No One But You

She stiffened for a second before she looked over my shoulder and relaxed again.

“That’s your woman right there.” She nodded behind me.

I was still a little bit taken aback by the short and to the point conversation that followed with Shohreh Miller, I’d heard a lot about her. It turned out that she’d apparently also heard about me—which she really shouldn’t have. I mean the woman was on a whole level of her own.

Shit. She knows who I am.

She knows my name.

If there had been posters of her, I would’ve wallpapered my whole house with her. She was a big freaking deal, and she knew who I was. Partly thanks to Jake, but who cared when she’d actually looked for me? I could just freaking kiss him…on the cheek. Dorian would probably knock me out even though there wasn’t anything going on between them, at least not in the open. But after Christmas, I was keeping my ears to the ground and my eyes on them.

Doctor Miller was one of world’s leading Paediatric Cardiac specialists. In fact, she wasn’t one of the best. Nope, that woman was The Best. Compared to her the other bests were mediocre, including me. But she was offering me a position with her. She wanted me to work with her. Not for her, with her.

Christ, news travelled fast. She already knew my salary at St. Ermin’s and she had a very, very generous offer. She knew that I’d been suspended, and she still wanted me.

Talk about Happy New Year.

My only reservation was that I loved my current placement. I liked being able to help the people who couldn’t afford private. I knew I’d still be helping people that needed my help, but those people already had the best at their disposal. The patients I saw every day didn’t. I was one of the best for them, and if I was mediocre compared to her…

I could learn so much from her. Not to mention the rest of her team at the Children’s Hospital. The Harley Street Clinic was every Doctor’s dream, regardless of what drove you to practice medicine.

I looked in the mirror again as I reapplied my lipstick. I could hear Willow fussing with her outfit in one of the cubicles behind me. We’d picked the best time to use the loo since everyone was getting ready for the main event of the night. The music was louder and livelier as it seeped through doors and walls and ran through corridors.

“What’re you going to do?” She called from inside her stall, her voice tinted with an almost pained edged. “You have made it perfectly clear that you’re not going to apologise and I overheard your conversation with Dorian earlier about how it might look in your file…”

Her voice sounded a little rum blurred at the edges.

“I might not be a part of the clever clogs club, but even to me the woman sounded important and from the look on your face I’d take it she is, so, what’re you going to do?”

“I’m going to talk to Jamie and then I’m going to talk to her some more, I guess, I don’t know. It feels a little surreal and you know what it means when something sounds too good to be true…”

“It almost always is.”

“Exactly.”

She opened the cubicle door and stood in the doorway as she zipped up the side of the long lace skirt. In the bright light you could see the bright blue, pink, purple and red embroidered flowers peppered around her waist. The matching cropped top leaving little to the imagination with its crisscross tassels between her boobs and the frayed lace edges and cap sleeves that gave the Hippie look some gypsy grunge.

“You okay?” I asked as she wobbled on her feet, a grimace cutting through her features.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She said as she washed her hands. Her gaze landing on me in the mirror. “Don’t take this the wrong way, I know you and Jamie are an item, and I’m super happy for you. Like, it’s about time really, but just because you’re together doesn’t mean you have to make sure he’s okay with this particular move. This choice should be about you. Not even Pippa or-or…you know…”

“Theo?”

She cleared her throat as she dropped her gaze to the wash basin.

“Yes.” She turned around and leant on the edge of the granite top. “You don’t need his permission to make a decision.”

“Okay,” I took a deep breath as I studied her for a second.

I couldn’t understand where she got the whole permission thing from, but it just made me feel uneasy.

“I’m not going to ask his permission, because if it’s what I really want then he’ll want it too. I know you don’t understand this, and it’s okay because you will one day, but every decision I make i

s about Pippa or with her in mind. She’s my world.”

“I know that, but what I’m trying to say is that at some point you’re going to need to be a little selfish about something.” She shrugged.

“Who says I haven’t been selfish already?”