“Would you have done anything different in the circumstances?” He fixes his deep brown eyes on hers and Anna feels goosebumps pebble her skin. “If out of the blue, you got sent a wedding photo?”
“Well, I would be surprised because my mother is still very much married to my father. But I take your point. Though, didn’t you try to call her first?”
“Of course I did. I’m not an idiot.” He raises his eyebrows at her. “I didn’t just jump on the first jet out of LA without trying to reach her. But they’d decided to do the honeymoon old-style. Unplugged. No phones or laptops.”
“Very Orient Express. Did they get all dressed up, too?” Anna sincerely hopes they did. His mother sounds like a woman who goes all-in. A trait shared with her son, maybe.
He nods. “I’ve seen fewer sequins at drag queen night. They wouldn’t let me into the dining car at first. I hadn’t packed for fine dining. I had to rent ‘proper trousers’ and a tie off a Wagon-Lits guard. Cost a small fortune.”
“That’s the French for you. Hollywood glamour wilts under the death stare of a French waiter. But if your sister is in London, why didn’t she go? Why did you have to cross a continent and an ocean?”
“She’s heavily pregnant. It’s her first. She worries about moving more than a few miles away from a hospital. She was in no fit state to go chasing after our mother.”
“So you’ll be an uncle soon?”
“Yes. I’m looking forward to it.”
“Congratulations in advance.” Anna leans back. She has achieved her aim. He is no longer thinking about the dead man in First Class; instead, she is thinking about him cooing to a baby nestling in his arms. For some reason, he is shirtless, thebaby held skin to skin. It is a dangerous image. One that might have ovaries exploding around the world were it ever to become public. Maybe the time has come to let the conversation lapse. Warm fuzzy feelings for this man are disallowed. He broke her sister.
She picks up her Kindle, a clear sign their conversation is over.
Except he leans forwards. “What are you reading?” he asks.
She waggles her Kindle. “Crime novel,” she says. “Set in Dorset. In an archaeological dig.”
“I’m not sure I’ve ever been to Dorset?” he says. “Thomas Hardy country?”
She nods her head. “I like it. I’ve actually been to the castle that is the backdrop to the story. In the English Civil War, it was held by a woman – Lady Bankes. It eventually fell, but only because of treachery.”
He lapses into quiet for a while. “I read English at university, but I don’t get a chance to read much now outside of work these days: contracts, scripts and such.” His voice sounds wistful.
“I like good crime novels. If the plotting is tight enough, it stops my brain from dwelling on the day.” Anna realises it is a little slip almost as soon as she says it. It invites him into her disquiet, into her mind.
But he ignores the deeper insight. Or he notices and chooses not to pry. He grins and once more Anna’s heart gives a lud-dup in reply. “Not sure how comfortable I am with a doctor who reads books about killing people.”
It’s meant as a gentle rib and Anna takes it in that spirit. “Worried you’re seated next to a psychopath? That if you dare to sleep, you may never wake up?”
He blinks deliberately. “Well, that hadn’t occurred to me but now you’ve put it into my mind …”
“Relax,” she says and smiles. “I score low on psychopathic traits. Which is a real shame because it could be so useful in my profession. A lot of the top surgeons and paediatricians score high.”
“So, no secret fantasies of taking over the world?”
Anna laughs. “I don’t even want to take over a tiny country like Monaco.”
“Have you been there?”
“A day trip from Nice, once. It was a little too superficial for me.”
“A sunny place for shady people.”
She snorts.
He dips his head. “Not my words. Somerset Maughan. If you ever want a billionaire, that’s where you’ll find one.”
“Lucky, I don’t want one then. Pretty sure, billionaires are not the most reasonable of people. There’s a much higher incidence of psychopathy, sociopathy, and narcissism among the wealthy. Probably even more than consultant surgeons.”
He grins, and her heart actually stops for one beat. “So you weren’t taken with Monaco but you love Venice.”
