Chapter 43: CUPID’S TRICK

"Hey Hazel ! Let's have a cup of coffee, sweetie, if you're free to accompany me to the cafeteria. It has been a really busy morning," a tired Isabelle asked as she passed through her cabin in the hospital.
"Sure ! Give me a minute," Hazel said as she shut down her laptop.
Hazel took her coat before she locked the room and turned to Isabelle.
"Isabelle, Ethan's birthday party was amazing. You were a gracious hostess. I really had a great time, thanks for everything," Hazel complimented as they walked through the hospital corridors.
"It's good to know that you enjoyed the party. Oh ! But I forgot to tell you that there was someone who enjoyed our party because of you. So thanks to you also !" Isabelle winked with a mischievous grin dotting her face as they sipped their coffee.
"Hush you ! You're kidding," a pink-cheeked Hazel said with a brush of her hand.
"Course I'm not," Isabelle chuckled before sipping on her coffee.
"Really ?! If I may ask, who was he then ?" Hazel replied.
"Ok, so you're expecting to know the name of a 'he' and not a 'she'," Isabelle teased.
"Stop teasing me ! Tell me the name now !!" Hazel whined.
"Actually, your heart must have guessed the name by now that he was none other than the one who had given you a sleepless night yesterday," Isabelle further teased.
"You mean, Calvin !" Hazel gasped.
"You gotcha, girl ! Yes, Calvin was asking about you. I think he has really taken a liking for you and I think the same holds good for you too, if I'm not mistaken," Isabelle replied with a knowing smile curving up on her face.
Hazel tried to deny it but then thought it was better to be honest with not only Isabelle but herself too. So with a sigh, she admitted.
"To be honest, I had fallen in love once. I never confessed or proposed to Dmitri, so we never dated and he never reciprocated my feelings. But now I've since learned to be more vocal, to express those feelings, if I develop the same for someone," Hazel remarked.
"So do you think that after spending a couple of hours with Calvin yesterday, that 'someone' could be him ?" Isabelle cautiously questioned.
"Of course ! I liked spending time with him. He's quite sharp and I really enjoyed his company. It seemed that time just flew in a blink of an eye but it's too early to call it the L word," Hazel truthfully answered.
"Hazel, there is something called 'Love at first sight'. I can see that both of you have developed a liking for each other. Calvin has a stable career, has matured and evolved a lot over the years and as far as I know him he's really interested in knowing you better," Isabelle commented.
"It's emotionally jarring to realize that I'm falling in love with someone completely different from the person who made me experience love the first time, and I'm really rattled by this thought," Hazel confessed.
"Our hearts are big and open, and are willing to love anyone who will love us back. When you date someone different, you realize how pleasurable and loving it's to know something different. It's all contexts and growth," Isabelle counseled as she could see Hazel had become a little disoriented.
"But, this time around I want to approach it in a healthier way, a bit more protective and alert, and want to make sure that the relationship could work long-term as I'm not looking for dating," Hazel replied.
"After ending a relationship with Calvin, the second time around with Kenji, I was also cautious but ready to experience a raw imperfect love and embrace it for its imperfections. So I understand where you're coming from," Isabelle shared her own experience.
Appreciating love for what it was and acknowledging that we were a season in someone"s life and they were in ours, helps us to taste love once again.
"I root for a second chance in love because of the reality of it all which I've experienced myself. After our first love, we get over all of those unrealistic expectations out of the way and are ready to start again," Isabelle added.
"But I've experienced the pain and the hurt of unrequited love and now look here, I'm again falling for Calvin," Hazel sighed.
"In spite of getting hurt in love and still willing to suffer those consequences again by falling in love with another man, it means that you're loving at a deeper level this time and with deeper knowledge of the repercussions," explained Isabelle.
"I agree, this is different from pure first love, where I had fallen hard and fast, then asked questions later when nothing materialized," Hazel brooded.
First love is a product of age, environment, stage of life, or never having experienced that indescribable feelings. Perhaps, our heart is a clean, untainted slate, yet to be damaged.
As long as life goes forward it's growing and evolving. Each new relationship isn't starting from square one because we are able to look back and reflect to make sure that we have learned from our past experiences.
"What I recommend is you meet Calvin a few more times and then decide if you want or not, to start a new chapter of love in your life," Isabelle suggested as she didn't want to pressurize her.
"I come from the school of high school sweethearts and hometown love; love by way of fate and happenstance. But for sure, I need to start afresh without comparing him to Dmitri and without comparing my emotions and feelings with my past experiences of love," Hazel agreed.
"The topics don't change with relationships, but what changes is our perspectives, our understanding of our new found love, and how we see them as individuals and as a couple," Isabelle shared golden words of wisdom.
Suddenly, Hazel's eyes nearly left her sockets and the cup in her hand shook when she saw a non-doctor, non-patient figure enter the hospital's cafeteria, looking so fine and dapper in a sleek, tweed suit.
"Isabelllllle !" Hazel hissed at her companion when she finally regained some sense of control on her shaken nerves.
"Hmm ?" Isabelle nonchalantly hummed as she blew over a steaming hot coffee cup.
"Look who's coming !" Hazel breathed out as she squeezed Isabelle's hand. "Did you- .... "
"Top of the morning to you ladies !" the dashing man greeted. The very culprit who got Hazel's heart suddenly racing.
"Hey enemy of punctuality," Isabelle replied while Hazel went stone cold speechless. "You couldn't have gotten here any later than this, could you ?" she chided and Hazel's head whipped around so fast towards her willy friend slash matchmaker.
The glares she threw at Isabelle's grinning face, could have easily scorched steel.
