My Doctor, My Ex

On the day of our high school graduation, I threw a stack of cash right in Harrison's face in front of the entire senior class. I'm done playing games, I lied.

He bent down. He picked up the bills scattered across the floor, one by one. His voice was completely hollow when he finally spoke. Okay.

When summer ended, Harrison boarded a Greyhound to Cambridge. And I boarded a flight overseas to begin my endless rounds of chemotherapy.

Years later, I'm back in the States. Lying in a hospital bed, totally bald from the treatments. I was in the middle of scrolling for decent wigs when the door pushed open.

Harrison stood there in a crisp white doctor's coat.

Our eyes locked.

Chapter 1

When Harrison walked in, my ass was straight in the air. I was face-down on the mattress, my phone blasting a hyperactive streamer's voice.

[Prime Day flash sale! Swipe up now before it's gone!]

"Miss Avery, shopping for wigs again?" "Dr. Harrison, this is our new trial patient. Consents are already signed."

The second Harrison looked over, I tipped sideways like a fallen bowling pin.

My mind went completely blank.

Ten years. The man I thought I'd never see again for the rest of my life was suddenly my attending physician. And he had to walk in right when I was doing my embarrassing gas-relief stretches. Kill me now.

I scrambled upright. My fingers fumbled to pull up my crooked medical mask. I held my breath, terrified to make a sound.

Even without meeting his eyes, I could feel the sheer weight of his stare pinning me down. Ice cold. Zero warmth.

It was a complete reversal from the resigned, gentle way he used to look at me when I messed up a math equation.

"Miss Avery, this is our head of oncology, Dr. Harrison. He'll be taking over your entire treatment plan."

I kept my eyes glued to the floor and gave a frantic, jerky nod. Not a single syllable left my throat.

The intern standing next to him hugged a clipboard to his chest and obediently rattled off my chart. "Avery. Female, twenty-eight. Diagnosed with swollen cervical lymph nodes during a routine physical ten years ago. Preliminary diagnosis was Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Further pathology revealed"

"Skip the rest."

"Excuse me? Do you know the patient, Doctor?"

My heart slammed straight against my ribs. I stared down at my phone, pretending to be entirely absorbed by the screen. But I felt his gaze burning a hole right through the ridiculous little sheep-horn beanie on my head.

A long second passed.

"No," he replied coolly. "It's just an unusual case. I reviewed the file earlier."

My screen automatically redirected to the Amazon checkout page. The payment timer started ticking down. Seconds slipped by, but my thumb just hovered there. I couldn't press purchase.

The intern dutifully finished presenting the treatment protocol. Harrison listened without a single shift in his expression. "Fine. Continue the current regimen. We'll run scans tomorrow."

Then, he shifted his attention to the next bed. Rounds lasted another twenty minutes. He didn't look at me once before walking out the door.

I rotated my stiff neck. My hospital gown clung to my back, soaked in cold sweat. By the time I looked back at my phone, the wig I wanted was completely sold out. Perfect. Just my luck.

But the silver lining was glaringly obvious. Harrison had completely forgotten me. He hadn't even blinked when the intern read my name out loud.

When Harrison and I first met, we despised each other. I was a rich, spoiled brat who did whatever she wanted and sat dead last in class rankings. My homeroom teacher thought forcing me to sit next to Harrison would somehow magically fix my grades.

At first, he didn't even acknowledge my existence. He just buried his face in practice tests, taking them over and over again.

He was brilliant. He was sweet. He was gorgeous.

is only flaw was that he was completely broke. And now, ten years later, my life was completely in his hands.

Chapter 2

I was the exact opposite. I was stupid, and my personality was trash. Sitting next to Harrison made me look like a brainless trust-fund baby.

Luckily, I was pretty good at reading people.

While every other girl in school was slipping love letters and flowers into his locker, I was buying him SAT prep books. I funded his entire collection of Princeton Review practice exams.

