When I got to the hospital after such a long time not seeing Ava, she seemed to be a mess. She looked exhausted. She looked like she hadn't slept well in a while and she seemed to be upset. I walked over to her as soon as I saw her.

"Hey, Ava. You ok?" I asked her.

She turned to face me and she sighed.

"Hi. Yes, I'm ok." She said to me.

"You look really upset and tired." I said.

"I'm fine. Just some personal life difficulties." She said.

"Alright. Well, if you ever want to talk, feel free to just rant to me or something. I don't mind at all." I said to her.

"Thanks. I have to go see a patient." She said, being surprisingly civil all of a sudden.

"Cool. I've got to talk to Rico. But I'll see you again before I go, I hope." I said to her.

She shrugged and ran off.

"Hey, Ava!" I called out, making her turn.

"A pretty face like yours deserves to always be smiling. Whatever is going on, it'll work out in the end." I told her.

She sighed and nodded, walking off again.

I was happy with how nice she was being to me today. Maybe I was making progress.

I went and gave Rico some food I'd picked up from the restaurant a while ago, and then Ava was walking down the hall looking down at her phone looking sad.

"Hey, Ava." I smiled, making her look up at me.

She looked so sad, but she just walked over and she stood beside me, our backs against the wall.

"What's going on?" I asked her.

"I went back to the states for a wedding. It wasn't fun, in fact it was really, really bad." She sighed.

"That's a shame. What's with the sad look, Ava? I'm just here to listen, I don't have to make comments. I'll even forget this conversation once we finish having it if that's what you want." I told her.

"No, it's alright. It's just that I left the states because the people I knew there weren't the best. I wanted to be a doctor and the program here was great. Besides, I like it here. But like... going back was bad. I've discovered things I didn't know before. I feel bad, I feel upset.... And someone from back there won't leave me alone now that they have my number. It's just a big mess right now." She sighed.

"I see. Well listen. You have your own life here, right? Leave the states and the people in the states behind. If there's something that needs finishing up, then do that, but there's no need to let it get to you like this. Do your parents live back there?" I asked her.

"Yeah. They still live there." She sighed.

"Ava. Will you tell me what happened?" I asked her.

"Yes." She sighed. "The wedding I went to. It was my ex best friend's wedding. I didn't want to go but she begged me and when I talked to her she seemed like she wasn't ok. So I decided I would go. I went and discovered her fiancé was abusive. I got her out of there. She's staying with me for now. And my ex keeps calling." She sighed.

"I see. Well.... Here's a number, call it... talk to the lawyer, he'll help you out with the friend that's living with you. Then once she's on her own feet, you can get some distance. As for your ex, block him." I said to her.

"I've blocked nine numbers, Gabriel." She sighed heavily.

Nine?! This man really wouldn't leave her alone.

Just then, her phone started to ring again.

"Do you trust me?" I asked her.

"Uhm..." She hesitated slightly.

"I won't do anything wrong. You don't want to trust me for a date, but let me help you." I said to her.

"Ok... nothing inappropriate." She clarified.

"Of course." I said, holding out my hand. "Let me answer him. I'll tell him I'm your boyfriend. But nothing inappropriate, I promise."

"Alright." She said softly, handing me her phone.

I picked up and immediately heard the guy's voice.

"Hey! Ava! Don't you miss me, Sweetheart?" He asked.

"No, she doesn't. Stop calling her." I told him.

"Uhm... who is this?" He said nervously.

"That's none of your concern, actually. Your life and Ava's are completely separate and it's time for you to accept that and leave her alone. What she does with her life is none of your business. Don't call again." I said.

"Are you her boyfriend?" He asked.

"It's none of your business who I am. Do. Not. Call. Again. Is that understood?" I said.

"Goodness, calm down." He said. "Fine. She's not worth it anyway."

"Hang up." I demanded and he immediately did as I said.

I smiled and handed her back her phone.

"It's done. If he still bothers you, I can do this again." I offered.

"Wow. That's great! Thank you!" She said with a smile. "But you didn't even say you were my boyfriend."

"I know... I realized there wasn't a reason to lie. I'm not your boyfriend. You haven't given me that title yet... so I don't deserve it yet." I said to her.

She sighed, running a hand through her soft brown hair.

"Will you go on a date with me, Ava? Not now, just once things calm down?" I asked her.

"I just don't think I'm ready, Gabriel." She told me.

"That's fine. You know, all you had to say was that and I would've left you alone... if you genuinely just don't want to be with me, ever... will you tell me now? I'll leave you alone if you genuinely just can't ever see us together." I said to her.

"No... that's not it, Gabriel. It's just hard to trust men after my ex... I just feel like I need to really know it's right." She explained.

"Well, how are you going to know if we don't go on a date or two?" I asked her.

"You come by every now and then, and I see you... that's all I can handle for now... alright?" She asked.

"That's fair... I'm good to wait as long as I need to. I see something in you that I've never seen in anyone... I want to try this out... see if we could work out... and I'm willing to wait as long as necessary." I said.

"Thank you." She smiled. "I've just got to handle that friend I told you about, then maybe we can discuss this again."

"That sounds good. In the meantime, are you sure you don't need my help? Maybe finding a place for this friend?" I asked her.

