Kylie had just had a text from the airline to say her luggage had been found. At Gatwick! It should be with her later this afternoon and could she confirm that she was still at the same hotel. She barely turned around as she fired back a text and told him her name. 'K'.
'Short for?'
She really didn't have time for small talk and she knew, just knew, because her back was scalding from his eyes, that it was more than small talk he was offering. 'I'm actually a bit busy at the moment...'
'Well, that's some name —no wonder you have to shorten it.'
Her fingers hesitated over the text she was typing and she gave a small, presumably unseen smile.
Ken knew he couldn't see her mouth, but he knows that she'd smiled.
He watched as that rigid spinal column very quickly relaxed a notch and those tense shoulders dropped a fraction.
Still, he left things there. He certainly wasn't going to pursue a conversation that had been so swiftly shut down. It's embarrassing.
Instead, he looked at the brochure with only mild interest. He detest his type of thing. He'd only put his hand up because he'd needed the update hours and because his parents and sister lived nearby—it would be a good chance to catch up. As well as that, he was seriously considering moving here.
He kept himself up to date and found these presentations pointless, or rather bullet-pointed—most speakers had everything on slides and it was rather like being read a bedtime story out loud. At thirty- five years of age, he would rather read for Himself.
'Ken!'
He glanced over at the sound of his name and gave a smile when he saw that it was someone he had studied with in London.
'How are you, John?'
Kylie stood there, trying not to notice the delicious depth to his voice. He doesn't speak much; it was his friend that who did most of the talking.
She registered and was told that one of the organisers will be with her shortly to take her to where her talk was being held.
'This way, Dr Hayes...'
Ken stopped in mid-Sentence as Kylie was led away. She must be speaking, he realised, and quite shamelessly, he glanced through the list of speakers by himself and found out her name.
Kylie Hayes
And then he saw the topic of her talk.
Palliative Care and its Place in the Emergency Department.
Of course, that'd not what he needed.
So instead of hearing her speak, he took himself off to listen to a disaster management panel but his mind wasn't really there. Half an hour he slipped out unnoticed and slipped into where she was talking.
She noticed him come in.
There was a tiny pause in her talk as she glanced at the opening door and saw him enter.
He didn't take a seat but leant against the back wall with arms folded. There was a small falter in her flawless talk as he took his place but then she continued where she'd left off.
'Of course, it's great for the patient when they receive a terminal disease diagnosis to take that break, that trek, that overseas trip. It can just be a touch inconvenient for us when they present, minus notes, diagnosis, information and family. And so, because that's what we do, we leap in and do our best to save them.' She looked out at the room. 'Of course, it's not so great for the patient either when they come around to our smiling faces... It's hard on the staff when a four-year-old presents on Christmas Eve. It's our instinct to do all that we can. There is not always time to speak at length with the family when they come rushing in with their child but listen we must...'
It wasn't like a bedtime story with everything spelt out. Yes, there were bullet points, but they were only brief outlines and, for Ken, a lot of words felt like bullets as she filled in the gaps.
Brusque was delivery as she covered things such a legalities, next of kin, patient rights. For some good measure, staff, relative and patient guilt was thrown in too.
He listened, he felt, yet his face never moved a muscle.
As she finished, he left the room and went off to lunch but, even if it smelt so good, the food didn't appeal and instead he took some water and went out onto a large balcony.
Unlike others who had been at her talk Ken didn't go up and congratulate her. Neither did he tell her that her talk had touched something deep in him.
He could have walked over and said how his wife had got up in the night and wandered off. He could have said how angry she had been to wake up two days later in the ICU and that he could still see the reproach in her eyes, as if Ken had somehow failed her because she'd lived.
No, he didn't want or need that look from Kylie and he was exhausted, so tired of women who gave out sympathy and understanding.
He'd prefer something lighter.
Or darker, perhaps! Hopefully, Ken thought, heading back in, so too would she.
IT WOULD BE an absolute lie to say the attraction hadn't been instant as it was mutual.
All through the lunch break there was a knot high in Kylie's stomach and tension in her muscles and she knew that she was bracing herself for him to come over.
Expect he didn't
Ouch!
She wasn't sure if she even wanted him to.
There was an arrogance to him, not that she couldn't handle arrogant men; she'd dealt with more than her share of them.
No, it was something else about Ken that had her seriously bothered—the presumption of sex.
From the briefed Conversation she had gleaned that much. From the roam of his eyes on the bare skin of her back, From the sullen, one-sided conversation with his friend that had told her his mind was on her.
From the corner of her eye she watched as he came in from balcony and them went over and chatted to a group.
She was incredibly aware of his presence and it had been a long time since she had felt anything close to that.
Not that it mattered.
She was being ignored.
Funny, but she knew that it was deliberate and what was stranger still it made her smile. 'Excellent talk...'
A middle-aged blond mam came over and introduced himself. 'Henry.' He smiled.
'Kylie.'
