chapter 0.5 - extended summary

It was Natalia's first day back at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center after being away for five weeks. It was bittersweet. She loved this hospital. She loved her job and she loved the work she did and the differences she's made here, both personally and professionally. Natalia loved the person and surgeon she grew to become. Every mistake made and every accomplishment achieved in the past seven years here has shaped her into who she is now.

But. . .

Things had changed when Natalia met him on a random shift three years ago.

And it took a turn for the worst on a random night nine weeks ago.

So, when Dr. Natalia Castillo stepped back into Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center it was with a heavy heart.

First impressions turned into stolen glances.

Stolen glances turned into friendly flirtations.

Friendly flirtations led to drinks between colleagues.

One thing leading to another and leading into the bedroom.

Natalia Castillo and Jack Abbot were both adults and understood the unspoken rules and consequences of a no-strings-attached-relationship.

Was she ever intimate with anyone else during their time "together"? No. He never asked.

Was Jack? Natalia did not know and she never asked either. They weren't together officially, so it wasn't her place. She trusted him enough to be safe, however. And she hoped that feeling was mutual.

But the one thing all her rom-com films warned her about was the one thing she did.

Natalia Castillo had fallen for Jack Abbot.

She wasn't sure when exactly it happened. Maybe it was when Jack started coming over and not just for sex. When sex a couple times a week turned into maybe once or twice. When Jack would spend the day napping at her place after a hard shift instead of his own. When they ordered takeout and turned into couch potatoes for an entire day. When Jack showed up at her place unannounced with soup and medicine when she fell ill. When he offered to take her dog out for walks while Natalia's neighbor who normally did this during Natalia's shifts, recovered from their injury. Or when she woke up to Jack softly massaging her head. She had chosen "Me Before You" for a movie night but ended up falling asleep with her head on his shoulder and his arm behind her on the backrest of the couch. He was intently watching the movie when she opened her eyes and he was absentmindedly running his fingers over her scalp and down her hair. She had shut her eyes again, because she was afraid he'd stop if he knew she was awake.

Natalia guessed the how or when did not matter now. Because he broke her heart anyway on a random night in April. The same day she was planning on asking him to be her plus-one to her younger brother's wedding in June. She had been working up the courage for the past few weeks and ran it by her older sister first — which she accepted now that that was a mistake. Valeria was a romantic at heart; she married her high school sweetheart after all. Maybe the reason why Natalia had asked Valeria was because a part of her knew she'd one hundred percent be receiving the encouragement and validation she needed to ask Jack.

But, Natalia's first mistake was dismissing the signs leading up to that night.

Like when Jack went from visiting almost every day to maybe once or twice a week — and not even for more than a couple hours at that. When Jack would go more than two days before replying to her text messages — which he never did before even during his shifts. And when he did reply, more than half the time it'd be a short one. Or maybe when Jack stopped his risky flirtations at work; a simple wink across the room or a hand on her waist as he passed.

He grew distant.

But Natalia had fallen for him already and did not want to acknowledge those clear-as-day signs. And she didn't tell her best friend Dr. Leah Holland about these signs because a part of her knew what Leah would say. And it was not what Natalia wanted to hear.

Jack came over her place that night in April, which she didn't know it at the time would be the last. He had a vacant yet pained look in his eyes that she only saw on him at work when he knew he was losing his patient.

And a hollowness presented in her stomach along with the dread in her heart because maybe she knew tonight was when the other shoe would finally drop.

Natalia Castillo, a cardiothoracic surgeon who worked on plenty of hearts in her career, felt her own heart shatter that night and every piece chip away in the following weeks.

Natalia Castillo had fallen for Jack Abbot and it was unrequited.