Time for a Change (2 page)

“Oh, I’m so sorry.”
He sounded genuinely contrite.
“I’m Tony.
I thought it best to get your foot checked out by a doctor so I’m taking you to the closest emergency room.”
They both glanced down at her foot.
It didn’t look as bad as he’d made it seem.

“Maybe the emergency room is a bit extreme?” Sally wondered out loud.

“Maybe a bit.
But I’d still like you to get it looked at.
I know you expressed some concerns earlier.”
They’d reached the underground parking and he was guiding her towards a sleek black car.
He pressed his key and the car beeped.
Tony helped her into the car and closed the door.
As he got into the driver’s seat, her turned to her.
“How about we compromise.
I’ll take you to your family doctor instead of the E.R. and I’ll stay with you and make sure he doesn’t hurt you.”

Sally sighed at the inevitable.
He wasn’t giving up.
There wasn’t a chance in hell that she was letting him take her to the family doctor.
The doctor
was
family.
Her father.
No way, no how was she going in there with this stranger.
She knew it would only take moments after the visit for her mother to hear every detail from her father and it wouldn’t be long before she’d get the phone call.

She wanted to avoid that phone call at any cost.

“The hospital is close by.
Just take me to the E.R.”
Sounding less than grateful, she folded her arms across her chest and winced at a painful twinge in her foot.
“Bossy,” she mumbled under her breath.
There was small snort from the driver’s side of the car.

Forms filled in and waiting, Sally sat beside Tony in the waiting room in silence.
Before long her name was called and he stood up with her.

“Where are you going?” she asked in an urgent whisper.

“I’m coming with you, remember?
I promised not to leave you.”
He flashed her a grin that made her knees weak and walked beside her, holding her elbow gently as she limped forward.
When she was perched on the exam table and she’d taken off her shoe, he held it for her, hooking the strap over a finger.

“So, remind me again Tony, what is it exactly that you were doing at the lovely offices of Fincor this morning?
I know you don’t work there, I think I’d have remembered seeing you around.”
Another grin from him.
It occurred to her then that she’d been in his company for about an hour or so and this was the first time she’d thought to find this out.

“I’m the new financial manager for the Fincor group.”
Her gasp was loud in the room.
“Yes, technically I’m your boss.
I’m Andrea’s boss too,” he said with a wry smile.

“So…” A thought suddenly occurred to her.
“You’re here to make sure I’m okay?”

“That’s right.”
He nodded and swung her shoe slowly from the end of his finger.

“Right.”
She was brusque now, the previous friendly banter forgotten.
He’d come along to make sure she wasn’t going to take more time off than necessary, or drain the company medical aid (which she didn’t belong to anyway) or try and sue them for a work related injury.
“Well, you can leave now.
I’m fine, as you can see.
Fincor needn’t worry, I will be back at work tomorrow and my insurance will cover this.
Your money is safe.”
She looked away feeling embarrassed.
How stupid of her to think he could be there because he was concerned about
her
.
He was there to protect his stupid company money.

“Ah.
Like that is it?”
He raised an eyebrow as he looked at her.
“I think I’ll just wait and see, decide for myself.”

The doctor came in then and they fell silent.

“So, let’s see what you’ve done to yourself,” he said to Sally, helping her to lift her foot to the table.
As gentle as he was, she had to look away and was gripping the table tightly with both hands.
As the doctor cleaned the area with something stinging, she felt tears spring to her eyes.
It hurt, dammit!
This is why she stayed away from doctors!
“My dear,” the doctor was speaking to her again. “I’m happy to tell you that it’s not very serious.
I’m going to clean it out properly and make sure there’s nothing left in that little hole you made.
Then I’ll close it with tape, it will leave less of a scar on your pretty foot, and one quick tetanus injection and you’re done.”

All Sally heard was
injection
.
She felt her palms begin to sweat and her heart started racing.
The sound of her blood was roaring in her ears and she let out a small whimper.
Tony
was instantly next to her.

“Look at me,” he was saying.
“Look at me, Sally.
It will be fine.
It will be over quickly.
I’m here to take care of you remember.” His voice was soothing as he tried to calm her.
She hated needles.
The thought of someone jabbing something sharp into her flesh made her ill. Sally stared into his eyes.

Chocolate, she thought.
His eyes are the color of dark chocolate.
He was standing so close to her that she could see each individual eyelash that framed his eyes.
The smile that was supposed to reassure her only served to make him more attractive and for a moment she forgot what she was supposed to be unhappy about.
It felt like a rainbow had exploded in the room.
The sudden pain in her foot brought her crashing back to reality

“Ouch!” she squealed.

His gaze never left her face.
“Sally.
Focus on me.”
She looked into his eyes again and without hearing his words, listened to the deep soothing sounds of his voice.
The doctor was poking and dabbing at the little wound and Sally could see the concern on Tony’s face as he watched the expression of pain cross hers.

“Ouch,” she whispered, tears filling her eyes.

He said nothing, simply stepped closer and put his arms around her, drawing her close in a hug.
Suddenly Sally forgot why she was there or what she was supposed to be doing.
His arms felt strong and warm around her, shielding her from the outside.
She could smell his aftershave or cologne even more now and she closed her eyes and breathed deeply.
Her ear rested against his chest and she could hear the steady thump of his heart beating, strong and sure.

