Doctor January (12 page)

Beth opened the cupboard and saw the lovely matching china mugs that Lara and Chris had received as a wedding gift. She reached around them and found a pair of mismatched porcelain mugs. Poor Lara. Lara was the important one at this moment. She needed to focus on her. Worrying about Gordon would have to wait.

When she returned to the living room Lara, looked up. ‘Everything okay?'

‘Yes,' Beth lied. ‘Everything's fine.'

The next day the reception desk called up to say a bunch of flowers had arrived for Beth. She ran down to collect them. It was a bouquet of roses. Pink and red.

The little card tucked in between the flowers read, ‘Sorry I got annoyed. Hope your evening went okay. I took a colleague from the dept. in the end, so got to see the opera after all. Looking forward to dinner. Gordon.'

Beth smiled and took the flowers back up to the lab.

‘Flowers? Have you got a secret admirer?' said Vik.

‘They're from Gordon.'

‘Why? What's he done?' Hibs said.

‘Nothing. He's not done anything.' Why did Hibs always assume the worst of Gordon? What was his problem? ‘He just sent me flowers, okay. He's my boyfriend. It's a nice thing to do.'

Hibs snorted. ‘Right. Gordon's being nice for no reason? Like that's going to happen.'

‘Just because you wouldn't know romance if it came and bit you, that doesn't mean other people don't do romantic things.' She flounced off to find something to put the flowers in.

‘Okay then, let's see what we've got.' Anna turned the laptop so that she could see it. ‘Is that all twelve?'

It was early Sunday evening and they were in the flat, looking through the images for the calendar. The idea had been to hand them straight over to Lara, but Anna had wanted them to all to have a look at them together.

Anna flicked through the pictures and Beth and Lara moved closer so that they could all see the screen. Beth hoped that the calendar would take Lara's mind off Chris for a bit, at least. Beth had spent the previous night at Lara's house, keeping her company, and later that evening Lara was going to meet another friend. Which was a good thing, because otherwise Beth would feel the need to call and check on her, which she knew wouldn't go down well with Gordon.

‘Wow,' said Lara, who was seeing some of the photos for the first time. ‘Beth, you're really good. They look very professional.'

‘Thanks.' Beth felt a warm buzz from having her work admired. She'd been taking photos on and off for years, but had never really shown people, in case she was deluding herself about her skill. It was nice to see her work admired by others. The satisfaction of being
good
at something was wonderful.

Even better, Gordon was supportive of her hobby this time. Perhaps he finally understood how important it was to her. She wondered what had prompted the change. Maybe she'd been more passionate when she talked about it this time around. Last year, she had been too wrapped up in Gordon to be passionate about much else. She smiled to herself. It was nice being connected to her hobby again. It made her feel more complete.

‘They all look great, but I think we might need to move them around a little bit,' said Anna, leaning back in her seat.

‘Why?' Beth had spent a long time getting the pictures edited and put into a sensible order. ‘What's wrong with them?'

Anna looked up. ‘Nothing. The pictures are brilliant. Relax.' She gestured to the laptop. ‘I just thought we might need to change the order.'

‘Oh. Right.' So long as the pictures were okay, she needed this discussion to be over really soon so that she could get on with making the salad for Gordon's special meal.

Anna was watching Beth carefully. ‘You okay?'

‘Yes. Fine. I just need to get on with making dinner, that's all.'

‘For Gordon?' Anna shot a glance at Lara, whose mouth tightened, as though she was stopping herself from speaking.

‘What?'

‘Nothing,' Lara said.

‘We're just surprised that you haven't suggested we put Gordon in the calendar, that's all,' said Anna.

‘We'd already decided the line-up before he came back.' Beth was surprised at Anna's tone of voice. Clearly Hibs had been feeding Anna his bad opinion of Gordon. She wished Anna would bother to form her own opinions rather than regurgitating Hibs's.

‘I wouldn't have put it past him to ask for someone else to be dropped off the list so that he could go on,' said Lara.

Gordon had asked her to do just that. Beth felt a disloyal stab of annoyance. ‘He knows I would never do that,' she said. ‘So he wouldn't ask.' Okay, so he'd asked. But it was probably a joke. That didn't count. ‘Let's just get on with this. What do you want to change?'