It was a very long thirty minutes.
Henry couldn't let up and Kylie couldn't really make her excuses and leave because he was talking about his wife who had died and the total hash that had been made in the emergency department.
It was a holiday for Kylie as she lined up for lovely buffet lunch and Henry followed her with his plate.
'We've been here for the past two hours, Kylie,' he said, and she looked up and unexpectedly she saw Ken staring shamelessly at her.
Rescue me, her green ones said, but he looked away.
'And then...' Henry continued to tell her about his wife's IV coming out and the drugs that refused to go in. Yes, yes, it was a tragic story, but it was a story she dealt with every day and it was a lunch break.
'Paella, please.' Kylie held out her plate to the waitress but she shook her head.
We're are waiting for some more...'
Kylie chose some odd noodle salad, just to get away, but Gordon chose the same and he was off again. He sat next to her at a high table and droned on and on.
She met Ken's eyes again and this time he smiled.
You missed your chance, his eyes said.
I've changed my mind, was her silent plea.
Well, you're too late!
He yawned and pulled out his pamphlet and with a very small smirk walked off.
What a bastard.
Kylie laughed and then turned to Henry's confused expression.
'I said, then she died...'
'Sorry, I thought you said then she...' Kylie let out breath. 'What a terrible time you had.'
She didn't want to hear all these, today of all days.
She didn't see Ken again all afternoon, not that it mattered anyways. At 5:00 in the evening. When she got back to her room to find her luggage still hadn't arrived, it wasn't the spanish-speaking English doctor who was on her mind.
It was Thomas.
She didn't want to go down for dinner in an hour and be sociable.
Room service seemed like the best thing to do.
A huge plate of paella.
A bottle of wine.
She wished she brought his photo.
But there had been too many sad birthdays and, suddenly realising that she had a very small window if she didn't want to spend tomorrow dressed in Alora's dress or linen pants that were more suitable for travel, she headed out.
She founded herself in a large department store, explaining to an orange woman that, apart from a lipstick, she had no make-up with her.
'My luggage was lost,' she said.
The woman was so horrified on her behalf that Kylie actually smiled. 'It's fine...'
It was.
So much so that instead of buying loads of make up and then heading upstairs to the ropa de senora section to buy a chic Spanish outfit Kylie wandered out and found herself drawn to a busy market. There were amazing dresses blowing in the late afternoon breeze and they were nothing like what she usually wore.
If she walked into work dressed as she was today, it would draw comment. Here, apart from a couple vaguely familiar faces from conferences of long ago, no one knew her.
It was incredibly freeing—she could be whoever she chose to be.
Kylie took her time with her purchases. She chose a loose long dress in lilac and shorts that were very short, along with a top and a stringy-bikini. And, she decided, instead of the museum on Sunday afternoon she was going to the beach.
She liked Madrid.
Far more than she expected to.
It was cosmopolitan, busy yet friendly, colourful and hot.
Walking back into the hotel, she was about to take her purchases up and get changed and, instead of hiding in her room, probably head out for dinner by herself when she saw him.
Ken.
'I was wondering where you were,' he said by the way of greeting, and Kylie liked it that he was direct.
'I went shopping...' She was about to explain that her luggage was lost but then decided she didn't have to explain anything.
'Kylie!' a voice boomed, and she turned and saw that Henry was bearing down on her. 'There's a group of us heading to the hotel restaurant. Why don't you join us?'
'Oh, I'd love to but I can't,' Kylie said. 'I'm expecting a call. A conference call. I—'
'I will try.'
Henry smiled over to Ken. 'Do you have plans or would you like to join us?'
Ken dealt with things far more effortlessly than Kylie. 'I've already got plans, thank you for asking.'
As the group walked off they were left standing.
'Liar,' Ken said. 'You don't have a conference call you have to get to.'
'Was it obvious?' She groaned.
'To me it was.' Ken nodded. 'Liars always have a need to elaborate. You'd know that, working in Emergency,'
'I know,' she said. 'So would Henry.'
'Is he a friend?'
Kylie shook her head.
'A colleague?'
'No.'
'So why not just say no if it's something that you don't want to do?'
'I know that I should. I just feel bad...'
'Well, don't—he's far too busy banging on about his late wife to notice what others are feeling.'
She felt her nostrils tighten. 'That was mean.'
'No,' Ken refuted. 'He tried to run the whole sorry story by me yesterday. What's worst is buttonholing a relative stranger and completely ruining their lunch.'
He shrugged.
He was dismissive.
She didn't like that and she was about to head off when she halted her in her tracks.
'Do you want dinner away from the hotel?'
'I've got a conference call to make,' she said, and gave him a tight smile.
'Sure?' he said.
Usually, yes.
She didn't like his dismissal of Henry but, apart from that, he was, well, deliciously overwhelming.
Alora's words were ringing in her ears. He didn't have to be perfect, he didn't have to be anything other than...
God, but she fancied him.