He took a sip of his coffee and glanced at the afternoon sun. He was tired and still had to go back to work. The entrance of the old building with its peeling white façade seemed to beckon him. The last sip of coffee tasted bitter. As he grimaced, he reached for the rolled-up slip of paper. He wasn’t in the habit of reading such things.

Still, he unrolled it. It said: “Today you will find love.”

He smirked sourly. He was already past fifty and had no interest in love. After a failed marriage that had ended in a painful divorce more than ten years ago, he neither wanted commitment nor strong feelings for a woman. He liked his bachelor life. He crumpled the paper and tossed it into the trash.

He stood up, paid for the coffee, and headed back to work.

He was immediately swept up in a whirlwind of information. His colleague wouldn’t stop talking about a patient admitted about an hour earlier.

“Finish things up,” his colleague said. “I’m going in to operate.”

“Alright.”

“Did you remember everything?”

“I did.”

He entered the room behind the emergency ward. He intended to finish quickly and go home to rest. He had been on his feet since morning, and his strength was running out.

On the examination table lay a young woman of about twenty. Small, beautiful. She wore a white bra and a pink diaper—if that could even be called clothing. Her legs were covered in bruises and swellings. An ugly sight.

“Hello! I’m Dr. Savov,” he said cheerfully. “Everything is fine. My colleague has taken good care of you. I’ll just finish up.”

She looked at him with frightened, wide brown eyes. Her cheeks were wet with tears. Her left hand rested on her chest. Her fingers trembled.

“It hurts,” she whispered.

“It will ease soon,” the doctor smiled. “You know you mustn’t move, right?”

“I know.” Her chin quivered.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of, miss. The worst is over. Try not to think about anything.”

“I’m scared. What will happen to me?”

“You’ll stay in the hospital, and I suppose in about a month you’ll be discharged. There’s no need for surgery for now. You’re lucky.”

“I had so many plans...”

“What matters is that you’re alive and that you’ll recover completely.”

Despite his reassuring words, she began to cry again. A pitiful sight.

That was when he realized he liked this girl, who was probably thirty years younger than him. More than that—she looked very much like his teenage love.

He felt ashamed of himself. It had happened before that he felt sympathy for a patient, but this ... this felt like he was on the verge of falling in love.