"He won't tell anyone!"
Max reached across the table to her, his fingers touching the warm skin of her forearms that she had neatly folded before her.
"How could you possibly know that?!"
She kept her voice low, aware of the other customers, and of Max's cousin who seemed intent on loitering just within ear shot of them.
"It's Dylan!"
Max exclaimed, suppressing a laugh.
"I've never met anyone with such a lack of interest in other human beings!"
She sighed as he spoke. She knew he was right, when she thought about it there were several other people who she could be glad hadn't caught them together.
Max leant back in his seat, exhaling and letting his fingers slip from her arms. She always seemed such hard work...
"You know people will find out eventually..."
He said finally, the smile at his lips beginning to fade.
"Mmm."
She reached for her wine glass and took a sip.
"Oh! Don't go all Mrs Beauchamp on me now..."
He sucked in a breath and placed a hand on his chest, he was getting hungry, and he didn't want this to spoil their meal.
"I wanted this to be special. I wanted to bring you here because it means something to me. I wanted to walk home with you arm in arm and tell you that I love you,...I wanted to kiss you under the stars..."
Even without looking at him Connie could tell that he was smiling. He was trying to win her round, he was using that charm of his to get her to lighten up, and with a roll of her eyes she allowed him to succeed.
"You know people will find out eventually."
He said quietly, reaching out for her again, and this time she looked up at him.
"I know."
She murmured. It wasn't that she didn't want people to know about their relationship, she didn't mind if they did, not really. She wanted it to be out in the open, but she was terrified of the rumours, and of the glances she would receive.
Right now she couldn't think of anything worse than being the centre of hospital gossip once more.
Right now she was enjoying their relationship as a hidden fairytale of a thing. 'The clinical lead and the porter', it made her smile to know that they had a secret. She enjoyed it. It seemed to relieve her of the need for order, and allowed her a moment of impossible, irrational desire. She couldn't help but think that if the tiniest of actions reverberated throughout the universe in invisible and unexpected ways, changing the weather and the climate, then anything was possible, and she wasn't willing to take the risk to see whether it would be a change for the good, or for the bad. After all, every fairy tale had a bloody lining. Every one had teeth and claws, and she could well imagine how the hospital staff would enjoy getting their teeth and claws into this piece of gossip.
She looked at him across the table, his blue eyes so clear and honest, his mouth paused between a smile and something that he wanted to say, but couldn't quite put into words.
"I'm just going to..."
She glanced in the direction of the women's toilets and he followed her gaze.
"Powder your nose?"
He asked as she stood up. She smiled.
"Don't you go climbing out of the window..."
He murmured, and as she made to pass him she reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm not going anywhere."
She said as she gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze, and she left to push open the door to the toilets.
Inside here was much colder than the restaurant, somebody had opened the window at the end of the corridor of toilets, and the wind whistled in through the thin glass making her shiver.
She rested her hands against the sink, she was alone. She looked at herself in the mirror. Despite everything she was mildly pleased with what she saw. If nothing else she still had her appearance. Nothing could take that away except time, and time was something that was happening slowly enough for her to adjust to.
She drew in a breath and stood up straight, she smoothed down the fabric of her dress and cleared her throat. Did it really matter? She wondered. Did it matter if people knew? She frowned, and then relaxed her face, catching sight of the lines across her forehead.
Never before had she known herself to be so indecisive. She blew out a breath from between her lips and whilst looking at herself in the mirror she decided that she would go back into the restaurant, she would sit down opposite Max and she would tell him that no it didn't matter...
She smiled to herself, and made to turn back to the doorway, but as she glanced away she caught the flicker of something in the mirror before her. She felt her skin prickle, every hair at the nape of her neck seemed to stand on end, and as she looked back up into the mirror that showed the reflection of the open window behind her, she saw him.
She'd thought she had seen him hundreds...thousands of times before. If she had moved too quickly, or squinted her eyes, she had thought she had seen him before her, in shadows, within trees. Before now, she had always imagined that she had seen him when he was never really there. It was only the ghost of the idea of him that had been there beneath the bed when she kissed Max goodnight, there when she sat at her desk to write letters to her daughter at school. He had been in her coffee cup, her bathwater, her tears.
But now he was there. He was looking back at her, just standing there against the glass, watching her, and he was smiling.
Within an instant she realised, unfinished business always comes back to haunt you, and a man who has sworn he'll love you forever isn't finished with you until he's done.
I hope everyone is still enjoying the story. More to come soon! Please review and let me know what you think :) Hope everyone is having a lovely evening xxx
