CAROL MARINELLI - Australian Affairs - Tempted - Tempted by Dr. Morales

Cate let out a breath, and when the phone rang again, on instinct she answered it, though she soon wished that she hadn’t.

‘Can I please speak with Dr Morales?’

‘I’ll see if he’s available,’ Cate said. ‘May I ask who’s calling?’ As soon as the words were out she regretted them; she had made it clear that Juan was here but her mind had been so full of Elsie and her daughter that she had forgotten Juan’s little lecture from last week.

‘Tell him it is Martina.’

She found Juan in with Elsie, taking bloods.

‘Sorry I took so long, Elsie,’ Cate said. ‘Your daughter just called…’

Elsie rolled her eyes and dismissed the information with a flick of her hand. ‘You can ring her when I’m dead,’ Elsie huffed. ‘That will cheer her up.’

‘She’s going to call back later,’ Cate said, making a mental note to speak to whichever doctor Elsie was referred to, so that Elsie’s wishes could be discussed properly. ‘Juan, you’ve got a call too—Martina is on the phone for you, I’m very sorry, I forgot and I—’

He interrupted her excuses. ‘Tell her that I am with a patient,’ Juan answered, labelling the vials of blood he had taken.

‘Just to have her call back in ten minutes?’ Cate checked, because Martina called fairly frequently. ‘Why doesn’t she ring your mobile?’

‘Because I’ve blocked her.’ He muttered something under his breath in Spanish but then winked at Elsie. ‘Excuse me, I need to take a phone call.’

‘Be nice when you do,’ Elsie warned, and Juan smiled and gave a small shake of his head.

‘It gets you into more trouble sometimes.’

It did.

Juan had tried being nice, had tried being firm, had been downright rude a couple of times and the calls had stopped for a while. But as the date of what would have been their first wedding anniversary approached, Martina was more determined than ever to change history.

‘Juan, I was hoping to speak to you.’

‘I’m at work.’

‘Then call me from home.’

‘Martina—’

‘You won’t let me properly explain,’ Martina interrupted. ‘And I’m hearing from everyone the ridiculous things you are doing—that You are going to do a season of skiing. Why would you take such risks?’

‘I’m not your concern, Martina. You made that very clear.’

‘I would have come round. Juan, please, we need to speak.’

‘Stop calling me at work,’ Juan said, and hung up and sat for a moment, thinking of the man he had once been, compared with the man he was now.

Martina didn’t know him at all.

She couldn’t.

Not even he knew yet who the new Juan was.

‘Poor Martina,’ Elsie had said as Juan had left the cubicle to take the call and Cate had laughed. She loved old people, they knew about a thousand times more than the whole of the staff put together. It had taken Elsie about two seconds to work out what a heartbreaker Juan was.

‘I had one like that once,’ Elsie said, nodding to the curtains Juan had just walked through, as Cate helped her undress and get into a gown.

‘What, a six-foot-three Argentinian?’ Cate quipped.

‘No, a five-foot-eight Frenchman!’ Cate wanted to put Elsie in her handbag and take her home. ‘I was in my fifties and I’d been widowed for two years.’

‘That’s young to be a widow.’

‘Don’t waste any sympathy, I had a terrible marriage,’ Elsie said. ‘You can call me the merry widow if you must, but I was just sick of feeling like I was in my daughter’s way and being told what to do. I took myself off to France—I’d always wanted to go and I was so glad I did. We had one week together and I had the best time of my whole life!’ She pointed to a large silver bezel-set amethyst ring on her finger. ‘No regrets from me,’ Elsie said. ‘We had completely different lives, it would never have worked long term but we kept in touch a little bit. He sent me a card now and then, and when he died ten years ago I went back and visited his grave and thanked him.’

She opened the album and showed Cate a picture of the love of her life, a love that had lasted just a few days.

‘Have you ever been adored?’ Elsie asked, and Cate frowned as she met Elsie’s pale blue eyes.

‘I don’t think so,’ Cate admitted, as the reason for her break-up was delivered to her, as the word she had needed was revealed.

‘I highly recommend it,’ Elsie said. ‘Have you ever adored anyone?’

And Cate faltered. ‘Adored?’

‘It’s a rare kind of love,’ Elsie said, ‘and I got to taste it.’

‘Was it worth it, though, Elsie?’ Cate asked. ‘Lugging a broken heart around for the rest of your life.’

‘My heart wasn’t broken.’ Elsie smiled. ‘It soars every time I think of him.’

Cate’s heart wasn’t soaring, though, as Juan pulled her aside a while later and warned ‘for the third time’ that she had to have a word with the nursing staff and receptionist and remind them about privacy on the phone. They were not to reveal any of the staff rosters.

It was the closest she had come to seeing him angry or, rather, very disgruntled.

And so too was Cate, as she had a word with the staff as per Juan’s instructions!

There she was, mopping up the chaos of his love life. It was a relief not to have slept with him.

Then she saw him laughing with Elsie, chatting with her as she was waiting to be moved to the ward, just standing by her gurney and putting a smile on the old lady’s face. She was in a white hospital gown now, all the rings and jewellery off, but she had her pink shawl around her shoulders and was smiling as she showed him pictures.

No, it was no relief not to have slept with him.

It was simply self-preservation.

‘CATE?’

Cate heard her name being called over her side gate as she hung out her uniform. She was in a rush, she’d just come out of the shower and, yet again, she was driving, so she really didn’t have much time. But that never stopped Bridgette, who would chat happily as Cate got ready.

‘Come over, Bridgette, but I can’t chat for long.’

‘Going out?’

Cate nodded. ‘Yes, and I have no idea what to wear.’

They headed into the kitchen and Cate put on the kettle and did her usual thing with tea and ice—it was the only way to get through the long hot summer. Then they headed upstairs to decide what Cate should wear. ‘I need a new wardrobe,’ Cate sighed.

‘So do I.’

‘No, I really need one,’ Cate said. ‘Everything I’ve got I wore when I was going out with Paul. I’ve got my black dress, my going-out-for-dinner dress, the dress I wore when I met his family…’ It was hard to explain.

‘What about this?’ Bridgette pointed out Cate’s lilac skirt.

‘It’s the one new thing I have but I wore it last week.’

‘Are you missing him?’

‘No,’ Cate said. ‘And then I feel guilty that I don’t.’

‘So who’s this other guy?’

Cate was about to shake her head but there was no chance of Bridgette meeting Juan and it would be so nice to get her advice—even if she had no intention of taking it! Bridgette was a lot more open-minded than Cate and always made her laugh.

‘There’s a casual doctor at work,’ Cate said. ‘He’s from Argentina and is travelling for a year or two…’

‘Nothing wrong with a younger man.’

‘He’s not younger, though,’ Cate said, because, yes, most doctors were in their twenties when they travelled the world. ‘He’s in his mid-thirties, I think. It sounds like he had a really good job and then just took off…’

‘He’s a bit young to be having a mid-life crisis.’