Kate Hardy - Hot Docs On Call - One Night To Forever?

‘Indeed I was.’

‘And I’m sorry your ex cheated and that you’re not over her, but that’s your issue and—’

‘It’s not that,’ Dominic interrupted.

She raised her eyebrows and Dominic had to concede a smile, because yes, it probably sounded to her as if he wasn’t over his ex. He guessed Victoria thought that he had run away to England because of a break-up, so knew he had to explain things a bit better than that. ‘The person that Lorna was sleeping with was my brother.’

‘Oh,’ Victoria said.

And he waited for her to avert her eyes or to do what everyone else did and move to quickly change the subject, but instead she gave a small grimace.

‘Well, that’s awkward!’

And he smiled a little and admitted, ‘Indeed it is.’

‘Are you and your brother close?’ Victoria asked.

‘We were.’

‘And had you been going out with her for long?’

‘Yes,’ Dominic said.

‘Were you living together?’

‘Yes.’ He nodded but Dominic didn’t want all these questions. He was just trying to explain, a little, why he had reacted to the news of her pregnancy in the way that he had. ‘I really don’t want to discuss it.’

Only that wasn’t quite true.

Dominic had discussed it with no one.

Everyone in his family wanted to simply move on from the uncomfortable topic and to act as if nothing had happened. Not Victoria though—she actually made him smile when she spoke next.

‘You’re very good at torrid trysts.’

‘It would seem that I am.’

‘Were you both sleeping with her at the same time?’

‘Victoria!’ His voice held a warning. ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’

‘Fair enough.’ She shrugged. ‘But if that’s the case, then I’m going to go for a drink with my committee.’

‘Don’t we have rather a lot to discuss?’

‘I’ll be fine,’ Victoria said. ‘I cope with things. So really, at this stage there’s nothing much to talk about. If you want a DNA test once the baby’s here, then that’s fine too.’

They started to walk down the corridor but as Dominic went straight she turned to the left.

‘Where are you going?’

‘It’s a short cut.’

Dominic didn’t want the short cut; he rather liked spending time with her and, though he didn’t say that, of course, it was actually nice to be walking and talking.

The short cut was an old quadrangle that he hadn’t seen before and there was a glimpse of a navy sky and the scent of fresh air; Dominic guessed it would be a very welcome space to know, if working over a long weekend.

‘Maybe it’s not such a short cut,’ Victoria added as she looked up and felt the cool evening air on her cheeks. ‘More, the scenic route.’

‘You really do know this hospital like the back of your hand,’ Dominic commented. ‘Did your father bring you here a lot?’

‘Yes, there were a lot of nanny changes and so I’d be brought along until a replacement was found.’

She had been close to a couple of the nannies but they all too soon found it unbearable to work for her father and left.

It had been the same with his girlfriends, who would attempt to win over the daughter to impress the father and then would drop her like a hot stone as soon as the relationship came to an end.

Even when she had been a bit older, Victoria would come here after school or on long weekends, rather than sit in an empty house. Here at the quadrangle, weather permitting, she had done an awful lot of homework!

‘What about your mother?’ Dominic asked as they started to walk.

‘They broke up.’ Victoria gave him no more information about her mother than that. She turned and looked at him. ‘I shan’t let you just drift in and out of my child’s life. And I’m not having him or her dropped off here just because you have to work. My baby will be at home with me.’

Dominic said nothing. If Victoria thought he would be a hands-off father, then she was wrong, but Dominic wasn’t going to argue about that now.

He had something to ask her. ‘I would like to be at the ultrasound.’

But Victoria had been thinking about just that over the last couple of days and immediately she shook her head. ‘I don’t think so. That offer has been withdrawn.’

‘Can I ask why?’

‘It just has.’

Dominic knew he didn’t have any right to be there and so he chose not to push the issue.

For now.

They were out of the hospital and walking over to the Frog and Peach but suddenly Victoria did not want to go in.

‘Are you coming?’

‘No.’

She offered no more explanation than that. Victoria didn’t need to give him one and was annoyed when Dominic walked after her.

‘What?’ she asked.

‘There’s surely more to discuss.’

‘I don’t see that there is. I’ll send you a copy of the images and you can...’ She shrugged. ‘You can do whatever you’re going to do. Measure its little crown rump length and decide if it might possibly be yours.’

Yes, she had read the baby books too.

And she walked off with more purpose this time.

It was all starting to feel terribly real.

For weeks she’d been stuffing down the possibility that she might be pregnant; now she knew for certain that she was.

But it wasn’t just the baby, or telling work that concerned Victoria.

It was Dominic MacBride himself.

She had heard his concern about her working the other night and now she could feel his slight push to be more present; she knew that it was only going to increase.

And she did not want to start relying on him.

She thought of her own mother, who had upped and left, and all the nannies and girlfriends and wives that her father had gone through.

There had been no constant in her life apart from her father and he had merely dragged her to work and palmed her off to others.

No, she did not want to start depending on a man who would no doubt soon lose interest and be gone.

She simply would not do that to her child.

CHAPTER EIGHT

DOMINIC AWOKE TO the sound of sirens in the street below.

In a decisive move, he had bought a three-bedroom apartment close to the hospital and, with the ambulance station nearby, he heard sirens often. Now, each time that he did, Dominic wondered if it might be Victoria’s ambulance on its way to something.

She wouldn’t even know that she had passed by his apartment, Dominic thought, as Victoria didn’t even know where he lived.

They were so removed from each other’s lives.

And yet they were not.

Because he thought about her all the time.

He liked her.

Or rather, he was attracted to her enormously and that didn’t aide sensible thinking.

Since their liaison at Paddington’s Dominic had found himself thinking about her an awful lot.

Prior to that even.

On finding out about Jamie and Lorna he had closed off from others and thrown himself into work.

Absolutely.

It had been his escape from hurt and anger, and the thought of starting again with anyone had been far from Dominic’s mind.

But then she had stomped her way into his thoughts with her heavy boots and crisp handovers. Her confident smile had felt like an intrusion, yet he had found himself looking out for her.

Noticing her.

Victoria was a very different woman from any that he was used to liking.

She had intrigued him when Dominic had not wanted to be intrigued, so much so that, even while talking to a parent, he had been aware that she had been stood registering a patient in Reception. He had seen her duck behind the shelves and, later that same day, he himself had done the same and found the place to which she escaped.

And in his time at Paddington’s he had escaped there a few times.