Page 10 of Love, Accidentally

‘He worked shifts, I work shifts. We hardly ever saw each other. It fizzled out. It’s a shame really, because I did enjoy the perks. You can get flights for practically nothing if you know a pilot.’

‘Tilly?’ he asks a few minutes later as we make our way along the corridors towards A&E.

‘Yes.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘What for?’

‘For implying that you were somehow lesser. That’s not how I meant it to come across. I am in awe of your work, actually.’

‘Thank you,’ I say, blushing slightly at the compliment. ‘Apology accepted.’

As we approach the unit, I’m trying to decide whether I want to raise the topic of him inviting me out, but in the end I decide there’s nothing to lose from just talking about it.

‘Can I ask you a question now?’ I say.

‘Sure.’

‘Last time we worked together, you asked me out for a drink. Were you expecting it to be just me?’

Now it’s his turn to blush. ‘I was, actually.’

‘I see. Sorry that I misread you. I’ll bear it in mind if it happens again.’ I know I was planning to ask him out, but on reflection I’m not sure I want to right now. He’s lost several brownie points during our previous conversation, so he can make the running if he’s interested.

‘So it would be OK if it happened again?’ he asks.

It’s my turn to smile. ‘I wouldn’t file a complaint. Put it like that.’

He stops walking and turns to me. ‘Look, Tilly. I really like you and I’d love to get to know you better. I’ve got to go straight home after work today because Mum needs me, but would it be OK if I took your mobile number so I could text you another time?’

‘Sure,’ I tell him. ‘I’d like that.’

5

Mike isn’t home when I get in, although there’s a note on the fridge door informing me that there’s some chicken casserole I can microwave if I want. Mike was very anti having a microwave because he saw it as an affront to ‘real cooking’, but I put my foot down as I don’t think I could function without one. Most of the time, I’m so dog-tired when I get home after a shift that sticking something in the microwave is pretty much the limit of my ability. I say a silent ‘thank you’ to Mike as I retrieve the casserole and put it in to reheat.

I am a little disappointed he’s not here, as the mischievous part of me was quite looking forward to a bit of verbal sparring over my latest interaction with Luke, but it’s nearly nine o’clock on a Friday night, so I suspect he’s in a bar somewhere, softening up his latest conquest. When the microwave pings to let me know my food is ready, I settle myself on the sofa and, having double-checked the time, call my sister, Tash.

‘Hi, Tills,’ she says brightly when the call connects. Tash is the only person in the world allowed to call me Tills, and it grates a little even from her. ‘How are you?’

‘Same old,’ I tell her with a smile. ‘We had a guy in today who’d impaled himself on a railing. The team nicknamed him “Spike”. How’s the world of pedicures?’

Although Tash works in the same hospital as me, I never see her, because we’re in different departments and our shift patterns rarely overlap, but it’s still nice to know she’s in the building.

‘Paediatrics, cheeky cow,’ she tells me with a laugh. ‘It’s OK, although it does raise a question.’

‘Oh, yes?’

‘How is it that I can work all day with sick children who are all little angels, and then come home to a perfectly healthy one who spends most of his time acting like the spawn of Satan?’

‘Isaac’s still a challenge then?’

‘Oh, yes. The preschool staff all love him and say what a sweetie he is, and he’s all smiles with them, and then he transforms into a monster the moment I get him into the car. It’s like Jekyll and Hyde. If you can bear some sage advice from your younger sister, it’s this: never get married. If you do, never have children. If you ignore that, for fuck’s sake don’t be fooled into thinking that giving them a Biblical name will mean they live up to it. Our Catholic education has a lot to answer for.’

‘Hmm. I’m not sure Biblical Isaac had a very good deal. I mean, his mum and dad obviously doted on him and everything, right up until the point where he had to basically build his own funeral pyre, his dad whipped out a knife and revealed he was going to sacrifice him. I mean, that’s a shit ton of family therapy right there. Social services would definitely have a lot to say.’

This does make her laugh. ‘You’re right, but at least Isaac was basically a good guy, unlike Jacob, who tricked his brother out of his share of the inheritance, or Joseph, who was arrogant pricknumero uno. If he’d been my brother, I think I’d have thrown him into a pit too.’

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