Chapter 12: LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

Flashback ...
"Good Evening, Dr Dmitri ! Your shift schedule has been changed for this coming Friday," the hospital administrator informed just when Dmitri came rushing in. "I'll make the change digitally too and you shall get a formal notification soon. Thought that I would give you heads up before you made any plans for the day," the good man added.
"Oh ! I see. An emergency ?" Dmitri asked as he put his thumb on the biometric scanner and wished for the thing to hurry up.
He just had a small window of time to catch himself a cup of coffee before his head turned into a planet of chaos. God, he could kill for a cup of pure caffeine goodness right now.
"No, not the kind that you're thinking of, Doctor," the man behind the counter nixed as he handed Dmitri the schedule of the day. "The Director of Planning issued an order that you and Dr Hazel will be presenting a career counselling session for medical services in the city's central university on Friday. You need to be there at 11 am sharp," he divulged the important details as tersely as possible.
Dmitri stopped scanning the appointment slips and looked up for the first time with knitted eyebrows.
"Hazel and me ?" Dmitri asked, surprised. "You're sending two doctors together for a counselling session ?! I thought that you had an in-place faculty for that. Must be an important event," he added questioningly, cocking his head to one side.
"Well, it sure is and the Director feels that you two are the best choice for counselling the young minds in one of the country"s finest, top-notch universities," the hospital administrator grinned. "The XXX University is organizing a Global Career Counselling Program which will incorporate a range of options for the audience. Students ranging from traditional courses such as Engineering and Medicine to modern ones such as Film-Making, Modeling and Design shall be there too," he informed.
"Ah !" Dmitri exclaimed. "I understand now. I shall be there", he assured before making a beeline for his room.
Little did the young, successful doctor know that a major chunk of the working female population in the hospital would have fought the gods to be in Hazel"s place just to get his full attention for even a day.
The week flew by and Friday came knocking in.
Handsome was too mild a word to describe him as a suave-looking Dmitri got ready for the day that, unbeknownst to him, could change his life.
His well toned arms easily slipped in a notch-lapel, charcoal coloured suit which had a luxurious air to it and paired it with a crisp white shirt which draped snugly over his tight abdominal muscles.
To complete his look, he had added a striped tie and standard Oxford black leather shoes.
He, in fact, had put extra care into his selection of clothing on that particular day, as he dressed to impress his audience and impressed as sure-fire they were !
If half of the audience wasn't swayed by the enigmatic-looking doctor"s appearance, then they sure as hell were applauding with a standing ovation after his speech.
After an interactive Q&A session, the Dean of the University took over and issued his vote of thanks.
"We would like to thank all our esteemed guests for making this a fruitful career counselling session today at our University. Now I would like to request you all to join us for coffee and refreshments at our cafeteria," he announced at the end of the event.
"Everything was so well organized and coordinated !" Hazel sighed. "But my feet are killing me now. Argh, these killer heels," she gritted out.
"Why don"t you sit and relax, I shall get our beverages," Dmitri offered like a true gentleman that he was.
"Oh honey, what would I be without you ?" a grateful Hazel dramatically asked with a hand on her heart.
"Hungry and unorganized," Dmitri deadpanned and got a huff from the bemused lady doctor, who couldn't stop a traitorous smile from stretching on her lips, once the handsome doctor started chuckling.
"You're the worst but I'll forgive you if you get my coffee ASAP, Doctor, so you better hurry. Otherwise you can find your own ride back home" she teased.
"Yes Ma"am ! On it !!" Dmitri mock saluted. "Don"t want to be left behind by a lousy, traitorous friend miles away from home," he added while a friend of his rolled her eyes, stifling another amused smile nonetheless.
Dmitri strode towards the counter while Hazel got them the only available table at the far corner of the cafeteria.
The dashing doctor grabbed two cups of over-brewed coffee from the counter and turned to go back to the table where Hazel was sitting before in a blink of an eye, the brown liquid was staining over a gasping female"s clothes rather than sitting in the cups.
Just when he had turned the corner, suddenly, by accident, QUASH !
Dmitri had collided with Audrey, who bumped into him out of nowhere !!
Audrey, was a student in the university pursuing her bachelor's degree, dressed in a burgundy sweater and black and white short checkered skirt with tights, her go to look.
It definitely looked quite cool and classy on her, the sweater giving her a stunning, cozy look.
Luckily, the coffee was lukewarm, so it didn't burn Audrey as much as Dmitri had anticipated. The only thing was that the coffee had soaked through her burgundy sweater.
The shock wore off of Audrey just as soon as the fury arrived.
"Look what you've done !" Audrey accused, "You need to look where you're going next time, Doctor !"
So, she was in the auditorium for the session, the sharp doctor concluded.
Dmitri was stupefied by the coffee spilling accident as it had never happened to him before and that too with a fiery girl, nonetheless.
Even with a red, hot temper, he couldn"t help but feel dazzled by the young girl"s beauty.
Dazed, he just didn't know how to react !!
"S-sorry," Dmitri"s suddenly dry throat managed to stutter out somehow.