"What in the Lord's name did you do ?" Hazel mouthed while her coffee buddy shrugged, the cheeky grin not wiping off her face.
"Oh shoot ! I've an important appointment in five minutes. I need to go ! You guys chill out and don't wait for me. Okay, buh-bye," Isabelle hurriedly said before making a beeline for the lift, or rather before Hazel throttled her friend for abandoning her with her crush without any warning whatsoever.
"She got away," Hazel muttered under her breath when she tried to run after Isabelle and shout out, "Liar ! You have no appointments till noon !!"
After Isabelle excused herself, or rather ran away from plain sight from the cafeteria so that Hazel and Calvin could talk to each other, the charming director took Hazel's hand lightly in his and guided her back to her seat while he occupied Isabelle's.
Hazel glanced down at their entwined hands and secretly wished that they stayed like this. She was given back her five fingers but not before the charming gentleman in front of her, kissed the back of her hand.
Although Hazel's cheeks were redder than firetrucks, yet the experience of their first meeting was so powerful, so pure, that reuniting, or attempting to reunite, felt natural to the both of them, even if Isabelle helped them in that by texting Calvin to come and meet Hazel in the cafeteria where they were sitting.
"With an ever-shrinking dating pool or maybe it just seems that way, particularly for older singles, looking back for love makes sense. What do you think, doctor ?" Calvin remarked to break the ice between them.
"Are we that old ?" Hazel asked in humour.
"No, not old and at least not you, for sure ! I was talking about myself becoming more aware and more wise with age," Calvin eagerly responded.
"No, that is the great fallacy: the wisdom of old men. They don't grow wise. They grow careful," Hazel made a witty remark to which they both laughed.
Hazel was surprised to see that no one had ever made her laugh as much as he did, and no one had ever laughed as much at her jokes as he did. They were each other"s ideal audience.
Being with him felt like being on vacation from real life to her.
But then an inner voice whispered and warned her that she was in a love haze, so she needed to be careful because there are definite differences between 'the boy she dates" and the man she marries'.
"Calvin let me get it straight, I'm not looking for fun dates to hang out or fun with no strings attached," Hazel was quick to clear her intentions as she hemmed and hawed over if he's the right man to settle down.
"Are you looking for something more committed and long term oriented ? Because I am," Calvin said as he could instinctively trust his gut feeling when it came to figuring out that they both had the same goal for this relationship.
After all, intuition is a powerful tool !
"And what do you think is required for having that type of relationship ?" Hazel asked as she knew that moving a conversation from the surface to a little bit bolder and a little bit braver with mutual vulnerability would be the key to a healthy relationship.
"Love for sure !" Calvin replied.
"Is love the only ingredient for a long term relationship to thrive ?" Hazel asked in order to discuss every nook and cranny of her mind and heart.
"With love, I mean a mature love, not a puppy love for sure. Love that feels more like a soap opera than a fairy tale," Calvin hashed out the basic fact while diving into a deeper conversation.
The conversation naturally flowed, they opened up and had some tough conversations but emerged with more strength and understanding of each other"s perspective.
"Don't you think it's a mistake for two strong career oriented individuals like us to get into a substantial relationship, with all career demands to say," Hazel asked as she knew Calvin had been quite ambitious while in a relationship with Isabelle.
"It"s all about prioritizing our tasks and making sure that we have enough time set apart for both private and professional life," Calvin replied.
They both discussed their minds frankly and took each other as they were. Complete honesty, no masks, no disguises, no tricks.
"But in the medical line there are no set timings or boundaries," Hazel remarked.
"Of course ! I'll set my boundaries at work and balance the work initiatives so that I could have more family time," Calvin explained as he could sense her apprehensions and he too didn't want to repeat past mistakes.
Calvin remembered all the ways he had messed up in the past, and this time around, he was determined enough to love her stronger than his past self would have.
"I think finding 'The One' is a matter of person, place and time," Hazel remarked.
"What if we"re both the right person and this is the right place and time? We"d miss our chance and regret it," Calvin said.
"How do you know, I'm the right person for you, that too after just meeting me twice ? Hazel asked.
"When I realized I could be around you 24/7 and not get sick of you," Calvin remarked.
"What if you get sick of me ?" Hazel questioned as butterflies fluttered in her stomach while waiting for the answer.
"Uff ! First comes love then comes a tsunami of what-ifs," added Calvin with inevitable awkwardness. "Ok, if I do get sick then you treat me, after all, you're a doctor and I'll be more than happy to be your patient for life," Calvin joked as he kissed her hand again across the table.
The tender kiss felt intoxicating, and captivating before it took her breath away and swept her off of her feet.
"I've really fallen for your sense of humor," Hazel remarked as she couldn't resist getting attracted to his magnetic charisma.
"Hope you soon fall in my love too !" Calvin murmured.
"What did you just murmur ? Sorry, I didn't get you," Hazel asked naively.
"Nothing. I think we should end our today's date now or else we'll be sitting here for eternity with each other" Calvin remarked as they both laughed and parted ways.
She felt so comfortable with him, as if they had known each other for years and the time they had together wasn't just enough.
Something just came over her as she walked towards her cabin and realized how happy she was with him, how happy he made her with his wit and humour, and how much he really cared about her.
As Calvin walked out of the hospital he felt a yearning to meet her again. He didn't know why but for some reason seeing and connecting to her really made him happy.
He knew he loved her in a much more muted, contented sort of way, and it was only when she reciprocated that feeling in their conversation that the floodgates of emotions opened.
And now he wanted to do everything to protect the relationship and keep it safe. It deserved that, it really did. He held it sacred.
Calvin called Isabelle and Kenji in the evening to announce, 'I'm gonna marry that girl.'