'Put it this way,' Charlie folds his hands over his lap and opens and closes his mouth in quick succession, as if thinking. 'I was a kid when I started here — younger than you.'

Though mildly started by the comment, feeling undermined for just a second, something inside makes Ethan nudge the mountain of papers aside and set his eyes onto the man before him.

'I met a beautiful woman. Well, many.'

Both manage strained laughs.

'Duffy?'

'Yes, how did you work that out? She was Lisa back then. Her nickname came about in a rather strange way. I mean, she wouldn't tell me about it for ages. So keen on being the mysterious nurse who'd whirlwind around corridors with lovely blonde hair and one of those smiles that never failed to catch my eye. Just a sparkle about her. Endearing empathy. Quick witted. I fell head over heels naturally.'

They take gulps in unison from chipped coffee mugs the size of dessert bowls.

'I danced round her as she did me. We were on off for a while. We loved with a fire that couldn't be put out, to the point where I'd be up all night simply because there weren't enough hours in the day to think of her. Massive cliché, but that's exactly what true love is. We bickered, squabbled, in between the happiness, until one day we had a massive row at work. We stopped speaking as I said something I regret and never apologised. Her now ex-husband Mark got in the way. I was devastated. She built her life around him. I paid for those retorts every single day of my life and still do. Things aren't the same as they would've been if we had rekindled sooner.'

Ethan is silent. There isn't really much to reply with. Mixed feelings bubble in the pit of his stomach. Charlie doesn't know the honest half of his situation, or how it feels, yet a parallel, an alarming likeness, has been drawn of which he will struggle to bury in his conscious mind.

'So you-you're suggesting that I—'

Both men glance upwards past the glass of the window and see a patient hobbling, being helped painstakingly carefully by both Alicia and Duffy.

'No,' Charlie says, eyes still following the events outside. 'Simply just sharing an anecdote of my own, though I have many.'

'You think I should take back what I said.'

'No, not at all,' Charlie repeats evenly and rubs at his creased forehead with a palm. 'Even if you really wanted to. That's out of your hands I'm afraid.'

'So then what?'

A look is exchanged between the two.

'That woman is more like you than you give her credit. She cares about everyone and everything, especially cares about you. Heart of gold.'

'I know,' manages Ethan. 'But we're like chalk and cheese and we rub each other up the wrong way without even trying.'

'Are you sure she feels the same way?'

'I doubt she does in all honesty. She is impetuous, goes with her heart and not her mind. It isn't even about her wronging me anymore, I couldn't care less, it is more I worry I will hurt her.'

'Why would you do that?' Charlie asks, shuffling slightly forwards on his seat.

'By accident, not on purpose.' Ethan says quickly when he sees his face.

'Going with your heart isn't always the worst thing in the world. It often leads us to where we're meant to be. I only learned that recently.'

'I just—'

'You sound scared. Take this with the well meaning I intend for it to have, but don't let time run out. Do you like Alicia?'

'Like?' Ethan echoes, bitterly remembering this is exactly how he spoke the previous week before following it up with a blow. 'I love her. More than anything.'

'Then go,' Charlie takes both mugs off and nods in the direction of the staffroom, as if to excuse himself. 'Be bigger than your worries.'