socialist. What’s up?
How come you’re not at work? You can’t possibly have taken a sickie.”
“No,” I said. “I was fired yesterday, I’m unemployed.” She grimaced and took a long drag on her cigarette. “That wasn’t actually what I wanted to talk to you about. I guess Henry told you I’m seeing someone?”
Kendra nodded. “He sure did. Some young guy, I think he said.”
“It’s, um, looking pretty serious. I wanted you to know in advance that Matthew will probably be around on the weekends when I have Henry.”
Kendra’ eyes were twinkling when she smiled at me. “I’m glad for you. Unless you’ve been seeing someone without Henry knowing, you’ve been single for quite a while.”
“It’s been too long,” I agreed. “I’d like to pick Henry up this afternoon, so he can meet Matthew. That okay with you?”
“That’s fine. And thanks for letting me know in advance.
You look happy. I haven’t seen you look like this for years.”
I smiled at Kendra. “I haven’t felt like this for years.”
She ground out her cigarette. “I’ve got to go. If we don’t get this passage right by this afternoon, there will be new uses for a violin bow demonstrated, and your medical expertise will be needed.”
“And I’ve got to update my CV,” I said.
Kendra grinned at me over her shoulder as she disappeared into the rehearsal hall.
I dropped into Jackie’s rooms, and marveled yet again at how polite and efficient his receptionist was. One day, if I was lucky, I’d work somewhere with pleasant staff.
“Dr. Maynard,” Ida said, smiling at me. “Dr. Jackson left a letter here for you, said you’d be dropping in for it.”
“Thank you, Ida,” I said, taking the envelope she was holding out for me.
“You’re welcome, Dr. Maynard. I saw you on the news last night, I think what you were doing was wonderful.”
I held up the reference. “Unfortunately, it also means I’m looking for another job.”
She smiled conspiratorially and said, “Dr. Jackson is doing what he can for you. I thought you’d like to know that.”
“Thanks, it does help,” I said. “I’m sure I’ll see you again, Ida. Please thank Jackie from me for all his support.”
Henry bounced into my arms when he opened the door of Kendra’s apartment. “Dad!” he shouted. I hugged him and put him down gratefully. He was far too heavy to hold for long. “How come you’re not working?” he asked, dragging me by my hand into the apartment. “What you doing here? Wow, you never take time off work.”
I sat down on Kendra’ couch, Henry still hugging me. “I was fired,” I said. “I’m unemployed right at this moment.”
Henry’s face creased with worry. “That’s rank. Is this because of the strike?”
“Yeah.” I rubbed my thumb over Henry’s forehead, smoothing out the furrows. “You don’t need to worry; I’m applying for another, better, job.”
He nodded. “I saw you on the news, and F. It was something else.” He hugged me again, and it warmed me all the way through to know that Henry was proud of me.
“I came around to see if you’d like to go out. I’d like you to meet Matthew, so I thought we could go for coffee, give you a chance to get to know him a bit before the weekend.”
Henry looked a bit dubious as he said, “Okay, Dad.”
I patted his shoulder. “He’s nothing like Tim. He eats meat, I’ve seen no evidence so far that he does any form of exercise, and any plans he has to change the world probably involve the practice of medicine, not lecturing kids on the evils of the internet.”
This obviously cheered Henry up a little and he said, “So where are we going? There’s this great…”
His voice trailed off and I raised an eyebrow at him and said, “Good, you remembered which parent you’re with. No you cannot have fries, or cream, or any combination of the two. You know the rules when you’re with me, no empty calories.”
He bounced off the couch and said, “I’ll get out of school uniform,” and disappeared down the hall way before reappearing a moment later, and saying, “I’m not fat, just chubby.”
I called out after him, “Do you want the childhood obesity lecture again?” and his bedroom door closed resolutely.
I wasn’t the kind of insane health and fitness freak that Tim had been, and I didn’t try to control how Kendra was raising Henry in my absence, but I refused to feed him crap.
I’d become sneaky about persuading him to exercise when he was with me, too. Luckily, London was full of interesting places to walk around, and he was developing a passion for horse-riding. Now all I had to do was persuade him to let me check his blood pressure…
He was back in a couple of minutes, wearing jeans and a sweater, looking remarkably clean and tidy for him. It was just possible he’d combed his hair, too.
“So, you’re in love with Matthew, right?” he said to me as he bounced down the stairs ahead of me.
“Yep, certainly looks that way,” I replied, taking the stairs two at a time.
Chapter Thirty Eight
Dr. Anderson peered over her spectacles at me. “So, you had no problems with Dr. Maynard?” she asked. “Despite him not being able to complete your placement?”
I shook my head. “He was an excellent teacher, really inspirational. I learnt a huge amount from him, we all did.”
“His political involvement in the union movement didn’t detract from his teaching?”
“No, not at all. I think that it was really important that we learned about how administration doesn’t always work toward the same goals as the medical staff, and how sometimes the medical staff has to stand up for their patients.”
“All right,” Dr. Anderson said. “We’ve placed your group at St. Georges, with a new tutor. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to make up the two days you’ve missed after finals, so don’t make plans to go to Amsterdam the night of your last exam.”
“Thanks, Dr. Anderson,” I said, standing up.
She stood, too. “Thought you’d like to know that Dr.
Maynard has submitted your assessments for the placement you did complete, and your marks are excellent. He spoke highly of your initiative and involvement with the patient care.”
I coloured, I couldn’t help it. “Um, thanks, Dr. Anderson,” I said, and I got out of her office as fast as I could.
Fuck, now I began to see why Andrew had been worried about anyone knowing that we were involved.
I did a solid four hours of work when I got home, to make up for time that I’d missed, and I dared to hope that I was making headway on my case studies. Pathohistology was still an issue; I really couldn’t reliably tell one slide of diseased tissue from another, but there was no way around that without spending a weekend locked in the lab at uni.
Andrew had called me, pulling me away from cardiomyopathy management, and asked me to meet him and Henry later. I was nervous; this was a new and exciting variant on meeting-the-parents. More important, too, I suspected. If I was serious about Andrew, and God knows, I’d been in an ecstatically good mood all day, just from what he had said the night before, Henry was about to become part of my life, at least for a while.
I put Kelley down, lay back on my mattress, and closed my eyes. I was tingling all over still, suffused with warm happiness, and just thinking about seeing Andrew again was making me grin. Two weeks ago, he’d been a
