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‘You can’t just allow it to take you over, Greg. At some point you’re going to have to decide where your own priorities lie.’
He let out a short, sharp breath. A gesture of helplessness that told Jess he was out of ideas on this one. This seemed to be tearing him up inside. More precisely, she seemed to be tearing him up…
‘Perhaps we should take a break. Just a couple of weeks to figure things out.’
He stared at her. Clearly Jess wasn’t the only one who was having trouble believing that she was saying this. But they both needed a little space, to sort their own issues out, before they ripped each other to bits.
‘A break. You mean we should call it a day?’
‘No. I mean a break. A couple of weeks to take the pressure off. Work things out.’ Right now, looking at him, it was impossible to credit that ‘goodbye’ should feature anywhere in this. Ever.
Her heart was yelling at him to say no. To turn his back on the seemingly hundreds of people who waited for him in a not so orderly queue, out there in cyberspace. If he offered to take the night off, just this once, she’d say yes in a heartbeat.
‘Perhaps you’re right.’ She felt his hand on her arm. So nearly enough to make her stay and yet so far from what she needed right now. ‘I’ll take you home.’
He really hadn’t been paying attention. ‘I’ve got my car with me tonight. I brought some shopping in, remember?’ Jess wondered whether he’d get around to restocking the fridge after she was gone. Probably not. At least he had enough in there to last for a while, though.
‘Yeah, of course. I’m sorry about all this, Jess.’ He scraped his hand across his face and she almost relented. But if she did that, they’d only be having this same argument again soon.
‘Don’t be. We’re just taking some time off, eh?’ So why did this seem so final? Perhaps because there was no way back for Jess now, unless he gave a little. And she wasn’t sure that he’d do that.
He walked with her to the lift and they rode down to the car park in silence. Greg watched her to her car gave her a wave and turned back into the lift. It appeared he wasn’t going to watch her go. Jess waited, gripping the steeringwheel, her gaze fixed on him as he jabbed the call button for the lift. He wasn’t going to look back. She started the engine and drove out of the car park, revving the engine into rather more of a roar than was strictly necessary. His mind was probably already on the problems that waited for him upstairs and he hadn’t even heard her go either.
Greg kept his finger on the lift button,
ignoring the insistent ‘ding’ that accompanied the twitch of the doors as the machine hinted to him ever so gently that there were probably people waiting on other floors and they should get going now. He heard her car slow as she approached the ramp up to street level and turned when he was sure that she could no longer see him in her rear-view mirror.
He didn’t blame her for what she’d done. It would have taken considerably less neglect on Jess’s part before Greg would have considered himself hard done by and left. There was nothing to say either in his own defence or in terms of promises for the future. He’d heard enough promises from his father to know just how much damage a broken one could cause. But things would change. She’d see.
CHAPTER EIGHT
JESS HAD BEEN trying very hard not to miss Greg for almost two weeks. It had been a stupid argument, she’d said things she hadn’t really meant, and she guessed that he had too. But the main stumbling block remained. Was she just the latest in a long string of girlfriends that Greg had loved then lost interest in? If so, she couldn’t bring herself to tell him that this one still loved him.
She had other things to think about, though. Like getting through the day, doing her job the best she could and smiling as if nothing had happened. Ignoring the nagging thought that her body’s monthly rhythm had missed a beat. It was nothing. She’d been working hard, sleeping badly and not eating properly, that was all.
Today had been a busy day, but she’d kept on top of things and it seemed that she’d be leaving work on time tonight. And then, at five-thirty on the dot, the department secretary paged her.
‘What have you got for me, Bev?’ By the time she got down to the office she’d convinced herself that she didn’t really want to go home after all.
‘Some people were looking for you. I asked them to go to the waiting room.’
‘Who? I didn’t have a clinic today.’
Beverly shook her head. ‘No, I think they might know you. One of them is a doctor.’
‘Who is he?’
‘No idea. But he’s got that doctor’s look about him.’ Beverly tapped the side of her nose. ‘Interested instead of nervous. They’re in the waiting room.’
The waiting room was deserted, apart from a couple sitting in one corner. Something like foreboding prickled at the back of Jess’s neck.
‘Rosa. Ted.’ She sat down in the chair opposite them. ‘How nice to see you both.’ What were they doing here?
Rosa smiled. That self-possessed, gracious smile that somehow managed to be genuine as well. ‘It’s good to see you too, Jess.’ She looked around the waiting room. ‘This is very nice.’
‘Yes, they renovated the whole department a couple of years ago. Much brighter than it used to be.’ Jess flipped a querying glance towards Ted.
‘We were looking for Greg. You haven’t seen him, have you?’ Ted got straight to the point and Jess heaved a sigh of relief. For a moment there she’d thought that Greg might have told them about the things she’d said and they were here to remonstrate with her.
