It Hurts When It's True (Affaire de Coeur, #1)

Chapter 1: Fans will always be fans

Half a year ago

“What’s the fuss?”

Upon entering the nurses’ lounge, she found her co-workers forming a small circle at the corner of the room. The ladies, including their forty-something head nurse, were giggling and tattling about something. Rarely was it that the nurses would all gather in their lounge to do some senseless chatting instead of finding something more worthwhile during their lazy days in the ward.

One of the women left the group to approach her, a big smile plastered on her face. “You won’t believe this!”

“We’re getting a raise?” Maggie said as she sat on the sofa close to the door.

“No, silly girl! You’ll never guess who’s here!” the short-haired nurse continued with an unwavering smile on her pinkish lips.

“Oh, it’s a ‘who,’”

The other five women at the far corner of the area turned towards where Maggie and the other nurse were. All the nurses, even the head nurse Ms Smith, had that love-struck expressions on their face. It was a tad disconcerting for Maggie knowing how stern their head nurse was.

“Damian Williams is currently admitted –” one of them started but was cut off by another.

“Not just anywhere in the hospital!” the other butted in.

“He’s in our ward right now!” the olive-skinned Grace finished giving out the news and each and every one of them heaved out a sigh at that.

That was news indeed, Maggie pondered. For a hospital as small and as isolated as theirs, it would be quite rare for them to have a patient as famous as Damian Williams. If a celebrity like him had been admitted to their unpopular hospital then it could only mean two things: he was hiding something or he wanted some peace during his stay. Then again, she doubted that he could have the peace and quiet that he was aiming for with all the nurses gushing around the place.

“That’s cool.” Maggie tried to sound as disinterested as possible, but she could not avoid feeling intrigued by having him as a patient in their hospital ward.

That seemed to have quieted her colleagues and she found them all looking at her as if they had seen a ghost.

“What?”

“You have nothing else to say but that?” Grace asked in a baffled tone, her eyes wide as china plates.

“Well…” they all waited for what she would say next.

Before she even had the chance to speak, they heard the nurse call button buzzing from their station. They all ran towards the door yet they could not somehow leave the room at the same time. Surprisingly, they were panicking and not one of them wanted to give way and let others pass. They all knew who had been calling for a nurse from the station.

Maggie was not able to stop a burst of laughter coming from her chest which had then caught the attention of all the nurses in the lounged. They all tilted their head to where she was seated, a ghost of annoyance displayed on their faces.

“Why not let her go to his room for now.” Meg, the brunette, suggested.

“Oh, yes! She will surely come back to us doe-eyed.” Grace seemed all too eager to support Meg’s recommendation.

“That’s unfair,” Maggie heard the others complaining as it appeared that they all wanted to be the ones to look after the handsome actor.

The nurses moved aside, leaving a wide space where Maggie could pass through to get to the station. “Wait, we still haven’t had our endorsement. You guys are still on-duty.”

“He’s just suffering from acute gastroenteritis and he’s under Dr Spencer so I think you know what he might need or what you must do.” The head nurse explained in a way that was quite the opposite of the principles she always try to uphold in their ward.

“I refuse to go there without even having the chance to read his records.” Maggie replied without moving from her comfortable spot on the sofa.

“You’re such a prig.” Meg scoffed from the doorway.

“Remember the incident with Dr Bailey?” Maggie countered.

That was one unforgettable incident given that all the nurses in Maggie’s shift had to write an incident report due to a disregard for their nursing SOP. Meg, who used to work in the same shift as Maggie, hurriedly went to their young and gorgeous male patient even before the endorsement.

Without knowing the new orders made by Dr Bailey, she went to the room, chatted with the patient and was sweet-talked to allow the patient to eat a full diet. Unaware of the supposed abdominal ultrasound, which required empty stomach, she had given the smooth-talker the go signal to stuff his stomach.

Dr Bailey, the aging consultant, went into full rage when he arrived at the ward and discovered that his patient was not able to undergo the imaging procedure. In the end, all the nurses in their shift had to write and Incident report for one person’s carelessness.

“Touché.” That seemed to have silenced the brunette.

All the outgoing nurses had to play rock-paper-scissor just to decide on who should go to their celebrity patient’s room. After several rounds, Grace won and had instantly scurried off to the room

The time of their endorsement was not as long as it usually was due to the incredibly few patients in their ward which had started a couple of weeks back. Everyone in the ward had been thankful for the cease in the patient admission, but it had also made a number of the nurses too laidback, a quality unwelcome to healthcare professionals.

They were almost through with their rounds with their final stop at Damian Williams room. Maggie could thoroughly feel the excitement among her co-workers, even from those of the outgoing shift.

She could not help but feel entertained thinking about the other nurses’ exhilaration over the admission of a really popular actor. Undoubtedly, she also felt faintly interested as to what she would see once they entered his room. 

Maggie was not the type who is enamoured by celebs regardless of how well-known they are in the entertainment industry. True enough that she could get intrigued, but she had never really gone as far as to snoop around and probe into those people’s private lives.

Leading the group, she opened the door and her eyes were instantly drawn into the most beautiful sapphire eyes she had ever seen. Sadly, they were rimmed black.