Secrets (Hope Bay)

by Angela Verdenius

  They all pointed at Katie.

  “What?” She shrugged at Shane’s accusing expression. “I like chillies.”

  He pointed to the other three boxes. “There better not be chillies on all of them!”

  “Don’t get your y-fronts in a knot, quack, you’ll end up strangling your donger.”

  “Only if it’s peeking out the y-fronts.” Taking the pizza from Shane’s hand, Danny took a bite and chewed. “Bloody big baby. It’s not that hot.”

  “Are we all missing the point here?” Mitch demanded.

  “What point?” Then, remembering he didn’t want any point to be remembered, Shane hurriedly added, “There is no point except I want pizza and a drink and a chat, that’s all. Did anyone bring chips?”

  Yanking out a chair, Steve dropped down into it, reached for a light beer from the pack on the table and popped the tab. “Of course there’re chips. You’d see it right under your nose,” he pointed to the boxes, “if you weren’t so blinded by the light of the gorgeous nurse who I just might ask out.” His eyebrows bobbed up and down at Shane.

  “Them’s fighting words.” Taking the chair opposite, Mitch picked up his already opened light beer and saluted Shane. “Can I watch you kill him?”

  Everyone was now seated but Shane had no doubt this wasn’t the end of it, though he tried to change the subject. “So, today went well.”

  “Sure it did.” Katie passed out the plates. “You saw Emma. You worked with Emma. You were staring after Emma. Emma is at your job and you’ll see her every day. Just like today. And just now.” Katie turned to Daz. “Right?”

  Daz nodded. “Yep.”

  “It’s not like that,” Shane stated.

  “Then you won’t mind if I ask her out.” Producing his mobile, Steve started scrolling through the list of contacts. “Now where did I put her number? Was it under ‘bodacious babe’, ‘sweet thing’, or maybe ‘hot to-” He stopped when the mobile was plucked from his fingers.

  Tossing it carelessly onto the kitchen bench behind him, Shane growled, “No mobiles, remember? This is a get together. Nothing shits me off more than mobiles and everyone talking on them when we should be talking to each other. No mobiles.”

  Steve smirked. Made Shane want to punch him right in the hooter.

  “Hey,” said Danny. “You’re preaching to the converted. And don’t change the subject.”

  Ignoring them, knowing it wouldn’t make any of them go away, Shane opened the boxes. “Great. Chicken and bacon, a meaty one, some kind of stuff with pineapple and - what’s this?”

  “Cheese and garlic.” Grabbing a slice, Danny tossed it haphazardly onto his plate, took a box of chips and shook out a hearty portion.

  “Cheese and garlic?” Shane laughed. “You’re obviously not going on a date tonight.”

  “No.” Danny’s grin was sly. “But I bet you wish you were.”

  Bugger. It seemed nothing he said was going to waylay this mob. Shane looked around to find them all busy piling their plates with food but ogling him at the same time.

  “Pack of vultures,” he muttered.

  “C’mon.” Katie nudged him. “’Fess up. You like Emma.”

  “Of course I like her. She’s nice.”

  “Nice,” Steve echoed.

  “Mate.” Reprovingly, Mitch shook his head. “You can do better than that.”

  “Do better than what?”

  “Mate.”

  “You’re not fooling anyone.” Daz pointed some hot chips at him. “So you might as well tell us.”

  Not quite wanting to say anything just yet, Shane crammed a handful of chips into his mouth.

  And manfully managed not to spit them out when he tasted…vinegar. Eyes watering, he gagged.

  “Oh for…” Katie rolled her eyes.

  “Vinegar?” He forced them down his throat and gasped, “Vinegar, Katie? Vinegar?”

  “There’s nothing wrong with-”

  “Vinegar?” Grabbing her Diet Coke, he sucked down several large mouthfuls before slamming the can on the table with a less than gentlemanly burp, which he covered with his fist to his mouth.

  “Cripes,” said Mitch. “The city really did you in.”

  “I have never liked chillies in anything or vinegar on my chips.” Grimacing, Shane hung his tongue out of his mouth.

