stepped in because everyone had known that it was Charlie? It was likely to be the first he knew. He didn’t even need to imagine what the rest of her chart had said. They’d already been warned that the female patient was likely to be DOA. He’d said as much to Emily.
“He needs to know she’s pregnant,” Matt said hearing his voice crack as he said it and trying desperately to forget the idea of Charlie having been dead on arrival.
James looked at him sympathetically, and then asked the obvious question that Matt cursed himself for never having asked Claire. “How far along is she?”
Matt looked at him blankly. “I don’t know. She hadn’t gotten around to telling me yet,” he said.
James turned and walked into the room where Charlie was being treated, and Matt could feel that he was shaking. He knew that he was in shock, and he knew that he was seconds from falling apart. He walked away from the room where Charlie’s life was potentially hanging in the balance, and he all but ran towards his office. He could feel the panic rising within him, and it was beginning to overpower him. He felt like his heart was about to be torn wide open.
Matt only just made it to his office before the tears came, but embarrassed by his reaction he punched the wall. As he felt the pain in his right hand burn, he began to cry in earnest. He slid down the wall, pulled his knees up to his chest, and put his head in his hands.
***
“That was amazing,” Matt said to Charlie. He was smiling, and feeling exhilarated as they walked out of the Red Sea and back up onto the beach where they’d left their towels and clothes.
They were each holding their snorkels and flippers in their hands, and as he looked across at Charlie he thought for what was probably the hundredth time that day just how lucky he was. She was beautiful, and she looked phenomenal in the black bikini that she had on. Added to this her skin was enhanced by a week’s worth of Egyptian sun, and her body was currently sparkling from the reflection of the water that was still desperately clinging to her bronzed skin.
Matt spied a young man eyeing her up, and he smiled to himself. He couldn’t believe the number of looks that she’d been getting while they’d been away. In fact at this rate he thought, he was going to have to keep her in their room for the remainder of the holiday. Although in addition to the looks that she’d been receiving from all the men at their resort, Matt had also seen a number of women looking at her jealously after catching their other halves looking in her direction.
“We should do it again before we go home,” she said pulling on her T-shirt and putting on her baseball cap before bending down to rummage through her bag. She then stood up, undid the lid of what she was holding, and gently applied some cream to Matt’s nose, cheeks, and forehead.
“Your face has caught the sun,” she said as she put the lid back on the sun cream before throwing it back into her bag and grabbing her short denim skirt.
He normally loved to see her in this skirt, but he was disappointed to see her put it on now as he had been enjoying the view of the bottom half of her body in just her bikini.
“Um huh,” he said. Yet he wasn’t worried about his face, and he wasn’t really listening to what she was saying. He was totally lost in thought about her body, and he was wishing that she’d stop putting her clothes back on. He was also wishing that they were back in their hotel room.
Charlie leaned in towards him, and put her mouth against his ear and whispered; “why are you looking at me as if you’re about to put a fiver in my skirt?”
He smiled guilty, and pulled her into a bear of a hug before kissing her neck. “It’d be at least a tenner Mrs Grayson,” he whispered back grinning and then kissing her.
He could taste the salt on her lips from the sea, and he was enjoying the familiar sensation of his wife’s kiss when her stomach suddenly rumbled loudly and they broke apart laughing.
“Hungry?” He asked.
“Starving,” she said grinning back at him.
“I’ve got an idea,” he said.
Charlie eyed him suspiciously.
“Room service,” he