Chapter Eleven

Thursday 11th October

One Broken Heart For Sale

Harry tried Molly's again a few days later, sitting up at the bar on a stool. There was a fair mix of ages and genders; it was quieter on a Thursday night than the weekend he had tried before. The music wasn't too loud, Jorge had turned his nose up but then maybe Latino and Irish weren't the right blend of flavours.

He thought he was beginning to get the hang of his new surroundings. He loved his apartment building, loved the welcoming sight of all that bright red brick. It looked solid, established and bright not like the dire dark brown that just made British architecture even more depressing. It felt homely too, there was always a group of OAP's or seniors as they were known here, playing cards around the table in the large lobby, and even if Jorge wasn't on the door someone else was there to welcome him. It wasn't as if it was a doorman in some fancy outfit like in the films at the hotels that leap into the street and make taxi's appear by magic. It was just someone on the door to check the comings and goings of the place. His neighbour across the hall seemed to be slightly eccentric and had one of those tiny dogs that she carried everywhere in a little pouch with her. She was often playing cards with the seniors. She was easy to spot, the steel grey hair, astute eyes and odd choice of sports track suits she always seemed to wear despite her advanced age. But she always said hello to him and asked him about his day. She didn't appear to listen to his answer…but she did ask.

The 'music' in the lift or elevator if he was trying not to stand out took a while to get used to. Once he had found out what Jorge the doorman was doing he didn't mind so much, but for the first few weeks, every time he stepped into the lift it was playing 'Now and then there's a fool such as I?' He was worried the music gremlin from his last weeks with Nikki had followed him to America.

There was also a good mix of people in the building: young professionals, older people that had been at the United Nations for decades and others who worked at NYU, even a few students. He'd not really done too many of the touristy trips, but he had taken the metro down to Battery Park and looked out over the Statue of Liberty. He had been up the Empire State Building but only because his students had laughed at him when he said he'd not done it yet. It was during the same seminar that he took off his jumper and placed it down somewhere only to forget exactly where he left it. The guffaws he received when he asked the class if they had seen it surprised him but one of the students had spoken to him at the end and mentioned that 'jumpers' were what little girls wore, often as part of a school uniform and that he should probably talk about his sweater in future unless he wanted to get a really eccentric reputation.

"I have a reputation?" he'd asked Chantelle the helpful student who had helped him with his vocabulary.

"Everyone has a reputation," she'd replied.

"And mine?"

"You're English, you have to be eccentric."

"But what if I'm not?"

"You're here aren't you?" Chantelle had retorted.

"But?" he'd questioned.

"Get used to it, even if you could change the accent to blend in, your teeth would always give you away…"and she had swept out of the room.

"My teeth?" Harry had puzzled.

It was then that he refocused on his present reality and noticed a commotion at the far end of the bar, an elderly man was banging loudly on the counter and one of the bar staff he recognised as Kelly was screaming and clutching on to him. Harry made his way towards the pair realising as he got closer that the man was probably having heart palpitations if not a full blown heart attack.

"Give him some room, I'm a doctor," he called authoritatively. "Kelly get the paramedics." And he set to work.

It hadn't been the quiet evening in the bar that he'd hoped. But on the other hand now he was always assured of a warm welcome in Molly's having helped the man who was in fact Art, the owner until the paramedics appeared. Kelly was his niece but had been brought up by him. Harry was promised 5 star service whenever he needed and he was pretty sure that when Art was out of hospital, and well on the way to recovery his chances with Kelly were pretty high too.

He made his way back to his building; exhausted after the tension but it had felt good to be a 'hands on' doctor for a while again. It was starting to get cold, the mornings could be frosty but come the afternoon the temperature would soar making it impossible to wear a winter jacket on the walk home. He had heard that this would make the New England foliage spectacular this year, maybe he'd hire a car for a weekend and take a trip. Maybe he could ask Kelly to go with him.

One Broken Heart For Sale: Otis Blackwell (Elvis)

Hope there's a bit more of their feelings in this bit, especially for KiwiSWfan but if in doubt Elvis is the best indicator of what's going on!

Thanks for reading and reviewing