The Promise

Chapter One

"Shit!" She exclaimed, slapping the wet pavement she was sprawled upon in anger.

Reaching over to her ankle as it began to throb, Isabella attempted to soothe it by rubbing the affected area.

"Ugh!" She groaned, wincing as a sharp pain shot through her foot. "What am I going to do? There's no way I can get home by myself and It's too early in the morning to call Lana, she'll never pick up. And here I am, laying on the ground, in a park, in a strange town, talking to myself!"

She rubbed her temples to try and calm her frayed nerves.

Isabella had just moved to this quiet town in London to live with her best friend after a particularly bad breakup. She'd only been here a month and still hadn't been out much until today when she decided to try her hand at running. There she was, a chilled, sweaty, wet mess, scraped up and in pain from what was probably a sprained ankle with nobody around to help her.

"Hello there? Are you hurt? I saw you fall from behind and ran over as fast as I could," came a voice from afar.

Embarrassed, a nervous laugh erupted from her mouth as she attempted to look up at her possible savior. The early morning sun made it hard to focus on his face.

"Hi there. Yes, I'm sorry, I seem to have forgotten how to walk."

She continued to ramble for a few minutes until the stranger with the rather handsome sounding voice laughed and knelt down to inspect her foot. Finally able to see him, she looked up and into the clearest, blue eyes she'd ever seen. Of more importance was who the gorgeous eyes belonged to that caused her voice to falter. Her mouth hung open, eyes wide in recognition as he flashed a bright smile at her, extending a hand to shake hers.

"Hi, I'm Tom."

She opened her mouth to speak, but words refused to come out. There she sat, mouth gaping open like a fish out of water.

A giggle escaped his lips. "What's your name, darling?"

"My name?" she repeated. "My name. What's my name?" she muttered to herself. "Oh, yes! I remember now. I'm Isabella," she said, as she shook his hand with vigor.

"Pretty name for a pretty lady. Very nice to meet you," he said, reaching over to look at her ankle as it started to swell before their eyes.

He glanced back over at her, silently asking for permission to check her ankle. All she could do at the moment was nod her approval. He picked up her foot with a delicate touch, ghosting his fingertips over the swell. She shivered, not from the pain, but from the way he caressed her foot. He held it with such reverence, careful not to press too much.

"Well, I'm not a doctor, but I do run a lot and I can tell that at the least your ankle looks sprained. You should go to an emergency room to have them inspect it for any other trauma."

Immediately, she felt the panic rising in her chest, the thought of going to the hospital making her queasy.

"No, no hospital, I'm good. I just need to get home, I'm only a few blocks from here... I think."

Tom put her ankle down, looking at her, brow furrowed in confusion. "You need to have this looked at. At the very least you should go see your primary."

She waved her hand, dismissing his concerns. "Well, if you can't tell by my accent, I'm a little far away from my personal care provider. I'll be fine, I just need to put my foot up, really."

Tom cocked an eyebrow up in doubt of the blasé solution to her problem. He stood up and paced for a moment, contemplating what to do next. He had been unsure about whether the idea he had would be a good one, but he couldn't just leave the poor girl to suffer when he could do something about it. Looking down at her, he watched as she inspected her foot gingerly with one hand while twisting the end of her ponytail around the other. She seemed a bit awkward and out of sorts, but there was something quite genuine and adorable about her. She didn't appear to be a psychotic fan who just wanted to chain him away in her basement.
After a beat, he bent down to her level again, catching her eye.