Ashley tilted her head and pushed out her bottom lip ever so slightly. ‘I’m not a model,’ she said.
‘Oh, really. I thought Finn said that you were.’
‘I said everyone mistakes her for a model,’ Finn said.
‘Right,’ she said. ‘Which is exactly what I’ve just done. Judged you on your looks, not your talent. So much for being a paragon of the feminist cause. Don’t tell my Instagram followers.’
Ashley laughed. It had a childlike quality that Kelly couldn’t help but find endearing. ‘Don’t worry about it,’ she said. ‘It happens all the time.’
‘Most people think I’m a nurse when they look at me.’
Ashley seemed genuinely puzzled. ‘Why?’
‘Well, partly because I’m small but mostly because I’m a woman.’
‘Nurses are all small?’
Kelly chuckled. ‘No, and they’re not all women, either.’
‘Well, you look like a doctor to me.’
‘What makes you say that?’
‘I’ve only met you a couple of times but you’re clearly brilliant.’
Kelly blushed.
‘And you’ve got a weird sense of humour. I think that’s a doctor thing.’
Kelly laughed. ‘I think you might be right. Okay, I’m out. Gotta study for my clinical nursing exam.’
‘Bye, Kelly, it was good to see you again,’ Ashley said.
‘Yeah, see ya, Kel,’ Finn said.
‘Help me with my bag, will you?’ Kelly said to him.
He took the bag from her hands and followed her out to the lift. She reclaimed her bag.
‘What are you doing?’ he said.
‘When have I ever needed you to help me carry my bag?’
‘Never.’
‘Exactly. I wanted you out here to make sure you’re okay after, you know, the telethon.’
‘Yeah, I’m all right.’
‘Good, because that girl in there is absolutely hot for you.’
‘You think so?’
‘Come on. She looks like a cross between Angelina Jolie and Kim Kardashian and she’s waiting around for you to come home. You can’t tell me she doesn’t have a better option than wandering the halls, hoping you’ll suddenly appear.’
‘How do you know what Kim Kardashian looks like?’
‘Stop changing the subject, get back in there and, I don’t know, try to be charming or something.’
