The next few hours were a bit of a blur. Nina remembered the firefighters forcing open the door, whilst Jared had his arm wrapped around her.

Then there suddenly were a lot of faces. She remembered the hands of the firefighters motioning for her to come to the door so they could help her out. The lift cabin had stopped between two floors, so they had to grab her by the arms to help her out.

She remembered looking back to see if Jared was out, he was right behind her, giving her a reassuring smile. They were ushered down some stairs and out into the setting sun, through the debris of damaged buildings.

She remembered being led to an ambulance, someone fussing over her. She looked around to see Jared being led to another ambulance, then the doors closed and they drove him off. And just like that their little bubble burst.

She remembered the doctor who set her wrist in a cast - turned out it was fractured. She remembered a lot of sleeping. Sleeping in the hospital, sleeping on a plane, sleeping in her bed in her flat in LA.

Time seemed elusive and Nina found that everything felt quite... surreal.

She went back to work after a few days at home, because she couldn't take the silence of the flat. But even at work everything felt different. People bustled by her like any other day. Due to her fractured wrist she was restricted to office work.

Everything was the same, but for Nina, everything was different. The clients on the phone were the same, the faces popping into their spa, the complaints, the attitudes, all was the same.

And yet there was something wrong. She couldn't put her finger on it.

In the night, she'd wake up, sweating, panting from her dream. It was always the same: she was back in the lift, the earthquake shook the lift, the cabin plunged again. She would grab Jared's hand, but part of the floor had fallen away, he was sliding towards the hole. She would hold onto the handrail with one hand and in a death grip hold onto his hand, but he would start to slowly slip. He would look at her with his sky blue eyes, horror displayed in them and then she lost grip and he fell into the abyss.

Every night the same dream. It left her shaken. And then she'd lie awake, her thoughts racing, until they would inevitably land on the kiss. Which then replayed in her mind on a loop.

It hurt, to know she would never see him again. They never got a chance to exchange phone numbers. He had been brought to a different hospital, they never had a chance to say goodbye to one another. And maybe that was one of the reasons for the recurring dream.

Days dragged into weeks. How she managed to survive on so little sleep, she didn't know. But she noticed that she had to use a lot more concealer to hide the rings under her eyes.

Six weeks after the earthquake, she had just finished assigning clients to the spa staff, when the door opened.

"Morning, Miss," a delivery guy said, dumping a parcel on the reception desk and holding out his pad for her to sign on.

She quickly scribbled her name and he left, tipping his cap.

Nina grabbed some scissors and opened the parcel. And there, on the front page of a magazine, were the very eyes staring up at her that she was dreaming of at night.

She suddenly felt like she couldn't breathe.

"Nina? Are you okay?" one of her co-workers asked.

"Yes, I just need to go to the bathroom," she mumbled, grabbing a copy of the magazine and rushing to the toilets.

She locked herself into a cubicle and stared at his handsome face.

And then suddenly she felt hot tears run down her face.

She clasped the magazine with shaking hands.

"Jared Leto taking time off acting," read the headline. She quickly thumbed through the pages to the article.

"The Hollywood heart throb actor and musician has announced on social media that he is going to take a break from both acting and making music for an 'undetermined period'. The actor/musician was recently trapped for hours in an elevator during the earthquake in San Francisco. An inside source revealed that Leto was so shaken up by the traumatic event that he has decided to do some soul searching. It is rumoured that his latest girlfriend Natasha Antonova, the Victoria's Secret model from the Ukraine, will join him. We're hoping he will return to our screens or on a stage soon. Read on for more details..."

Nina took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. So he had a girlfriend. He had never said that he didn't. A really beautiful woman. Possibly an honorary UN Ambassador fighting for the rights of women, dismantling land mines on her holidays. The perfect woman.

They looked perfect together.

She was upset that it bothered her. That it hurt. She usually was very good at reading people and he had seemed genuine. Of course he was too good for someone like... her.

She had no right to and yet... she missed him.

How could that be possible? They had both escaped death, maybe what had happened in the lift was just two people who were under shock and nothing had been real. Maybe he was just so flipping glad to be alive that he had temporarily forgotten about his girlfriend. He had banged his head hard, after all.

She had felt safe with him, even in the traumatic situation. And now... well, now she had to come to terms with the fact that she would never see him again and figure out a way to get over him. Right now that seemed an impossible feat.

Several hours later, she was in a hospital once more.

"That's it, doll. You're all free to go," the nurse said, throwing the pieces of what once was her cast into the rubbish.

"Am I good to go back to work properly then?" Nina said, flexing her fingers.

"Yup, all good, honey. Doc said the x-ray showed that it healed nicely."

"Thank you very much," she said, picking up her coat.

"You take care of yourself, hon," the nurse said, looking at Nina over the rim of his glasses. "Maybe take some time to look after yourself, you know. Would save you a lot of concealer."

Nina just looked at him and watched him leave the room.

When she stepped outside into the cool evening air and made her way to the bus stop, the nurse's words replayed in her head. She paid her fare and watched buildings and cars pass by.

Maybe the nurse was right. Maybe what she needed was a time out. To feel grounded and normal again.

She got off at her stop deep in thought and walked down the road past parked cars to her building. Since the incident she felt a bit peculiar about lifts, so she took the stairs. When she reached her floor, her hand slipped into her pocket to fish out her key. With a click the door unlocked and she entered her flat, resting her back against the closed door.

With a sigh, she took off her shoes and hung up her coat and bag by the door, before making her way to the kitchen.

There was a curt knock on the front door.

Surprised, Nina turned around. She never got visitors. Maybe a neighbour?

Nina quietly approached the door and looked through the peephole.

Her heart jumped straight into her throat when she saw who it was.

Her hands opened the door seemingly on their own and then she was face to face with him.

"Jared," she breathed.