The day panned out exactly as Martin thought it would. Jam packed full of nosy patients who wanted to get any gossip they could about his night with Louisa. It had left him in a foul mood, and Louisa, who had just knocked on the kitchen door could see the frustration coming off him in waves.
"Louisa!"
"Hello Martin" As she passed him on her way in, she kissed him on his cheek. "How was your day?"
Martin scowled at this, "Awful! The people in this town insist on wasting my time. It's bad enough I have to dish out advice that they don't take, but when they come in with no reason other than to grill me about my personal life, well that's just the icing on the cake. Idiots."
"Well I'm sure it's not all that bad. They mean well."
"Mean well?! Louisa, I have people who have genuine medical problems that can't get appointments because these twits, like Burt Large, come in and insist on wasting everyone's time. I'm sure it's very comforting to Mrs Twinborne, who had to wait over 3 hours to see me today because these idiots completely booked up my timetable. This village should have compulsory contraceptives to stop these people reproducing!"
Louisa bristled at this. "Martin, these are the people I grew up with. I'm part of the town too, and some of them are my friends."
"Friends?! Most of these people need to be sectioned!"
"Now you're just being rude Martin! I didn't come over here to argue with you. I can see you're in a foul mood, so I'll just go."
"Louisa… wait…" He huffed to himself as he watched her quickly exit the kitchen and walk down the hill back to her cottage.
Martin sat down on his couch, lent forward and put his head in his hands. Good job, you idiot. You snap at the one person in this blasted village that you actually care about, and now she's stormed off, probably wishing that she'd never come to see you at all.
Martin was shaken from his thoughts by the sound of his mobile ringing. "Oh, what now!"
Pulling his phone out, he answered "Ellingham. Oh hello Auntie Joan. You did what? Yes alright, I'll be there soon."
XxxxxxxxxxX
Knocking on the door and letting himself in, he called out to Joan.
"In here Marty"
Martin made his way into the lounge room where Joan currently had her leg elevated on a chair. Martin could see a nail protruding from her foot, which was covered in rags. Taking a deep breath and swallowing the rising sick feeling that had immediately come up Martin got to work.
"What happened?"
"I was just finishing up for the day, and didn't see the nail sticking up on the floor, and well I'm sure you can guess what happened next. I got the shoe off, but I couldn't dislodge the nail. You doing alright? You don't look so good."
"Yes I'm fine. This will hurt though…"
Joan cried out in pain as Martin managed to pull the nail out.
"There, that's out. When did you last have a tetanus shot?"
"Oh I don't know Marty."
"Right, well I'll give you one when I'm done cleaning up this."
Joan watched as Martin set about cleaning the wound. She could see he was tense, but that could be because of the blood. She was wildly curious about the state of his relationship with Louisa. She'd heard on the grapevine that Martin's car was parked out the front of Louisa's cottage all last night, and it wasn't a huge leap to assume they'd spent the night together. If that was the case though, why he was looking so frustrated was beyond her.
She winced as Martin stuck the needle in her arm.
"Right, that's all done. Keep off it as much as you can. I'll pop by tomorrow to change the dressings."
"Good, thank you Marty."
Martin knelt down, beginning to clean up the dirty rags and blood that had dripped on the floor
"So Martin, how are things going with you and Louisa? I heard you had a good night last night?"
She knew she'd hit a sore spot as Martin's head immediately shot up with a scowl on his face.
"That is none of your business. Who told you that? Why can't this blasted village find something more interesting than my private life to talk about!?"
Seeing him so riled up, Joan chuckled. "Oh you are touchy about it. What did you do this time to muck it up then?"
"What! I did nothing"
"No? So why are you so cross?"
"I am not cross! This blasted village needs to learn to mind its own business, you included!"
"Oh calm down Martin, I'm not attacking you! Now tell me, what has happened that's gotten you so worked up?"
"I am not worked up, I'm leaving! Goodbye!" Martin gathered up his bag, and quickly walked out the door.