‘I think the beetle man should be Dr January.' Anna scrolled up to the photo. ‘This photo is brilliant. It shows a gorgeous man who looks like an action hero – and he's a brilliant scientist. What could be a better advert for the calendar?'

Lara stared at the photo. ‘You're right,' she said. ‘That is a pretty impressive front page.'

Anna flicked back to the naked guy, whom Beth had originally chosen to be Dr January. ‘Also, I'm not sure we should give this guy's ego any more fodder than strictly necessary.'

Beth shrugged. ‘Fair enough.'

‘Agreed?' Anna looked at Lara, who nodded.

‘Great.' Anna selected the next photo. ‘This is a great photo too. Very happy and sunshiny.' She indicated a picture taken in the plant biology department. A man stood in the dappled sunlight, his eyes creasing with laughter. Beth remembered that he and Anna had got on really well and Beth had been sure that Anna would try and get his number, until he'd casually thrown in a comment about his boyfriend. ‘I think we should keep this one for Dr December. It'll be a nice happy note to end on.'

‘I think it works as Dr June,' said Beth.

They moved the pictures around until they had a line-up that they agreed on, and then had a final flick through.

‘That's quite a good effort,' said Lara. ‘Well done, girls. I'll drop them round to the printers next week.'

‘Beth did all the difficult bits,' said Anna. ‘I just asked them questions. They were only too happy to talk about themselves.'

Lara nodded. ‘And how many of them did you ask out in the end?'

‘None,' said Anna. ‘I got a few numbers, but I got together with Hibs. So …' She smiled, almost to herself.

Beth hadn't had chance to tell Anna what had happened. She glanced at Lara and caught the cloud of sadness that passed across her face.

The doorbell rang.

‘That'll be Hibs.' Anna leapt up. ‘I'll get it.'

‘Is Hibs coming here?' Beth didn't know why she was surprised. It was his night off – he would want to spend it with his girlfriend. She and he had been avoiding each other since their argument at the lab meeting. They still spoke, but only if it was essential to keeping the experiments running. The atmosphere in the lab had been tense.

The doorbell rang again, a bit longer this time. Anna went to get it.

‘Are you going to be okay?' Beth whispered to Lara.

Lara nodded. ‘I've done some thinking. It's hard, but I think I did the right thing.'

Hibs sauntered in and Anna rushed off to have a shower and get ready.

‘Lara,' Hibs said, spotting her. ‘How are you?'

‘I'm fine thanks. You?'

‘Pretty good.' He glanced at Beth and slid into a seat. Beth looked away. ‘How's The Man?' he said to Lara.

Beth shot a warning glare at him. Lara looked like she was about to cry.

Hibs frowned. ‘What's wrong? Is everything okay?'

Lara stood up. ‘Excuse me.' Then she ran off to the bathroom.

‘What's going on? Is Lara okay?' Hibs finally made eye contact with Beth. This was the first time since her flowers had arrived that he'd spoken to her about something not related to work and she felt a flutter of relief in her chest. She quickly outlined what was happening.

‘Ouch,' said Hibs.

‘Yeah. She had to do something about it. She couldn't carry on being trapped in that relationship. It was ruining her life.'

‘You're a fine one to talk,' said Hibs.

‘Oh for heaven's sake, Hibs. Grow up.'

He stuck his tongue out at her, proving he was anything but grown up. She turned away from him, annoyed. For a moment, neither she nor Hibs said anything. Just when it looked like they were going to remain that way until Anna or Lara came back, Hibs sighed and Beth looked round.

‘You're right,' he said. ‘This is ridiculous. I'm sorry, Tyler. I was out of line.'

Beth stared at him. Was he really admitting that he'd been wrong? Really? Did men
do
that?

‘What you do in your private life is your business,' Hibs continued. ‘You're normally very diligent with your work and just because you were late for one meeting that doesn't mean you're not dedicated. I overreacted.'

Beth drew a deep breath. If Hibs could be big about this, so could she. If she was being honest, one of the reasons she felt so angry with him was that she knew he was right. She had to learn to prioritise. Her work was at least as important as Gordon. ‘Thanks,' she said. ‘I'm sorry too. I shouldn't sulk like a teenager.'

‘Teenager? A child more like.' The corners of his mouth twitched upwards.

‘Don't push it.' Relief washed over her. It was as though a weight had been lifted. She had her friend back.

‘Wouldn't dream of it.' He held out a hand. ‘Friends?'

