Page 30 of Only for Christmas

Georgia stomped back to her desk. ‘You’re rejecting him before he can reject you,’ she said, slumping into her chair. ‘Classic masochistic behaviour.’

‘I prefer to think of it as self-perseveration,’ Sarah retaliated, feeling increasingly flustered. ‘Besides, he’s only in the UK for a month. Pursuing anything romantic would be foolish and utterly pointless.’ Something she’d reminded herself when he’d turned up at her flat on Saturday and bamboozled her with flowers and charmed her dog. Of course, he’d also criticised her furniture, so the man wasn’t perfect.

‘Unless it’s the real deal?’ Jafrina suggested tentatively. ‘You might fall in love?’

Heaven help her. Sarah could think of little worse.

‘And if nothing else, at least you’d get a good seeing to.’ Georgia squeezed her feet into her shoes. ‘For a whole month, and with no strings. Sounds perfect to me.’

‘Well, not to me.’ Sarah had had enough. ‘Now, can we please get to work. I appreciate your enthusiasm regarding my lack of a love life, but there’s going to be no happy ever after on this occasion.’

‘But—’

‘Discussion over.’ Sarah raised her hand. ‘Work, please.’

Turning away, she stepped into her office, embarrassed at being the subject of gossip, but also feeling like a fraud for deceiving them. It wasn’t like she could tell them the real reason why she’d gone off with Lucas Moore. Her issues with Stephen Stokes were a matter for her alone to deal with. And, however mortifying it was to be embroiled in a romantic interlude, she just had to hope the ruse would be enough to deter the medical director from harassing her further.

It took a moment for her to spot the huge bouquet of red roses sitting on her desk. When she did, she recoiled as though she’d stumbled across a dead body. Instinct made her spin around, only to see two grinning faces peering in through the office window, before Georgia and Jafrina scurried back to their desks like a couple of kids playing knock down ginger.

So that’s what had fuelled their interest? Damned bloody Lucas had sent her flowers again.

Chucking her bag and coat onto a chair, she picked up the bouquet and marched from her office. ‘Don’t say a word,’ she barked as she strode across the open-plan space, barely able to see above the mass of deep red stems.

Their scent was so overwhelming that she was quite giddy by the time she reached Lucas’s consulting rooms.

‘Is he here?’ she asked Carla, his nursing assistant.

Carla looked up from behind her computer, her eyes growing wide as she took in the sight of Sarah obscured behind the array of flowers. ‘Lucas! You’re needed.’

Lucas appeared from a treatment room. ‘Someone looking for me?’

He looked like a character from an American hospital drama, with his pale-blue shirtsleeves rolled up and his stethoscope hanging around his neck, like he was ready to save a small child’s life. Why did he have to look so good?

He grinned when he saw her. ‘Nice flowers.’

‘No, not nice flowers,’ she said, plonking them onto Carla’s desk, making the water in the bottom splosh. ‘Totally inappropriate flowers.’

Lucas looked puzzled. ‘Come again?’

She rested her hands on her hips, trying to appear assertive, rather than glad to see him, which made no sense whatsoever. ‘What did I say about giving me flowers?’

Carla’s mouth dropped open. ‘You gave her flowers?’

Lucas shrugged. ‘I did, but—’

‘It was bad enough you showing up at my flat with a bouquet,’ Sarah said, wishing he had a stain down his shirt or something, anything to dull the impact of his blue eyes. ‘But at work?’

Carla was now openly gawping. ‘You went to her home?’

Lucas glanced at Carla. ‘I did, but—’

‘When we explicitly agreed that we weren’t going to… you know… see each other.’ Sarah was starting to regret her outburst. She should have waited until there wasn’t an audience.

Carla stopped even pretending not to listen. ‘Ooh, this is getting interesting.’ She sat back in her chair. ‘Don’t mind me. Please, continue.’

Sarah cleared her throat. ‘It’s hardly appropriate when we’ve… “broken up”,’ she said, using air quotes.

‘You’ve broken up already.’ Carla looked dismayed. ‘I didn’t even know you’d started dating!’

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