Australian Affairs: Tempted: Tempted by Dr. Morales

‘Of course it is.’

‘Why?’

‘Why wouldn’t I?’ She gave a small shake of her head. She wasn’t about to discuss her career with a man who had turned his back on his.

‘Have you thought about doing the sky jump?’

‘The places are all taken.’

‘You can have mine.’ Juan grinned. ‘I’d happily pay to watch you jump out of a plane. I think it would be very freeing for you.’

‘I don’t need freeing.’ Her eyes narrowed as she looked at him. ‘I don’t need a shot of adrenaline from jumping out of a plane to prove that I’m alive…’ It annoyed her that he smiled. ‘I don’t.’

‘I’m not arguing.’ Still he smiled. ‘I wish you good luck with your interview. If I come back in a couple of years, I expect you’ll be carrying a clipboard and be the new director of nursing.’

‘And what will you be doing in a couple of years?’ Cate asked, because even though he was smiling she felt there was a challenge in his tone. ‘Still roaming the globe, still doing casual shifts and not knowing where you’re going to be each day?’

‘I don’t know,’ he admitted. ‘I try not to think that far ahead, but I am thinking ahead now—after you’ve dropped everyone off, come back to mine.’

‘Pardon?’

‘I would like to have some time to speak with you.’

‘We’re speaking now.’

‘Okay, I would like to talk to you some more.’ He would. Juan was more than aware that this might be the last time they were together and he cared enough about Cate to prolong the conversation. She clearly didn’t want his career advice, so he switched track to something a little more palatable. ‘I would like to be a bit more hot in my pursuit but I don’t think you would appreciate it. You are senior, you don’t need the Dr Juan walk of shame, so I’m inviting you to come over afterwards…’

‘Why would I come back to yours?’

‘Because, as I said when I brought your drink, I think about you often and think it is the same for you. I believe if you want something you should at least try, and so I am.’

‘I don’t think—’

‘Don’t think, then.’

She couldn’t really believe he could be so upfront about it.

‘Juan…’

‘I can’t talk too long. Christine is being a pain and I don’t want to upset her at her leaving do. We can talk some more back at mine.’

Cate excused herself and nipped out to the toilets. She wished for a guilty moment that she hadn’t when she saw Christine in there in tears. Cate really didn’t know what to say.

‘It’s hard, leaving,’ Cate attempted, ‘but you’ll still keep in touch…’

‘Do you really think I’m crying about that place?’ Christine looked at her. ‘I couldn’t be happier to be getting away from it. It’s Juan.’

‘Oh.’

‘I made a bit of a fool of myself,’ Christine said. ‘I asked if he wanted to come back after…’ She cringed. ‘I was very politely rebuffed. I told myself before I came out not to drink and Juan.’ Cate gave a thin smile at Christine’s pale joke—she knew exactly what she meant.

‘Our livers will be thanking him,’ Cate said, because she wasn’t just being a martyr, driving everyone around—since she’d met Juan she’d been clutching water, terrified that a thimble of wine and all restraint would be gone.

‘I should have known better.’ Christine started the repair job on her face. ‘I knew it wasn’t going anywhere, but it was so great being with him…’

Cate really didn’t want to hear this; she didn’t want to hear from Christine how good he was in bed. She was just about to excuse herself, skip to the loo, do anything to avoid that conversation. She had no idea what was coming next.

‘It was all going great until you came back from leave.’

‘What?’

‘Oh, come on, Cate…’

‘There’s nothing going on between us.’

‘I’m not blind.’

Cate just stood there; she knew this could get nasty and she certainly didn’t have to explain one kiss to bloody Christine.

‘What’s going on between the two of you, then?’ came Christine’s slightly drunken demand.

‘I don’t know about you, Christine, but I left school years ago,’ Cate said, and walked out.

She went to get her bag but she’d promised Kelly a lift.

Kelly could pay for a taxi for once, Cate decided. But there was no need to rush off. The drama was over—Juan had already gone.

Once the bill had been paid, even Kelly didn’t want to head off to a club; so Cate drove her home and then dropped off Abby, which took her unbearably close to Juan’s.

She couldn’t just walk up the garden path for sex.

‘Hi, Juan.’ She could just picture it. ‘I’m here.’

Cate was nothing like that, she did nothing like that.

She had fewer regrets than Frank Sinatra.

Yet Cate didn’t want to be sitting on a gurney in fifty years’ time, speaking about this stunning six-foot-three Argentinian who had offered no strings, who had offered nothing but a night, maybe a couple of days…

‘What did you do?’ She could just see the young nurse asking her half a century from now.

‘I went home.’

‘Oh.’

‘Nothing could have come of it,’ Old Cate would rationalize. ‘There was no point if it was going nowhere.’

Elsie would be disappointed