Chapter One
546 Words
London.The smell of overbrewed coffee and antiseptic was the perfume of her mornings.
Dr. Czarina “Sari” Howard tugged on her lab coat, glanced at the clock on the wall of the doctor’s lounge, and sighed.“Seven forty-two,” she muttered. “If I move fast, I can still pretend I’m early.”
From behind her, a familiar voice drawled, “You and your delusions, Howard. Some of us stopped lying to ourselves after medical school.”
Sari turned, rolling her eyes. “Good morning to you too, Brandon.”
Dr. Brandon Hughes, six feet of caffeine dependency and smug seniority, leaned against the counter, sipping coffee like it was his birthright. He’d been her unofficial rival-s***h-friend since her first day at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust/UCLH. A year ahead of her, already on track to become a Junior Consultant in OB-GYN, and painfully proud of it.
“Big day today,” he said with a grin. “We’ve got a double cesarean at nine, and a complicated myomectomy right after lunch. You ready to show off to the new batch of registrars?”
“I’ll inspire them to run,” she said dryly, flipping through her patient notes. “Straight into dermatology. Better pay, fewer sleepless nights.”
Brandon laughed. “You say that like you don’t love it here.”
“I do,” she admitted, softening a little. “But sometimes I feel like I live here. I’ve spent more time in these corridors than in my own flat.”
“That’s the price of greatness, Dr. Howard. You’ll be a consultant before thirty, the legend herself.”
She made a face. “You mean the burnout poster child of UCLH.”
He smirked. “Same thing.”
The intercom crackled, calling their team to the maternity ward. Sari grabbed her stethoscope and started walking, matching his stride.
As they turned the corner, he asked, “What’s the plan this weekend?”
“Work, if work calls,” she said simply.
He grinned. “Of course. Why did I even bother asking?”
She shot him a teasing look. “Shut up. If you’d actually asked me out properly instead of making small talk, I might’ve said yes. But alas, you didn’t.”
He clutched his chest dramatically. “You are such a menace. I’ve invited you out a hundred times, and every time you ghost me in the name of medicine. My ego’s in critical condition.”
Sari smiled faintly. “Yeah, well… blame the job.”
They stopped outside the delivery room. Through the small window, nurses prepped a patient, monitors beeping in steady rhythm. The organized chaos felt like home, the one place where everything made sense.
Brandon bumped her shoulder lightly. “Work will always be here, Howard. But the time you waste not having fun? That’s the one thing you’ll never get back.”
She grinned, slipping on her gloves. “I know. But what can I say? I’m an ambitious woman.”
He gave her that cocky grin. “Obviously.”
And just like that, she stepped into the room, calm, capable, composed.
Completely unaware that in a few weeks, she’d be in Manila, facing the man who’d turn her world inside out.
- Writer