  “Revolting,” said Steve. “Put that slab of meat back in your gob. Some of us are trying to eat.”

  “If your Mum could see you now.” Katie tsk-tsked. “There’s only one box of chips with vinegar, all right? Take some from those two boxes.” She pointed to the boxes in the middle of the table. When he went to hand her Diet Coke back, it was her turn to grimace. “Backwash? Not freakin’ likely. Keep it, I’ll get another.”

  Mitch stood up, grabbed a can from the ‘fridge, popped the tab and handed it to her. “There you go my little pumpkin.”

  “My hero.” She fluttered her eyelashes at him.

  For a few seconds Shane thought he’d actually get away with it, but no, Danny chose that precise second to say bluntly. “You’ve got the hots for Emma.”

  “Not the hots,” he objected. “No. No way.”

  “You’ve never looked at another sheila the way you look at her.”

  “I have so.”

  “You’ve looked at girls, but with Emma, you looked.”

  “Because that makes sense. I looked, but I looked?” Shane gave him a bored stare. “Please.”

  “You can’t fool us.” Danny shook his head. “And our personal Bullshit Meter there,” he jerked a thumb at Daz sitting chewing and grinning, “has dinged you good.”

  “Your grammar is appalling. Mrs Jarlston would have had you by the scruff-”

  “Shane,” Katie interrupted. “Stop. You can’t change the subject. We saw what we saw.”

  “Fine.” Giving up on his stubborn, nosey friends, Shane threw up his hands.

  That resulted in a piece of bacon flying off his pizza to bounce off Mitch’s forehead. It plopped down onto his shirt front. Mitch looked down, picked the bacon off and ate it.

  Ah yes, his sophisticated friends. Shane sighed.

  They were all looking at him expectantly.

  “Okay.” He placed the pizza back onto his plate. “I like her. She’s cute. I like like her.

  “Aw,” cooed Steve. “It’s just like school. Like like.”

  Ignoring him, Shane continued, “Is that such a crime?”

  “Yes,” Steve replied. “Yes it is.” When everyone’s surprised gazes swung to him, he added, “His grammar is a crime.”

  As one, every gaze dismissed him to swing back to Shane.

  “Fine,” Shane said. “I find her attractive. I repeat, is that a crime?”

  “Nope.” Steve shook his head. “Entertaining? Yes. Crime? No.”

  “So what are you going to do about it?” Daz picked the pineapple off his slice of pizza.

  Mitch eyed him. “Seriously?”

  “What?”

  “Why don’t you just choose another pizza instead of the one with pineapple on? You’re removing the pineapple from a pizza that is loaded with pineapple.”

  “Because this is the one I want.” Daz’s attention remained on Shane. “So, what’re you going to do about Emma?”

  “I don’t know,” Shane replied.

  “You don’t know?” Danny scoffed. “You ask her out, that’s what you do.”

  “She’s my nurse.” At Mitch’s eyebrow waggle, Shane scowled. “My real nurse.”

  “Naughty nurse and bad doctor, I can just see it now.”

  Katie burst out laughing. “Emma is as far from a naughty nurse as a nurse can get!”

  Daz just chewed placidly.

  “Right,” said Shane. “Besides, is it ethical?”

  “Is this the 15th century?” Steve replied. “You can ask her out.”

  “What if it doesn’t work out? That could get awkward.”

  “So don’t ask her out. Let someone else ask her
out.”

  “You’re not going to ask her out.”

  “Just because you’re a sook about the whole thing-”

  “I am not a soo- I am not having this conversation with you.”

  “Oh, look at me.” Steve waved his hands around. “I’m all ethical and shit, I do what’s right all the time. That’s why I’m such a-” he put his fingers to his forehead with his thumb and forefinger making a letter ‘L’ shape, “-loser!”

  Shane flipped him the bird.

  “Oh, that hurt. Look at me, I’m all hurt.” Steve sagged in the chair. “Get me a nurse Get me Emma. Emma will kiss all my hurts better. Katie, ring for Em-”

  “Hang on.” A sudden thought struck Shane. “Hang on a minute. How come she isn’t here?”

  Everyone went silent.

