

It was drizzling outside as Damian was driving. He drove the car through the occasional mist, climbing the winding roads up the high ranges.

"Call me and come home early after the surgery," Judith said. She wished she could join him in Beverly Hills, but she wasn't appointed to be among the surgeons to undergo a difficult surgery in Beverly Hills. Instead, Damian was.

He met her at home after a successful surgery in the kitchen, washing the dishes. Instead of his usual welcoming greeting, he got a mouthful. "How could you be so late? Why didn't you call? What am I supposed to think?!" Judith yelled.

"I'm sorry. There was a lot of traffic on the bridge. Sometimes life can't be the way you want. You can't expect me to always be on time. You are a doctor too, so I suppose you should know this by now."

“Are you sure it was traffic that made you late? The surgery ended at 6. I don’t appreciate it when you’re late, it upsets me. Your dinner is in the microwave. Please give me a call next time you’re running late.”

“Hey babe, I’m sorry…”

Judith chuckled. “Oh, you forgot.”

Just then, he remembered that it was her birthday.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry that I forgot. I promise to make it up to you.”

“How could you forget? When will you even remember? How can I trust that you’ll make it up to me when you’re always running late?”

“I was really busy and just forgot. These things happen sometimes.”

“Really?”

At that moment, he said, “I’m breaking up with you.”

“What! You can’t be serious,” Judith said, as a glass slipped from her hands, fell into the soapy water, and broke.

“I am. Please don’t come here tomorrow. I’ll pay you for your time.”

“Aargh!” Judith cried out and pulled her hands from the water. Blood ran from her right hand down to her arm.

“Judith,” Damian grabbed the dishtowel she had taken from the drawer only moments ago. He pressed it firmly against the cut. “Sit down.”

“It’s just a minor cut, I’ll handle it myself,” Judith said.

“That’s your problem. Let me help you.”

“And why should you? You’re the one who just broke up with me, remember?”

“That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t help when you’re in pain.”

“What kind of man are you?”

“What kind of man do you think I am?”

“You’re different. Your kind is rare. I’ve never seen a man who won’t touch a lady while she’s staying with him.”

“I can’t have sex with a woman I don’t love,” he paused for a while. “I’ll go get antiseptic and a bandage.”

He went to the bathroom and came back to see her stripped to nothing.

“No man can resist the sight of a naked woman.”

He dropped the items on top of the drawer, took the food from the microwave, and left the kitchen for his room, locking the door.

***

Damian sat at the hospital cafeteria not too long before being approached by a lady who sat next to him.

“Are you free for coffee tomorrow night? Seems you have no ring on your finger, hope you don’t have a girlfriend.”

Damian arched a brow and passed a grin. “I can’t believe you just asked me out.”

“It’s the twenty-first century, women can ask men out. There’s nowhere that says only a man can ask a woman out. Don’t flatter yourself. I’d probably love spending time with you, especially when you’re less busy like now, holding hands, kissing in the backseat like romantic couples. I love your eyes.”

She wrote her number on a sticky pad and pushed it to him. “Call me.”

He pushed back the sticky pad and said, “I’m not interested.”