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“Your encouragement always lifts my spirits,” I whispered, reverently touching the glass screen of my phone.
What was happening to me? I hadn’t even reacted this intensely when a girlfriend of two years dumped me right before my third year of medical school. I’d secretly been relieved, embarrassingly eager about all the extra time I’d have to study since I didn’t have to maintain the relationship.
It was almost enough to make me believe in soulmates, a fantastical creation more worthy of a character in one of Grandma’s made-for-TV movies than a man of science. Statistically, though, the chances of finding a person who could make my life’s work seem trivial by comparison after only two weeks had to be low.
I searched PubMed for research on the effects of severed emotional bonds, but the abstracts that came up made as little sense to my beleaguered mind as my emails.
I sighed heavily and put my phone aside.
All along I’d been worried about Grandma’s heart, but apparently, I should’ve been concerned with my own.
Nine days after the cruise and on my final day of work before Beth’s wedding, I stood before the cursed elevator at Beaufort, waiting for the carriage to haul itself to the third floor. But after a never-ending wait and the sudden, alarming sound of metal grinding from behind the doors, I opted to take the freshly painted, reopened stairs.
I stopped mid-flight when my phone buzzed, and then had to blink to read an email notification, eyes dry after twenty straight hours of work. Since I was going out of town for the second time in a month, I’d felt obligated to cover shifts for any nurse who needed it.
In theory, staying busy would also keep me from obsessing about Adam, though that benefit never quite kicked in. We’d run into each other twice since we got back, and both times he passed me in the halls of the hospital without making eye contact. It was exactly what I wanted him to do so we could avoid scrutiny and gossip.
But it still hurt.
Desperate to divert my thoughts from Adam, I scrolled through social media on my phone. Somehow, I missed a step and slid halfway down the flight, reaching the next landing with a thud and scream of pain.
I heard footsteps hastening up to me. My first conscious thought was that I’d ruin Beth’s wedding photos if I had to be a maid of honor in crutches. My second was to note someone crouching over me, a look of concern on his face.
“Adam?” I gasped. I’d taken the stairs to avoid him only to end up sprawled before him like a patient on the operating table.
“Are you alright? Any broken bones? May I...” Adam’s hands hovered over my body like he was doing some kind of energy healing.
“I’m fine.” I started to push myself off the ground, and that’s when I learned of my second humiliation, as Dr. Cassie Croft emerged from nowhere and provided a steadying hand under my elbow and helped me get to my feet.
I bit back a groan. It would have been better if I’d been knocked unconscious, because at least then I wouldn’t be awake for the mortification of having Adam and Cassie seeing me sprawled on the ground.
“Are you able to walk?” Cassie asked softly.
I tested a couple of steps. I was sore, mostly on my backside, but I didn’t think anything was broken. “Yes, thank you. Sorry to bother you.” I moved to the next step, holding tight to the handrail, and attempting to ignore the new pain shooting through my ankle.
“Jenna,” Adam called. I turned automatically to the sound of his voice.
Cassie shot a surprised look at him, and I wondered if Adam had mentioned my name to her for some unfathomable reason.
“You hit the landing pretty hard.” He ran a hand through his hair, and the memory of how soft it felt as I ran my fingers over it added heartache to my list of fresh pains. “You could have whiplash, or even a hairline fracture. You should get an x-ray.”
“I’m fine.” I forced a smile. “If I get any worse, or the pain doesn’t go down with some ibuprofen, I’ll come back.”
Adam took a step closer to me. “But you’re leaving for your trip tomorrow morning.”
Cassie’s eyebrows went up farther.
I was just as surprised that Adam had remembered my travel plans. “We have a hospital in Asheville. And an Urgent Care. It’s not completely in the middle of nowhere.” Is that what he’d imagined, that he’d be trapped in the mountains with no signal or Wi-Fi, forced to converse with Jenna’s hillbilly family?
Another step closer. “Is Ellie coming to get you? I could give you a ride home.”
His concern hurt just as much as it touched me. If Adam was still my boyfriend I could have relied on his help, but he wasn’t, and every second I spent talking to him made me feel worse. I had to escape. “I think I can manage.”
He stared at me, frustration evident in his tight lips and tense stance. “Okay,” he finally said, then stepped back up the stairs, right next to Dr. Croft. Just like I wanted him to, I reminded myself. I turned my back on them and kept going down.
My Trip ride was waiting as I came out of the hospital, a small miracle. Almost as soon as I shut the door, Ellie called. Tired and sore, I considered ignoring it, but decided to answer.
“Hey! Have you already left work?” Ellie had to yell to be heard over some loud music in the background.
