‘I’ll be there.’
Laurie nodded. There was a moment of shared warmth when her gaze caught his, and then she stood. No kiss but, then, it was a little inappropriate in this setting. Here they were just temporary colleagues, and they’d closeted themselves in his office to talk about their patients.
But tonight... When the sun began to go down, Ross took the bottle of champagne from the refrigerator, putting it into a shopping bag in case anyone should see him. But he was alone in the quiet warmth of the evening as he hurried down the steps from the balcony, tapping on the French doors of Laurie’s apartment. She was waiting for him, unlatching the door and beckoning him in, and he stepped inside and took her into his arms.
* * *
‘You’re sure about this.’ Ross looked around the foyer of the hotel.
‘Positive. Ann’s all for it.’
‘Yeah, but...did she know about the costumes?’
‘Of course she does. Everyone wears costumes to video game events.’
‘I wasn’t expecting them to be quite so revealing, though.’ Ross nodded towards a young woman dressed up as some kind of warrior with a sword. Her body armour could only be described as skimpy.
‘Oh! She’s my avatar!’
‘Really? You wander around on the screen dressed like that, do you?’ He couldn’t help grinning.
‘Excuse me. I do not wander, I stalk. Anyway, she’s wearing body paint.’ Laurie narrowed her eyes. ‘Let’s hope it’s non-allergenic or we’ll be picking her up off the floor.’
‘But Ann does know what kind of costumes....’
‘She knows. She’s taken Adam to these things before. He’s sixteen.’ She pursed her lips. ‘You really did have a sheltered childhood, didn’t you?’
‘Yeah. Suppose I did.’ Ross looked over to where Adam was sitting in his wheelchair, perusing the different programmes for the event. He seemed to be taking it all in his stride and had accepted a leaflet from the woman warrior without giving her a second glance.
He followed Laurie over to the stand, watching as she took the standard programme out of Adam’s hands and picked up the thicker collector’s copy, passing a note from her purse over to the young man behind the counter.
‘These are the ones I want to go to.’ Adam flipped carefully through the pages of the programme.
‘Okay.’ Laurie looked over his shoulder. ‘Yes, we have to go to that one, it’s our game. Should we mark the ones you want?’
‘No!’ Adam looked at her as if she’d suggested defacing the Mona Lisa. ‘If you have the collector’s copy of the programme, the idea is that you get autographs from people on the pages. See, the paper’s different, for signing.’
‘Seems I’ve got a bit to learn. Shall we take one of those free ones for marking where we want to go, then?’
Adam nodded. ‘Yes, that’s a good idea. We should have one each.’
‘Great plan. I definitely think Ross could do with one, he’s got no idea what’s going on.’ She shot Ross a smile, as if expecting him to protest.
‘You’re right. Not a clue.’ But he trusted Laurie. If she thought that this was going to work, he’d give it a shot. If it didn’t work then at least it was a nice day out for Adam.
The stack of free programmes was at the end of the counter and Laurie waited a moment to see whether Adam would reach for them, before pushing the wheelchair a little closer. It was a good try, and if Ross knew Laurie she’d have a few more up her sleeve.
He pushed the wheelchair and Laurie walked by the side of it. They visited stands, got autographs and Adam chatted to people in costumes about strange other worlds. The other visitors to the event were all good-humoured, if sometimes rather garishly dressed, and the enormous hall meant that the crowd wasn’t too densely packed.
‘This is so great. The one that Mum and I went to in London was really crowded and we could hardly see anything. Here you can get to the stalls and see stuff.’
‘You’d see a bit more if you stood up.’ Laurie floated the idea.
‘No.’ Adam shook his head quickly. ‘It’s fine, I can see. Thanks for bringing me.’
‘I’m really enjoying myself. Ooh, look!’ Laurie pointed to a large circular stand at the centre of the hall. ‘There’s our game. We have to go there.’
‘Yeah. Look, there’s your avatar.’ Adam grinned. ‘It would be really cool to get her signature, along with one from mine.’