Breaking Her No-Dates Rule

‘Are you kidding? He’s an orthopaedic surgeon, he doesn’t have to explain himself to anyone!’

Ellie closed the file she’d been working on and looked up at him. There were two bright spots of colour on her cheeks and her blue eyes were glistening but the panicked look he’d seen there a moment before had vanished. Her earlier nervous expression had been replaced by a smile as she laughed at his flippant comment.

‘Are you here on a social call or is there someone you want to see?’ she asked.

As she spoke her blonde hair bounced around her shoulders, catching the light and distracting him. Why had he come to the ward? He struggled to recall what he was doing there. ‘I’m here to see Mavis Williams. I was paged, something about her temperature?’

Ellie nodded. ‘Yep. Let me grab her file and I’ll come with you.’

She collected the case notes and led the way and he trailed a couple of steps behind, enjoying the way her hips moved as she stepped out in front. She was a petite woman, several inches shorter than him but perfectly proportioned. Her waist was tiny, her hips narrow but they swayed enticingly.

She’d intrigued him since the first time he’d seen her at the Stat Bar and he’d celebrated his good fortune when he’d discovered that not only did she work at the hospital but she worked on the orthopaedic ward. She’d be working with him.

When he’d seen her at the Stat Bar it was as though they had been the only two people in the room. She’d been surrounded by others but it was as if they had receded into the distance, leaving her standing alone, silhouetted by her own golden glow. It had been an odd sensation for James.

He’d felt her presence at the beach too. It had been more than just the feeling you got when you knew you were being watched. There had been something extra. Despite her cap and sunglasses, he’d known instantly it was her. He’d felt her and it wasn’t until she’d walked away that he’d noticed she wasn’t alone. She may have been walking with a friend but he’d only had eyes for Ellie.

She was the first woman to catch his attention in months, in almost seven months to be exact. Perhaps he was ready to move on.

‘Morning, Mavis,’ James greeted the old lady as they entered her room. ‘You’re running a temperature, I hear.’

Ellie retook Mavis’s temperature as James checked her other symptoms. ‘The nurses might be right, Mavis. It’s possible you have a UTI. It’s a common complaint in hospitals, I’m afraid. If you can stomach cranberry juice that’s often a good natural combatant but I’ll organise some tests and if necessary we can treat it with antibiotics.’ He glanced at Ellie, who immediately picked up on his silent request.

‘I’ll go and organise the things for the urine culture,’ she said.

James watched her go. She made him think of summer and sunshine and happy times. She was golden and if he believed in auras that would be how he would describe her. She had a golden aura and it seemed to envelop him whenever he was near her. It ensnared him and made it difficult to think past her and just being around her made him feel good.

‘You’re enjoying your new job, I see?’ Mavis said with a smile.

‘It certainly has some perks.’ He wasn’t embarrassed at being caught watching Ellie. Most of the males on staff did the same, he’d seen them. Almost everyone seemed captivated by her and he wondered if she was aware of the effect she had on men.

‘You’re not married, then?’

He hadn’t been embarrassed until Mavis made that remark. Did she think he’d still be watching Ellie if he were married? He shook his head. ‘No. I never quite made it down the aisle.’

‘Why don’t you ask Ellie out? She’s single too,’ Mavis the matchmaker replied.

‘Is she?’ His heart rate increased with the announcement. ‘How do you know that?’

‘You don’t get to my age without learning a thing or two about people and, besides, I’ve been here so long I’m starting to feel like part of the furniture and when people get used to having you around they forget to watch their conversations. Trust me, she’s single. You should ask her out.’

‘I might take your advice. Thanks, Mavis,’ he said with a wink as Ellie returned to the room. But even as he spoke he wondered if he would issue an invitation. What would be the sensible thing to do? Had anything changed in his life over the past few months? He was still committed to his job, still focussed on establishing his career. Did he have the time or emotional energy for the singles scene? No matter how enticing Ellie was, he wasn’t sure if he was ready to date again.

There was a buzz of excitement in the room. The noise level had been high all evening, as was usually the case in a room full of women, but the level had increased noticeably in the last few minutes. Ellie checked her watch—ten-thirty. Her school leavers’ reunion had been girls only until now and her old school friends were becoming distracted by the arrival of their boyfriends.

They had only been out of school for five years so there wasn’t all that much to catch up on. They’d been doing one of three things—travelling overseas, studying or working or a combination of all of those. A few were married, a couple had babies but they were the exceptions.

Ellie watched as Carol, Amy and Fiona, in fact, most of the organising committee, went to greet their partners as they entered the function room. Two things were immediately obvious to Ellie. One, that three hours was the time limit allocated to catching up with friends before the girls needed to let their partners in on the evening and, two, the committee members were all in relationships, which was why the decision to include partners in the evening had been made. A third thing came to mind as Ellie watched the change in group dynamics—she wasn’t in the mood to watch happy couples.

It had been three months since the disastrous dinner with Rob and her heart was well and truly mended. If she was honest, she’d admit her pride and her ego had suffered more than her heart. It was more about her dreams and what his lies had done to them. She was angry more than heartbroken and it wasn’t difficult to be angry with a man who was a liar and a cheat. Her dreams might have been shattered but her heart was intact, though she still didn’t feel like being surrounded by happy couples.

The reunion was being held in Sydney’s infamous Kings Cross district in a private function room in a recently renovated and refurbished building. The building was typical of many in the Cross, with the businesses making the most of limited land by going upwards. There was a ‘gentleman’s club’ in the basement, a traditional nightclub on the ground floor with function rooms on the first floor, and Ellie didn’t want to know what was on the floor above that.

The reunion committee had booked out the function room until midnight and Ellie knew that gave them access to the nightclub afterwards. Normally she would be planning on partying until the small hours of the morning but tonight she was out of sorts. She was tired of the incessant noisy chatter going on about her but it was still too early to go home. To get some respite from the noise she slipped out of the room and onto the balcony that opened off it. Maybe watching people in the Cross, instead of her old school friends and their partners, would improve her mood.

She closed the balcony doors behind her and the change in atmosphere between inside and outside was incredible. Inside the air had smelt of perfume, hairspray and women and while initially that had been overpowering it was at least a clean smell. Outside the air smelt of petrol fumes, cigarettes, greasy takeaway food, alcohol and men. And the noise had changed from the high-pitched, excited chatter of women to car horns, music and deeper, loud voices.

If she had been down at street level she might have retreated inside but on a first-floor balcony she felt safe enough to watch from a distance. The balcony was divided in two by a low iron balustrade and a second function room opened onto the other half. From her vantage point Ellie could see people inside the other room but for the moment the adjoining balcony was empty.