The Bedroom Assignment

‘I’ll bear it in mind,’ said the doctor. He sounded as if he meant it.

Banana let out a wail like a thwarted six-year-old. The nurse urged her down again, repressing a smile.

‘Relax. A porter will be taking you up to the ward in a few minutes.’

Jay looked at Zoe. ‘Well, that seems to let us off the hook. Coming?’

She said goodbye to Banana, who ignored her, and followed him out of the hospital.

‘I’ll have to find the bus stop for—’

‘I’ll take you home, of course,’ he said, shocked.

‘And how are you going to do that?’ she said dryly.

He stepped out of the brightly lit entrance. In the darkness an engine switched on. From the shadows a car detached itself and slid up to the kerb in front of them. Zoe stared at it, half-astonished, half-annoyed.

‘Don’t tell me. You’re a magician.’

Jay shook his head. ‘Just a guy with a cellphone and a friendly limo service,’ he told her solemnly.

‘A friendly limo service that follows you around after dark?’

He laughed aloud at that. ‘No. They already knew I’d need a car some time tonight. I just called them when you were pacing around back there.’

‘Oh.’

He opened the door behind the chauffeur for her. ‘Where am I taking you?’

She gave him the address.

It was not what he was expecting. Annoyed with this further failure on the part of his office administration, he raised his eyebrows. ‘I thought you lived in North London?’

He saw that she was surprised. ‘I do. But when I know I’m going to be out really late I beg a bed for the night from a friend. No taxi driver in the known world wants to go to Muswell Hill after midnight.’

‘Ah.’

He closed the door behind her and gave the address to the driver. Then went round the car and got in beside her. It was a big car. He had room to stretch out his long legs. There was also plenty of room on the back seat. And if Zoe did not exactly huddle in the corner—well, she made sure that there were several cubic feet of air space between their bodies.

Jay did not like that.

‘Relax,’ he said acidly. ‘I’m not going to sack you just because our shoulders happen to touch.’

She tensed. He could feel it. But not because she was cowed.

‘That’s a relief,’ she retorted. ‘Is it all right if I have it in writing?’

Jay smiled to himself in the dark. That was his Zoe, coming out fighting.

‘On your desk Monday morning,’ he assured her.

He stretched comfortably, letting his arm extend along the back of her seat. She sent him a sideways look. He caught the turn of her head. ‘I’m counting on it,’ she said coolly.

And she turned in the seat so that she was almost facing him and his fingers did not reach her shoulder.

Oh, yes, she was fighting her corner, all right. Jay watched her as they flashed through intermittent light from the dark ened streets.

‘So who’s the friend?’ he said lazily.

He felt her jump. He saw the bright glint of eyes before her lashes veiled them.

‘Oh—Suze.’

‘Ah, Susan. Of course.’ It was stupid to be relieved that the friend’s flat she went back to did not belong to man. It had nothing to do with him who she dated, after all. But he was relieved. He couldn’t deny it.

‘She’s my oldest friend. She brought you to our party,’ she reminded him.

‘I remember. She must be quite a bit older than you.’

Zoe sighed. ‘I’m twenty-three. Suze is twenty-four.’

‘Ah, but Susan was born forty. A sophisticated forty.’ He added thoughtfully, ‘Which makes her about five years younger than my friend Hermann. Otherwise I’d be worried by the age difference.’

Zoe chuckled involuntarily. ‘I know what you mean.’

He looked at her curiously. He wished he could make out her expression. ‘I wouldn’t have thought you had much in common.’

‘You’d be wrong. We went to school together. We’ve seen each other through a lot.’

‘Ah.’

He badly wanted to say, Does she know you’re a virgin, too? But he couldn’t. Not with Petros sitting in front.