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‘You’re awake.’ She smiled at him.
‘It seems like it.’ He tried to sit up a little, but there were too many things to negotiate, like the drip, probably a catheter, and the severe tucking in by Morgan or one of his colleagues. ‘Can I have a sip of water?’
‘Of course,’ she said as she put the beaker to his lips gently and watched while he sipped. ‘How do you feel now?’
‘Super-duper,’ he joked. ‘Ah no, really, I can’t complain; even if I was in any discomfort, they have drugged me so well, I can hardly feel a thing – good or bad.’ He laughed.
‘Don’t knock it,’ she said. ‘It was a nasty accident. You’re lucky to be in the shape you’re in.’ And of course he was; miraculously, there were no broken bones or worse.
‘So, how do we know each other again?’ He was watching her now.
‘Well, I’m not sure we do, really…’ She smiled. ‘We spoke a couple of words just before the bike hit and then I travelled with you in the ambulance…’
‘My guardian angel.’ He nodded as if confirming something.
‘More like the other way round, actually.’ She explained how he had pushed her out of the way of the oncoming bike and taken the brunt of the hit himself. It was funny, but at the time she wasn’t sure she was even fully aware of what had happened; of course she’d helped the police as best as she could at the time, but it was only sitting here next to him that it had all become clearer in her mind. ‘You won’t remember any of it, probably.’ Which she knew was just as well.
‘Well, apart from the raging headache,’ he said, making a joke, ‘I’m glad we’ve met.’ He looked at her intently for just a moment and she felt herself blush. Oh God, she realised, she was falling under his spell, and it was so easy. No wonder he had Estelle and M and who knows how many more women fawning over him.
‘Anyway.’ She spoke now with as much authority as she could muster. ‘You were carrying this, when, you know…’ She reached down into her bag and pulled out the gift with the tiny card attached.
‘Oh?’ He looked at it and she knew he had no memory of buying it.
‘It’s obviously a gift,’ she prompted. ‘To M? Perhaps you had just picked it up before the accident?’
‘Yes, yes of course,’ he said shaking his head, but all the same, there was something of embarrassment about the way he looked at the gift. ‘Would you put it into the locker for me?’
‘Of course.’ She wasn’t sure that he was meant to have anything in here that wasn’t completely sterile. ‘Actually, would you rather that I hold on to it, for now? I’m not trying to keep it or anything, but they can be a bit funny in here about people’s personal belongings – they don’t even allow patients to have flowers in case they contaminate the sterile environment,’ she explained. ‘Or I could give it to Estelle?’
‘No, no – that’s fine; tell you what, the best thing is if you could hold on to it for now and as soon as I get out of here, I can take it back and give it to…’ He began to smile thinking of whoever the lovely M was, no doubt. ‘You were very good, to hold on to it for me.’
‘Not at all, I just…’ How could she say that she had a feeling when she met Estelle, that no matter how striking the girl was, Liv just knew, deep down, that she and Finn were not quite the right fit? No doubt, there was room for a great mutual attraction. She was certainly gorgeous and he was… well, handsome in an old-fashioned, Mr Darcy sort of way. She wanted to ask him who M was. She imagined some sophisticated, stylishly thin, honey-haired beauty – possibly French – who would sweep along the corridors of the hospital in a cloud of heavy perfume and make heads turn wherever she went.
‘So, you’re a nurse? Here?’
‘Yes. I was meant to be going home for Christmas, but just when I met you, all that changed and so, here I am.’
‘You put off your Christmas plans for me?’ He looked shocked.
‘No.’ Liv began to laugh.
‘You could have lied, said you were already on your way?’ He was teasing her.
‘Don’t. The thought actually did cross my mind, but then, I thought, I can still celebrate Christmas in a week’s time.’ She looked down at her left hand now, thinking of the romantic proposal she was missing out on.
‘There’s something else, isn’t there?’
‘Oh, it’s nothing.’ She shook her head.
‘Go on, I won’t tell anyone.’ He was still smiling at her.
‘It’s daft, but I thought…’ She began to smile now too. ‘I was convinced that my boyfriend was going to propose to me this Christmas…’ She knew that, compared to Finn’s position of almost being killed in a bike crash, it was nothing: a marriage proposal could happen any time. ‘He’s a jewellery maker, you see, and I spotted a ring in his workshop. I’m certain he’s made it for me; it’s everything I could have wished for and…’ She wasn’t even sure why she was telling this complete stranger something she hadn’t dared to breathe to another living soul. ‘I know it doesn’t sound like much of a big deal, but he’s not exactly the romantic type. He’s never made a grand gesture in his life.’
‘That’s a pity.’
‘Pardon?’
‘Well, every woman deserves an occasional grand gesture.’