"Sorry isn't going to fix what's happened," Audrey indignantly pointed out, wringing coffee out of her sweater.
"She's so pretty !" Dmitri thought. But just as soon as that thought came into his mind, he chased it away.
Only he was too late because he was already blushing, which caught Audrey"s attention.
"Why are you blushing, Doctor ? You have not accomplished a milestone here. You have just spilled coffee on me" Audrey scoffed as she looked at him with a fixed gaze, arms crossed.
Looking at her made Dmitri nervous, as she seemed quite agitated, "You can take off your sweater and take my suit jacket. Do you want my suit jacket, miss ?" he blurted out.
He sounded like a nitwit and braced himself for an earful before much to his astonishment, Audrey didn't refuse his offer.
"Sure," she replied, "That way you can pay for what you've done, Doctor."
Dmitri scrambled to get the jacket out off his shoulders. Audrey grabbed it out of his hand without so much as a thank you and yanked her wet sweater off.
Dmitri turned bright red, he could feel the heat venture from his toes to his ears.
Quickly, Dmitri turned around and said in a considerable tone, "Why don't you go to the girl's bathroom and change your sweater ?"
"Why can't I take off my sweater here in the middle of the hallway ? I see guys taking their shirts off all the time," Audrey sneered, her voice muffled from changing.
"It's just e-embarrassing," Dmitri mumbled.
If Dmitri blushed any harder, his hair was going to catch fire
Audrey grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around. Pointing an accusing finger in his face, as she said, "What are you trying to say ? That I should be ashamed of my body ? That I'm not good enough?"
The moment Dmitri saw Audrey in his suit jacket, he felt a shiver go down his spine.
It wasn't that he was cold or that she scared him, it was just because she looked so stunning.
For sure ! She wasn't like the other girls who needed to wear tons of makeup, she had a great smile, a perfect frame, and a beauty that rivaled the Greek Goddess, Aphrodite herself, but her confidence was what Dmitri found the sexiest.
His suit jacket was a little too big on her, coming down just after her waist. It clashed with her checkered skirt, but there was something about it that made it look... cute.
"N-no, of course not. You're gorgeous !" a flustered Dmitri quickly replied, trying not to fan anymore flames.
There was a pause, a silence caused by the words he had just blurted out.
He felt too embarrassed for what he had just said to properly function. In fact, he was beet red and wanted to crawl under a rock and never come back out. Way to go, Dmitri. Way to go, he chided himself.
What did he just say !!
Gorgeous ?
Oh no ! Who said that, especially to a fuming lady ?
Audrey too was taken aback and was embarrassed but she would never express or admit to it.
However, her heart did skip a beat when Dmitri called her gorgeous, but it had been stomped on as soon as it had come. Audrey didn't fall in love or had crushes. All she needed was herself and that was enough for her.
"Whatever !" Audrey nonchalantly brushed off, letting go of Dmitri and picking up her stuff. "I've to go," she murmured and walked away as if nothing had happened, but on looking closely, the red at the tips of her ears were clearly visible.
As soon as she was gone, Dmitri was suddenly reminded of his own patient appointments at the hospital.
He immediately checked his watch and sighed, it was too late. Dejected, Dmitri began to walk back to the table where Hazel was sitting.
Dmitri and Audrey walked in opposite directions, each having different things in their mind but turned back at asynchronous times to catch a glimpse of the other"s retreating back.
Sigh !
This was weird.
"What happened to your shirt, dork ?" Hazel questioned as soon as Dmitri came in sight with a tray of two freshly brewed coffee cups.
"Had a coffee spilling accident round the corner," Dmitri sighed while placing Hazel"s cup in front of her.
"How on earth did that happen ?" inquired the baffled female doctor.
"I don"t know", he shrugged as he generously added sugar to his cup. "I really don"t remember much of how I met with this annoying accident, to be honest," Dmitri admitted. "But it felt like I was knocked by a whirlwind all of a sudden and then a tempest of fury hit me when the girl wouldn't stop blaming me, for no fault of mine ! Imagine, the cheek of that girl !!" he whined, making Hazel laugh.
Now that he thought about it, he felt foolish, gazing into her soulful eyes tongue-tied and stuttering like a fool when he should have defended himself.
He had no idea how things had spiraled down from a smart doctor getting a standing ovation for his speech to turning into a blubbering mess in the middle of the cafeteria within a span of an hour.
However, the way it happened was quite simple. Honestly, it was always the simple things that had the lasting impact and this thought had Dmitri blushing- again !
On the other side of the city, a young heart was sailing in the same boat as him, as she schooled herself to not think about the charming, pink-cheeked doctor who haunted her dreams.
But how could she stop ? His compliment and smile reigned on her mind.
However, she was too young and too ambitious !
And he was, for a lack of a better word, a total geek to fall in love with !
A handsome one that too, her subconscious butted in and Audrey couldn"t help but sneer at herself.
She made a lot of excuses, but her heart seemed to have already chosen him at first sight.
Maybe fate did have its hand at the cards, determining something before it had even begun.
Only father time was going to tell now ....