and she glanced up and met those gorgeous grey eyes and saw that Dominic was now unashamedly watching her.
Rescue me, her green ones said, but he looked away.
‘And then…’ Gordon continued to tell her about his wife’s IV coming out and the drugs that didn’t go in. Yes, it was a sad story, but it was a story she dealt with every day and it was her lunch break.
‘Paella, please.’ Cat held out her plate to the waiter but he shook his head.
‘We’re waiting for some more…’
Cat chose some odd noodle salad, just to get away, but Gordon chose the same and he was off again. He sat next to her at a high table and droned on and on.
She met Dominic’s eyes again and this time he smiled.
You missed your chance, his eyes said.
I’ve changed my mind, was her silent plea.
Well, you’re too late!
He yawned and pulled out his pamphlet and with a very small smirk walked off.
What a bastard.
Cat laughed and then turned to Gordon’s confused expression.
‘I said, then she died…’
‘Sorry, I thought you said then she…’ Cat let out a breath. ‘What a terrible time you had.’
She just didn’t need to hear about it today of all days.
She didn’t see Dominic again all afternoon, not that it mattered by then. At 5:00 p.m. when she got back to her room to find that her luggage still hadn’t arrived, it wasn’t the Spanish-speaking English doctor who was on her mind.
It was Thomas.
She didn’t want to go down for dinner in an hour and be sociable.
Room service seemed a far better idea.
A huge plate of paella.
A bottle of wine.
She wished she’d brought his photo.
But there had been too many sad birthdays and, suddenly realising that she had a very small window if she didn’t want to spend tomorrow dressed in Gemma’s dress or linen pants that were more suitable for travel, she headed out.
She found herself in a large department store, explaining to an orange woman that, apart from a lipstick, she had no make-up with her.
‘My luggage was lost,’ she said.
The woman was so horrified on her behalf that Cat actually smiled. ‘It’s fine…’
It was.
So much so that instead of buying loads of make-up and then heading upstairs to the ropa de señora section to purchase a chic Spanish outfit Cat wandered out and found herself drawn to a busy market. There were gorgeous dresses blowing in the late-afternoon breeze and they were nothing like what she usually wore.
If she walked into work dressed as she was today, it would draw comment. Here, apart from a couple of vaguely familiar faces from conferences of long ago, no one knew her.
It was incredibly freeing—she could be whoever she chose to be.
Cat took her time with her purchases. She chose a loose long dress in lilac and shorts that were very short, along with a top and a stringy-looking bikini. And, she decided, instead of the museum on Sunday afternoon she was going to the beach.
She liked Barcelona.
Far more than she had expected to.
It was cosmopolitan, busy yet friendly, colourful and hot.
Walking back into the hotel, she was about to take her purchases up and get changed and, instead of hiding in her room, perhaps head out for dinner by herself when she saw him.
Dominic.
‘I was wondering where you were,’ he said by way of greeting, and Cat liked it that he was direct.
‘I went shopping…’ She was about to explain that her luggage was lost but then decided she didn’t have to explain anything.
‘Cat!’ a voice boomed, and she turned and saw that Gordon was bearing down on her. ‘There’s a group of us heading to the hotel restaurant. Why don’t you join us?’
‘Oh, I’d love to but I can’t,’ Cat said. ‘I’m expecting a call. A conference call. I—’
‘Maybe after?’ Gordon checked.
‘I’ll try.’
Gordon smiled over to Dominic. ‘Do you have plans or would you like to join us?’
Dominic dealt with things far more effortlessly than Cat. ‘I’ve already got plans, but thank you for asking.’
As the group walked off they were left standing.
‘Liar,’ Dominic said. ‘You don’t have a conference call you have to get to.’
‘Was it obvious?’ she groaned.
‘To me it was.’ Dominic nodded. ‘Liars always have a need to elaborate. You’d know that, working in Emergency.’
‘I know,’ she said. ‘So would Gordon.’
‘Is he a friend?’
Cat shook her head.
‘A colleague?’
‘No.’
‘So why not just say no if it’s something that you don’t want to do?’
‘I know that I should. I just feel bad…’
‘Well, don’t—he’s far too busy banging on about his late wife to notice what others are feeling.’
She felt her nostrils tighten. ‘That was mean.’
‘No,’ Dominic refuted. ‘He tried to run the whole sorry story by me yesterday. What’s mean is buttonholing a relative stranger and completely ruining their lunch.’
He shrugged.
He was dismissive.
She didn’t like that and she was about to head off when he halted her in her tracks.
‘Do you want dinner away from the hotel?’
‘I’ve got a conference call to make,’ she said, and gave him a tight smile.
‘Sure?’ he said.
Usually,
