“I can grab something at the hospital.” Steph fought the overwhelming urge to close her eyes as she tried to summon up the energy and inclination to get out of bed.
“I meant food, Steph. That stuff at the hospital barely passes, so you get your arse in the shower and I will makeus something.” He moved slightly so he was leaning over her, looking into her eyes.
“I wish we could stay like this forever,” she mused closing her eyes dreamily.
“When your dad’s on the mend we’ll take some time off work and go away or just stay in and sleep, eat, watch movies and shag,” suggested Jon quite seriously.
“I already have my holiday booked with Lindsay so I will go with option two please.” She grinned up at him.
“Ah, so you’ve had your holiday request approved then?” He sounded completely serious and very corporate.
“What? No! I haven’t submitted one, but you knew I had a holiday booked when you offered me the job,” she said triumphantly now and smiled at him smugly.
“Well, me, the man who is sharing your bed, yes he knew, but Jonathan Brooker, your boss? He doesn’t have a clue and as you chose not to mention your existing holiday commitments, I’m not sure that he has to or actually will honour your commitments.” Jon grinned as he got up and grabbed a clean t-shirt and a pair of boxers from the drawer he now occupied in Steph’s bedroom.
“Please tell me you are joking,” she called after him as he headed for the bedroom door. “Jon!” she shouted, making him laugh. “You had better answer me, Jonathan!” she called now and giggled as she had never actually called him Jonathan to his face. He stopped immediately and turned to face her.
“If you weren’t on such a tight schedule this evening, I would be tempted to open negotiations on your informal leave request, Stephanie, but as you are, it will have to wait, darling, now move your beautiful arse.” He grinned before leaving her alone.
Steph had redressedin a pair of black jeans and a long sleeved, red t-shirt. She was zipping up the black leather ankle boots when Jon reappeared in the doorway of the bedroom. “Come on. You really need to go shopping and put some food in your cupboards. I thought we were going to end up with breakfast cereal at one point, but you didn’t have any milk, so we have omelettes.”
“Omelettes? I had the ingredients for omelettes?” She was genuinely surprised that there’d been any food at all.
“Yup, there was half an onion, a bit of shrivelled up red pepper, a corner of a block of cheese that wasn’t blue and half a dozen eggs, so omelettes. Let’s eat” he said authoritatively.
She obediently followed him and ate the food that he put in front of her and was forced to admit as he stared at the speed with which she ate, “I was hungry, hungrier than I had realised, thank you.” She placed her knife and fork on her empty plate making him smile. She returned his smile and then asked, “Are you staying here tonight?”
“No, darling I have to go and see my dad tonight, some business stuff.” Jon looked uncomfortable.
“Oh, okay. Business? What business stuff do doctors deal in? You’re not ill are you?” Worry suddenly replaced the suspicion she’d originally felt.
“I’m not ill, no, but my dad and I have some mutual investments and we need to talk through some details for the Brooker Foundation . . .” Jon allowed his voice to trail off.
“Oh. Shall I come back to yours then? It doesn’t matter if you’re back late, I am knackered anyway.”
“I may not come back tonight. I may just head straight to the office from my dad’s and I’ve agreed to breakfast with Lucy tomorrow,” said Jon hesitantly knowing that the mention of Lucy was likely to blow everything out of the water, especiallyafter the last couple of emotion fuelled days Steph had experienced.
“Oh, well, forget it then! I said I was knackered so better if I stay here on my own and leave you to get on. I might see you tomorrow, or I might not.” She was already on her feet, angrily grabbing her bag and keys.
“Steph, please, don’t do this, it’s not what you think,” he told her.
“So you keep telling me. It’s never what I think, is it, so what is it like, Jon?” She wasn’t sure what she expected him to say, but she wasn’t able to hide her jealousy. Jealousy and hurt.
“This really isn’t how I wanted to tell you, but, I can’t keep putting it off every time you tell me you don’t want to know. This could change everything between us,” he started as her phone rang.
She looked down and saw that it was Eddie calling and as much as she wanted to hear what he had to say, she was also relieved to have stemmed the flow of words from Jon if what he had to say was going tochange everything, she couldn’t ignore Eddie, not again.
“Hello,” she snapped.
“Hey sis, you okay?” Eddie sounded concerned.
“Yeah, sorry.” She calmed slightly. “Is Dad okay?” Worry immediately replaced her earlier annoyance.
Jon listened to her responses and quickly gathered that one of the others had bailed on visiting as one of their children had a sickness bug they couldn’t risk passing on to their father.
“Yes, I’m on my way now,” she replied and waved to Jon as she left making him frown at her as his own phone rang.
“Kramer,” she heard him answer but didn’t care about anything beyond getting to the hospital at that moment in time.
