Patsy:

"Sally says she spotted you at the cinema" one of the nosier nurses said the following Monday.

"Did she now?" I tried to shrug the comment off, I had had a particularly bad morning (one of the patients had vomited on my uniform) and my mood wasn't getting any better.

"And …?" the nurse said, leaning over a tray of medicine. I turned and gave her my most stern 'Nurse Mount' look, hoping she would understand that I wasn't in the mood.

"Come on Patsy! You know we're all dying to know if you have a chap".

"I went with a friend" and before she could say anything else I added "a female friend".

She seemed to deflate with disappointment "you will tell us, won't you? When you start seeing someone". Before I could answer she exclaimed under her breath "Oh! There's that new surgeon, isn't he just the most dashing man you've seen?"

I turned to see a tallish man (I forget his name) walk into the room and send us a smile before carrying on with his work.

"Hey! He would be perfect for you! I hear he's single"

I tried to think of an excuse, anything to lead the conversation away from where I knew it was heading "But wouldn't it be … uh … odd, with us both … having blonde hair? I mean, we'd look like brother and sister".

"You could always stop dying your hair" I was about to say another lame excuse when she said what I had dreaded "Why don't we go out dancing? I'll invite everyone, only nurses and doctors of course. Oh, how fun it will be! And you would get to dance with Jonathan!".

Before I could protest she frolicked away, off to check on a patient.