Hello Stranger

Still behind me!

I held back. Finally, I held back, and he kept on walking, getting closer and closer.

I pretended to be fiddling with my bag until he came up next to me, and then I forced myself to take some more clumsy steps, until we reached the big double doors together, side by side.

He was as shocked as I was. I know he was as shocked as I was, I could see it all over his face.

He walked into reception, just as I did, and I knew it then, my heart knew it before my head.

Please, universe. Please, oh my God.

And the universe delivered.

I’d always believed in karma, and fate, and destiny, but never like this.

Never actually like this.

Dita Allen, the main receptionist, looked up as we stepped towards the reception hub, and she smiled. She smiled at him and held up a hand as he stepped on by.

“Good morning, Dr Hall,” she said.13LoganI was no believer in anything beyond science and logic. I had no time for the fluffy bullshit of fate and destiny. But that moment – standing there in Harrow District reception hub and staring over at Chloe from the train – was enough to give me shivers.

She hovered on the spot, open-mouthed and wide-eyed, staring over at me so intently you could have struck her down with a feather. I felt it, too. You could have struck me down with the same damn one.

I tried to brush it aside – this ridiculous shiver of fate – tried to laugh it off as nothing, right then in my head. But it’s hard when you’re staring across at the girl who’s been driving you insane for weeks, and realising that she’s been heading to the same damn building that you have, day after day.

Our eyes were fixed, both of us staring hard across the hub, neither of us moving a muscle. It was me who ended the connection, shifting myself in position and holding up a hand to the girl on reception.

“Good morning, Dita,” I said.

It was like the spell had been broken as soon as I spoke, and I regretted it with a horrible little pang as soon as Chloe found her feet and backed away from me. She was back. The white rabbit, panicking and dashing all the way.

I watched her leave in the opposite direction to mine, down the eastern corridor, staying still on my feet until she was gone.

“Do you have any idea who that was?” I asked the receptionist.

She shrugged. “A nice girl, fresh to Kingsley, I think. Her name might be Chloe… she usually says hi.”

“A nurse?”

“Yeah, a trainee, I think.”

I nodded. “Thanks.”

Spell broken, I walked away. Except the spell wasn’t broken. My route up to Franklin felt strange with that pounding in my chest. Thump, thump, thump. A flush of some bizarre excitement I couldn’t contain.

There was no excitement due here, that’s what I told myself. So what if the girl from the train was a nurse at the same hospital I worked at? Plenty of people worked at the same hospital I did. Plenty of nurses worked at the same hospital I did. No huge coincidence.

So, why did it feel like one?

Why did those shivers keep coming?

I settled down into my shift, giving my attention to the people who needed it, supervising meds and advising on patients’ options. I summoned Gina and Romi for a consulting room catch up and talked through our outpatients schedule for the week.

So, why did those shivers keep coming?

It was when Wendy Briars arrived at Franklin, early in the afternoon, that those shivers rose up and got the best of me. My throat was dry when I listened to her speak through patients’ notes on a few of our most difficult cases. I couldn’t hold back the thump, thump, thump in my chest as I stared at the notes on her clipboard.

She was smiling, and thanking me for my help, and walking away when the blurt came from my throat.

“Wendy, just a second please.”

I stood like a fool as she turned around and headed back.

“Yes, Dr Hall?”

I cleared my throat. “The, um… there’s one of the nurses. A trainee, I think. Mousy hair, freckles. Quite a delicate little thing.”

Wendy pulled a face, weighing it up.

I cursed myself down deep as I kept on speaking.

“Her name is Chloe, I believe.”

With that Wendy grinned at me and swiped her hand in the air.

“Oh, Dr Hall. Of course, her name is Chloe. You’re talking about Chloe Sutton. Has someone pointed her out already? I was planning on showing her around the department early next week. I sent her files, for your approval?” She paused when I looked blank. “She’s replacing Gina.”

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

I must’ve turned white. As pale as a fucking ghost.

“She’s replacing Gina?”

She grinned at me. “Yes. Well, so long as that is ok with you. She’s very excited, and very good. I thought she’d be perfect over here.” Another pause from her. “I did send you her files through, right?”