Day 6: "Do you believe in love at first sight?" + meet cute
Other base prompt: the person sitting next to you on the bus is wearing clothes that match your lucky colors from your fortune in the paper.
Enjoy!
Maddie heaved heavily, struggling to catch her breath. Her lungs protested the full on sprint she'd just done to make sure she didn't miss the bus. The bus driver, uncaring of her plight, looked between her and the meter, silently willing her to pay her fare so he could move on to the next spot. She took a couple of calming deep breaths, grabbed the change, from her bag, and turned to find her a seat.
She found one of the last seats available on the already crowded bus. Such was the bane of L.A. public transit. Sitting her bag next to her, she put in her earbuds to listened to one of her favorite podcasts as she waited to arrive for her hospital shift.
She'd gotten lost in the story she'd been listening to when she felt a tap on her shoulder. Slightly started, she quickly removed one of her earbuds and looked up, locking eyes with the handsome stranger in front of her. She felt, what could only be described, as an electric current flow through her as she held his gaze. She could have sworn she spotted a flash of something in his eyes before he broke their contact.
"I'm sorry to bother you, I was just wondering if the seat next to you was taken?"
Maddie found herself instantly charmed by the kindness in his voice and the lopsided grin he'd sported. She took in the rest of him. The light of the morning sun highlighted his bronzed skin and dark brown eyes. His salt and pepper beard gave him a distinguished look. He was beautiful.
But the most noticeable thing about him was his bomber jacket. It looked as if an abstract painting had been taken and plastered on to the material, with all the differing colors splattered all over it. It definitely reminded her of something straight out of the 90s.
"I'm guessing that's a yes then," his voice broke through her train of thought. Confused for a second, she quickly realized she'd gotten so lost in her thoughts that she failed to answer his question. She must look insane.
"Oh, no," she moved her bag out of the way. "It's all yours," feeling the blush forming on her cheeks, she chuckled nervously as he sat down, "sorry about that, I think I got distracted by your jacket." Not a total lie.
He snorted, admiring the sleeves. "Wish I could take credit for it. It's my brother's. Couldn't find mine, so I stole his."
"Your brother has unique taste, it's nice." She returned his grin with a shy smile, finding herself instantly charmed. As she looked, she was able to take in the colors a little more, it definitely had al the basic colors accounted for, but the colors she saw the most of were green, purple, and orange.
Your lucky colors for today are orange, purple, and green. Her roommate, Josh's, voice floated into my mind as she remembered what he'd said that morning. Josh been reading the L.A. Times and insisted on reading their horoscopes, which included a part about lucky colors.
Maddie shelved that thought process immediately. Nope. She wasn't going down that road. This was purely a coincidence. Just because a handsome stranger just so happened to be sitting next to her, wearing her so-called lucky colors, it didn't mean anything.
When she heard the familiar ding, she saw that her stop had been reached. Gathering her things, he gave her a wave before she exited the bus and walked the short distance to the hospital entrance. She pushed thoughts of horoscopes, colors, and handsome strangers away to prepare for whatever insanity this city provided the ER today.
Easier said than done.
Maddie flopped down in her chair, completely exhausted as her shift was nearing it's end. It seemed that pushing those thoughts out of her mind just wasn't what her brain wanted to do. It wasn't to the point of distraction, but she'd caught herself thinking about a certain handsome stranger multiple times. His eyes, his voice, his smile. It had been a long time since he felt that connection with someone. It was crazy, she'd barely spoken two sentences to the guy, but there was something there she couldn't describe.
And she didn't even get his name. Some luck, huh.
Maddie sighed, as she used her badge to unlock the computer. Checking the incoming patients chart, she saw that a patient had been placed in one of her assigned rooms. She signed up for him and read through his chart. Possible broken wrist. Sounded simple enough.
Grabbing the appropriate tablet, she headed to his room. She did the obligatory knock before entering. "Okay, Mr. Han, I" she was stopped short by the sight of him. Sitting on the bed, holding a bag of melted ice to his wrist, with a bruised cheek, was the guy from the bus this morning.
"Well, hi." He said as he smiled at her.
"Hi." She stepped further into the room and closed the door, doing a quick survey of him to catalogue all his visible injuries. "It looks like you've had an eventful day, Mr. Han."
"Please, call me Chimney," she mustn't've kept her face as straight as she thought, as he followed up with, "long story."
Part of her wanted to wanted probe further so she could hear it, but knew this wasn't the time or place. "Maddie." She introduced. "Okay, Chimney, mind telling me how your face and wrist ended like this in," she made a show of looking at her watch, "12 hours?"
