MEETING HIM

Part 25

By the time I reached the conference location, I was already 5 minutes late. Actually I Arrived  by 10 minutes early, but got lost at the wrong place.

Mine was at EACTS Training Village No. 02 but I first went to No. 01 by mistake.
I soon took a seat and focused attentively as the speaker arrived,
 "Hello everyone, I'm Dr. Miller, a cardiac surgeon from the Madrid. I welcome you all to the 31st Annual Meeting of the European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery (EACTS) .
Although we all have come from different parts of the world, our purpose is one. To give our best in our cardio-thoracic field. 
I wish you all the best for the next 4 days, and hope that you all will acquire valuable knowledge at the end. So let's first begin with….." 
And that's how the day started from 08:30 {Barcelona CET} onwards.

I was on cloud nine the whole day. I loved getting the new information, especially regarding the field of my interest. 

In my first year only, apart from the regular course of my PG, I began acquiring the extra knowledge of Cardiac surgery related topics. Many people at the hospital commented that I was becoming too nerdy and missed this and that parties and picnics, etc.
 While they thought I was just wasting my life after books, I knew that it was my only way of surviving the hard time of my life. With the recent loss of a best friend, my parents  persistent in getting me settled with a good suitor, and this new place was making everything difficult in my life.
 Even after spending a few initial months, I wasn't able to bond with anyone as people were either too wild for the parties or too full of themselves.  Hence I kept only the professional contact with one or two exceptions, but wasn't attached to them either.
 So in order to keep away my loneliness and negative thoughts in my free time, I began to get lost in the books of Cardio-thoracic Surgery. It was my topic of interest; it made me feel alive with purpose. Along with the bookish knowledge, during my free hours I attended the surgeries too.
 And it was around 1 year ago, "I caught attention" of a visiting Cardio-thoracic surgeon in our hospital, who happened to be one of the leading surgeons in our country.  He was first surprised at my extra knowledge, and tested me with many questions. 
Soon I became his favorite. And that is how with his credits and suggestions I found myself here in the conference meeting.

Today by the end of the meet at 17:30 hours, I was a little exhausted but satisfied to learn about various topics like endoscopic mitral valve repair, AV valve repair, cardiac transplantation, congenital deformities etc. The session involved abstract presentation and hands-on training. I also interacted with other surgeons from Korea, Australia and Germany.
It was a wonderful day. I found myself glad to be here.

I found the same driver from the morning waiting for me outside. He was standing in front of the big Jaguar car which attracted the attention of all the people.
For a moment I questioned whether I was even worthy of receiving this treatment because of Arnav. I'm sure he doesn't even know about it. And I felt bad, really bad. 

But I had no other option as Stella had strictly denied me using any taxi when the driver was already present. 
"Stella Mam has asked to bring you directly to her office. " The driver said as I sat in.

Soon I was in front of the big building of Evermore Interior Designing. The staff was nowhere to be seen as it was past office hours. It was indeed spacious and even more classy on the inside. I was led to Stella's cabin. 

There I met Andy Blanco, her husband. He was tall, fair and handsome with an aura of a strict professional business man. He had blanco industries while this belonged to Stella. But soon after a little talk, I found him the complete opposite. He was  talkative and carefree. 
He later excused himself as he had to leave for a business dinner with some clients.