‘Er … what?’ Pav replied, keeping his gaze fixed on Dr Morrison’s rigid back. Kira huffed out a sigh.
‘Don’t you think they should be letting us babysit more? Hello? Earth to Pav?’ she said as she waved a hand in front of his face.
‘I’ll … um, just be a minute,’ Pav mumbled as he pushed away from the table to stand up. ‘Anybody want a coffee?’
There was a long pause. ‘Pav you’ve just had a coffee. One thatIbought for you seeing as you don’t have the patience for it.’
‘Right, well, I’ve got a long list this afternoon, so a bit of a caffeine boost is in order. Ladies?’ Libby and Kira looked down at their barely touched cups and then back at Pav with identical frowns.
‘Wh –’ Libby started, but Pav didn’t catch the rest as he was already striding away.
‘An Americano, please.’ For some reason Dr Morrison’s soft voice ordering coffee gave Pav a weird buzz of excitement as he came up behind her.
‘A what, dear?’ Doreen was a lovely lady in her eighties who had served the teas and coffees for the last twenty years in aid of The League of Friends, a money-raising charity for the hospital. She and her cronies used to have a little hole in the wall with only tea bags and some milk. In a real pinch they would make you an instant coffee, but it would provoke a rather stern look. But a couple of months ago, since Costa had moved into the gym across the road, the management had decided to get The League of Friends up to speed with a state-of-the-art coffee machine that ground its own beans, frothed milk and made a massive assortment of coffees, all of which were listed above Doreen’s head and none of which she actually knew how to make. Apparently Doreen and co. had undergone ‘intensive training’, but this was certainly not evident in their customer service. After Pav had climbed over the counter, kissed a flustered Doreen on the cheek and made his own bloody latte last month, Jamie had banned him from any further coffee ordering.
‘She means black coffee, Doreen,’ Pav put in as he moved to stand inches from Dr Morrison with his hand nearly touching hers on the counter. He had just a brief moment to inhale the scent of her shampoo and some sort of expensive, subtle perfume before she took a startled step to the side away from him.
*****
Damn it, Millie thought as she studied the jar of cookies in front of her and smoothed a non-existent wrinkle in her skirt. Sheknewshe should have stuck to the Nescafé in the radiology department, but the lure of the new machine and the smell of everyone else’s freshly ground coffees in the morning meeting had been too much for her. Generally she avoided the rest of the hospital as much as possible. She liked to stay on familiar ground. When she’d walked into the canteen and seenHimlaughing with his friends, she’d actually been glad to have broken her normal routine. Whilst direct interaction with Him was stressful, being able to observe him from afar was one of her favourite things.
Of course he was always handsome; but with his head thrown back and his deep, rich laugh filling the air around him, he was so beautiful it was almost painful to look at. Mr Martakis fascinated Millie. He was the most uninhibited, charming, outgoing andfreeperson she had ever encountered in her life. The way he expressed himself with his hands, his extravagance of movement, his familiarity with everyone (except her, obviously; Millie wasn’t familiar with anyone apart from Donald, and he didn’t really count): it was almost … wild, and it thrilled and terrified her in equal measure. So when he’d caught her staring, those dark eyes focusing intently on hers and the laughter dying on his lips, she’d skipped thrilled and gone straight to terrified.
What she should have done was leave immediately, but that would have shown weakness. Millie might actuallybeweak, but that didn’t mean she had toshowit. So, in spite of her heart beating practically out of her chest she’d made it to the coffee stand. Unfortunately Millie had not factored Doreen into the equation, but by the eighth time of giving her order she had seen the error of her ways.
And now He was rightthere. That was twice in one month she had been this close to him. Millie had only felt his body heat and seen his large hand next to hers before she heard his voice, but for some reason she’d known it was Him. Having put sufficient distance between them to keep control of her hammering heart, but not so much as to betray fear or weakness (she hoped), Millie resolved to try and ignore Him whilst Doreen bashed away at the coffee machine in slightly alarming fashion.
‘I’ll have a latte whilst you’re at it, Doreen,’ he said, smiling across at the flustered, white-haired lady.
‘You’ll get what your given, young man,’ she told him. ‘And stay on that side of the counter.’
Mr Martakis chuckled and the sound skittered over Millie’s skin, making her shiver.
‘You cold?’ he asked.
She could see him turn fully towards her out of the corner of her eye, and sucked in a startled breath.
‘No,’ she managed to squeeze out past her tight throat. It sounded rude and curt – exactly what he, and most other people, would expect from her. But for some reason this man was not put off. In fact he chuckled.Chuckled, in the face of her Nuclear Winter. Nobody chuckled at Nuclear Winter; they ignored her, they left her alone – she did not make them chuckle.
‘Well, I’ve been bloody freezing all day,’ he continued, as if they were having an actual conversation. ‘The theatre air-con is buggering about. Had to wear thermals to stop my hands shaking.’
‘Uh …’ Millie bit her lip, her eyes flicking from his tanned hand up to his thermal-clad arm. Something about the white material pulled tight over his muscular forearm caused the most weird sensation to sweep up from her stomach. Her heart actually felt like it had stopped for a moment, before it picked up double time.
‘It’s my Greek blood I guess,’ he said, and she blinked before taking another small step away. ‘Thanks, Doreen.’
It was then Millie realized that her coffee was in front of her and she had inadvertently moved away from the cash register. Oh God, he was paying for her coffee! She watched in horrified silence as Mr Martakis handed Doreen a tenner and was given a twenty and some loose change back. The most ridiculous argument ensued, culminating in him forcing another tenner on a confused Doreen, leaning right over the counter tokissDoreen on the cheek, and refusing any change. Millie watched all this with her mouth slightly open. That was until he turned to her and started moving forward. She sucked in a breath and skittered back, catching her hip on the condiment counter.
‘Hey,’ Mr Martakis said softly, stopping his advance and holding his hands up. ‘Hey, you okay?’
‘I’m fine,’ she croaked, then cleared her throat. ‘You … you can’t pay for my coffee.’
Mr Martakis’ concerned frown melted away to be replaced by his wide, glamorous smile, showing his white teeth off against his olive skin. Millie’s heart skipped another beat as she focused on his mouth, before quickly dropping her gaze down to her feet.
‘I think I just did so … maybe you can get the next one?’
He was moving towards her again, and as her back was now pressed up against the counter, short of darting around him (which again would have revealed weakness and she had been weak enough around this man already) she had nowhere to go.
‘The … the next one?’ she muttered, frowning down at her coffee cup in confusion.