"It looks worse than it feels," he flinched as he tried to flex his injured wrist. She started checking his vitals as he explained, "I was trying to break up a bar fight. Drunk guy wanting to take his anger out on other people. He got my cheek as I got between him and another guy. He popped my wrist as I was tossing him out."
She grabbed his wrist from him, gently examining it. Black, blue, swollen, and out of place in several places. "I admire the heroism."
"Wouldn't really call it heroism, it's kinda my job," he looked from his wrist to her eyes, "I'm a bouncer... slash D.J. slash manager."
"That sounds... busy," she laughed as she gently let go of his wrist.
"It can be, but it's a living."
In that moment, the doctor walked in the room. She left the room, giving them some privacy to talk. Sitting down at the computer she was still in a state of disbelief. She didn't know if it would be wise to call this luck, given the state he was in and she still had no idea where she stood in her belief in it, but she didn't think she could call this a coincidence anymore.
Maddie gathered the things she would need to wrap his wrist and bandage his cheek. As soon as the doctor came out, the x-rays came back and confirmed what she already knew: his wrist was dislocated. She waited for the doctor to put in the orders and do the obligatory explanations with Chimney before heading back to the room.
"Chimney, let's get that wrist wrapped and get you out of here."
She slid the stool in front him, gave him an initial dose of pain medicine, and went to work on getting him patched up. There was a comfortable silence between them as she bandaged his bruised cheek.
"You know of all the ways I thought about seeing you again, gotta say, this wasn't on the list," he told her as she moved on to his wrist.
She actions faltered a bit, but she quickly recovered and fell back into her rhythm. Looking up into those kind, brown eyes, she saw the sincerity there. "You thought about seeing me again?"
He smiled shyly, "well, I'd hoped," she was well aware that her cheeks were a fresh shade of crimson, "now I'm trying to figure out the ethics of asking your nurse for her phone number."
Maddie knew she had the biggest grin on her face. Ignoring her heartbeat, she slid on the brace and wrapped the sling around his neck and wrist. Reaching for the discharge paperwork she'd brought with her, she held out the clipboard and a pen. "Sign here please." She kept the smile on her face as he looked between her and the pen, grabbing and signing his name as best he could.
"Listen, if I overstepped-"
"You didn't," writing on the paperwork before she handed him his part of it, "and it looks like I'm officially not your nurse anymore."
He caught on quickly as she pointed to her name and personal number at the bottom. Taking out his cellphone right then, he sent her a text message. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Just making sure you know it's me." She chuckled and saved his number.
They pocketed their phones, he grabbed his things, which included the jacket, and they both walked out of the room. "Well, Mr. Han, it has been a pleasure, you know besides the reason that you're actually here."
"Gotta say, the pleasure has been all mine."
"Stay out of trouble," she told him as he turned and walked towards the exit.
"No promises," he threw over his shoulder before walking out the door.
Making her way back to the nurse's station, she put his paperwork on the rack to be filed, made sure all her charts were completed, and logged out for the day. When she walked into the nurse's lounge she found two of her coworkers having a conversation as she walked in.
"Ask Maddie and see what she thinks." Jasmine said.
"Ask Maddie what?" She asked as she got her things from her locker.
"Do you believe in love at first sight?"
The question gave her pause and she turned to face the two women. "Um, I don't know." A certain charming man came to mind as she thought about it, throwing her completely off guard. She was certainly charmed by him, definitely infatuated and instantly attracted, but love. That was a stretch, right? Though, she had to admit, she'd never felt that strong a connection with someone before. "Maybe. I don't think I've ever experienced it, but that doesn't mean it's not a possibility."
"See, Maddie agrees with me."
"I just don't think it can happen," Malika chimed in, "there definitely attraction at first sight, infatuation at first sight, most definitely lust at first sight, but love? Absolutely not, how the heck can you love someone you don't know?" She did have a point.
"You're just a cynic."
"Just another way of saying realist, Jas."
Leaving the two women to their conversation, as all the implications were starting to give her a headache, she said her goodbyes and left. As she walked across the parking garage, she felt her phone vibrate in her back pocket. She pulled out her phone and read the text on the screen
Chimney Han
I just realized, you probably know my entire medical history and I know nothing about you. How about we change that over dinner?
Maddie found herself staring at the message. All the implications and possibilities of whatever this thing was between them aside, she knew she liked him, at the very least. She felt excited at the thought of exploring the connection and see where it lead.
She typed a quick, "I'd love to," in response.
Did I write the beginning of a trope-y, early 2000s-esque, romcom? Yep. Do I regret it? Nope.
Do you believe in love at first sight? Let me know what you think!