‘Friends.' She shook his hand and tried not to think about how warm it was.

‘So.' Hibs leaned back in his chair. ‘What are you up to this evening? Seeing Gordon between readings?'

Beth nodded. ‘Don't worry. I won't miss any, no matter how persuasive Gordon's being.'

‘Glad to hear it.'

Anna and Lara returned, Lara's eyes looking red. ‘I'm sorry,' she said.

‘Don't be,' said Hibs. ‘You're going through a crap time. You're allowed to feel crap.'

Lara sniffed. ‘Thanks.' She punched him on the shoulder. ‘I can always rely on you to tell me I'm crap.'

‘I never said that. I said you're allowed to feel crap.' Hibs rolled his eyes. ‘Bloody women. Putting words in my mouth and leaking tears everywhere.'

Lara managed a weak smile.

‘That's better,' said Hibs. ‘Want to talk about it?'

Lara sat down. ‘Not especially.'

Hibs gave her a long look. ‘Fair enough. If you ever want someone to try and talk some sense into him, let me know.'

Lara raised her eyebrows at him. ‘You? Talk about relationships? That'll be a first.'

Gordon arrived as Lara was leaving. She nodded to him but didn't bother to say hello. Beth paused in her task of cutting up apples for the crumble. It was sad that her friends never appreciated Gordon. Lara, like Hibs, had always told her that Gordon didn't value her. They must see they were wrong now. After all, he had come back to her after just six months apart.

Gordon kissed her before he threw himself into a chair. Beth went back to chopping apples.

‘Is that the calendar?' said Gordon, looking at the open laptop. ‘Is it done? Can I see?'

Anna hesitated before she said, ‘Sure.'

Beth turned to watch him as he stretched across the table and took the laptop from Anna. His face was neutral as he clicked through the pictures. But Beth knew what she was looking for and she spotted the slight tightening around the eyes that said he wasn't best pleased. She should have hidden that bloody laptop before he came round. This evening was supposed to be about placating him, not needling him even more.

‘Hey, isn't that Dan Blackwood?' Gordon pointed to the photo.

‘You know him?' said Anna.

‘A bit. His office is at the end of my corridor. We chat when we meet at the coffee machine.'

‘Cosy,' Anna said.

‘I'm surprised you got him to pose for this. I thought he was married.'

‘It's a calendar to show that there are attractive men in science,' said Anna. ‘Not a dating column. Bloody hell. Why does everyone think that?'

Gordon ignored her. ‘Let's see the rest of your specimens then.'

Beth winced at the word ‘specimens'. They had all been nice guys – they were certainly not specimens. She looked over her shoulder to see Anna, her lips pressed together, scrolling through the photos for Gordon. Hibs was studying the picture on the wall with apparent concentration. Who would have thought that a picture of a plate of lemons could be so fascinating?

‘Very good,' said Gordon. ‘Nice photos, Beth. You can hardly tell they weren't professionally done.'

There was a moment of tense silence before Anna cleared her throat. ‘We were about to have a cup of tea. Would you like one, Gordon?' Her voice was pointedly polite.

‘I'll make them.' Hibs jumped to his feet, put the kettle on and moved round Beth to find the mugs. ‘How do you take your tea, Gordon?'

‘Black. No sugar.'

Hibs threw teabags into mugs. ‘Anna?'

‘White, one sugar, please, my lover.'

Hibs turned and winked at her. She said, ‘Mwah,' and blew him a kiss. Beth tried not to notice the twinge of annoyance she felt. What did she have to be annoyed about? She moved along a bit to give Hibs space as he poured the water. It seemed natural to share work space with him. She did it every day at the lab.

‘There we go.' Hibs pushed Beth's cup towards her before he handed the others round. He didn't need to ask her how she took hers.

‘Thanks,' said Anna.

Beth didn't hear Gordon say anything. There was the rustle of newspaper, and then silence again.

‘So,' said Anna, brightly. ‘What are you cooking, Beth? It smells delicious.'

‘Lasagne.'

‘Yummy.' Anna sniffed the air. ‘Aren't you having garlic bread? I love garlic bread.'

‘I don't,' said Gordon.

Beth loved garlic bread too. She had eaten lots of it when she'd been single. But Gordon said it made her smell like a pizzeria. So no garlic bread these days.

‘Do you cook, Gordon?' Anna asked.