It took less than a semester to make him mine.

The day I finally kissed him was his birthday. His crisp white button-down was wrinkled. My lipstick was smeared across his mouth.

He looked down, his eyelashes casting shadows. "What is this?"

It was my first time kissing a guy.

I completely froze.

"D-don't you get it?" I stammered. "Be my boyfriend."

The tips of Harrison's ears turned a faint pink. "Okay," he said, his voice barely a whisper.

God, those days were perfect. I hated studying, but the second I walked into homeroom, I would sit quietly beside him and let him tutor me. Within a year, my GPA skyrocketed. My scores were high enough to get me to Boston. I wouldn't have to do long-distance with him.

If only that routine physical hadn't ruined everything

I retched violently into the toilet bowl. The sound echoed off the sterile hospital tiles. I gripped the porcelain rim, black spots dancing across my vision while cold sweat soaked through my gown.

My best friend rubbed circles into my spine. "You can't keep doing this. The reaction is way too severe. I'm getting a doctor."

I grabbed her wrist. "Don't. I'm used to it."

I survived twenty-seven rounds of chemo alone in Europe all those years ago. Ten years of fighting, just for a relapse. I had no idea how much more torture my body could take. Paging the doctor every time I threw up was just going to make me a nuisance.

She wasn't having it. "Isn't Harrison your attending? I'm finding him. He'll know what to do."

"For the love of God, please just drop it. You should be thanking God he didn't recognize me. If he knew who I was, he'd prescribe me a hundred rounds of chemo just to watch me suffer."

"Who told you you're getting a hundred rounds?"

The icy voice came from right behind us.

My entire body locked up. I didn't dare turn my head.

My friend let out a massive sigh of relief. "Dr. Harrison, Avery is really sick"

"It's a standard reaction to the chemotherapy. If her body can't handle it"

I didn't hear a single word he said after that. The only thought looping in my head was pure panic.

Did he hear what I just said?

Later that night, a nurse came in to administer an anti-nausea injection. She was definitely fishing for information. "Do you know Dr. Harrison?"

I collapsed back against the pillows, completely drained. "No. Why?"

"He never micromanages this kind of stuff. But he went straight to the resident's office specifically to order this injection for you."

I stared at my reflection in the bathroom mirror. I was so much thinner. The disease had leeched all the color from my face, making me look nothing like the girl I was ten years ago. It was impossible.

Even with Harrison's photographic memory, he couldn't possibly

Wait. He did have a photographic memory.

What if he still hated my guts?

The name Avery was literally printed on the whiteboard above my bed. Why on earth did I think he wouldn't recognize me?

My friend chimed in from the visitor's chair. "Your Dr. Harrison is only twenty-eight, right? Isn't he a little young to be head of the department?"

"Wow, you really did your research," the nurse said. "He fast-tracked his undergrad and med school. He finished his residency and fellowship by the time he was twenty-seven. A resume like his is literally one in a million. Normal people just can't compete."But what the nurse didn't know was that this untouchable genius was the very boy I had ruthlessly dumped. If he remembered me, would he use this chance to make me pay?

Chapter 3

The nurses noticed my best friend's obvious interest in Harrison and let out a laugh. "Trying to go after our Dr. Harrison? Save your breath. He's already taken."

My friend shot me a knowing wink.

"The hospital director's daughter," the nurse continued. "Ivy League PhD. Word is they might be tying the knot soon."

The smile froze completely on my friend's face.

My chest tightened. I gripped the loose fabric of my hospital gown, suddenly hyper-focused on a frayed thread near the hem. My lungs refused to take in air.

Once the nurse left, my friend couldn't hold back. "Avery, I am so sorry."

"Hey, what are you apologizing for?" I forced an exhale. "I'm twenty-eight, not eighteen."

I stopped dreaming about the untouchable genius falling for me ten years ago.

