Ailee
Ailee woke, the room dark with block-out curtains pulled shut, and a man she’d met twenty-four hours ago asleep, breathing deeply, beside her. Their hips touched, hands loosely clasped as if they were old friends or lovers, but she was even less sure she was doing the right thing by the widower Fergus.
There may be something unknown and powerful between them, and she hoped one day she’d find out if fate, who’d sat them next to each other on that long-haul flight, decided to help again. Or even if, when she could – if she could – she’d try to at least ensure they met again and reconsider the possibilities.
Surely she could find him again, another surgeon in Sydney, especially one who lived near her.
She’d make that happen.
Ailee gazed at the ceiling and thought of what lay ahead of her. And what lay behind Fergus and his twelve-year-old daughter.
She hadn’t forgotten, she’d just been submerged under the powerful forces of the man lying asleep beside her. Ailee contemplated her impending operation and the undeniable risks attached to a major operation. A long anaesthetic, and after, living the rest of her life with only one kidney. Not huge risks statistically but risks nevertheless.
There were physical restrictions for the first few months post-surgery, and changes in body image she would have to come to terms with, like a scar and tenderness. And a slightly greater risk in pregnancy if she was so lucky later in her life.
Her teenage brother’s deteriorating health was more important than everything at this time, a decision she’d make every day of her life, to stay on standby until the timing was medically perfect for him to be a recipient of her kidney.
Then Fergus had mentioned how difficult his relationship with his daughter had become – no doubt she was terrified something would happen to her father. Ailee couldn’t expose them to the next few months of her life. To the prospect of bringing back all Simone’s memories of her mother’s death with her own impending operation.
And if she’d told Fergus upfront...
In reality he wouldn’t want her to. No matter how much she could dream at this moment, she knew she would have reservations later on, and so would he. Fergus would probably have reservations as soon as he woke up.
Though he had said, “What if this is our one chance? This could be the start of something special, Ailee. Do you feel that?” The words he’d spoken had fitted so well with what had gone between them and what she’d most wanted to hear, but in the pale light of the clock illumination, a clock in a stranger’s bedroom, she couldn’t allow herself to listen to him or acknowledge his power over her.
It would be better to stop now and see what the future held, if anything, when her family commitments had been met.
Ailee looked across at the sleeping man, his face gentle in repose, and her eyes stung with loss from even this brief a connection. She couldn’t tell her family about Fergus either.
Her mother and brother would say that they couldn’t risk her early relationship with Fergus and call off the whole thing again.
It had taken her so long to get through to her family that she didn’t consider donating her kidney a sacrifice. It was a privilege to be able to so vastly improve her brother’s quality of life at such little personal cost.
‘Fergus, I’m sorry,’ she whispered on a soft breath and swallowed the tears in her throat.
Ailee rose, dressed and scribbled briefly on the embossed hotel notepad beside the bed. Shivering, she let herself out.
It felt surreal to come from a stranger’s hotel room, dressed in her day clothes, her lips still swollen from his kisses and the scent of him still on her clothes. She should have been wrapped in his arms until their flight early tomorrow morning.
After a scalding shower that didn’t warm her, Ailee lay and stared at the ceiling. She half expected him to ring her or knock at her door with a question about dinner. She wasn’t hungry, or sleepy, so climbed back out of bed.
She booked her reminder call for the flight and went back to working on her report, ears strained for a knock.
It was six a.m. Eastern Standard Time when Ailee’s flight docked at Sydney airport’s Terminal One, and their aircraft must have been one of the morning’s first arrivals as the big hall wasn’t crowded. With no heavy luggage, Ailee passed quickly through immigration and customs and she came out into the arrivals hall to see her mother waiting for her.
Helen Green stood tall like her daughter, her faded red hair a rosy blonde, and her face lit with the loving smile that had healed a hundred skinned knees over the decades. Ailee hugged her mother for comfort. The scent of fresh scones and rosemary soap made her shoulders sag with instant comfort as she was hugged strongly back. It was so good to see her.
Ailee stepped back, still holding her mum’s arms. ‘Where’s William?’
Her mother met her concerned look with one of her own. ‘In hospital. I’ll tell you in the car.’
Ailee’s heart sank. ‘Let’s get out of here, then.’ She didn’t want to look around to see if anyone was meeting Fergus. To risk the awkwardness of running into him.
Helen paused and turned to study her daughter searchingly. ‘Are you well?’
‘Fine. Just tired, that’s all.’ Ailee fiddled with her tote bag, checking she’d replaced her passport and zipped it closed again. Diverting herself and hopefully her mum. She didn’t want to see the concerned look from her mother, or admit that her mother could look deep into her heart and divine there was more bothering her than a red-eye flight. ‘William would have enjoyed the bustle of the airport,’ she said to divert more attention away from herself.
She remembered the souvenirs, different coloured singing bagpipes that would drive her mother mad and forced a smile.
‘Come on, Mum. I need a cup of your tea and I’ve presents to distribute.’