He’d caught Laurie yawning as she’d got back into her clothes and had called after her as she’d slipped through the French doors. She’d nodded, agreeing that there was still time to get some sleep before they were due at work at nine.
Laurie had the best poker face he’d ever seen. He already knew that, but it was still a little unsettling. She greeted him with her usual smile, nothing in her face reflecting what they’d been doing together last night. He wondered if she’d somehow managed to forget, and decided that wasn’t possible.
She knocked on his open office door at
eleven, and he looked up and beckoned her in. Laurie closed the door behind her, which was the generally accepted signal that he was in conference with someone and not available. Maybe now her impressive composure would crack.
‘I’ve got an idea. There’s a games convention at a hotel thirty miles from here, and I want to take Adam. He really wants to go.’
‘Right. Well, I’m sure it would be a nice day out for him.’ Ross wondered how that was going to help Adam’s foot.
‘It’s not just that, Ross. Adam’s our model patient, you know that. He does all his exercises in the gym, he’s made friends, he’s eaten well and slept when he’s supposed to.’
‘But he’s not getting out of the wheelchair, is he?’ Ross had noticed that Adam spent most of his free time playing video games.
‘No, he isn’t. He isn’t confident about his recovery, and it’s as if he’s putting off the bad news. That he’ll get better and still not be able to run again.’
‘And a games convention’s going to solve that?’ If Laurie thought it would then Ross was willing to give it a go.
‘I want to try. I gave Ann a call and she thinks it’s a really good idea, if we don’t mind taking him. Will you come?’
‘Okay. I can get Mum to pop in and cover for me and take a day out.’
‘Thanks, Ross. I really think this might be a turning point for him.’
Ross leaned back in his chair. ‘So how long are you going to be able to keep this up, then?’
She grinned at him suddenly, her cheeks flushing. The kind of look you gave a guy when you’d just spent the night with him, and Ross was surprised at how much it meant to him.
‘Stop! I thought I was doing so well!’
‘You were. I’d never have known what you were up to last night, and I was there. It’s actually quite unnerving. I was beginning to wonder if you were suffering from a memory lapse.’
‘That’s my thing. Don’t show what you’re thinking. One of the things I learned from my father.’
It was the first time that Laurie had ever said it. Maybe that was the most solid piece of evidence that last night had happened. She was finally breaking out of the isolation that her troubled childhood had imposed on her life.
‘It’s not the way you have to be, Laurie. You can decide for yourself.’
She nodded. ‘That’s still under consideration. But it doesn’t do any harm to keep this quiet. No one here needs to know that I slept with the boss, do they?’
‘No, they don’t. As long as you remember it...’ Ross’s words were only half in jest. He knew that their relationship couldn’t last but he didn’t want it to be swallowed up in her single-minded determination. Lost for ever behind her impassive eyes.
‘I remember.’ She laughed suddenly, scrunching a loose piece of paper from her pad into a tight ball and throwing at him. Ross batted it away, smiling.
‘How was your hip this morning?’
‘Official answer?’
He nodded. ‘If you like. Then I’ll take the real one.’
‘The official answer is that it’s improving steadily. The real one is that I noticed you were careful last night, and...you were perfect. It doesn’t hurt at all this morning.’ The red of her cheeks deepened slightly. ‘You were perfect in every other way as well.’
‘You make me want to be perfect. It’s what you deserve.’
He wasn’t perfect, not by a very long way. He couldn’t give Laurie a home or a family, because his home was the clinic, and that was the only family he’d ever have. It was a good life, but Laurie had a whole world out there and a whole life of her own. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t take a little time out of their lives for each other and move on a little richer for it.
‘Would you like to come to me tonight?’ She gave him an impish grin. ‘Just so that I don’t start to feel I’m stalking you.’