‘You’ll find the right thing.’ Leo applied all of the weight of his twenty-one years to the problem. And all of the certainty from the last five minutes, that whatever she decided to do she’d do it wholeheartedly.
‘I suppose I will.’ She seemed to ponder the idea for a moment, then smiled suddenly. ‘Nothing like mucking out to concentrate the mind on your aspirations for the future.’
‘Would you like me to go and get you a drink?’ Leo hoped she’d say yes. That they could continue this conversation alone, out here, rather than going back to the heat and noise of the party.
‘Thanks, but no. I tried one of those blue cocktails and it was too sweet.’ She hesitated, then seemed to come to a decision. ‘That coffee bar around the corner. Think it’ll still be open?’
‘It’s open all night.’ Sweet promise stirred in Leo’s chest.
‘You fancy making a break for it, then?’
* * *
Theirs weren’t the most outlandish costumes amongst the coffee bar’s customers that night, but she had still tugged awkwardly at her green hair and silver jewellery. Leo had laughingly persuaded her to stay just as she was, saying that since he was dressed as a spaceship captain, it was practically expected that his First Lieutenant should be accompanying him.
They’d talked all night, fuelled by coffee and then ham and cheese toasties at three in the morning. At six, she’d refused to allow him to see her all the way home and he’d had to content himself with walking her to the bus stop.
‘May I call you?’ Leo made a silent wish that the bus wouldn’t come just yet.
‘I was hoping you would.’ She smiled at him, reaching into her jacket for her phone and reeling off the number. Leo repeated it over in his head, his fingers shaking unaccountably as he pressed the keys. He hit dial, and her phone chimed. Even her ringtone seemed fresh and full of joy.
‘That’s it.’ She rejected the call and gratifyingly saved his number.
‘Lieutenant Tara.’ Leo grinned, spelling out the words as he typed them into his phone. ‘What’s your real name, though?’
‘Alex...’ She turned as a bus drew up at the stop. ‘This one’s mine. You will call, won’t you...?’
‘Yes.’ Leo wondered whether it would be appropriate to kiss her goodbye and decided that he’d already missed his chance. The night had been perfect as it stood, a meeting of minds that had nothing to do with any alien powers, and when he kissed her he wanted enough time to do it properly. She got onto the bus, pressing her ticket against the reader, and turned to wave at him.
The bus drew away. Calling her now would be too soon. He turned to walk back home, and his phone buzzed.
May we meet in other worlds.
Her text mimicked Tara’s habitual farewell.
And get some sleep.
Leo grinned, texting back his reply, watching until the bus turned a corner and disappeared.
* * *
He called that evening and she didn’t reply. Perhaps she’d decided to have an early night. The next day she didn’t reply either.
Leo counted the number of calls he made, knowing that each one would show up on her phone. Half a dozen was beginning to look a little stalkerish, so he sent a text instead.
No answer. He left it a week and called again, leaving a carefully scripted voicemail and resolving that if she didn’t reply this time he’d take the hint and give up. Clearly, the gorgeous, vivacious Lieutenant Tara had decided that, of all the glittering possibilities she saw ahead of her, he wasn’t one of them. It was time to retreat gracefully and get on with the next chapter of his life.
Time warp to the present day...
ALEXANDRA JACKSON WAS shaking as she walked across the large marble-clad reception area of the hotel. The receptionist gave her directions to the coffee lounge.
‘Oh, and where’s the ladies’ room, please?’ She still had ten minutes to spare, and her heart was beating like a hammer in her chest. She needed to calm down.
‘Through there...’
Alex followed the receptionist’s pointing finger, ending up in a tastefully decorated ante-room that was larger, and rather smarter, than her own lounge. Sitting down, she closed her eyes, concentrating on deep, slow breaths.
Leo Cross. She’d thought about him a lot in the last ten years, certainly more than one night in a coffee bar would warrant. Maybe because of what had happened on her way home. The car that had swerved across the road and hit her, after she’d got off the bus, had changed everything.
Alex had wondered whether, by some chance, he might be one of the unending stream of doctors who stopped by her hospital bed, but he never had. She’d lost her phone and when her parents brought her a new one the number was different. In any case, what would he want with her now?
All the same, the memories of Leo’s slightly awkward charm, the shining passion with which he’d talked about his ambition to become a doctor, had still lingered. Like a touchstone that stayed with her through the long months of convalescence, learning to walk again with a prosthetic leg, leaving home for university... Leo’s commitment, his absolute certainty that he had a calling in life, had spurred her on. If he could do it, then so could she.
She’d hung onto the dream as long as she could, imagining Leo as some kind of white knight, a public health crusader—a starship captain, even. Nothing less would have been enough for Leo. But then she’d been brought back to earth with a bump.
Seven years after the night she’d met him, she saw Leo’s name in the papers. Not believing it could be him, she’d searched the Internet for a picture. And there he was. The newest TV doctor, charming and urbane, who made an appearance at all the right parties. It seemed that the Leo she’d met had lost his ambition to change the world, and cashed in on his melting blue eyes and blond, handsome looks.
She’d thought about contacting him, but what would she say? That she’d held him in her heart for all these years until he became an ideal, rather than a blood and bone man? Perfect was best left where reality couldn’t tarnish it, in dreams and the imagination.
But now Leo Cross had something she wanted.
Alex zipped up her bag and stood, straightening her jacket and smoothing her trousers. He wouldn’t recognise her, nor would he remember. She could start again and pretend he was a completely different person from the one she’d met all those years ago.
* * *
As she walked into the coffee lounge she saw him immediately, sitting in one of the easy chairs grouped around each table. He still took her breath away. His hair was shorter and neater but still gave his face an almost angelic quality, even though the softness around his eyes had gone. He was dressed impeccably, a dark suit with an impossibly crisp white shirt and a subtly patterned, expensive-looking tie.
Everything about him screamed celebrity: the winter tan, the way the waiter knew exactly who he was and where he was sitting when Alex said who she was there to meet. She wondered whether the air of gravitas, lent by the pile of papers on his knee that were currently taking his full attention, was for her benefit and dismissed the thought. She was the one who needed to impress him, not the other way around.
He looked up as she approached, the sudden flash of uncertainty in his eyes giving way to recognition. Then he sprang to his feet, his papers dropping unheeded onto the carpet.
‘Lieutenant Tara!’ His smile was just as melting as it had ever been and the shock of being recognised