‘You’re taking it very well,’ Glen commented. ‘Hayley would be hysterical.’
‘Well, I’m not Hayley.’ Victoria shrugged.
Sometimes, she could make life easier playing sweeter, careful of a man’s ego.
And sometimes she did.
Like now, as she went into the female changing room to get ready for her date.
She showered and then let down her hair and brushed it so that it shone. Wrapped in a towel she put on some mascara and lip gloss and then pulled on a gorgeous black dress and high shoes.
Sometimes it was nice to dress up, given that she wore overalls for most of her day. But even as she dressed, Victoria knew tonight wasn’t going to work out.
He didn’t want to hear about her work.
Which wasn’t really a good sign, when Victoria worked an awful lot.
As for attraction?
Well, she had rather hoped that might develop.
And that wasn’t a good sign, surely.
The condom in her purse would remain unused.
God, it had been ages, Victoria thought, and there was almost an ache for contact and to be close to another, even if just for a little while.
No, her date tonight could in no way deliver the zaps that Dominic’s eyes had.
And so she cancelled it.
Right there and then, Victoria pulled her phone out of her purse and told him that she’d changed her mind about going out tonight.
‘Another time...?’ he went to suggest, but Victoria didn’t play games.
‘No.’
All dressed up and nowhere to go.
Or nowhere she wanted to be.
She had broken up with someone a few months ago when he had started to make noises about them living together.
No way!
There was no way on earth that Victoria would consider sharing her space with another.
And so she had ended it.
With the same lack of drama as she ended things tonight.
Victoria pulled on her coat and headed out.
‘Goodnight,’ she called out to her colleagues, but as she walked off Glen called her back.
‘Paddington’s just called. Your earring is in the A&E safe.’
‘Oh.’
‘Do you want me to drop you off?’ he offered, but Victoria said no. The ambulance station was just a ten-minute walk from Paddington’s and, though cold, it was a clear night and she wouldn’t mind the walk.
Her heels clipped on the pavement as the familiar building came into view.
Outside were a couple of protestors holding placards with various messages to save the hospital from closure.
They might just as well go home, Victoria thought sadly. From the way her father had spoken there would be a formal announcement soon.
She thought of little Penny’s comment about feeling safe there, and that was exactly how Victoria felt as she stepped into the hospital.
There was a feeling that wrapped around her like a blanket, one of being taken care of. There was a sense of security when you were within these walls, Victoria thought as she walked into A&E and saw Karen.
‘You’re one lucky woman,’ Karen said as she made her way over to her. ‘Penny found your earring in the blanket. It’s locked in the safe in Reception.’
‘Thank you so much.’ Victoria smiled.
Dominic wasn’t here.
She could just tell.
And, Victoria conceded, she was disappointed. She knew that she looked good, and deep down she had hoped that maybe, just maybe, Dominic might revise his suggestion and take her for a drink.
But then what?
She didn’t want a relationship. That was the simple truth, and the real reason why she always called things off.
Victoria didn’t trust anyone and certainly she didn’t want to get involved with a colleague who she would have to run into day after day.
They walked into Reception and Karen took out the keys and went into the safe, then handed Victoria the slim envelope that contained the earring. As Victoria put it on, Karen started chatting with the receptionist.
‘See you!’ Victoria called, and went to walk off but then she halted.
She checked that Karen and the receptionist were still talking and realised she could go behind the screen unnoticed.
It was something she had always done as a child and something she still occasionally did, though she always made sure that no one saw her.
Up the steps she went.
Remembering being little, and the hours that she had had to kill.
Growing up, Paddington’s had been more of a home than the house where Victoria had lived and she could not stand the thought of it being sold.
She looked out to the night. The moon was huge and she could see the dark shadows of Regent’s Park in the distance. There were taxis and buses below and she could see the protestors who, despite a shower of rain, still stood waving their placards.
They didn’t want to lose their hospital.
That’s what it was.
Theirs.
It was a place that belonged to the people, and now it was about to be sold off and possibly razed to the ground.
Victoria was tough.
She didn’t get involved with the patients; she had made the decision when she started her training to be kind but professional.
But this place, this space, moved her.
The walls held so much history and the air itself tasted of hope. It seemed wrong, simply wrong, that it might go.
There was so much comfort here.
She thought of Penny and how un-scared she was to come to Paddington’s.
Victoria had felt the same.
‘I shan’t be long,’ her father would say.
Her mother had left when Victoria was almost one year old and her father had had little choice sometimes but to bring her into work. He would plonk her in a sitting room and one of the staff would always take time to get her a drink or sandwich.
Of course, then their break would end and she would be left alone.
Often Victoria would wander.
Sometimes she would sit in an old quadrangle and read. Other times she would play in the stairwells.
But here was the place she loved most and she had whiled away many hours in this lovely unused room.
Here Victoria would dance or sing or simply imagine.
And maybe she was doing that now, because the door creaked open and she heard his deep voice.
‘Excuse me.’
DOMINIC HAD BEEN about to make his way home after visiting his patients on the wards but, not ready to face it yet, he had decided to spend some time in a place that was