  “Aren’t you all friends with her?”

  Katie nodded. “Yeah.”

  “So didn’t you ask her to come tonight?”

  “We did.” Katie glanced around at the men, who were all now thoughtfully looking at Shane.

  “Why didn’t she come?”

  “She was going to,” Katie replied slowly. “But then…” When Shane raised his eyebrows, she shrugged. “She rung just after lunch to say she couldn’t come, she had something to do.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t know. She was kind of, you know,” Katie waved one hand around, “vague.”

  “Vague?”

  “About what she had to do. I thought it was CK, you know? Sick or something? But she said she was fine. Anyway…” Katie’s voice trailed off and she glanced away, picking at the pizza on her plate.

  For several seconds Shane watched her, then realisation dawned. “Oh crap. Did she know I was coming?”

  Mitch nodded.

  “Crap.” Shane’s heart fell a bit. “Do you think she didn’t come because of me?”

  “Don’t see why,” Danny said when no one replied.

  “Crap.” Another thought hit Shane, this one distinctly unpleasant. “Oh crap!”

  “Not on my chair. You know where the toilet is.” Mitch pointed.

  “I mean, crap, do you think she saw me staring after her?”

  “Nah.” This time it was Daz who replied. “She was a million miles away. I’ve seen her before striding along like that with that faraway expression on her face. She was lost in thought, not a clue you were staring after her with your tongue hanging out.”

  Relief slid through him, but Shane was still disturbed at the thought that she might have changed her plans once she found out he was going to be present. But then… He looked at Steve. “Did she know I was going to be here when the plans were first made?”

  “Yep.”

  “But she only cancelled today.”

  “Yep.”

  “Huh.” Taking a bite of pizza, Shane chewed thoughtfully. “Okay, so Emma was willing to come when she knew I was going to be here, but then she cancelled, so maybe this isn’t about me.”

  Mitch shook his head sadly.

  “What?”

  “Why would this be about you?”

  “Why wouldn’t it?”

  “Did you do something to her?”

  Shane blinked. “Huh?”

  “What did you do that could make her cancel because of you?”

  Katie’s lips pursed thoughtfully. Danny was chewing and watching him. Steve chomped on a hot chip. Daz took a sip of Coke. Mitch swirled the beer around the inside of the can he held in one big hand.

  “I didn’t do anything,” Shane replied. “Honestly.”

  “Well then…” Katie shrugged. “Something came up that she had to attend to. Case solved.”

  “Yeah.” Shane nodded. “Had to be it.”

  “Wonder what it was?” Danny ran a chip through the melted pizza cheese. “Small town like this, I haven’t heard anything.”

  “And you’d hear,” Mitch said. “You’re the dentist. Everyone tells you everything.”

  “You do know I don’t understand half of what my patients say, right?”

  “You don’t listen?”

  “I have something in their mouths and the most they can do is gurgle and gargle and drool. And that’s not even when my nurse has the saliva sucker stuck in their mouths sucking up the sides of their tongue.”

  “I thought it was supposed to suck up saliva?”

  “It is. She’s just not a very good aim with it.”

  “Maybe some people just have really big tongues.”

  At this, everyone stopped eating to look at Mitch.

  “What?”

  Katie sighed. “Just eat your food, honey.”

  “Yeah, but-”

  “Eat.”

  Shrugging good-naturedly, Mitch resumed eating.

  The conversation turned to everyday subjects, and Shane joined in the chatter and laughter, enjoying the company of good friends, relaxing and sharing fun.

  But in the back of his mind lurked Emma, and he wondered just what had made her cancel the plans for tonight. Whatever it was, he still owed her lunch and tomorrow he meant to honour that.

  Maybe she’d tell him what had happened.

  Maybe he’d ask her out - or was it too soon? No, it was too soon. Never mind, he’d use lunch to get to know her a bit more, get her to relax around him and yeah, he’d use his friends to get closer to her as well. Get-togethers, safety in numbers, and then, if he played his cards right he’d cut her from the pack and take her out, just the two of them.

  Nothing wrong with that at all. Bloody good plan if he did say so himself.

