Chapter Nine

‘I’ll be about five minutes,’ Beth said as she pulled on latex gloves and grabbed a lab book.

‘Okay. I’ll wait here.’ Gordon flung himself into a chair and put his feet on her desk. He grabbed a draft paper that Hibs was proofreading and started to skim though it.

Beth paused. ‘Don’t touch anything.’

Gordon gave her an injured look and carried on reading.

Beth hurried down to the microscope room, turning lights on as she went. She shut the door to the room behind her, leaned against it and let out a deep breath. Gordon was back. On the walk over from the pub, he had slipped his arm around her waist like he had always done and they caught up with what had been happening while they’d been apart – in Beth’s case, not much; in Gordon’s, a whole lot.

She couldn’t believe that he had come back. He was back for a whole six months and he still wanted to be with her. Rolling back her sleeve, she pinched herself. Ow. Yes, it was definitely happening. A huge smile tugged at her mouth. Once she’d taken these photos, she’d have four hours to spend with him before she had to take the next set. Four whole hours to catch up with Gordon. She was so happy she felt she could fly. She took another deep breath and tried to force herself calm. She had to keep a steady hand for these photos.

After a few more breaths she had her emotions under control. She checked that there was nothing lying around to trip her up and turned out the main lights. In the eerie red light, she found the first of the microscopes, turned the camera on as carefully as possible and grabbed the image.

She practically flew back upstairs to Gordon. He was leaning forward, looking through something else on her desk.

‘I’m done for another few hours,’ she said as she binned her gloves and washed her hands.

‘What’s this?’ Gordon held up a list of names.

‘Those are the guys who responded to our advert for the calendar.’

‘Calendar?’

She told him what it was about.

He frowned. ‘That sounds like you’re desperate to find a man.’

‘I’m not looking for a man.’ She felt a stab of guilt that she’d even been thinking about snogging Hibs. It had made sense at the time, when she’d thought that she and Gordon had no hope. It was clear to her now that she’d been wrong. He wouldn’t have kissed her like that if they were over. ‘Technically,’ she said, cautiously, ‘I am single.’

‘No you’re not. You’ve got me.’ He came over to her and touched her cheek. ‘Beth, when I told you earlier that I was afraid it would be painful for you if we were in touch … I lied. I didn’t call or text because it was too painful for me.’ He took both her hands in his big warm ones. The sensation awoke more memories of happy times with him. His eyes met hers, so beautiful they were almost hypnotic.

Gordon continued, ‘I really thought I loved the job more than I loved you, but it hurt me being away from you. I thought going cold turkey was the best way to get over it, but I was wrong. There wasn’t a day that went by when I didn’t think about you … us. We made a stupid, stupid mistake splitting up. I … would like us to try again. If you …’ He placed her hands over his heart. ‘If you’ll have me.’

It was as though Gordon’s thoughts had been linked to her own. He had just articulated everything she’d felt during their separation. Any residual anger at the lack of contact evaporated. Her heart sang. Her Gordon was back. Happiness broke over her, making her tingle. All was right with the world again. ‘I missed you too,’ she said. ‘I’m glad you’re back.’

Anna kissed Hibs when they got into the lift up to Beth’s flat. Kissing Anna made him forget that he wasn’t kissing Beth. By the time the doors pinged open, her top was in his hands. She managed to open the flat with one hand while the other was still inside his shirt. Hibs was impressed. They tumbled into the flat, kissing furiously and tearing clothes off each other. The kitchen light was on and, as they passed, Hibs dimly registered that Gordon’s jacket was on the table. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind and followed Anna into her room.

Afterwards, he lay in the dark, his fingers idly ruffling Anna’s spiky hair. He had been right about her. Skilled. She was currently asleep, with her leg thrown across him. She had jumped him, without much encouragement. He liked that. He never had to work hard on women, but it was still flattering to have an attractive woman just grab him.

He thought about Gordon and Beth. If only he’d made his move sooner. Beth would have been with him and Gordon would have had to bugger off. Just ten minutes and things would have worked out differently. Hibs sighed. There was no point thinking about what might have been. He had to face the fact that it was Gordon that was in Beth’s bed now and he was in Anna’s.

Anna was Beth’s housemate … which could make things awkward. He had been so angry about Gordon’s reappearance that he’d gone with Anna when she propositioned him, almost out of revenge. Which was, even by his own standards, a stupid thing to have done.

Now he couldn’t come back to Beth’s house for a while. Anna stirred and her hand came up and rested on his nipple. Hibs smiled – she wouldn’t take long to get over it. Her fingers moved, caressing him, and he realised she wasn’t asleep at all. He looked down at her and she smiled, her eyes still closed. Okay. It may have been a mistake to sleep with her, but now was not the time to dwell on it.

Beth opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was Gordon. A sliver of sunlight sneaked in through the gap in the curtains and fell on his golden brown hair, making it glow. She pinched herself again to check she wasn’t dreaming. Ouch. No. He really was back. She propped herself up on her elbow and watched his smooth, well-muscled chest rise and fall. She had dreamed about this so often in the past six months, and here he was again. Back where he belonged. To think she had almost thrown it all away. If Gordon had turned up five minutes later, she would have been walking to the lab, flirting with Hibs.

The thought of Hibs brought a small tingle to the base of her spine. She cast a guilty glance at Gordon. She was so lonely she had even been thinking she might kiss Hibs. What a disaster that would have been. She would have missed Gordon and ruined a perfectly good friendship with Hibs just because she’d let her frustrations get the better of her. Well, that was a lesson learned. She should have trusted her instincts and waited for Gordon to come back to her.

There were muffled noises from the next room. Anna must have pulled some unsuspecting bloke last night. The thought that it might be Hibs crossed her mind and she frowned. It was quite likely to be Hibs, now that she thought of it. Anna definitely fancied him. Well, that could make things awkward. But if they made each other happy … A sudden wash of annoyance and hurt surprised her. Pulling random people was what Hibs did. She shouldn’t let it bother her. Besides, if she’d wanted to be one of his floozies, she’d had the opportunity yesterday. Thank goodness Gordon had returned and saved her from making a stupid mistake. She shifted position to look back at him sleeping peacefully beside her.

Gordon’s breathing changed and he opened his eyes. Beth decided she was too happy to care about Hibs or Anna.

‘Good morning.’ She planted a kiss on his shoulder.

‘Morning. What time is it?’ His voice was still slurred with sleep.

‘Only about seven.’

He smiled. ‘I don’t need to be at the department until nine. Which gives us plenty of time.’

Beth smiled back. ‘Plenty of time for …?’

‘Come here, you.’ He kissed her, pulling her to him, and Beth melted. She had missed this so much. She could go on kissing him forever.