"Uhm... I'm not sure exactly what it is she plans on doing. Goodness, everything is so damn complicated. I've made so many mistakes and everything is so mixed in with everything else." She sighed, looking so stressed out.

"What's mixed in with what?" I asked her.

"Ok... I'm just going to tell you everything." She sighed.

"Go ahead." I nodded.

"My ex and my best friend have always been close family friends. In high school, she got a boyfriend and then they stayed together al the way through the four years. Then... university started and that's when my parents asked if I was willing to consider a relationship with their friends son." She explained.

I nodded my head.

"I didn't know who it would be, I just agreed to at least meet the guy and see if maybe there was any potential there." She said. "I just didn't expect it to be the biggest player ever, the man that slept with every girl he saw and just wasn't in any way decent."

"Oh... ok, then?" I asked.

"Then... then I was an idiot. He decided he was into me and he sort of dropped all his old habits and started doing all these sweet things and making these grand gestures of his affection. And my friends were all rooting for him. Turns out that in the end, I was a naive idiot and I believed he'd changed and actually wanted to be with me." She sighed.

"You agreed to be with him?" I asked.

"No. He kissed me and then I sort of decided it was worth trying. I sat him down, told him how I wanted him to know that although I may have seemed wonderful to him at the time, there were things about me that he may grow not to be so accepting of later. I just... I wanted to make sure nothing would come up later and make him feel cheated. But he didn't even listen to what I was saying." She sighed. "That should've been the first warning sign."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Well... time passed and he was lovely to me. We were a pretty successful couple, we got good grades. I put so much effort into the relationship. I'd help him with his homework and I'd clean his apartment for him when he seemed too busy. I made sure he always ate, even though I can't cook to save my life. And I just poured my all into the relationship." She said, looking down at her shoes. "Then he started wanting sex."

I stiffened, seeing where this was going now.

"I wasn't ready. I didn't want to go there with him. Not until after we got married. I just see that level of intimacy as one of the most special things you can do with someone and I wanted to save it for someone who was committed enough to marry me... maybe that's stupid, but that's just how I wanted it to go." She sighed.

"That's not stupid, Ava. You're right. It is special and only two people who are fully committed to each other should do that stuff." I said, turning a little red.

"That's exactly what I mean... but he got mad. He'd yell and tell me I didn't love him enough and that I was being selfish and stuff.... so eventually, it lead me to realize that neither of us really felt love. We'd said it a million times, but I definitely didn't feel it. I thought I did, but I guess I've never really known that kind of love... and I went to his place to break up with him." She explained to me.

"That was the right thing to do." I said to her, making sure she knew that.

"I felt bad about it though... but then he started yelling and telling me how worthless I was, bringing up my insecurities and making me feel horrible about myself, and it turns out he cheated on me. He just went out after I refused him and got what he wanted with other girls." Ava sighed.

"Wow... Ava, he's a jerk... he's not worth a single bit of worry, alright?" I asked her.

"I know that... that wasn't the bad part." She chuckled.

"What? What was then?" He asked.

"My best friend. I went to her place and told her about the breakup, and she yelled at me for being stupid... she told me I should go back to him because I had nothing going for me, I wasn't pretty, smart or likeable... and I'd never find anyone else." Ava told me.

"How did you end up with literally the worst collection of people?" I asked, feeling annoyed that such a gorgeous, smart, capable woman had to hear all those things and be treated badly by jerks who weren't half as good as she is.

"That's what I thought... and I moved here, I studied medicine in the six year program, and here I am now.... only... Jordi, my ex best friend, called me and asked me to go to her wedding, she was getting married to the same guy she was with in high school. I didn't want to go, but she was persistent and I got the feeling that something was wrong." She sighed.

"And you went... that's why you were gone for a while last week." I nodded, remembering that detail because it kept me from seeing her for a while.

"Yeah, I went and it turns out she only said all that because her abusive boyfriend at the time didn't want her to be my friend... So she hurt me to get some distance because she was afraid. So, when I found out at the wedding venue, I brought her here to get away from him." She said to me.

"Ah... I see. You should get a restraining order... have you done that?" I asked her.

"No. I can't find a lawyer who will do it for us... they all say that he's in the US so why would we need one." Ava sighed.

"No, no. You need one... That lawyer's number that I gave you, call it, he'll help you." I said to her.

"Ferrari Law?" She sighed. "I can't afford that... I'm still a resident."

"Oh, don't you worry about the cost... He's more concerned about his clients being safe and happy than the pay he gets out of them... just explain everything." I said to her.

"Is he related to Dr. Ferrari?" She asked me.

"He is... I don't mean to brag but our family is pretty damn amazing, you'll like it, if you ever let me be your boyfriend." I chuckled, nudging her and making her chuckle.

"It's too early for that, Idiot... now get lost, I have work to do." She said with a smile, trying to hide it with an eye roll.

"The stubborn doctor and the idiot, I think it works, don't you?" I teased.

She pushed me playfully and walked over to the receptionist's desk. She grabbed her clipboard and looked down at it.

"Alright. See you later, Gabriel.... thanks for the help." She smiled, walking off, much more cheery than before.

God, she's perfect!