Page 62 of Lost in Love

Chapter 19

Katherine rinsed her hair off under the warm spray of the shower. It had been a long day and turned into a long night. Her attempt to preoccupy herself with the coving in one of the front bedrooms had distracted her, but also tired her out. It had been a few weeks since she had last spoken to Anna, and she was feeling every minute of it.

She turned the shower off and heard the buzzing of her phone on the bedside table. She grabbed her towel and extracted herself from the shower, tiptoeing through to the bedroom. She hit the green button as soon as she could reach it.

“Becks, hang on, let me just put you on speaker.” She placed the phone on the bed and dried herself with the towel.

“Hey, we won the case!” Rebecca squealed.

Katherine could barely make her out with the background noise. “I’m so pleased for you, Becks; you must be so relieved.”

“I cannot begin to tell you.”

“Are you at the pub by any chance?”

“Of course! A few of us have decided to go away for a few days’ skiing.”

“Great, you deserve a break.”

“So, how are things with you? How did the damsel take it?”

“It’s hell, Becks.”

“You should have rung me.”

“I knew you were busy the last few days with the case. I didn’t want to distract you with my problems again.”

“Never too busy for you, Kat.”

“She was upset of course but seemed to understand, but then the bloody General Medical Council wrote to her asking for a response to the allegation.”

“So she knows your lame-arse excuse that you weren’t ready for a relationship was a lie.” Katherine could hear Rebecca sucking in air through her teeth.

“Indeed, and she said she would have chosen me. We would have been a team looking after her father, and it was me she trusted, not the fact that I was a doctor.”

“Eek. Is this where I don’t mention that I told you so?”

“It’s done now, Becks. I did it for the right reason. Even if I’d spoken to her and she’d persuaded me that I should fall on the GMC’s mercy, I could have lost my job.”

“I thought you didn’t care about that.”

“Becks, I’m trying to convince myself that I made the right decision here. You’re not helping.”

“I can’t say you did, but you made the decision based on what you had to work with, and you’re going to have to suck that up. What have you been up to today?”

Katherine wandered out of the room and into another bedroom.

“You’ll be pleased to know the ceiling mouldings came back for your room. They look great. I’ve been painting them.” Katherine switched to Facetime and showed Rebecca the painted strips.

“My lush weekend pad is becoming lusher.”

A flash of blue light caught Katherine’s attention; she pressed her nose against the window.

“Kat, you still there?”

“Sorry, there’s an ambulance leaving the village.”

“So?”