‘He’s fine. They’ve done a bunch of tests, and no red flags have come up. They want to keep him overnight, but he’s trying to talk them out of it.’
‘Of course, he is,’ I mutter.
Theo smiles. ‘The fact that he’s being a terrible patient is a good sign.’
‘Any idea when someone will see Nella?’ asks Yan.
Before Theo can answer, my name is called. It’s weird to hear someone pronounce it perfectly, but when I look up I see a tall, broad-shoulderedgodof a man who looks like he doeseverythingperfectly.
‘She’s here,’ says Pen, helping me up. ‘Come to mama,’ she purrs, under her breath.
‘Any chance he might believeI’mMarinella Praxitelis?’ Yan whispers.
‘Will you guys just chill?’ I hiss.
I hobble over to him as he checks his clipboard. When he looks up again, I find myself staring into eyes the colour of the Aegean.
All I catch is that his last name is Adonisiou. He speaks mainly in Greek with a few English words thrown in, and when I don’t say anything because I’m taking a moment to enjoy his face, from the curl flopping onto his forehead to the cleft in his chin, and the fact he’s called Doctor Adonis he repeats it all in English.
He leads me down a corridor and into a curtained-off cubicle.
When he asks me how I feel, I tell him the only thing that hurts is my throat. He nods, then reaches for my wrist. The contact makes me jump. He smiles calmly and checks his watch, measuring my pulse. I try not to stare, but after all the trauma I’ve been through, the eye candy is likeactualcandy.
Twenty minutes later, he’s done all the usual things like shining a light in my eyes and listening to my lungs with his stethoscope. I almost sag with relief when he announces he’s satisfied that I don’t need further treatment.
‘A clean bill of health,’ he says with a bright smile. ‘I’ll tell your fiancé. I’m sure it will put his mind at rest.’
For a second, I assume he’s mistaken Yan for my fiancé, but then he leaves the cubicle and tells someone to let Mr Marino know that his fiancée is fine.
Why is Mark telling people I’m his fiancée?
The curtain swishes back, and Yan walks in.
I fling myself into his arms, snotty and teary, and wail, trying to make Yan understand that the only reason Mark is telling people I’m his fiancée is to block any chance I might have with Doctor Adonis. And haven’t I been through enough, what with half-drowning and my BOYFRIEND CHEATING ON ME WITH A TWENTY-THREE-YEAR-OLD?
He listens and strokes my hair, and eventually, when I’ve got everything out of my system, says, ‘I think you need a cock to get cock-blocked.’
‘It was a metaphor,’ I say, sniffing. ‘Why else would Mark say all that?’
I rant about moving to Cyprus and enjoying moonlight strolls on the beach with Doctor Adonis. And then I catch sight of myself in the glass door – from my stringy damp hair, to my two pairs of socks and puke stains on my fleece. And it’s like a bucket of cold water.
What the hell is wrong with me? I’m delirious. Or losing my mind.
‘I hate to break it to you, Nelly, but the reason Mark told them you were engaged was because you were looking at a four-hour wait, so he batted his eyelashes and told the nurses that his recovery would goso muchfaster if he knew his beloved was okay.’
‘Oh, right. That makes sense.’
If it was anyone else, I’d be dying of embarrassment, but Yan takes it all in his stride.
‘Can we go home now? I want to sleep for a hundred years.’
A nurse arrives, and within a few minutes, I’m given the all-clear to leave.
We find Pen, Tig, and Theo in the waiting room, sitting stiffly on plastic chairs.
‘We can go home, kids!’ Yan announces.
‘Did you pop in on Mark?’ asks Theo, looking at me. ‘He wanted to see you.’