  Okay, it sounded a bit mercenary, but hell, it was the best plan he had right now.

  ~*~

  Out doing his morning bike ride - not the fast and furious exercise intent, but peddling along enjoying the early morning air, sights and sounds - Shane happened to be lost in his thoughts and next thing found himself in front of a house he recognised.

  His parents’ other rental house. The one Emma rented.

  He debated stopping and knocking on the door but decided that was a bit stalkerish. And desperate. She certainly wouldn’t trust him if she found him hovering on her veranda. No, he had to play it cool, be sensible.

  With a sigh, he started pedalling, then his gaze was caught by a ginger cat in the lounge room window.

  CK. She was madly chasing a moth that was fluttering on the outside of the window. Stretched out, she was long and lanky, paws batting at the window, curtain swinging wildly behind her as her tail lashed about. She moved with grace and precision Shane admired. Swat swat swat. Man, cats were so elegant, so precise in their movements. You had to admire a cat. You had to -

  CK fell off the windowsill to disappear from sight.

  Shane gaped, then started laughing when her head popped up over the windowsill. Her expression was disgruntled, and suddenly she surged upright, paws madly smacking the glass. The moth fluttered off and CK was left glaring after it. Then her eyes cut to Shane.

  Accusingly.

  Cripes, the cat was looking accusingly at him.

  Shane grinned, but when her eyes narrowed he suddenly remembered that CK was Emma’s beloved kitty, and if he wanted to win Emma over he better be nice to her cat.

  Well, he was always nice to animals, he liked them and couldn’t stand cruelty towards them, but he had to win this cat over if he was going to win Emma over and - well hello. Shane’s grin went from amused to crafty. Okay, now he had another little piece to add to his plan to win Emma’s trust.

  Leaving CK staring in disgruntlement after him, Shane pedalled off, his mind already working on this new strategy.

  Once back home he had a quick shower, changed into his customary shorts, t-shirt and sneakers, packed some clean clothes in his backpack, ate breakfast then locked the house and push-biked to work.

  Emma’s little car was parked in the staff parking out back and he leaned his push bike against the back of the clinic as he studied it. Now he noticed the stickers on the back of it proclaim
ing alliance to animals - stickers against vivisection, live transportation, factory farming, cruelty, and stickers supporting shelter animal adoptions.

  Woman was a verified animal advocate. No wonder she was friends with Katie, another animal advocate. Katie had done some pretty hair-raising things to rescue animals. He wouldn’t have been surprised if the two girls had clicked within minutes of meeting each other.

  Taking off the helmet, Shane bounced up the steps onto the back veranda and through the back door. All was quiet inside except for the faintest sounds of Emma moving around in the treatment room, the click of instruments probably being washed or packed away. Going to the bathroom, he changed into clean slacks, neat shoes and the doctor’s scrub top. A brush of his hair and he was ready to go.

  In his room he found his computer powered up, no doubt by Harriet when she arrived.

  Turning on some music, he went into the appointment program to check the two lists of patients under his and Doc’s names. He’d quite a few to keep him busy this morning but the afternoon was a little slack, though that could change very quickly. There was some minor surgery which was booked in under both his and Doc’s names. Looked to be a promising day.

  “Ready to go?” Doc’s head popped around the corner of the door.

  “Yep.” Shane looked up from where he was still leaning on the desk, hands braced. His face brightened at the plastic container in his Dad’s hands. “What’d Mum send in?”

  “Cake.”

  “Yeah?” Straightening, he rubbed his hands together. “What kind?”

  “The kind you’ll see at morning tea.” Doc cradled the container to his chest like it contained gold.

  “Give me a little peek.” Shane reached out for the container.

  Doc smacked his hand away.

  “Geez! Dad!”

  “Your mother said this was for everyone for morning tea,” Doc said sternly. “She told me to make sure you didn’t get your dooks all over this before anyone else had a chance to have some.”

  “Mum did not say that,” Shane replied indignantly.

  “She did.” Doc leaned forward to prod his chest with one finger. “She knows you, boy.”

  “I’m no longer that little boy who stole cakes off the table when she wasn’t watching.”