“Mine?”
“Are you and him …” She nudges Anna’s elbow.
What are they, twelve? Anna frowns. “No. We are most decidedly nothing like that.”
“Great!” Bella lets out a breath. “Then you don’t mind if I have a go?”
“Knock yourself out.” Anna shrugs. She turns to look at James as he walks back with a mug of coffee in each hand. Her boss is kind, clever and unflappable in a crisis. But he’s short, blocky and unattractive, not Bella’s usual type. Anna corrects herself: he’s not the type Bella would have chosen years ago. She’d always tended to go for the Adonis-type. Buff men with waxed chests and all-over tans. Men with ripped sleeves to showoff their biceps and tight jeans. Maybe a tattoo or ten. She takes in James’s pristine white short-sleeved shirt tucked into sand-coloured chinos and his black leather brogues. All he is missing is a set of pens in the top pocket to announce his full nerd-dom. Perhaps Bella’s tastes have changed.
James reaches the table and places his bounty in front of the beauty. “Thanks,” she says and beams up at him as if he had hand-picked the beans himself. She brings the cup to her lip, takes a sip, and puts it down quickly. “Yuck!” she says, unable to hide her distaste. “That’s horrendous!” She pushes the coffee away.
James looks crestfallen and Anna can’t help but laugh. “It’s America. The only way to make their coffee palatable is tons of sugar, creamer, and flavourings. Sometimes all three. It’s like drinking a chemistry lab, but they like it. The only safe place for Europeans to get coffee over here is in speciality shops.”
“It’s not that bad …” James tries a sip of his, but even he can’t keep his reaction to the bitterness from showing. “Okay. I’ll get you something else.”
“Don’t worry,” Bella puts her hand on his bare arm and he flushes at the contact. “I need to get some breakfast, anyway.” She gives his flesh a slight squeeze before she stands. Then she bends to extract her phone out of the bag hanging off the back of her chair. Her short, brightly patterned dress rides up, exposing more of her smooth, toned legs as her butt gets dangerously close to James’s face.
Anna bites her lip. Bella is going old school with aLegally Blonde“Bend and Snap”. But it is too much for James. He shuts his eyes and gulps, like a man overcome. When he dares open them again, Bella is five tables away. Anna wants to giggle. Bella’s hip-swaying strut was all for nothing. He completely missed it, even if half of the male diners choked on their breakfasts.
“Is she an actress?” James asks.
“No. Why on earth would you think that?”
“Hollywood and all that stuff.” He shrugs. “She’s probably the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“No. I didn’t mean to suggest …” James trails off. This is the most flustered Anna has ever seen him. She has seen him with a child victim of a road traffic accident crashing on the operating table because of the severity of their wounds, and he was cool, calm and collected. But Bella seems to have left him in a twist with one brief touch.
“Would you like to go out with her?” Anna asks. “I can ask her for you? If you’re shy?”
James is clearly torn. “That wouldn’t be appropriate.” He clears his throat. “And a woman like that wouldn’t be interested in me.” But his eyes follow Bella until she turns to make her way back. Then he looks down at his empty plate. Anna wants to kick him. How can he move around an operating theatre or the emergency room with such confidence but crumble in front of a pretty face?
Bella puts a plate piled with pastries, doughnuts and chocolate muffins together with a glass of orange juice on the table, and Anna says, “You’ll have a sugar crash mid-morning if you eat that lot.”
“Anna!” James’s intake of breath shows his disapproval. Anna waves her hand to bat away his disapproval. Suddenly, she is tired of playing with them. Her game has taken on a life of its own and she is no longer in control. Time to let cupid fire his bow.
“Bella and I go way back,” she excuses her comment, even as she hears her mother’s refined voice in her ear chiming her reminders of manners at the dinner table.It’s rude to comment on other people’s food, Lady Larkford would say as World WarIII threatened over who had taken more than their fair share of the roast potatoes.
Anna focuses on the two in front of her. “Dr James Morland, please meet Dr Bella Thorpe.” There, she is done. They can take it from here. She will no longer be anybody’s go-between.
“Oh,” says James, suddenly heartened. “Are you here for the conference?”
“Yes,” says Bella brightly. “I’m looking forward to it. I’ve never been to one of these before.”
“Talking of the conference,” Anna gathers her things, “we’d best be off if we want to make those sessions.” She waves the sheet James gave her.
“You go ahead,” he says. “I’ll walk Bella over when she’s finished. As she’s never been before.”
“What about neuropathic pain?” Anna prods.
James looks uncomfortable. Then he raises his eyes to hers as if pleading.
Anna sighs. “I’ll see what I can cover.”
As she exits the restaurant area, she casts one last look at the most unlikely lovebirds she’s ever seen.
Heads together at the table, they seem to have already forgotten about her departure. Bella has half a doughnut in her hand as James is wiping a crystal of sugar from the side of her mouth. One thing you can say about Bella – she certainly moves fast when she sees something she wants.
