"I'll just collect your prescription and then you can call your daughter to collect you, Mrs Bingham." Dylan said in his most professional voice. The woman smiled and thanked him, before eyeing the doctor up.
"What's going on between you and that young man then, eh?" she chuckled, a grin forming across her delicately wrinkled face.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Dylan replied - his expression completely blank and his tone dull. The lady simply smiled more, practically beaming at the doctor. Dylan put his hands on his hips and frowned.
"Oh come off it, love. I may have cataracts in one eye but I saw the way you were looking at him. You like him." She exclaimed. Doctor Keogh's face turned red in an instant, causing him to turn to face the cubicle curtain rather than show his embarrassment. He began to take quick breaths to regain control of the situation.
"Your prescription…" his voice trailed off, completely ignoring the woman's silly smile. Dylan bolted out of the room to collect his patient's meds; he wanted her to leave the hospital as quickly as possible now. Unfortunately his movements were a bit too swift and before he knew it he had crashed into the one person he did not want to see him right now.
"Dylan! I'm so sorry I wasn't looking where I was going and – " Lofty blurted out, frantically pulling the doctor up off the floor. Dylan cleared his throat and brushed himself off, trying to wipe the embarrassed rosiness from his cheeks.
"B-Ben, no, really it's fine it's my fault. I was in a world of my own honestly…" he coughed, but the nurse was shaking his head.
"I-I need to go…" Lofty declared, quickly disappearing from the doctor's view. Dylan let out a big sigh and rubbed his face, it was burning hot. He retrieved the small paper bag and delivered it to the woman, before speedily saying his goodbyes. Relieved he had escaped another awkward confrontation, Dylan made residence at the reception computer. Although he had searched into some random medical phenomenon, Dylan really just wanted to look like he was interested in something else so no one would question his odd behaviour. He stayed there for a while before finally deciding to make a cup of tea to relax his anxiety.
A familiar figure already stood at the staff room counter when Dylan entered the room. Lofty had not noticed Dylan in the door of the staff room; he was just lent against the counter, hunched over and facing the wall. His head was cupped into his arms, as if he was on a falling aircraft. Dylan stood for a moment, wondering what Lofty would say when he saw him and what he could possibly reply. A hundred different scenarios ran through the doctor's mind but he knew it was inevitable that none of them actually be the result. Lofty was always unpredictable in Dylan's eyes. He considered just turning back now and hiding somewhere until the end of his shift, but before he had the chance to decide it was too late.
"Want one?" he heard Lofty call, already flicking the kettle back on to heat up. It had just occurred to Dylan that his thought process had taken up so much time that the nurse had turned to see the doctor, stood like a statue in the door frame.
"Yes, please," he finally coughed, shuffling into the room and taking a seat on the sofa, cautiously.