When she heard the doctor ask his nurse to pass him the syringe for the tetanus shot, she flinched.
This wasn’t going to be pretty or easy for any of them.

Tony leaned closer to her ear.
“He’s going to give you a shot now.”

“I know,” Sally mumbled and tensed her leg up, prepared for the jab in her foot.

“Um, no.
It doesn’t go in your foot.
You may want to stand up for this.
This one goes into your buttock.”
Sally lifted her head in shock and glared at the doctor who smiled back at her smugly.
 

“What?”

Tony took her by the hand and helped her to stand facing him.
Behind her back, he rolled his eyes at the doctor as if he was humoring her.
“You can hold onto me while you get the shot, okay?”

Sally nodded and leaned against him.
The nurse helped her to unzip her skirt and pulled it aside far enough to reveal her lacy g-string.
As the doctor swabbed with an alcohol wipe and then prepared to jab her, Sally looked up at him, grimacing in anticipation.
Tony leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her lips, taking her by complete surprise and distracting her enough that she was barely aware of the needle puncturing her flesh.
She felt a jolt of electricity flow through her, like nothing she’d felt before and looked closely at him to see if he’d felt it too.

A small frown furrowed his brow, as if he was confused by something.
 

Five minutes later she was storming out of the hospital and looking for her phone in her bag.
She’d have to call someone to come and fetch her but really!
The absolute cheek of the man!
He was so worried about his precious bottom line when he did his financial reports that he was prepared to compromise himself … and her!... and kiss her!
Sally was fuming.
She was so angry she could hardly speak so when she heard Tony behind her, calling her name, she didn’t turn around or reply.
Seeing a cab, she climbed in and shut the door behind her.

Much later she’d awoken from her nap at home and was stretched out on her sofa nursing her sore foot and aching butt, when the intercom buzzed.

“Hello?”

“Sally?” It was a man.

“Yes?”

“It’s me, Tony.
May I come up for a moment please?”

He sounded so sweet.
So polite and contrite that she couldn’t resist.
She wasn’t necessarily interested in what he had to say, she just wanted to look at him again.
She’d regretted dashing off and leaving him standing there, but he did kind of deserve it.
Sally opened the main door and unlatched her front door to let him in and went back to find her comfortable spot on the couch.

When Tony nudged the door open with his foot, Sally was taken aback to see his arms full of stuff.
“What the hell…?” she started saying, then got up to help him put things down.
There was a bag of what looked like groceries.
Another paper bag seemed to contain takeout food.
An expensive-looking bunch of flowers that had clearly not been picked up at the supermarket was laid on the kitchen counter.
Finally, he handed her a small brown packet with a pharmacy name on.

“You forgot to collect this when you left.
Pain pills and an antibiotic I suppose.
I imagine you must be ready for the pain pills by now.”
He’d left his jacket somewhere and now loosened the knot on his tie.

She gratefully accepted the packet and quickly swallowed her pills.
“And the rest?” she asked, gesturing to the stuff all over her counter.
He’d started unpacking the groceries and seemed unsure of where to put them.

“The flowers are an apology.
I’m sorry.
I kissed you and I shouldn’t have.
I took advantage of you in your moment of weakness.”

“Apology accepted,” she smiled at him.
They really were beautiful flowers.
She reached under the counter for a vase and filled it with water.
“And?” There was still the matter of the food items littering her previously uncluttered counter.

“I figured you wouldn’t be up to getting off to the shops or cooking.
Obviously I don’t know whether you have or need any of this, but I brought it just in case.”

There was everything from milk and croissants to tissues and sticking plasters.

“A little bit over the top, but thank you.
I wouldn’t have gone to the shop and now I can make you coffee.
Let me know how much I owe you please.”

Ignoring that, he ushered her back to the couch and lowered her onto it.
“I’ll make the coffee, just tell me where the cups are.”

Sitting next to her with his mug in his hand, Tony turned to face her, putting one arm along the back of her suede couch.
She’d never be able to sit on this couch again without thinking of him.
“I want to tell you something Tony.” He nodded for her to continue.
“Today isn’t the first time I’ve encountered an… accident.
Let’s call it an accident.
It’s not the first time I’ve needed to get to a doctor.
I appreciate your concern, and as much as it irks me, I won’t be suing the company, or you, for any kind of compensation.
I have insurance, and it’s all covered.”

Tony was nodding thoughtfully. “You aren’t on the company insurance?”

“No.”
She laughed.
“Too expensive for the peasants.
Most of us have our own.
There are a couple of staff in the center that have opted to go without coverage.
Besides, with the salaries we get paid, we need every cent with no deductions.”
She sat up straighter.
“You know all this right?”

“I do know,” he smiled at her.
“Now I’ll tell you something, and please keep it to yourself.
I was there today to let Andrea know we’re doing a full audit of that department.
She wasn’t happy.
In my experience, the only time people aren’t happy with an audit, is when they are scared of what my team will find.
In the couple of years she’s been running it, that department has gone from making money, to losing it hand over fist.”
He stared at her foot thoughtfully.
“Let’s eat”