Healing Mr. Ashford

Chapter Two: Reactions...

NATALIA GEORGETTE

Once upon a time, Evren Maximo Ashford had occupied far too much space in my heart. Now, he was simply another name written across a patient's chart.

Monday mornings were always unforgiving.

By eight o'clock, the waiting area outside my clinic was already full. Mothers carrying feverish children, elderly patients arriving for their maintenance checkups, a young fisherman with a badly stitched hand from the night before every consultation demanded the same thing from me...presence.

No matter what I had brought with me before stepping into this room, it had to stay outside.

"Next patient."

The nurse opened the door just enough to hand me another chart.

"Mrs. Valdez."

I smiled.

The rest of the morning disappeared beneath blood pressure readings, prescriptions, reassuring smiles, and the occasional crying toddler who insisted I was the villain of the day.

It wasn't until lunchtime that I finally leaned back in my chair. I rubbed my temples before reaching for the sandwich Ethan had insisted on packing for me.

Don't skip lunch again.

A small sticky note was folded neatly around the container.

I smiled despite myself.

Leave it to Ethan to find a way to remind me he cared, even when he wasn't around.

A knock interrupted my thoughts.

"Come in."

My nurse, Liza, stepped inside.

"Doc, your two o'clock patient for tomorrow called."

I glanced at the schedule.

Mr. Evren Maximo Ashford.

"He said he already finished the laboratory tests. The results will be released tomorrow, but he'd like to ask if he can still come in this afternoon." I frowned slightly.

"He doesn't have the results yet."

"He said he knows. He just... wants to consult you."

I rested my pen against the desk.

Patients usually wanted answers but rarely did they ask for another appointment before the tests were even available.

"What did you tell him?"

"I said I'd ask you first."

I looked at the empty slot on my schedule.

"Let him come."

Liza nodded before leaving the room.

The clinic fell silent once more. Without meaning to, my gaze drifted toward the name still written on today's appointment list.

Funny, for my last years in the Univerity, I had wondered what it would feel like to see him again and now I knew...it's nothing, or at least nothing that should matter anymore.

A little past two in the afternoon, there was a knock on my office door.

"Come in."

The door opened, and Maximo stepped inside.

He wasn't wearing the crisp polo from our first meeting. Instead, he had on a faded gray shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms, paired with worn jeans and dusty work boots. His skin was noticeably darker than I remembered, as though the Masbate sun had claimed him months ago.

He looked less like the celebrated athlete I once knew and more like a man who had been working under the sun.

"Good afternoon, Doctor."

"Mr. Ashford."

He smiled faintly before taking the seat across from me.

"I hope I'm not interrupting your schedule."

"Not at all." I closed the chart I had been reviewing. "Liza mentioned your laboratory results won't be available until tomorrow."

"They won't."

"Then what brings you here?"

For a moment, he simply looked at me.

"I don't even know if I should be here."

"Why?"

"Because this might sound stupid."

"I'll be the judge of that."

A reluctant smile crossed his face.

"I've... been getting reactions again."

I rested my pen on the desk.

"What kind of reactions?"

He cleared his throat.

"My body's... responding like I'm feeling the heat again,"

I studied him for a moment.

"That's actually an improvement."

"It is?"

"It tells me your condition isn't necessarily permanent."

For the first time since he walked in, some of the tension left his shoulders.

"So I'm getting better?"

"Possibly." I opened his chart. "But I need more information."

His hopeful expression slowly faded.

"What kind of information?"

"When does it happen?" For a second I waited for his answer but he did not respond.

"Mr. Ashford?"

"I... haven't exactly kept track." He said as he is trying to avoid my gaze.

"Then let's start now."

I wrote a few notes before sliding a blank sheet of paper across the desk.

"I'd like you to keep a journal."

He frowned.

"A journal?"

"Every episode."

His brows knitted together.

"I want you to write down where you were, what you were doing, what you were thinking, how long it lasted, and whether there was anything that might have triggered it."

He stared at the paper as though it had personally offended him.

"You want me to document... that?"

"I want to identify a pattern."

He let out a quiet breath.

"And if there isn't one?"

"Then we'll look deeper."

His fingers tapped lightly against his knee.

"What if..." He hesitated. "What if it only happens around one specific person?"

I met his eyes.

"Then that becomes an important clinical finding."

Something shifted in his expression before he looked away.

"I see." He let out a quiet laugh. "Or maybe I should just start meeting more people."

I looked up from my notes.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "Go to a few parties and meet someone new. Maybe the reason I'm reacting to that one person is because she's the only woman I've found attractive in a long time."

For reasons I couldn't explain, the tip of my pen stopped moving.

I lowered my eyes to the chart before he could notice.

"I wouldn't recommend that."

He raised an eyebrow.

"No?"

"Not yet."

"Why?"

"If you deliberately expose yourself to new variables, you'll make it harder for us to identify the actual trigger." I continued writing as though it were nothing more than another clinical explanation.

"Right now, consistency is more valuable than experimentation."

He considered that for a moment.

"So... I shouldn't try getting closer to her either?"

The question lingered in the room longer than it should have.

I clicked my pen shut.

"Not if your goal is to understand what's happening."

He tilted his head.

"So I should avoid her?"

"I didn't say that." My voice remained calm. "s****l function is influenced by more than hormones, Mr. Ashford. Stress, emotional state, anxiety, unresolved issues all of those can affect the body. I'm saying don't force anything. Don't chase a reaction, and don't suppress it either...just observe."

He smiled faintly.

"Observation."

"Exactly."

"What if she's the observation?"

I met his eyes.

"Then write it down."

For a second, neither of us spoke.

Finally, he let out a defeated sigh.

"I guess you're right."

"I usually am." That earned a genuine laugh from him.

I responded with a polite smile, though my attention had already returned to the chart in front of me.

"Stick to the journal, Mr. Ashford. We'll know much more once we have your laboratory results."

"Yes, Doctor."

He folded the blank sheet neatly and slipped it into his pocket before heading for the door.