“And I don’t dance.”
“Pfft,” she said in disgust, flinging herself back into the seat. “You two don’t know what you’re missing. That party wasoff the hook.”
I could feel more laughter welling in me. The absurdity of Kira calling one of the most notoriously boring political charity events in the calendar ‘off the hook’ was enough to send me over the edge, and I lost it for the second time that evening. I laughed so hard a tear streamed down my face.
“I think . . .” I started, but then lost it again. “I think my favourite part has to be when you twerked Lord Farnborough.”
“Yeah, that dude was rad,” she said, staring at me with a wide smile.
“He’s the longest serving peer in the House of Lords, Kira. He’s eighty-five. I thought he was going to have a cardiac event.”
“Nah, those posh blocks are made of tough stuff. We had one into A&E the other day. Ninety-two, massive stroke. Millie did her magic interventional radiology bit, yanked out the clot. Next day, he was sitting up in his bed, shirt and tie on, drinking his tea and asking where his tweed jacket was. Nails.”
I chuckled again.
“Sometimes I forget you’re an actual doctor. It’s a bit terrifying.”
“Well, I’m mostly a sexual health bod,” she winked at me. “But I have to do my on-calls as the medical registrar, at least until I’m a consultant. So I see the admissions in A&E on my on call days and nights.”
My laugher faded. “Why do you do that?”
“What?” She frowned, confused by my tone.
“Put yourself down. Make your job sound like a joke.”
“I don’t, I–”
“Yes, yes you do. Every time I’ve heard you tell anyone what you do for a living, you lean in, wink and tell them you’re asex doctor. Genitourinary medicine and infectious diseases is your actual job title. You do important work.”
“Hey, hey.” She was smiling again as she laid her small hand on my forearm. It felt like an electric current had shot up right from her hand to my body. I almost jumped in my seat. The atmosphere in the car suddenly felt thick with tension. Her smile fell and she drew her hand back quickly, recovering with a small laugh. “It’s okay. I know I’m an arse-kicking, medicine-savvy boss. I just don’t like to take myself too seriously and I really don’t give a badger’s arse what people think.”
I cleared my throat. “Oh, right. Well, as long as you aren’t underestimating yourself.”
“I don’t,” she said. “But Barcos, it’s nice to hear that you don’t either.”
Our eyes met and I felt my body sway towards her as if she was the sun and I was trapped in her gravitational pull. Her eyes went wide and her pupils dilated. My lips were a hair’s breadth away from hers when a car horn went off outside and I flinched away as the spell was broken. Was I really about to snog a woman in the back seat of a car with my head of security driving us through London? Was I fifteen again? Had I totally lost my mind? The atmosphere suddenly felt clogged with awkwardness and I cleared my throat.
“What made you decide to be a doctor?” It was the first thing that popped into my head as I was struggling for something to break the tension, but that was probably because it was something I had wanted to ask her for a while. Medicine seemed such a conventional choice for someone like Kira.
She snorted. “My best friend Libby and I did everything together. She was the one with the vocation, I just sort of . . . followed her.” She shrugged at my frown. “Medicine is weird. You make this huge decision when you’re still a teenager. Then you’re sort of locked in.”
“Aren’t you happy in medicine?”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong – I love it now. Once I found my jam in sexual health and infectious diseases, I was golden. See, people think that medicine is all about saving lives and sorting people out. The reality is that a lot of medicine is just tinkering around the edges with medication – you’re often making patients feel worse. But inmyspecialty, it’s all about lifestyle change. The medication I giveissorting them out: keeping them alive and making sure they’re unable to infect anyone else in the case of HIV; often curing other STDs completely. And then there’s the whole family planning aspect – giving women control of their bodies, especially getting to do that in countries where it isn’t the norm. All of that is right up my street.”
All I could do was nod. I seemed to have lost the power of speech. Watching Kira talking about her work, hearing her passion for what she did, her small expressive face so earnest and open, and her hands flying around to emphasise her points. It was like I was hypnotised; I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
“We’re here, Mr Lucas.” Sam’s voice snapped me back to reality. Kira gave a little start in her seat before looking away out of the window and up at her block of flats.
“Back at the ranch,” she said, reaching for the door handle. “Fun times, gentlemen. Thanks for the memories.” Her voice was bright, but not quite as steady as I was used to, the distinct shake giving it a very un-Kira-like quality.
“I’ll walk you up,” I said, as an image of the dark corridor outside her flat flashed into my mind.
“What? Why?” she asked my back as I shot out of the car. I made it round to her side just in time to see her exit, a sight which highlighted how very short her skirt was and left me with the knowledge that she was wearing pink knickers to match her dress. My neck felt hot again for the millionth time that evening and I felt another surge of blood leave my brain, giving me such a vicious head-rush that I had to blink to refocus my vision. I fought my way out of my knicker-induced temporary paralysis to register Kira’s sudden lack of height. Both orange shoes were now dangling from one of her hands as she bounced on the balls of her feet.
“Okay, big guy,” she said. “I’m gonna head on up.” She gave my arm a light punch with the shoe-free hand and grinned up at me. “Stay cool.”
She turned to go and I caught her shoes, tugging them, and consequently her, back towards me. I looked down at her small bare feet and frowned.
