Playing the Playboy's Sweetheart Read Free Page B

close to two years when the breaking news arrow shot across the hospital grapevine that Marcus had been found in a compromising position in the X-ray department with Heidi, the Swedish radiographer.
    Hugh, now a senior registrar and going out with Olivia by then, expected tears in the staffroom, blushes and drama—the usual type of thing that happened with a very public break-up. With Emily that didn’t happen, though...
    Oh, she was a curious thing.
    Emily just shrugged it off and got on with work.
    The very next Monday they stood in Theatre and Emily glanced up as the alarm went off on the cardiac monitor when the anaesthetised patient kicked off a few ectopic heartbeats.
    â€˜All fine,’ Rory, the anaesthetist, called as the patient’s heart steadied back into a regular rhythm.
    There were no flashing lights, no drama—it was hardly an event really.
    And that was just how Emily liked things.
    It was how she kept control.

CHAPTER ONE
    ‘I DON ’ T WANT to work there.’
    It was, for Emily, as simple as that.
    She and Hugh had been working together for close to three years now and often caught up on a Monday. Now, in their lunch break, they sat in the staffroom at their favourite table, putting the world to rights.
    ‘I think you’d be very good in Accident and Emergency,’ Hugh said. ‘Anyway, it’s only for three months.’
    ‘Well, why don’t you go and work in Labour and Delivery for three months and then get back to me with that statement.’
    ‘Fair point,’ Hugh conceded.
    ‘I’m going to speak to Miriam today and see if there’s any way I can get out of doing it.’
    Miriam, the head of Critical Nursing, had, last year, decided to rotate the staff on the units. Emily had reluctantly done a three-month stint in ICU and had thought that would be the end of it, but Miriam had decided to press on with internally rotating the staff. Emily had been told that in June she would be commencing a term in Accident and Emergency.
    Theatre was Emily’s stomping ground. The thought of working in Emergency was unsettling—the drama of it, the emotion, the constant loaning out of your heart if you chose to empathise, or the burn-out that left you a tough bitch. Emily couldn’t decide what was worse. She had no intention of revealing to Hugh the real reasons she was so opposed to the idea, so instead she changed the subject.
    ‘So, is it true?’ Hugh didn’t reply to her question but Emily pushed on. ‘Have you and Olivia broken up?’
    ‘Yep.’
    ‘I thought you two were happy.’
    ‘We were,’ Hugh said. ‘When we were together.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    It was Hugh who sat silent for a moment now. He and Olivia had been happy. Everyone had said how suited they were and, yes, their relationship had ticked most boxes.
    Two boxes had been missing, though.
    Olivia’s jealousy and trust issues were one and as for the other...
    He looked across the table to where Emily was peeling open her croissant and sprinkling more black pepper onto the cheese and tomato that filled it. She loved black pepper—there were always a couple of sachets in the pocket of her scrubs.
    He knew a lot more about her than he had three years ago.
    Just not enough.
    ‘I don’t know how to explain it, Em,’ Hugh admitted. ‘I don’t know why Olivia felt that every time I was late home or out on a work do that there had to be more to it...’
    ‘You do have a reputation,’ Emily pointed out. As much as she liked catching up with Hugh, she loathed hearing about his life, his girlfriends, the wild parties and frequent holidays and weekends away.
    Mondays were sometimes torture.
    In fact, sometimes Emily dreaded them.
    ‘Perhaps I do have a reputation around the hospital but I’ve never cheated when I’m seeing someone...’ Hugh chose to go back a few years and watched a dull blush spread on her neck. ‘If I am then I wouldn’t so much as kiss another person.’
    ‘Well...’ Emily flustered a little.