I didn't see Harrison again after that day. I still caught fragments of his life through the hospital grapevine. He was always flying out for medical conferences or locked away in the research labs. He only did rounds once a week to adjust our medication protocols.

Patients were allowed to go home between chemo cycles. I was formally discharged without ever crossing paths with him again.

On the Uber ride back, my high school class president called me. "Avery! Are you still in Boston? How are the treatments going?"

The background noise on his end was loud and chaotic. Another classmate chimed in over the speaker. "Why didn't you tell any of us you were sick? We wouldn't have known if he hadn't brought it up."

I let out a dry laugh. "I didn't want to bother anyone."

"Don't give us that crap. Look, where are you staying? We're coming over tomorrow."

I couldn't fight off their good intentions. I texted them the address.

My medical bills had drained my family's bank accounts over the years. Thanks to my best friend, I managed to rent a dirt-cheap apartment right outside the city limits. It was on the ground floor with a tiny backyard facing south. If I ever got healthy enough, I could plant some hydrangeas. Maybe even adopt a dog.

Most of our graduating class had stayed in our hometown, while the rest scattered across the country. Only a handful actually showed up. About five or six people.

They carried in grocery bags packed to the brim. "We were gonna do hotpot, but it's way too hot. Let's just cook some dishes instead."

I wore a thick knit beanie pulled low. "It's fine," I smiled. "We have AC. I kind of want hotpot anyway."

They crowded into my tiny kitchen, shouting and laughing. The apartment instantly filled with life. It almost felt like we had just graduated again.

The class president washed lettuce in the sink and glanced at me. "Have you reached out to Harrison?"

I froze for a split second. "What?"

"Come on, you didn't know he's a top hematologist? He literally specializes in lymphoma. You should really talk to him."

"Oh, I"

I absolutely refused to get tangled up with Harrison again.

Then the doorbell rang.

The class president wiped his hands on a towel and went to get it. A second later, loud cheers erupted from the entryway.

"Harrison! You finally made it!"

"Look at you, Dr. Harrison. Long time no see."

"Get in here. Avery wants hotpot. You're the medical expert, tell us if she can actually eat that."

I stood paralyzed in the center of the room.

I wasn't wearing my medical mask. The skin of my bare face burned as if shoved directly under a spotlight, entirely exposed. I never expected them to contact him.

And now, with my bare face completely defenseless, I was staring straight into his eyes. Would he expose my pathetic secret to everyone right here, right now?

Chapter 4

Harrison glanced at me with perfect composure. "Go with the mild broth," he instructed casually.

"Got it! Listen to the expertno spicy broth!"

Everyone swarmed back to their tasks.

Harrison took the slippers from the class president and swapped out his shoes. He handed a bag of fruit to one of the classmates in the kitchen before being nudged toward the sofa across from me.

In an instant, the living room fell silent, leaving just the two of us. The old air conditioner in the corner rattled with a persistent, grinding hum.

I dodged his gaze, frantically fishing for the medical mask I'd tucked behind me, desperate to get it back on.

Harrison made a sharp snapping sound as he broke off the stems of the water spinach. "Since you've already been found out," he said, his tone detached, "is there really any point in hiding?"

The atmosphere in the living room turned suffocating.

No. To be precise, I was the only one suffocating.

I hesitated for a moment, then pulled my hand back, feeling utterly defeated. "I thought you hadn't recognized me. That's why I didn't say anything at the hospital the other day."

"Unnecessary."

"What?"

"We aren't close. No need for greetings."

Harrison kept his head down, expertly snapping the vegetables, showing zero interest in carrying on a conversation with me.

I gave a silent, stiff nod and awkwardly pushed a glass of water toward him. "You want some water?"

"Not thirsty. Thanks."

Cold. Even colder than I remembered.

Since he'd shut me down, I didn't want to keep making a fool of myself, so I just sat there, desperately scrubbing my memory for any humiliating things I might have done while I was admitted to his ward.

The class president poked his head out of the kitchen. "Avery! We're out of paper towels. Can you grab a roll?"

