‘I know I’m fighting a losing battle, Tom,’ she’d said, no anger in her voice, just resignation. ‘The stupid thing is I noticed the way you watched her even before we got together, but I thought I could break through.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Tom had said, turning to Cassie, and she had nodded with a sad smile. Her gaze then went back to Frankie and she’d frowned.
‘I think now would be a good time to make some sort of move though. She’s sweet and she definitely doesn’t deservethat.’
Tom’s face had snapped back to Frankie, who was now struggling with Adrian; everyone else around them was drunk and oblivious. She looked tiny held against Adrian’s huge bulk, and Tom’s vision had hazed over in anger.
He had just wanted to get Adrian off her, and if the crazy bastard hadn’t called her a slut he would have left it at that. But he found that he couldn’t stand anyone talking about her that way, even if she wasn’t his to protect. That whole bar had been full of medics, so he had a huge audience to make an idiot of himself over her to.
It was just like when she had fainted and he’d carried her through the hospital, not thinking twice about how it would look. Firstly, he’d been out of his mind with worry about her, so fierce that it had felt close to panic. Secondly, she was so light that he didn’t even really fully remember he was carrying her until they’d arrived at A&E and everyone’s shocked eyes turned to them. Even then he couldn’t bring himself to care. All his focus was on Frankie, and the sickening sound her head had made when it connected with the sink as she went down.
So that was twice now that he’d looked like a lovesick teenager over her publicly, and that didn’t even include all the staring he did whenever she came into view. He knew he was being obvious but it was bloody impossible to shift his eyes away from her. She probably pissed herself laughing at him every night with her cronies over his desperation.
He parked up outside her building, turned off the ignition and watched with fascination as Frankie swam up towards consciousness. Her hair was mussed after lying on the seat, and her eyes were at half mast and bleary. As she looked over at him he saw them widen in confusion.
‘Jeepers,’ she slurred, still obviously tipsy.
Christ, who the hell in the last fifty years said ‘jeepers’? Even steaming she still seemed incapable of swearing.
‘Thomas G. Longley,’ she continued, giggling into her hand. That was the second time she’d used his full name, and he didn’t really get it. How did she even know he had a middle name? He’d seen her giggle with other people but rarely with him. Up close it was intoxicating.
‘I don’t like you,’ she stated – something he already knew. ‘You are mean,’ she continued, punctuating her words by poking him in the chest, and giggling again as if the fact Tom was a prick was the height of entertainment.
‘That’s why I am stupid, stupid, stupid,’ she declared.
Having already suffered through enough of her amusing but nonsensical rants, Tom decided that he was done and knifed out of the van. He swiftly rounded the hood to get to the passenger door, which he saw Frankie was trying to open, but unable to find the handle. She would have fallen out when he opened the door if it wasn’t for her seatbelt, and this started her off giggling again as she struggled to get it undone. Tom sighed and reached over her to release the buckle and her giggling stopped, her body stilling under his outstretched arm.
‘You smell amazing,’ she said, her voice aching with longing. Tom froze and looked up at her face.
‘What?’ he whispered.
‘But then I shouldn’t be surprised,’ she went on, ignoring him. ‘Everything about you is lush, lush, lush.’
What the hell? Was she playing some sort of sick joke with him? He put his hands to her waist and lifted her from the van, placing her on her feet in front of him. She staggered slightly, and his hands went to her shoulders to steady her, as hers settled on his chest.
‘Your chest is awesome,’ she murmured reverently, and then looked along his forearms either side of her. ‘And you have the most amazing arms. Big and veiny. Proper man arms, you know?’ No, he didn’t know, and he was beginning to think that maybe this wasn’t a joke. ‘I used to dream about your arms for hours. Just your arms could inspire epic daydreams. How crazy is that?’
‘Frankie, what are you talking about?’ he asked cautiously.
‘Ha!’ she semi-shouted as she ignored him and looked back at his chest, where her hands were resting. ‘You seriously need to update your wardrobe.’ There was no way Tom was going to be sidetracked onto another subject. Especially not one he had little interest in.
‘Frankie –’
‘You’ve worn this T-shirt for ten years. Yikes!’ Tom frowned down at her. How on earth could she know how long he’d had his T-shirt for? She didn’t even remember him from uni. Did she?
‘You, sir, need to smarten up,’ she declared, slapping him on the chest. ‘I’mgoing to talk to the ward sister aboutyouand then you can feel stupid, and scruffy, and small, and pathetic. Ha!’
Tom had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. She was still grinning but he had heard the hint of pain behind her words. He was beginning to come to the horrible realization that he might have been an unbelievable bastard.
Frankie must have noticed the look of shock on his face. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said, quietly now. ‘People like you are often mean to people like me. It’s the way of the world.’ This was the second time Tom had heard her refer to herself as a certain kind of person, and he was beginning to find it vaguely disturbing.
‘Of course it hurts more if it’s someone you love,’ she muttered distractedly, her eyes sliding to the side, and Tom stiffened.
‘What?’ he whispered. She sighed and rested her forehead against his chest, giving a small shiver as a cool breeze blew over them. Tom moved his arms to engulf her and she melted against him.
‘You’re warm,’ she mumbled sleepily as her breathing started to even out and she leaned more heavily into him. ‘I’m always so cold.’ After a minute or so Tom realized that he was taking all her weight and that she had fallen asleep standing up.
Great.