Doctor's Delight(21)
“Yet somehow that doesn’t make it any better.” Dropping her forehead into her hands, Cherry moaned. “How am I going to face him? What if he recognizes me?”
“He probably won’t,” Susie assured her. “You said you did the deed in dimness, remember? You had your hair down, make-up on, sexy dress. At work you wear your hair up, barely any make-up, and by no stretch of the imagination could our uniforms be considered sexy.”
“She’s right.” Maxie patted her hand. “He won’t have a clue who you are.”
“You think so?” Cherry peered sideways at her. “Really?”
“Absolutely. Nurses are a dime a dozen to doctors. We’re the plebs, slavishly following their orders and jumping to their demands. They don’t actually notice us.”
“True.” Susie nodded to the waitress as their orders were placed on the table. “Besides, he’s probably dating some hot sheila who is so rich she uses pearl-inlaid toothpicks.”
“That makes me the ‘other woman’.” Cherry took a half-hearted sip of the chocolate cream drink.
“Or he’s looking for a hot woman.” Maxie nudged her. “Could be you, you know.”
Horrified, Cherry stared at her. “I can’t tell him who I am!”
“Well, I don’t know why not.”
“Because I had sex with him!” When the elderly couple at a nearby table looked askance at her, Cherry blushed and lowered her voice. “He didn’t know who I was, and I – you know.”
“To be fair, he didn’t know who you were, either.” Maxie took a bite of cake.
“What does that make both of us, then?”
“A perfect match.”
Susie drawled, “You’re making it worse, Max.”
“Just trying to point out a bright lining in this apparently dark cloud.”
Disregarding her, Susie looked at Cherry. “Look, it happened. Chances are good he won’t have a clue who you are and never will. Neither Max nor I will talk about this to anyone. Calm down, have your sugar load, and put this behind you as an interesting experience. Let it go.”
“How can you be so calm about it?”
“Because you’re blowing it out of proportion.”
A little hurt, Cherry stared at her.
Reaching across the table, Susie patted her hand. “Sorry, darling, but it had to be said. Trust me, this isn’t anything major. You’re getting yourself upset over something that won’t happen. Relax, settle down. We’re in a great café, eating great food and sipping great drinks. You had an awesome sexual experience, you found out who the man was, he has no idea who you are, and you hold all the cards. It’s in your power whether to inform him or not. You hold the power, Cherry, not him. Now stop worrying and start enjoying yourself.”
“Sometimes, Susie, I worry about you,” Maxie said. “You sound like a man at times.”
“I have five brothers, I know how they think. Men are simple creatures with simple needs.” Susie licked cream off her spoon. “Cherry, have I ever been wrong before when it comes to men?”
“Well…no.”
“And I’m not wrong now. So are you going to eat that cake or sniffle into your plate?”
Some of the weight had left her shoulders and she smiled. “The cake is mine.”
“Good. Eat up.”
“Maybe she had a sex change sometime in the past,” Maxie mused. “Maybe Susie is really Sam.”
Susie flipped her the bird.
“Definitely Sam in a former life.”
Listening to her friends ribbing each other, Cherry finally started to relax. It would be all right, she was over reacting. Rick Reed wouldn’t know her in the light of day, and even if he recognized her, no way was he going to acknowledge it. It was an encounter he’d probably forgotten by now. Besides, he hadn’t had a problem with having sex with an unknown woman, he probably did it so often he wouldn’t have a clue with whom he’d gone out.
Yes, she was worrying for nothing.
~*~
Coming into work the next afternoon, Cherry checked the allocation and found that she was on the medical ward. Susie had been working the morning shift on the surgical ward, and Maxie had the day off.
Readjusting the hairgrip holding her hair confined at the back of her head, she headed into the handover room and greeted her fellow nurses.
Taking the handover sheet, she chatted to the nurses until the handover tape was started, and then settled down, pen in hand, to jot down notes.
She almost froze when the name Damien MacAvoy was read out. It wasn’t the first name that jolted her, it was the rest of the information.