Anna joins the end of a designated queue. Around her she can hear voices in French and German and maybe Swedish? Scandinavian, certainly. She guesses several transatlantic flights have docked about the same time and resigns herself to a long wait. She thinks of Tolly and his fast track through a VIP lane, and sighs. No good deed goes unpunished. She should have just slept and left him to cope with his own sensitivities. At least then she would not be standing here, only having had a couple of hours of refreshing sleep. But strangely, she finds she doesn’t care. She had fun talking to him. She corrects herself. They had fun talking together.
“Anna!” There’s a note of exasperation to the call. Anna looks around. Two lines in front of her, someone is waving furiously. A tall, leggy blonde. Not the bleach blonde that comes from a bottle, nor the blonde that is a shade lighter than brown. This woman has hair like a cornfield, rippling golden in the sun. It lies loose around her shoulders, in tumbling waves. Big amber eyes under darker, full brows. Anna has always fancied that in a past incarnation, this woman lazed under the blazing sun of the Serengeti.
“Bella!” Anna raises her hand in acknowledgement. But the woman is already moving, worming her way back through the queue to get to Anna. She’s dragging a cabin bag behind her and it scrapes a man’s ankles. He turns to snarl at her, then notices the golden goddess and bites his tongue. His angryWatch itmorphs into a nonchalantNo problem. But his display of stoicism is wasted as Bella hardly notices. She leaves him and his ego in her dust as she finally reaches her target.
“Oh my God, Anna! This conference might not be so dull after all.” Bella practically squeals the first part but mercifullydrops an octave for the second as she throws her arms around her friend. Anna’s nose tickles under a cloud of Vanilla Milk.
“Were you on the flight from Heathrow?” asks Anna, surprised she hadn’t spotted her friend earlier. Bella stands out in any crowd.
Bella wrinkles her nose. “No such luck. They flew us via Toronto. Cattle class all the way too. I’m knackered.”
Wisely, Anna holds her tongue about her fortunate upgrade. Bella can be excellent fun, but she has a chip on her shoulder the size of a plank where money is concerned. But Anna need not worry because Bella has already moved on. “Where are you staying?” she asks, and when Anna names one of the chain hotels linked to the conference, Bella squeals again. “Oh great! We’re in the same place.”
Anna wishes she could summon up the same excitement but she doesn’t feel as excited. She has known Bella a long time. As a first-year medical student, she had opted to live in student accommodation, thinking it might help with making friends and settling in. Having attended boarding school, she was used to communal living, but student life was not the same at all. With no housemistress or parent to police behaviour, the students were free to do as they wanted. There were six in the apartment. One spent his days permanently stoned, but the stench of his weed habit permeated everywhere until Anna’s clothes took on the aroma. More than one tutor raised their brow as she passed. He also ate anything left in the communal fridge. Another was prone to manic intervals, dancing to music full blast at two in the morning. Two never seemed to leave their rooms. At least, she never saw them. She would have assumed they didn’t exist, except pans and plates were washed up and left to dry. And then there was Bella.
Bella was another medic, although Anna could never figure out why she had picked a career in medicine. The usualmotivations (wants to work with people, loves science, or hates the thought of a desk job) did not apply to Bella. She was clever enough to excel at anything she chose to study, but she clearly didn’t relish medicine the way others on the course, and Anna herself, did. Neither did Bella have the God complex, so common among medics intoxicated by the power of having a life in their hands.
Anna’s stint in student accommodation had not lasted long. After a term, she had moved into the attic apartment of her family’s Chelsea house. She would jokingly refer to it as a garret in order to discourage visitors, but it was a spacious two-bedroom loft. Admittedly, it was chilly in winter and inclined to overheat in summer, but it was perfectly habitable. Best of all, she didn’t have to share. Except for occasional visits from family members, but she had long since learned to tolerate them and they rarely stayed long.
Although Anna no longer lived with Bella, she saw her often enough in class. Bella seemed to have taken to Anna and as she had a quick wit, Anna didn’t mind. The two of them, one fair, the other dark, cut a swathe through adolescent male hearts.
Anna is a little ashamed of her behaviour back then. She excuses herself because she was young. But so were the lads who offered her their tender hearts and undying devotion little expecting her to trample all over them. She is more careful now. She makes sure to choose sexual partners who are more robust than dreamy boys, and avoids those who are innocent, those with poor self-esteem and those who have spaniel written all over them. Her mind flashes back to the sandy-haired young man with eager eyes in the departure lounge at Heathrow and she wonders if he was one of those early mistakes.
“Anna!” Bella’s exasperated tone cuts through. “You’re not listening, are you?”
Anna shakes her head. “I’m sorry. I’ve been awake for twenty-four hours. Somebody died on my flight.”
Bella’s eyes widen. “Did they do that ‘Is there a doctor on the plane?’ call thingy?”
“No. The flight attendant already knew I was a doctor. She came and fetched me.”
“Did they give you anything? An upgrade?”
Anna hesitates and then chooses not to mention she had already been upgraded. Although no one could have foreseen that it might be payment in advance for services rendered. “They offered me brandy, but I didn’t want it.”
“In that case, I’m not sure I’d bother.”
“Think the General Medical Council might have something to say about that.” Anna’s voice comes out sharper than she intends but she doesn’t apologise.
Bella, herself, seems unconcerned. “How would they ever find out?”
Anna lets it slide. Bella is a grown woman and a qualified doctor. Her career isn’t Anna’s responsibility.
“Anyway,” Bella continues, “what I was saying is, my brother, John, is in town, too. I’m going to sneak him into my hotel room. You up for a night out?”
“Not tonight!” Anna is alarmed. Maybe it is a sign of age, but all she wants is a nice big hotel bed with clean linen. And a shower. And dinner. But a night on the tiles is definitely on her no-fly list.
“Of course not. What about tomorrow?”
A loudly cleared throat behind them is a message from their fellow travellers. Bella glares at the passive-aggressive elderly lady, but Anna concentrates on shuffling forwards in the queue. After a couple of seconds to make her point, Bella follows. When they come to a stop again, Anna says, “Can’t do tomorrow. It’s the conference dinner.”
“You weren’t planning to go to that?” Bella shakes her mane of hair.
“Yes. I went last year and it was really useful.” Anna can see her friend is unconvinced, so she throws in something dear to her heart. “It’s included in the conference cost and the food is pretty good.”
“I suppose. What about the night after?”
Anna takes another step forwards before she answers. “I was going to a drug company’s party, but I could duck out early if you want to meet up?”
