More. He was a guy who walked alone.
But he still wanted to punch the guy's lights out.
His phone rang while he was thinking of it. He answered it as he always did.
'Dr. Hunter?'
'Speaking.'
'Jancey Ian? Her intrathecal catheter's packed up.'
He paused as the rest of the elevator streamed out around them. Swearing under his breath.
Jancey was a tiny African-American woman in her mid-seventies and she had advanced bone metastases. He'd inserted morphine and local anaesthetic via an intrathecal catheter to stop pain that had been almost unbearable.
But not only did Jancey have crumbling vertebrae from the cancer, she also had severe arthritis. It had taken skill, experience and luck to get the drugs flowing to just the right spot. It'd be a miracle if any of the junior doctors on duty could get the catheter back in.
'Level of pain?' he asked, knowing already what the answer would be.
'Bad.' Mardi Fry was the senior nurse on the ward. If she said bad it must be hellish.
'I can't … '
'You can.' Tori was suddenly in front of him, facing him down. She'd only heard his side of the conversation, but obviously she'd guessed the rest. 'I'm an unexpected and un-invited guest, and I'm a very happy tourist. Don't you dare leave someone in pain because of me. I'll take a cab to Central Park. Meet me there if you can.'
'Tori … '
'Strawberry Fields at two o'clock,' she said, heading to the cab rank already and calling back over her shoulder. 'That's the bit I most want to see in Central Park. Or back at your apartment at six.'
And she was gone before he could even argue.
She was asleep when he found her, right where she'd said she'd be, in Central Park, snoozing on a bench in the weak autumn sunlight, with a bag of uneaten bagels on her knee. He touched her on the shoulder and she opened her eyes and smiled at him.
He thought back to the number of dates he'd had to interrupt for medical necessity. There'd always been reproof. But Tori was smiling at him as if this was a whole new date.
'Hey, it's only two o'clock,' she said. 'Well done. All fixed?'
'Piece of cake,' he said. 'Catheter went in like a dream.' In fact, it had been a nightmare, but it was okay now. Jancey was out of pain and asleep.
She searched his face, and he thought she saw the truth, but she said nothing. No recriminations. No questions
A woman in a million.
'So what were you dreaming of?' he asked.
'Names.'
'Names?'
'Baby names,' she said, as if he was a little bit thick. 'For some reason now I'm in Strawberry Fields I'm thinking Jude. But I'm also thinking maybe Elizabeth for my mother?'
'You don't sound sure.'
'And why would I be sure? This baby's the size of a peanut, and do you know how many books there are on children's names? If you help me we'll barely get through them.'
'Do you want me to help?'
There was a moment's silence, and then, carefully, as if she was bestowing a huge honour on him, she broke her bagel in half.
'Share,' she said. 'That's why I'm here. Though I have to say if your mother was Gertie it's not going to happen.'
'It's not, but I don't think I want anyone called after my mother anyway.'
'That's right, she was a horror,' Tori said cheerfully, bestowing his parentage the attention it deserved. Which in itself was strangely healing. 'That makes life easier. Can we go to Tiffany's now?'
So they went to Tiffany's, a place Jake had never been to. Yes, it was famous, but it was definitely a girl place. He felt like waiting outside, only then he couldn't watch Tori enjoy herself, which was growing more and more unthinkable.
So in he went. The doorman welcomed them and the unobtrusive staff watched with indulgent eyes. Of all the women in here Tori stood out. She was a woman with no rings on her fingers, nothing, no jewellery at all.
But Tori wasn't looking at anything she might buy. She was intent on the fantasy.
'Oh, wow,' she breathed, as she reached a display case of tiaras that must be worth a king's ransom. Or several kings' ransoms, he thought, as he checked out the prices.
'Aren't they wonderful,' Tori said, giggling. 'What if you were wearing it and it fell off in the mud?'
'I don't think there's any mud where any of these are going.'
'No,' she said, suddenly disapproving. 'They'll be worn once a year, maybe, twice tops, and the rest of the time they'll be stuck in a safe. There they'll just sit until something like the fire happens, and what a waste.'
