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I couldn’t speak. I shook my head instead. Relief rippled across his face and he closed his eyes for a moment.
I stared at his bed again but from the corner of my eye, I saw confusion and hurt swirl across his features.
He thinks I’m an idiot. Crazy.
I needed to get away from here.Can’t think…
Hands grabbed my shoulders and this time, I didn’t push him away or flinch.
“Hey, hey,” Harry searched my face, making me to meet his gaze. “Stacey,Anastasia.” His thumbs brushed my jaw.
I focussed on his touch and it helped to ground me.
Fresh tears fell. I sucked in another gulp of air.
“Hey, talk to me,” he murmured so softly, like he was taming the wild beast inside me with his voice. “Talk to me, please.”
“You wouldn’t like me if you saw me naked,” I whispered.
Harry spluttered a small laugh. “I’m sure I will, Firebird.”
“No, you won’t.” My voice was stronger this time; definitive and full of anguish.
His face went blank. “Why would you say that?”
More tears fell. I pushed away from him, and smoothed down my dress again.
“I’m not who you think I am! I’m not beautiful and—and—”
“Rubbish. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met and for god’s sake, I’m in love with you, Anastasia!”
I staggered back as if I’d been hit, his words echoing in my mind.
I shook my head in disbelief. “You don’t even know me.”
“I know how I feel,” Harry insisted, “and I know I’m in love with you.”
I lunged for my clutch on the floor, ripping my mobile out and swiped at the screen. I selected Sam’s text and held up my phone with a trembling hand.
“How could you love someone who looks like this?”
Harry refused to look at the photo at first, but eventually his eyes flicked down. I watched his face change, taking in the details of the photo used for medical conferences and teaching in medical school.
“Do you remember this photo?” My voice trembled.
Harry frowned, slowly shaking his head.
“I was a part of the teaching program at the hospital. Medical students did a compulsory unit on burns. Every year they’d do an assessment of my injuries and make recommendations. You would have seen me for your training.”
“Stace, I don’t remember. I—” He stopped himself and frowned. “I would have remembered something like this, I’m sure of it.”
I walked away from him, a cry of anguish escaping my lips.
“You’re the right age, as well as your friends. You went to the med school that had a teaching component as part of the research trials. You would have had to examine me as part of your studies. You would have had to ask me questions like a patient intake, take my pulse and other vitals, and examine my skin grafts at the time.”
Harry shook his head, bewildered.
I sneered. “I got used to the med students every year who sniggered and laughed when they thought that I couldn’t hear them. Once, a med student asked me out. Stacey’s scored big time, I thought. A med student. Never mind the ethics of it all. He described me as …” I took a deep fortifying breath. ‘A pity fuck at best’.”
