She was colour.
A lively, vivid colour that was neither blinding nor irritating, but just by her presence she brightened the place. The television was on, not on the news as it normally would be early evening, but she’d commandeered the remote and had flicked to a soap Cort hadn’t seen in more than a decade.
‘He forgave her!’ Ruby was disgusted. ‘I can’t believe he forgave her.’
‘Again!’ Cort said, eating beans on toast on the sofa and amazed that even after a decade it was so easy to catch up. ‘She was at it last time I watched.’
What was it with Ruby? Cort tried to fathom. It couldn’t just be sex, Cort reasoned, even though beneath his towel, things were stirring again—what was it with her that made him want to dive right back into living?
He needed to tell her about Beth.
Cort knew that and sat there wondering what her reaction would be, but she was laughing and she hadn’t done that for ages, relaxed for once, which she needed to be.
‘Once your nights are finished,’ Cort said, ‘if it’s okay with you, maybe we could go away for a couple of days …’ Away from here, he decided. Away from a photo she’d demand instantly to see. To a place that was neither his nor hers—where they could talk properly, and if she was upset, they could work through it. The last thing he wanted was to trouble her now.
Her phone bleeped and, checking her messages, Ruby saw that there had been a couple.
Should I be worried?
‘Oh.’ Ruby winced. ‘It’s Tilly. I texted her about …’ she glanced at her watch ‘… oh, a few hours or so ago to tell her to put the kettle on.’ She texted back a quick message.
‘What did you say?’
‘Just that I was fine, and sorry.’ She could read his expression. ‘They wouldn’t say anything. I know you might find it impossible to believe …’
‘Not impossible,’ Cort said, and realised he’d be wasting his time telling her not to say anything about them. Clearly she trusted them, but reluctantly he stood. ‘Come on, I’ll take you home.’
‘Now?’ Ruby grumbled.
‘Now,’ Cort said, or he’d take her back to bed and then they’d both fall asleep and they’d have all her housemates to answer to. ‘Let’s just get through the next week—ignoring each other.’
‘TELL me again!’ Ellie said.
‘I’ve told you four times.’ Ruby laughed. Jess and Ellie were home when she tumbled into the house, though Tilly, who was working that night, had left early to help with an antenatal class. ‘Once I’m finished in Emergency, once I’ve got through nights, well, it’s not written in stone, but I think we’ll be more open, able to show our faces together in public. I don’t know …’ she admitted, because at the time it had seemed obvious what the other was saying—that once they’d got through this bit, they had a future, but under the scrutiny of her friends, she wondered if she was clutching at straws, and she certainly wasn’t about to discuss the absence of condoms.
So she played it down instead, toned it down, tried to calm things down in her heart, and after a good gossip she wished her friends goodnight and headed for bed. Except despite a tired body her mind wouldn’t quieten down and Ruby found herself staring out of the window, knowing she had work tomorrow and wishing she could sleep. She eventually did, but only for a little while, she was quite sure of it, when at eight a.m. she staggered into the kitchen.
‘What are you doing up?’ Tilly was nursing a huge mug of tea. ‘I thought you’d have a lie-in.’
‘I heard the kettle.’ Ruby smiled. ‘I’m going back to bed soon.’
‘So where did you get to yesterday?’ Tilly asked, and Ruby told her, well, some of it, but even though she sounded upbeat and happy she could see the worry in her friend’s eyes.
‘You haven’t known him very long,’ Tilly gently pointed out.
‘I know.’ Ruby ran a hand through her hair and tried to apply logic to a heart that had made up its mind. ‘I’m not doing an Ellie—I’m not convincing myself this is “the one”. I just can’t believe how he makes me feel and I know he feels the same.’ She could see Tilly wasn’t completely mollified. ‘What?’ Ruby demanded, because she could do that with her best friend. ‘What aren’t you telling me?’
‘Nothing.’ Tilly was honest. ‘I don’t know a single thing about him. I remember him when I did my emergency rotation and I don’t think I said two words to him in the time I was there. He was just “Call Paeds. Organise a social worker …”’
‘He’s actually not like that at all,’ Ruby said, ‘once you know him.’
‘Good,’ Tilly said, and she would never meddle, but she was concerned about Ruby, knew she was struggling at work and knew that her friend didn’t give her heart away easily.
‘Oh, I got your payslip … you said you were worried …’
Ruby peeled it open and groaned as she scanned the little slip.
‘I knew they’d paid me too much. I was hoping it was back pay or something.’ But instead they’d put her down as working on a night that her shift had been cancelled. ‘I’ll ring them later,’ Ruby said. ‘Right now I’m going back to bed.’ But she still couldn’t sleep. Tilly’s unvoiced concern had her thinking—what did she know about him? She knew that he had family in Melbourne, that he had worked with her brother, there hadn’t exactly been time to take a history. Still, as the morning stretched on, and sleep remained elusive, and as a couple of hundred dollars extra in her bank account niggled, a walk into work to clear her conscience seemed like a good idea. Though she’d held little hope of bumping into Cort, as the lift doors opened on the admin floor and she saw him standing there, it was certainly an added bonus.
‘Hi.’ She smiled and he remembered Sheila’s warning.
‘Hi.’ He stepped aside to let her out, as was the polite thing to do, but Ruby just stood there, temptation beckoning, and he stepped into the lift. ‘Shouldn’t you be in bed?’
‘I wish I was.’
So did Cort. He glanced to the lift panel, wished he knew how to stop the lift, but one push of the button and he’d no doubt get it wrong and they’d come up for air, to find half of security gathered and watching.
‘You okay?’ Cort checked, and she nodded, but then she changed her mind.
‘Cort …’ She wanted quiet for her mind, she wanted the assurance only he gave, she wanted supper at his place and the quiet confidence he imbued in her. Maybe if he came for dinner, or she went there … ‘Can we …?’ But she didn’t get to ask. The busy lift was soon in demand and instead she stepped out. But, still, she was all the better for seeing him, because when he was there, there was no doubt in her mind that they would work.
‘I think I’ve been overpaid.’ Still high from seeing him, Ruby spoke to one of the girls at the pay off ice.
‘People don’t normally complain about that. Let’s have a look.’ The woman whose name badge said ‘Ruth’ took Ruby’s slip and read through it.
‘I didn’t work that Saturday,’ Ruby explained. ‘I was down to work, but my shift got cancelled. You have to take it off me today …’ Ruby smiled ‘… or I’ll spend it.’
It was one of those messy problems. Ruby had signed her time sheet apparently, which she hadn’t, of course, and Ruby accepted Ruth’s offer to take a seat