She had a different perspective, he thought, as he watched her move from jewel to jewel. She was loving looking at these beautiful things, but there was no wistfulness in her eyes at all.
She'd lost everything, and yet she wanted nothing.
'Look at this,' she breathed, and he looked more closely and was as stunned as she was.
It was the most amazing ring he'd ever seen. Its centre was a diamond, perfectly cut as a heart, and so large it took his breath away. Every facet glistened and sparkled. On the outer edge of the heart were five rubies, set into white gold to glitter at each extremity. Surrounding them was a ring of smaller diamonds; though, thinking on, they were only small in comparison to the central stone.
The ring was ostentatious and it was ridiculous and it'd take more muscle than most women had in their ring finger to wear it without complaint-but for all that it was quite extraordinarily lovely. And it didn't even have a price tag.
'Oh, wow,' Tori breathed. 'What a knuckle duster.' She giggled again-and then she looked sideways at it. 'You know, it's like something absolutely exquisite, but blown up,' she said slowly. 'A little version would be just perfect, but this … It's wonderful but it's crazy.'
'You'd never want something like this.'
'Are you kidding?' Again came that infectious chuckle. 'What's not to want? Mind, I'd have to find me a sheikh, and sheikhs are in small supply where I come from.'
'Do you have any jewellery at all?' he asked, but almost as the words left his mouth he knew he shouldn't have asked. She'd been working when the fire came through. Nothing had been saved.
Toby, the erstwhile fiancé, had a lot to answer for. Again, Jake found himself dealing with anger.
But the fire was history. Tori had moved on and so should he. And luckily Tori hadn't heard the question. Her attention was caught yet again.
'Oh … '
She was peering into a different display section now, where opulence had given way to a far more demure kind of beauty. She seemed totally captivated, not amused this time, but rather stunned.
She was gazing at a Celtic love knot, wrought in gold with silver threads woven through. Compared to the jewellery they'd just looked at, this was tiny, but it was no less beautiful. Slivers of diamond were scattered through the knot, like stones set into rope. It looked rough, almost as though it had been hewn from the earth already formed. It hung on a simple silver chain, and Jake looked at it and then looked at Tori, and her eyes were shining with unshed tears.
'It's like my mother's,' she whispered. 'It's not the same but it's so close. She wore it always. And it was burned.' She managed a watery smile. 'I need to buy it,' she said simply, and an assistant was sliding it out of the display case before she finished speaking.
Tori reached to touch it with hands that trembled. She ran her fingers across its intricate surface, almost reverently.
'I'll take it,' she said and she hadn't even looked at the price.
'Tori … '
She was hardly aware of him. This chain had been a part of her past that was somehow being restored, Jake thought, as he watched her face, and he was feeling just a bit emotional himself. And he knew what he wanted to do. He'd been thinking it ever since he'd walked into the place, and now was the right time.
'Will you let me?' he asked, and he laid his hand over hers. 'It would be my honour and my pleasure-and my pride as well-to buy this for you.'
She turned, puzzled. 'Why?'
'You're the mother of my baby, 'he said simply and surely. In truth there were many emotions at play here, and the fact that Tori was pregnant was only a tiny part of the whole, but it was all he could understand right now.
'I need to do something to mark this,' he said softly, though the assistant had melted discreetly away. 'It's a piece of jewellery that reminds you of what's lost. Can it also be something to mark what's to come?'
She looked up at him then through a mist of tears. She gave a wavering smile-and she sniffed. Oh, for heaven's sake, he was feeling teary himself. Whoa, that wasn't going to happen. What was this woman doing to him?
He got practical by handing over a handkerchief. Distracted, she gazed down at it in disbelief. 'A handkerchief?'
'What's wrong with a handkerchief?'
'Guys do this in romance novels,' she said faintly. 'Not in real life. What sort of modern male carries handkerchiefs?'
'Men who get their laundry done?' But she wasn't listening. She was buying time, he thought, fighting to get her emotions in order. She turned her back on him and blew her nose, and when she turned back she had her face straight-or almost. Her eyes were still shimmering.