Page 28 of Broken Heart Syndrome
‘Of course.’
He was looking increasingly bemused and I couldn’t understand why. I mean, they all knew my background and my intention to go part time once I became a palliative care registrar and got my bespoke cake business off the ground properly – it was right there in my CV. I couldn’t wait to be in the specialty I really loved, far away from cardiology, and creating beauty for a living on the side. It was a dream come true, and a balance that I was glad I had been able to achieve.
I was about to ask what he meant, when the door to the flat burst open, and Lou and Dylan surged in. We were then, of course, engulfed in concern and rabid curiosity. Tom made a speedy exit, leaving Lou free to wheedle all the information she could out of me.
‘But hecarriedyou in hisarms. I might think he’s a bit of a ganker but I reckon I’d still have a mini-orgasm if he were to carry me anywhere. Maybe I should arrange to faint strategically in front of him and get myself some of that action.’
Visions of Lou swooning all over the hospital sprung to mind and I rolled my eyes. Dylan, I noticed, was scowling furiously at her. There had been tension between them the whole evening, and I suspected that working together was taking its toll.
The three of us had been close friends together with Dylan’s best friend, Mike, since uni. It helped that none of us had ever even snogged each other, and other than a funny stage Dylan went through at one point, there had been no romantic interest to muddy the waters.
Despite this, Dylan and Lou’s relationship had always been a little more fiery, no doubt because they were both loud and stubborn.
‘Fraaannkiiie,’ Lou whined, ‘at least tell me how he smelled.’
I closed my eyes and was suddenly assaulted with the full olfactory memory of his delicious scent. ‘Amazing,’ I breathed wistfully, before I managed to stop myself. I opened my eyes and both Dylan and Lou were watching me closely. I felt heat hit my cheeks and ducked my head.
‘Oh no no no,’ Lou said, determined now. ‘You can’t stop there. I want full description of everything.’
My head felt like it was going to split open now and I suddenly experienced a wave of nausea. I felt the blood drain out of my face and raised a shaky hand to my forehead. Literally one second later Dylan had plonked himself next to me on the sofa. Two paracetamol were shoved into one of my hands, and a glass of water into the other.
‘For Christ’s sake Lou will you give it a rest,’ Dylan snapped. ‘Can’t you see Ladies looks like death warmed over?’
‘Oh right, sorry ,Frankie,’ Lou mumbled contritely. ‘I’ll leave the third degree for the moment.’
‘Anyway if anyone’s on the verge of shagging their consultant, it’s you, babes,’ Dylan continued grumpily. Lou swung round to laser Dylan with her best poisonous glare.
‘What in the fuck are you talking about?’ she said slowly.
‘Oh don’t pretend you don’t know,’ Dylan retorted. ‘You were cwtching up to him the whole ward round today.’ Despite how overfriendly Lou could be, I doubted that she would actually cwtch (a Welshism for cuddle) anyone on a ward round, at least I hoped not.
‘Well at least I haven’t shagged practically every member of the multidisciplinary team.’ Lou was nearly shouting now and red in the face.
‘At least none ofthemwere a bit twp like that bugger you’re after.’
‘Speak bloody English, you taffy prick.’
‘Don’t call me a taffy prick, you posh brat.’ Dylan and Lou had both risen to their feet now and were full-on shouting. I winced. The escalating noise level was doing nothing for my headache.
‘Now look what you’ve done,’ Lou yelled, pointing at me. ‘Can’t you see Frankie’s got a headache. Why don’t you just go home? You don’t actually live here you know.’
‘Fine.’
‘Fine.’
‘I’ll see you later, Ladies,’ Dylan said to me in a softer tone. ‘Sorry to leave you with this chopsy bitch, she must be on the rag.’
Lou sucked in a shocked breath, rendered speechless by this latest insult. I was a bit shocked too. In my opinion any insult referring to menstrual cycles was a pretty low blow. Unrepentant, Dylan stomped out of the door and slammed it behind him.
Surprisingly, after he’d left, Lou sank down onto the sofa next to me and burst into noisy tears. I put my water down on the side table and wrapped both my arms round her shaking shoulders. Lou seldom cried, and I’d seen her take much worse insults than that on the chin.
‘Louey,’ I said softly, resting my forehead on her hair and giving her a squeeze as she cried into her hands. ‘What’s brought this on? You know he doesn’t mean it. He’s probably just frustrated because he misses his boy-toys in theatre.’
‘I … I … I don’t know w-w-why I’m so upset,’ she stuttered in between her wracking sobs. ‘H-h-he’s just so m-m-mean to me at the moment. And he’s sh-sh-shagging everything in sight with a f-f-foo-foo.’
‘But Louey, that’s what Dylan does. He’s always been one to gather lipstick.’
Lou had managed to get herself a bit more together now, but the tears were still streaming down her face.
