It had been a week since that incident had happened but Ella still felt quite awkward to think about it. she kept thinking about him again and again. his words kept running through her mind. and that smile of his also bothered her a lot. even during work she could not concentrate and mindlessly kept thinking about him. even her fellow colleagues had begun to notice that she was often spacing out. "To think of it , he was quite handsome in a way. " a thought passed by her mind . suddenly she realized what she had been thinking and got a bit shocked . in the past few days that person has become a ghost in her mind, constantly appearing again and again.
While she was still immersed in her thoughts sitting in her office, suddenly the door knocked and she came back to her senses. she cleared her mind and thought and replied,
"Yes, come in."
A nurse came in and told her that dr. Joe was calling her. Dr. Joe was the senior doctor of the hospital where Ella worked, he was also the director of the hospital and was a very nice person who was in his sixties, but sometime he could be very aggressive. A chill ran through her body. "why did he called me out of nowhere? Did I do something wrong". she thought to herself and then asked the nurse,
"Do you have any idea why he has called me for? "
"I do not know, but maybe it is about the new interns who are going to join us now." the nurse replied.
"Oh....!" she said with a sigh of relief. "Okay, I am coming."
She got up and and headed towards the director`s office. she walked through the hallway and upon reaching his office , knocked the door.
"Yes, please come in." Mr. Joe replied from inside.
she clacked the door open and entered the room. "Mr. Joe, you asked for me?" she asked with a slight smile. then her eyes diverted towards the person who has been sitting on the chair beside Dr. Joe`s table with his back towards her. maybe he was the new intern she thought. Meanwhile, Dr. Joe replied,
"Oh yes Ella, I wanted to introduce someone to you. this is Dr. Noir Hertzberg, he is a new intern at our hospital. he is a specialized neurologist and has studied from abroad. from now on he will be working with us so, please take care of him for me."
'Uh! hello, Dr. Noir. It is nice to have someone as you here in our hospital and am glad to meet you." Ella said with the usual professional smile of hers. the man turned and Ella looked up at his face. as her eyes met his she was stunned to see him here.
"Hello, I am Noir, nice to meet you too, Miss Ella". he said and smiled back.
"That smile again," Ella thought. how could she ever forget that smile which has been ghosting her mind till now. 'How can this man be here?" she looked at him confused but he only smiled back.
"Ella, I want you to show around the hospital to Dr. Noir so that he could have the idea of directions and wards of the hospital and I hope you do not mind' Mr. Joe broke in.
'Eh!.... yes, sure Mr. Joe ' she relied.
"Okay, young man , now this young lady will deal with you". Mr. Joe said laughing.
"Thank you for your consideration, Mr. Joe." Noir said with a smile. he then turned towards Ella and asked, "So,... shall we??" raising one of his eyebrow.
"Yeah, let`s go. " she relied still a bit confused. "Well.. we will be leaving now , Mr. Joe.' she turned around, opened the door and came out. Noir followed her behind. they quietly walked through the hallway. Ella gave him instructions when necessary, she did not said or asked anything else. at last they reached the staff resting area. no one was inside then. both stayed quiet for a while , then Ella broke the silence. she took a deep breath and said,
"So,.... this was what you were talking about that day. you already knew that I work here. How ??"she asked him with a doubtful look.
"Please, do not get me wrong, Miss Ella. the other day when I came for an interview here I saw you working here and that`s all." (smiled softly).
"Okay. I believe you and what you just said but can I ask you something, " , "Yes, sure". he again replied with a huge smile.
"Um.. isn`t it a bit awkward that you keep smiling like this for no reason. I mean that I have been noticing this for a while that you keep smiling like this when ever I say something or even when you reply to me. Isn`t it a bit.. you know..."
"Hmm.... I don`t think so. in fact, I think people should smile more , that way they will be less stressed , you should also smile more." he again smiled.
Ella thought it to be a bit awkward but then she said, "Yeah, right. well let`s go . let me show you your office which will be our last destination for now."
"Are you sure it will be our last destination? "Noir asked abruptly.
"Huh? what!? I didn`t understand what you just said". Ella asked confused as she couldn`t get what Noir just said to her.
"Never mind. It`s nothing. well , let`s go". Noir said changing the subject.
"How strange ", Ella thought. she then turned and started to move towards the other direction guiding him towards his office. when they finally reached there , she showed him around and said , "So this is it, your office. you will be working here and if you need anything don`t call me just ask the nurses or other staff cause even if you ask me I won`t do you any favor." Ella said persistently. at this Noir broke out laughing.
"What? what`s there to laugh at , I am pretty much serious about this. I told you in advance so that you don`t get your hopes up. cause I don`t like unnecessary favors.' she said and shrugged.
"Well, I can have an idea about this that you don`t like unnecessary favors from our first encounter." he said trying to stop laughing. "Yeah, right. anyways I am going to leave now. you can meet up with the rest of the staff tomorrow morning as they will be busy by now. so, goodbye."
"Yeah sure, I am also leaving and will come tomorrow then. so, until then I guess It`s a goodbye." he replied back smiling.
"Ahh! whatever." Ella thought and then left.
After coming back to her office she kept thinking about before. "how strange he was ", she thought. " I haven`t met anyone like him before, Augh! how annoying , why do I keep thinking about him? I should just focus on my work". she blabbered then suddenly she remembered something, "ah! I still have some patients to see, I totally forgot about it. it`s all because of that stupid Noir. if not for him I should have been free until now. who knew he would appear out of nowhere. anyhow let`s get back to work". saying this she left her office and began to check the patients but she unexpectedly met someone there whom she really wanted to avoid for now....