Midwife's Baby Bump. Susanne Hampton
a halt beside her, his sun-kissed skin aglow with the perspiration from his morning run. ‘Please, call me Tristan. There’s not a patient in sight so we can throw hospital formalities out the window. I suspect you’re younger than me by a few years, but the whole doctor thing makes me feel about a hundred. So, please, stick with Tristan.’ His deep voice was raspy and breathless from the run.
Flick tried to laugh but all the while her mind was spinning and her body reacting in a way she had never experienced before. ‘Sure,’ she finally responded a little nervously, still not entirely sure about anything. ‘Tristan,’ she said, emphasising his name. ‘So you like jogging.’
She had no idea why she’d asked such a silly question. It was ridiculous and stupid in equal amounts. Of course he liked jogging and with the sweat that he had built up, he had been running for a while. She clearly liked making a fool of herself. She was grateful that he grinned and nodded and she didn’t have to address the way her body and mind were reacting.
With his rapid breathing settling by the minute, he took a sip from his metal water bottle and looked out across the crystal-clear water. ‘Beautiful part of the world, isn’t it?’
Flick was still a little surprised by his relaxed demeanour and the fact he didn’t look at her strangely after her awkward attempt at conversation. She had thought he would be a little rigid and uptight. It seemed to go with the specialist territory but he was not even close to some of the stiff, pompous specialists she had met during her other placements. Age didn’t seem to discriminate when it came to the formalities that some of them demanded. He was so different from what she’d imagined and it was unexpected. She was not normally social inept but he was upsetting her usual calm by being so unpretentious and friendly.
At the hospital, he had never acknowledged her with more than a nod. She didn’t think he had really noticed her, although she had more than noticed him. She spent a great deal of time out in the community during her placement, but when she was at the hospital she always seemed to catch sight of him as she moved about the maternity unit and the wider hospital. Her heart, for some silly reason, would always skip a beat when their paths crossed but reason told her to stay away. He wouldn’t be the marrying kind. More than likely, although there were no rumours to confirm her suspicions, she reckoned him the bachelor type with a little black book bursting with names. She wasn’t about to be listed with a hundred others under ‘L’.
‘It’s wonderful,’ she managed, still trying to control her racing pulse and not appear as nervous as she had become with him so close. She hadn’t been jogging but her heartbeat was completely out of rhythm. Logic and caring about his address book were suddenly swept away in the summer breeze.
‘I love coming down here when there’s no one around. It’s so quiet some mornings, all you can hear are the waves crashing on the shore and the occasional seagull cry,’ he said, with the appreciation of simple pleasure dressing his face. ‘It’s good for the soul to have time to just be grateful to be alive.’
Flick noticed a far-away look in his eyes. It was as if he was truly thankful. It wasn’t a catch phrase or throwaway line. She didn’t offer a reply as it was a statement more than a question. She imagined, as a surgeon, he would have lost patients and that would give him a deep appreciation of life. Being a student midwife certainly had done that for her.
‘Do you live around here or drive down from another part of town, like me?’
Flick pointed in the direction of a whitewashed apartment building with a blue-tiled roof. It stood out like a sore thumb amongst the stunning modern high-rise glass architecture that claimed most of the prestigious beach road. The building was about forty years old with a Greek island feel to it, which wasn’t surprising as her landlords spent half the year on the island of Mykonos and returned to Australia only for the summer months.
‘I live up there in one of the flats on the second floor. It overlooks the beach and I love waking up and looking out across the ocean.’ She wasn’t sure why she needed to give him that much detail. It had just come tumbling out.
‘Sweet,’ he replied. ‘Prime real estate. Although I wouldn’t have been able to run to it when I was studying… they must pay student midwives well.’
He even knew her profession. She had imagined that if he’d even noticed her he would have no idea that she was a midwife, let alone on placement.
‘It’s not as much as I imagine the modern places around here would normally cost. They’d definitely be out of my league. My apartment is quite antiquated and tiny but I like it and I just go without other things to live here. It’s a small sacrifice. I drive a twenty-year-old car but wake up to million-dollar views.’ Suddenly her nerves were abating and she felt comfortable talking to him. She noticed him smile, the most gorgeous smile, and then he removed his sunglasses and she noticed his dark, charcoal eyes with thick black lashes were smiling back at her too.
‘Wise choice, Felicia. A car for a location like this, it’s a great compromise. Who wouldn’t want to live here and wake up to the ocean view every morning?’
Flick was taken aback again. His comment resonated with someone very down to earth. He just happened to also be extremely handsome. She couldn’t help but notice a scar that ran down his chest, ending just above his belly button. Her eyes were drawn to it but she looked away quickly. It was faded and she imagined it was from an operation performed years before but it was significant in size. The fact that he didn’t hide it, she assumed, meant that the scar was perhaps by now only on the outside but she wasn’t about to test that hypothesis by making mention of it.
‘Looks like the hospital has given us both the day off … or are you playing hooky?’
Flick laughed, a little awkwardly. ‘No, not playing hooky, I’m on an RDO.’
Tristan fell silent for a moment, as if he was taking a moment to really think about his words before he spoke. Flick wasn’t sure if the lull in conversation was her cue to leave so she smiled and turned to walk up the sand towards her apartment before it became uncomfortable.
‘Don’t go,’ he called to her. ‘I was wondering if you would like to join me for a coffee or juice. There’s a café just up the road and they have the best coffee and smoothies.’
Flick turned back when she noticed that his voice seemed a little unsure. She was surprised by both the invitation and the tone. Before today, the man asking her to share a coffee had never even spoken to her. He had acknowledged her with little more than a nod in the corridor and now he wanted them to spend additional time together. She didn’t want to refuse but she also didn’t want to sit in the café in her shorts and bikini top and bare feet. She was happy to be on the beach dressed that way but would feel self-conscious in a restaurant filled with the lunch crowd while she was so scantily clad and shoeless.
‘I make a pretty good coffee too, I’m not even close to barista standard, but I can promise it won’t be instant either,’ she called back to him. ‘Would you like to come up to my place and I can make us both a cup.’
‘I don’t want to impose … or cut short your walk.’
‘You wouldn’t be doing either,’ she reassured him, feeling a warmth rush over her. She wanted to be near him. ‘I was heading back anyway and I don’t have any plans for the next hour or so and I’d feel more comfortable at home dressed like this.’
‘I suppose my gear’s not really befitting a restaurant,’ he remarked, looking down at his shorts and sports shoes as he caught up to her. ‘Although you look sensational, so there wouldn’t be any complaints from patrons or management if you waltzed in dressed like that.’
Flick smiled nervously. ‘Follow me,’ she said, half-wondering why she had suggested they head to her place. She barely knew Tristan but something about him made her feel safe. It was crazy, she knew, but her intuition was pushing her in a direction that reason would never normally have chosen. ‘And by the way,’ she said, ‘if we’re ditching protocol, my friends call me Flick.’
They talked for more than