A Humble Heart (Hollywood Hearts #1)(2)

She couldn’t stop herself. She sent him an e-mail telling him how much she didn’t love him. She told him everything she did in the last year to get away from him, how she never felt a moment of attraction for him and he wasn’t even a good friend. It was harsh and probably some of it uncalled for even if it was true, but that didn't mean she should have written it. She regretted the way she did it, but the results were a relief. He was out of her life for good.

After a year of boredom and illness thanks to a patient she’d transported that year she was ready to start dating again. Thanks to the illness she caught because a nurse failed to inform Dana and her partner of the day of the patient's health precautions, she’d walked into a patient’s room and caught a lovely airborne virus.

It was only after a doctor came running down the hall waving his hands frantically in the air for her to leave the room had she realized the mistake. The nurse was suspended with pay, not much of a punishment if they asked her, and Dana was left with a painful illness that required multiple shots and took most of the “boring” year as she liked to refer to it just to heal. She missed a great deal of work and college thanks to the illness as well as lost fifty pounds.

The new year, her new life of freedom started off poorly. She lost her job with the top ambulance company in the state and ended up working in another field outside of emergency medicine. She was also kicked out of college when her GPA dropped. She went from being an honors student with a triple major in biochemistry, history and biology with a real possibility at either law school, med school or a promising career in forensic science to working in a pizza joint until she got her act together.

That was a strange period. Her professional career was gone. She was kicked out of school and she had no real focus. Things began coming together slowly. She finally bought a car, she was in a management position that she had no plans of exploring and she had more men actively pursuing her than ever before.

Except this had been different, they were men not boys. She felt overwhelmed and awkward at the same time. Although she wasn’t a virgin she was still extremely inexperienced when it came to the opposite sex.

She had men at work pursuing her, customers, co-workers and even ex-co-workers. It was overwhelming. She decided to focus on work and try figuring things out. A pizza joint wasn’t her future. She knew that much at least. She worked during the day and at night she used the internet to search for answers.

It was the internet that changed her life. She was lonely. Her friends were all in relationships or she was avoiding them because she was too embarrassed with her current career choice. The internet seemed like a safe way of making friends, well on-line friends. She had no plans on meeting any of them in person.

Some of the guys she talked to were nice. Most had serious relationship issues they were getting over or immaturity problems. She talked to them until they started to talk about sex and then they were blocked. This went on for months. When she refused to meet them in person they ended the online friendship with her. One man was hard to refuse, Brian. He was funny, nice and had a lot in common with her. He was also dating someone else, which made him perfect. They talked online for hours at a time.

Things changed quickly when Brian dumped his girlfriend for her. It was difficult to continue to talk to him. He wanted to meet her. It couldn’t happen, she felt awkward and ugly. She didn’t think much of herself at all, which was one reason she didn’t like to date much. Her self-esteem was non-existent. She really thought she was the ugliest girl in the world and Brian would take one look at her and run the other way.

The day he ended their online friendship she actually cried. She knew if she met him in real life she would fall head over heels in love with him if he was even one tenth like the Brian she knew online. After that she didn’t talk to many people online. It hurt too much.

After several months of avoiding emails from guys wanting to chat an email from Jeff caught her eye. She began talking to him and liked what she read. He was a few years older than her, but his dating history was practically non-existent. He was intelligent, funny and appreciated her sense of humor and he never talked to her sexually.

When he asked to meet her in person she didn’t hesitate. She was a nervous wreck the entire day. She tried to keep busy with work and friends, but nothing kept her hands from shaking. They had to set a midnight date because of her job, leaving her with the entire day to be nervous.

She didn’t have any expectations of the date. Actually, she refused to have any expectations. The last thing she needed was to feel the pain when this guy saw her and ran screaming the other way. But he didn’t. He gave her an angelic smile when they met. He was handsome, but he had low self-esteem like her, which at that point was the only explanation she could give herself for his lack in dating experience.

Everything in her life improved the moment Jeff entered it. Dana began to focus on her own life. She started applying for other EMT positions and landed one in Boston. It was unbelievable and surprising. Boston was an ideal location for an EMT. There were so many possibilities and so much experience to be gained.

She also moved out on her own for the first time in her life. The freedom was great. She had the typical first apartment experience, a small two bedroom dump with a slum lord, but it was hers and she was proud of it. Who cared if there was no heat in the winter and sometimes she went days without hot water and had to endure ice cold showers? She was free.