I have never liked to go to hospital. To me it is a place of sickness, suffering and death. I thought it would be the last time I would ever step into the hospital after my grandfather's stroke. But I was wrong.

Liv, my secretary broke her ankle when she was playing netball. When I looked at the plaster cast that she was wearing, I felt sorry for her. It must have hurt a lot.

One evening when I was visiting Liv, the bone doctors came by for round. One of the young doctor in the team looked very familiar but I could not register a name to the face. I was sure that I had seen him before but where and when? I guessed it was the same for him as he was giving me the unusual stare too.

When I left the room he finally approached me in the corridor and introduced himself as Liam. The name rung a bell immediately and the old memories rushed back to my mind. It was Liam from my high school. Wow! I could not believe my eyes that he is actually a doctor and a bone-specialist to-be!

We had dinner together in the hospital cafeteria. It was the first time that I had meals in the hospital and it felt strange. But it was nice to catch up with Liam after so many years.

He looked more mature and wiser espcially in his white coat. We were not close when we were in high school as we belonged to different peer groups. He was the smart, studious type who always aced all the subjects. My grades were great too but we were just different.

It was a small world afterall. I would never dream of meeting my old classmates in a hospital. Yet it felt good to see them and catch up old times with them.

I had a wonderful evening. Liam was a good company and he readily shared his horror stories of being a medical student and doctor with me. I never had a medical personel as my friend so all the stories sounded very interesting and exciting to me. Well, I have never dreamt of becoming a doctor in the first place, ha!

Before we left we exchanged phone numbers and promised to stay in touch. Yet life was unpredictable. It always has been.

Very soon I was in New York for meetings. Liam had called a few times but I was always busy in a meeting. He had left messages but I was too tired to listen to my voicemails whenever I returned to my hotel suite. All I needed was a good night sleep.

When I returned to Seattle, I found out that he had left a couple of messages in my answering phone machine at home. I tried to call back but all I reached was his answering machine.

Liv finally returned to work and I was glad. She was telling everyone in the office how charming and wonderful Liam was. I presumed he was indeed a good doctor.

"Are you going out with Liam?" Liv asked me later that day.

I looked puzzled. Why would she ask such a question?

"He was asking about you whenever he came to see me. I think he might be interested in you!"

I shrugged my shoulder and smiled. Experience had taught me to ignore such comments.

That night at home I relistened to his messages in my answering machine. Maybe we did have some common grounds. But the timing was wrong, wasn't it? Maybe it was fated to end like this.

Maybe we were never meant to be.