4.

PAIN. To hurt; to put to bodily uneasiness or anguish; to render uneasy in mind. Dylan Blake couldn’t understand why his heart felt pain as he watched Anna fall to the ground. He had ignored his human conscience of preventing the incident just so he could have fun watching her get hurt. She had played with his mind and he hated that she looked like his ex.

But instead of a feeling of excitement at the scene that played before him, he could feel his heart squeeze in pain and it was heart wrenching. Why did his new heart react against his wish? He really wanted an answer to that as he was beginning to find it bothersome.

Dylan hated how thoughts of him beating up the blonde guy that bumped into her, crosses his mind. He stares at her long enough till her head snaps towards his direction.

Her hazel eyes had a challenging look, but also a bit of embarrassment. Against his wishes, he found himself walking towards her and when he was right in her face, places his left palm on her cheek.

“Are you okay?” Dylan stares at her with concern in his blue eyes but this all felt wrong to him. He wasn’t attracted to her, so why was he concerned. Some seconds later, he takes a step back and drives his fingers through his brown hair.

Anna was still amazed that she hadn’t even uttered a word, talk less of leaving the spot. Confusion covered her hazel eyes as she stares at the maniac in front of her. She considers him a maniac because he wasn’t acting normal around her. She knew he didn’t like her, but couldn’t understand the reason behind his recent gesture. Was he trying to flirt or what?

“What was that?” she speaks up when she was finally able to put some words together.

“I lost focus for a minute, excuse me.” Never was he to do something he hadn’t thoroughly processed, but now he was bewildered at the fact that he had acted without thinking through. Dylan couldn’t bear to face her any longer as he turns around and walks away, not just from her presence, but from the building.

Anna watches the good-looking masculine figure retreat from her presence as she wonders what was going on in his head. He looked calculative from the first time they had met at her office, but right now she was beginning to have second doubts. Maybe, just maybe, he always acted on impulse.

Not interested in exercising anymore, she heads back to the locker room to pick up her bag and drives off from the gym. The drive back home was short and in a few minutes, she was entering her driveway. After parking her Lexus, as she steps down, she couldn’t help but admire the flowers in her mini garden and as she takes in the beauty of mother nature, her attention slowly drifts to the red SUV parked in the driveway of her rude neighbor.

“He must be in.” Anna mutters under her breath as she walks into her apartment. She throws her black gym bag to one of the couches in the living room as she drags herself to her empty fridge. She opens it and grabs a bottle of cold water. That was all she ever kept inside the fridge and it was quite disappointing. She didn’t have groceries inside it as she preferred take-out more to cooking herself.

Or maybe she could just say her cooking wasn’t something often considered edible.

It wasn’t long after that she was in her driveway, unlocking her car as she locks the door to her apartment, getting ready to head to work.

“I guess you were the one who beat me in getting this apartment.” A familiar voice she had been hearing too often sends goosebumps through her skin as she silently prayed it wasn’t the same voice she had encountered this morning.

Anna slowly turns around to find the same cold blue eyes stare at her with a pissed and irritated look that was later replaced with a shocking expression. What was he doing on her porch?

“Why are you here?” She asks him, while trying to look unfazed.

“I could ask you the same.” Dylan speaks up with seriousness and from his tone, Anna could tell that he was angry at her.

Why?

“Isn’t it obvious? I live here Mr. Blake.” She says rolling her eyes as she walks towards her car.

“Why here of all places?” Dylan’s gaze and seriousness doesn’t drop a little as he follows Anna to her car, hoping to get a reply from her.

“Because if feels more familiar to me. Why am I even answering you?” Anna had her hands on her waist as she stares at the confused guy in front of her. His blue eyes kept trying to read her like he was hoping to get some kind of reaction from her but when he doesn’t get it, his stoic and rude gaze is back on.

She was seeing his mood swing too often and it was starting to get disturbing. Anna was yet to get an answer as to why he was in her driveway.

“You still haven’t answered why you’re here.”

“I just moved in next-door and it’s no surprise you pissed me off on our first encounter.” Dylan stares at her one last time before walking away, leaving Anna’s mouth hanging. It wasn’t hard to believe that he was the same rude guy she had tried to befriend on the day he first arrived but the only question that kept echoing in her head was why it had to be him of all people.

He was still a stranger to her about a week ago and if she was to consider their encounters along with her believe in destiny, she wasn’t liking how this was going.

She enters her car and drives off to the hospital, already to get her day started and in approximately fifteen minutes, she was entering the familiar hallway that led to her office.

“Morning miss Davenport.” Macy, Anna’s assistant was seated at the entrance of Anna’s office with two cups of drinks in front of her- a hot coffee and an iced Americano.

She was just the best in Anna’s eyes as she knew Anna had often started her day with a cold drink.

“You’re looking good as usual Macy,” She compliments her hard-working assistant as she picks up her drink from the table.

“Thanks for this, in exchange, I owe you dinner.” Anna winks at the already excited blondie in front of her and just smiles at her before entering her office and putting on her white coat.

Still getting settled in, a quick knock on her door, diverts her eyes towards the direction of the sound. Macy walks in with a shy expression and from experience, Anna knew she was about to say something she wasn’t going to like.

“Just spill it Macy.” she says already sighing without hearing a word yet.

“Dr. Malcom asked that you fill in for him in the emergency meeting between the head of departments. It’s apparently his off today.” She says with a sheepish smile plastered on her face.

Dr. Malcom was the head of the psychiatry department and whenever he was on his off days, he had often transferred some of his duties to me and today was no exception.

“Thanks. What time is it?” there was no way out as someone had to represent the department and it seemed like it was going to be her.

“About ten minutes from now. You don’t have any scheduled appointment till an hour time.” Macy smiles at Anna before exiting the room.

The last time she had attended such a meeting, she had dozed off and ended up embarrassing herself, so she silently hoped today was going to turn out different.

She enters the meeting room and already saw some of the doctors seated while interacting with one another. Anna wasn’t particularly a loner, but she didn’t really have any friends in the hospital. They were all just colleagues that never met outside for personal reasons.

After some minutes pass by, the room gets filled up and as someone walks up to the center of the room, everywhere became utterly quiet.

“We’ll be having a new director of the hospital and he has decided to introduce himself to everyone.” The middle-aged speaker, steps aside as a young man in his early thirties approach the center of the room.

Anna was seated at the back of the room but the distance wasn’t enough to prevent her from seeing those familiar brown hair and blue eyes she was stating to grow accustomed to. He looked the same like when he had walked into her office. Irritated and moody and everyone could possibly tell that he wasn’t liking he fact that he was presently here.

He grabs the microphone from the person that had spoken earlier as his eyes searched through everyone seated in the background.

“I’m Dylan Blake, the new director of this hospital.” Dylan speaks up as a smirk appears on his well-defined good-looking face when his strong and intense gaze stops on Anna Davenport.

What Anna couldn’t phantom was the fact that her patient had turned out to be her boss in less than a week.