One Night With The Italian Doc. Kate Hardy

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СКАЧАТЬ that all was quiet tonight.

      Anton poured a drink and pulled out his other phone, read an angry text from Saffarella, telling him he should find someone else for the maternity night out, followed by a few insults that Anton knew she expected a response to.

      He was too tired for a row and too disengaged for an exchange of texts that might end up in bed.

      Instead, he picked up his work phone and scrolled through some texts. All the staff knew they could contact him and with texting often it was easy just to send some obs through or say you were on your way.

      He scrolled through and looked at a couple of Louise’s messages.

      BP 140/60—and yes, Santa, before you ask, I’ve read your list and I’ve checked it twice—it’s still 140/60. From your little helper

      He’d had no idea what that little gem had meant until he’d been in a department store, with annoying music grating in his ears, and a song had come on and he’d burst out laughing there and then.

      He had realised then how lame his response at the time had been.

      Call me if it goes up again.

      Her response:

      Bah, humbug!

      Followed by another text.

      Yes, Anton, I do know.

      He must, Anton thought, find out what ‘bah, humbug’ meant.

      Then he read another text from a couple of months ago that made him smile. But not at her humour, more at how spot-on she had been.

      I know it is your weekend off, sorry, but you did say to text with any concerns with any of your patients. Can you happen to be passing by?

      Anton had happened to be passing by half an hour later and had found Louise sitting on the bed, chatting with the usually sombre Mrs Calini, who was in an unusually elated mood.

      ‘Oh, here’s Anton.’ Louise had beamed as he had stopped by the bed for a chat.

      ‘Anton!’ Mrs Calini had started talking in rapid Italian, saying how gorgeous her baby was, just how very, very beautiful he was. Yes, there was nothing specific but Anton had been on this journey with his patient and Louise was right, this was most irregular.

      Twelve hours and a lot of investigations later, Mrs Calini had moved from elation to paranoia—loudly declaring that all the other mothers were jealous and likely to steal her beautiful baby. She had been taken up to the psych ward and her infant had remained on Maternity.

      Two weeks later the baby had been reunited with Mrs Calini on the psychiatric mother and baby unit and just a month ago they had gone home well.

      Anton looked up ‘bah, humbug’ and soon found out she wasn’t talking about odd-looking black and white mints when she used that term.

      He read a little bit about Scrooge and how he despised Christmas and started to smile.

      Oh, Louise.

      God, but he was tempted to text her now, by accident, of course. In his contacts Louise was there next to ‘Labour Ward’ after all.

      He loathed that she was with Rory but, then again, she had every right to be happy. He’d had his chances over the months and had declined them. So Anton decided against an accidental text to Louise, surprised that he had even considered sending one.

      He wasn’t usually into games.

      He just didn’t like that the games had now ended with Louise.

      Louise checked her phone the second she awoke, just in case Emily had called or texted her and she’d missed it, but, no, there was nothing.

      It had been a very restless night’s sleep and it wasn’t even five. Louise lay in the dark, wishing she could go back to sleep while knowing it was hopeless.

      Instead, she got up and made a big mug of tea and took that back to bed.

      Bloody Anton, Louise thought, a little embarrassed at her blatant flirting when she now knew he had the stunning Saffarella to go home to.

      Had it all been one-sided?

      Louise didn’t think so but she gave up torturing herself with it. Anton had always been unavailable to her, even if just emotionally.

      After a quick shower Louise blasted her hair with the hairdryer, and as a public service to everyone put some rouge on very pale cheeks then wiped it off because it made her look like a clown.

      She took her vitamins and iron and then decided to cheer herself up by wearing the best underwear in the world to work today. She had been saving it for the maternity Christmas party but instead she decided to debut it today. It was from the Mistletoe range, the lace dotted with leaves of green and embroidered silk cream berries topped with a pretty red bow—and that was just the panties. The bra was empress line and almost gave her a cleavage, and she loved the little red bow in the middle.

      It was far too glamorous for work but, then, Louise’s underwear was always far too glamorous for work.

      Instead of having another cup of tea and watching the news, Louise decided to simply go in early and hopefully put her mind at rest by not finding Emily there.

      She lived close enough to walk to work. It was very cold so she draped on scarves and walked through the dark and damp morning. It was lovely to step into the maternity unit, which was always nice and warm.

      There was Anton sitting sulking at the desk, writing up notes amidst the Naughty Baby Club—comprising all the little ones that had been brought up to the desk to hopefully give their mothers a couple of hours’ sleep.

      Louise read through the admission board, checking for Emily’s name and letting out a breath of relief when she saw that it wasn’t there.

      ‘How come you’re in early?’ she asked Anton, wondering if he was waiting for Emily.

      ‘I couldn’t sleep,’ Anton said, ‘so I thought I’d catch up on some notes.’

      They were both sulking, both jealous that the other had had a better night than they’d had.

      ‘I’m going to make some tea,’ Louise said. ‘Would you like some?’

      ‘Please.’ Anton nodded.

      ‘Evie?’ Louise asked, and got a shake of the head from the night nurse. ‘Tara?’

      ‘No, thanks, we’ve just had one.’

      Louise changed into her scrubs then headed to the kitchen and made herself a nice one, and this time Anton got a hospital teabag.

      He knew he was in her bad books with one sip of his tea.

      Well, she was in his bad books too.

      ‘You and Rory left very suddenly,’ Anton commented. ‘I didn’t realise that the two of you …’

      ‘We’re СКАЧАТЬ