"Oh, right. On it."

I scrambled up and started rummaging through the bottom cabinets. The landlord's furniture was ancient. The moment I yanked the drawer open, the entire unit groaned and shook. A photo frame balanced on the very top ledge gave an ominous, creaky protest before it started to tip forward.

By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late. I hunched my shoulders like a frightened bird, ducking my head and bracing for the impact.

The next second, the light dimmed. Harrison had caught the frame.

Because he was back-lit, I couldn't read his expression. I only felt an icy displeasure radiating off him.

"Thanks."

Harrison ignored me.

Once I crawled out from under the frame, I realized exactly what he was looking at.

It was a photo I'd taken back in the daya candid shot of Harrison sleeping. Mid-summer sunlight had filtered through the leaves, dappling his refined features. He had been sound asleep. He didn't even notice me sneakily reaching out to hook my pinky around his.

Right then, I was seriously weighing the possibility of snatching the photo and swallowing it whole.

"Avery."

"Yeah?"

"Explain."

I paused, then instinctively reached up to scratch my head, accidentally pulling out a loose clump of my thinning hair. Under Harrison's icy, piercing stare, I forced a dry laugh. "Isn't this just an ex-partner wall? Haha. I just like to keep the memories"

"Oh, really?" Harrison pointed at a few framed photos of my best friend and me. His cold voice carried a sudden, sharp edge. "So, following your logic, you dated a girl, too?"

I swallowed hard. "Yeah that's right. I, uh, I've dated them all."

Harrison's gaze was razor-sharp, as if he intended to burn me alive right where I stood.

Chapter 5

My forced smile completely crumbled. I let my gaze dart anywhere else in the room, terrified to meet his eyes.

The class president slid the kitchen door open. "Avery, are you guys" He caught the suffocating tension in the air and immediately snapped his mouth shut.

Harrison's jaw clenched tight. He set the photo frame exactly where he found it, pulled a paper towel to wipe his hands, and grabbed his jacket.

"Hey, Harrison, where are you going?"

"Emergency at the hospital. I'm heading out."

"Wait, we haven't even finished talking about Avery's case. Just stay for dinner, man."

Harrison paused in the entryway. His dark eyes locked onto me, waiting for me to say a single word.

But I gave him nothing. I just sat there in absolute silence.

A low, self-mocking laugh slipped past Harrison's lips. "Is there really any point in a despised ex-boyfriend sticking around?"

The deadbolt clicked.

He was gone.

His exit left a heavy, suffocating silence in his wake. But it didn't last long before the rich, spicy scent of the hotpot base filled the room.

"Damn, Prez, you still got it after all these years."

The class president chuckled, raising his paper cup toward me. "Don't sweat it, Avery. Harry is just hey, I'll talk to him later! He wouldn't dare ignore his old class president."

The others quickly chimed in to do damage control. "He was slammed when I called him earlier. The fact that he even showed up means he cares. He'll definitely help you out."

"Exactly. Now come eat!"

Honestly, I wasn't hurt. All I felt was a crushing wave of guilt.

In my mind, our paths were never supposed to cross again. I had no right to drag him back into my mess just because I was sick.

We crowded around the boiling pot, letting the noise and heat wash over us. The class president even started a video call in our old senior group chat.

Only a few people actually picked up. But the chat blew up anyway. Between the loud banter and laughing, it felt exactly like those frantic days right before finals. Everyone excitedly shouting over each other about the future and their dream colleges. Planning our summer road trips.

Back then, I shared a desk with Harrison.

A week before graduation, he came back from the counselor's office and caught me scribbling all over a map with a red marker. "What are you doing?" he asked.

I lifted the map and practically shoved it in his face. "Are you blind? It's Boston." Two thick red circles were drawn right in the center. "This is your campus. And this one is mine."

I dragged the cap of the marker along the straight line connecting them. "The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. That's going to be us."

