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Leo walked over to stand next to her and she turned her shining face up towards his. ‘I bet if you stood here on Christmas Eve you’d see Santa’s sleigh up there somewhere.’
Maybe he would have, if Alex had been here. She was doing it again, trying to put him at his ease, but somehow that didn’t matter quite so much now. He grinned down at her. ‘I’ll go and make the coffee.’
‘The coffee was just an excuse. I don’t really want it.’
In other words: Just get on with it. Leo couldn’t have put it better himself.
‘Justin wants us to talk about sex...’ He grimaced. Surely there was a better way of putting it than that, but all the usual polish seemed to rub off when he was alone with Alex.
She raised her eyebrows. ‘Really? I’d better take my coat off then.’ She slipped off her padded jacket, draping it over the back of the sofa, and then turned to face him. ‘Go on then. I’m all ears.’
She was teasing him, and it wasn’t helping. Leo felt enough like a tongue-tied teenager already.
‘All right. Make it easy, won’t you.’ He shot her a warning look. ‘Justin’s been very pleased with the way that you’ve covered a lot of the wider issues, and he’s come up with this. I told him that I had my reservations and that I’d talk to you about it.’
She thought for a moment. ‘I think it’s a good idea. We cater for young people up to twenty-one and the physical side of relationships can be an issue for them. What are your reservations?’
‘The first is that you’ve been speaking very candidly about your own experiences. And that’s been great, but I don’t want to put you in a position where you feel railroaded into sharing things you want to keep personal.’
She nodded. ‘Okay. Well, I think I’d rather take that one as it comes. In principle, I’m happy to talk about anything if it’s going to help someone.’
‘Fair enough. But I want you to remember that we’re on the radio. I have a personal objection to having any guest talk about things they’re not comfortable with.’
‘Thanks. I appreciate that. What’s the other thing?’ Her gaze caught his suddenly, tangling him in its web. Alex’s eyes had the power to leave him shaking, babbling all kinds of nonsense, and Leo tried not to look at them.
‘I think this is a fine line to walk. I don’t want to minimise the practical difficulties that a disability can cause, because I’ve seen a lot of those kinds of issues amongst my own patients. But, at the same time, it would be wrong to imply that having a disability means you necessarily have to have a problem with physical intimacy.’
Her face broke into a brilliant smile. ‘Since you know that without needing to be told, doesn’t that make you the ideal person for me to try this out with?’
For one dizzy moment Leo thought that she meant actually try it out. Up close and deliciously personal.
‘Why don’t we do this?’ She brought him back down from the furthest reaches of fantasy with a bump. ‘We’ll talk about the effects of losing a limb on body image. Then, if anything comes of that and a caller asks specific questions, we can answer them.’
That was probably the way that Leo should have put it in the first place, and the fact that he’d made a perfectly straightforward issue as embarrassing as possible wasn’t lost on him. ‘Yeah. That sounds good. As long as you’re completely happy with that.’
She nodded, turning to him suddenly. ‘I’m fine with it. And I really appreciate you asking. I think the only point I really want to get over is that someone who really cares about you will take you the way you are. And that communication’s the key thing.’
‘Which applies to all of us, I guess.’
‘Yes. It does. Can we sit down now?’
* * *
She never would have believed it, but it was actually quite sweet. Leo, tongue-tied about sex. Yet another facet of the enigma which, despite all her efforts, became more pressing to solve every time she met him.
‘What made you take up being a radio doctor?’ She sat down on one of the large designer sofas and Leo sprawled opposite on its twin.
‘I happen to think that being there for people is important. Many of the people who phone feel they’ve no one else to turn to. For three hours a week, I get to be the one that they can call.’
‘And the rest of the time?’
There was a trace of sadness about
his smile. ‘I just have to hope that the time I have might make a difference somewhere. It’s not an exact science.’
‘When we first met... You so wanted to be on the cutting-edge, saving lives...’
‘When we first met, I was dressed as a spaceship captain. I changed my mind about that as well.’
