Page 23 of Love, Academically
She sat in the slightly less uncomfortable chair and Rhys hovered behind. The doctor took off her sock and boot and poked at her ankle with cold fingers.
“Does this hurt?” he asked, perfunctorily.
Lila sucked in a breath. “Yes, it hurts.” Like a bitch.
“And to move it?” The doctor bent her foot up and down.
“Yes,” she said, grinding her teeth together.
“Should you actually be moving it like that if it’s sprained or broken?” Rhys asked pointedly. The doctor flicked his eyes to Rhys disdainfully before turning back to his paperwork.
“Right, we’ll need to X-ray it. I don’t think it’s broken, but we’ll have to see.”
“And how long will that take?” Rhys asked, voice laced with tension. She sighed; if he didn’t want to be here, he should just go. She’d given him an out time and time again.
“We work as quickly as we can, Mr Cartwright,” the doctor snapped, obviously overworked, scribbling something on a pink sheet of paper.
“We’re not—”
“I’m not—”
Rhys spoke at the same time she did, and they exchanged a strained glance.
“He’s not my husband. We’re not together,” Lila clarified.
The doctor obviously didn’t care and didn’t bother to look up. Rhys cleared his throat behind her. It was fifteen long seconds of silence before the doctor shoved the pink form at her.
“Follow the yellow line to the waiting room and the X-ray technician will be there soon.”
That was it, they were dismissed.
Rhys’s face was like thunder, probably at having to wait again for an X-ray. He looked like he was going to open his mouth, probably to have a go at the doctor for God knows what.
“Thank you,” Lila said with a smile, trying to balance the scowl on Rhys’s face.
“Is there any way,” Rhys started, supercilious and saccharine, “that we could have a wheelchair? It’s not like she can walk, is it?”
“Ask the nurse,” the doctor said, scanning his computer screen. “I’ve got another patient to triage now, so if you could…” He indicated the door with his head.
“Yes, of course. Thank you, Doctor, thank you,” Lila said, offering him one of her best, people-pleasing smiles .
The doctor softened a little. “You’re welcome.”
It took Rhys ten minutes to source a wheelchair for her and another ten minutes for them to navigate around the hospital because the yellow line to the X-ray department faded in and out and was not particularly helpful.
She tried not to giggle at Rhys’s increasing frustration, because that would not go down well whatsoever. It was just that he was so ridiculous with his huffing and puffing every time they went the wrong way. He even growled at an old woman with a Zimmer frame when she got in the way. Did he expect people to be racing around as if it were the London Underground?
It was another hour (and another hot chocolate) in the waiting room before Rhys wheeled her to the X-ray area, trailing a harassed technician. A few scans later and they were back waiting again.
“Why does all of this take so long?” Rhys groaned and adjusted his position on his seat. Again. “And why, for the love of God, are these seats so uncomfortable?”
“Rhys, please. Just go home. You’ve been here long enough. It’s,” she looked at her phone, “nearly half-six now. Surely you have better things to be doing on a Wednesday night?”
“I’ve wasted the afternoon here, what’s a couple more hours?”
Lila looked at her hands and bit her cheek. How rude. It was not like she hadn’t told him to go, time and time again, and he had insisted on staying.
She was perfectly capable of looking after herself. She had Maddy and Jasmeet. She could call a taxi. She could cope. Lila didn’t need Rhys Aubrey, especially not a stroppy Rhys Aubrey.