Harrison couldn't hold back his smile. "You're really applying to schools in Massachusetts?"

"What, you aren't happy about that?"

He slid into the seat next to me, meticulously stacking his practice exams and sliding them into his desk. "I'm happy," he said softly.

But my luck was complete trash. A few days later, the hospital sent over my routine physical results.

The lab report was an absolute disaster. Tiny red arrows indicating abnormal levels completely covered the page. The doctors told my parents to immediately fly me out to a specialized oncology center in Boston for a full workup.

Looking at the numbers, going to college wasn't just highly unlikely. It was completely off the table.

I tested the waters the next day, forcing a casual tone. "Hypothetically, if I got a super serious illness and couldn't go to Boston, what would you do?"

Harrison's pen stopped moving. His brows pulled together. "Are you sick?"

"Don't jinx it! You're the one who's sick! It's just a stupid internet quiz. Answer the question."

"I'd just get into the best medical program around here," he said without missing a beat. "I'd just change my applications."

My throat tightened instantly, a physical ache blooming in my chest. Just one sentence from him shattered everything I was trying to hold together.

Chapter 6

I shoved my messy math practice test onto his desk. "Fine, do your stupid math problems. Nerd."

Why would a guy obsessed with numbers ever want to go to med school?

On the afternoon of our final exams, my nose started bleeding. The blood dripped straight onto the scantron sheet. I didn't even know if it would invalidate my score. None of it mattered anyway.

I left for Massachusetts that exact same night.

Standing on the bustling streets of Boston, my chest ached so hard I wanted to scream. We made a promise to meet in Boston, and I had beaten him here.

Then came the official diagnosis. The flight back home to pack up my life. And the moment I threw a stack of cash in Harrison's face in front of our entire class.

I hastily scribbled a brutal period at the end of our relationship.

My second admission landed me in the exact same oncology ward. Only the patients had changed. The little boy who had the bed before me passed away at the start of the month. He hadn't even turned five.

When my best friend heard the news, her eyes instantly welled with tears.

I was currently busy fighting with an Amazon third-party seller. "Do I look like a bank robber to you?"

[Dear customer, we are all law-abiding citizens here.]

I snapped a selfie with the sheer black stocking pulled over my head and hit send.

[Then why did you send me pantyhose when I ordered a winter beanie???]

Harrison walked in the exact second my refund processed. I torpedoed under the blanket with lightning speed. My ass was sticking straight up in the air.

"Avery," Harrison said, his tone devoid of emotion.

I kept my face buried in the mattress. "Avery isn't here. I'm her best friend."

My actual best friend stood next to the bed, completely speechless.

Harrison ruthlessly yanked the blanket off. My hair was a frizzy, patchy mess. I stared up at him like a guilty stray dog. His face was carved from ice. His jaw was clenched tight.

The female resident beside him let out a soft laugh. "Dr. Harrison adjusted your medication protocol. We were going to walk you through it, but we walked in on"

She didn't need to finish that sentence. The other patients in the room were already holding back laughter.

Harrison was the only one who didn't crack a smile. "It seems you're too distracted to listen right now. I'll come back tomorrow."

"Wait, don't go! Dr. Harrison, please. I'm listening. I promise." I scrambled forward and grabbed the hem of his white coat.

Years of begging for my life had completely stripped away my pride.

Harrison's gaze dropped to my pale, bony fingers gripping his jacket. His lips parted slightly. The crease between his brows deepened.

For a split second, it looked like he was going to cry.

I really was losing my mind to the sickness.

Harrison stood by my bed and spent the next thirty minutes explaining the protocol with absolute, robotic detachment. He paused precisely after every single sentence, making sure my brain processed the information. He was putting me on a new trial drug. The efficacy was promising, but the side effects were brutal.

I leaned against the headboard, forcing a bright smile. "Hey, I get it. Clinical trials always need a guinea pig. I didn't even go to college, so it's not like I'm contributing to society anyway. If it fails, I won't have any regrets."

"Avery. I do not treat human lives like a game." Harrison's lips pressed into a harsh, bloodless line.

Somehow, his deadly serious demeanor actually made the panic in my chest settle.

The side effects of the new drug hit me like a freight train. I took the first dose during the day. By sunset, I was hugging the toilet, practically vomiting my stomach lining. Severe heartburn followed, setting my chest on fire and making my skin crawl with restlessness.

My best friend had gone home to shower and nap, so I navigated the wheelchair by myself down to the hospital's outdoor garden.

Dusk. The dying sunlight spread out over the man-made lake. A breeze swept across the water, making the ripples flash like a thousand golden fish scales.

I let the wind hit my face, occasionally ducking my head into a plastic grocery bag to dry-heave.

Chapter 7

I lifted my head. A woman suddenly stepped directly into my line of sight.

"Miss Avery, what a coincidence. What are you doing out here?"

It was the female doctor who had been standing next to Harrison the other day. I had completely forgotten to ask for her name.

She quickly solved that mystery herself, holding out her hand to introduce herself. "Victoria Abbott."

I reached out and gave it a brief shake. The massive diamond on her ring finger caught the light, practically blinding me.

I remembered the hospital director's last name was Abbott. So this was the director's daughter. The one who was supposedly marrying Harrison.

Victoria stood beside my wheelchair, her voice perfectly soft. "How exactly do you know Harry?"

It took my chemo-addled brain a full second to realize her "Harry" was Harrison.

The air between us instantly shifted. The classic standoff. The ex-girlfriend and the future wife.

I adjusted my crooked beanie. "We went to high school together."

"Just classmates?"

I let a beat pass. "Yeah. Just classmates."

Victoria let out a light laugh. "That's not what I heard. You're Harrison's ex-girlfriend. The one who threw a stack of cash at him right after graduation and dumped him cold."

Her tone shredded any pretense of politeness. She was clearly here to exact vengeance for her fianc.

When I didn't take the bait, she leaned in closer. "Why did you do it? Because you got sick? Did you think that was some noble way to push him away?"

I kept my mouth shut. A gust of wind whipped violently past my shoulders.

A mocking sneer slipped through Victoria's teeth. "So stupid. But I really should thank you. I wouldn't be engaged to Harrison if you hadn't done that."

Years of being sick had practically ground my temper down to dust. But hearing that? My mouth operated entirely on its own.

"Then get on your knees and thank me. And wire me five million dollars while you're at it."

"You"

I gave her a hard side-eye. "What exactly do you want to hear? You want me to say I regret it?"

Victoria didn't get mad. She just smiled. "Don't you?"

"Oh, absolutely."

Victoria blinked, caught completely off guard.

I leaned back and delivered my lines with zero shame. "I'm going to go win him back right now. I'll confess my undying feelings, cry my eyes out, and beg him to dump you and marry me instead." I squared my shoulders, fully expecting Victoria to look like she'd just swallowed a lemon.

Instead, her expression morphed into something bizarre. She looked right past my shoulder and smiled.

"Harrison, if your ex-girlfriend confesses to you, would you take her back?"

My smug smile froze. The ground completely vanished beneath my feet.

I snapped my head around and collided straight into Harrison's dead, freezing stare. The skin of my face burned as if someone had thrown scalding water over it. The dying sun dyed his white lab coat a blazing, blinding orange. His sharp features gave absolutely nothing away.

"You can try."

My thoughts ground to a complete halt. "Try what?"

"Say you still love me."

In that exact second, the golden sunset bounced violently off the rippling surface of the lake. The light crashed directly into my eyes. The blinding glare entirely swallowed Harrison's silhouette. The world spun out of control.

I could only hear his voice echoing from somewhere impossibly far away. Carrying a resonance that spanned ten entire years.

He spoke.

"You can try."

"Say you still love me."

"Let's see if I come back to you