LITMIR.BIZ

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learned to speak English to a level she could be understood without too much difficulty she must’ve been around the medical staff a long time.

      ‘I was this high when I came with my brother.’ Chi held her hand less than a metre above the floor. Ellie guessed she was now closer to one hundred and twenty centimetres. ‘Long time ago. My brother was this high.’ Half a metre off the floor.

      ‘Is your brother still here, too?’

      Chi blinked, the pride gone, replaced with stoic sadness. ‘He died. The bomb cut off his leg and the blood ran out.’

      Ellie shuddered. Reality sucked, and was very confronting. Flying fragments of metal did a lot of damage, and were often lethal. It had been a spur-of-the-moment decision to come here. When she’d heard about Sandra’s family crisis she’d thought about the weeks looming with nothing to keep her busy before she took up her next job and put her hand up. Helping people in these circumstances was so different from working in an emergency department back home, where life was easier and a lot of things like medical care taken for granted. Here people, many only young children, were still being injured, maimed or killed by bombs that had been left lying around or shallow buried decades ago.

      ‘Louise and Aaron adopted me. My mother and father are gone, too.’

      How much reality should a child have to deal with? Leaping out of bed, she scooped the girl into a hug. ‘I’m so happy to know you, Chi.’

      ‘Knew I couldn’t trust a female to get my message across without stopping to yak the day away.’ Luca stood in the doorway, his trademark grin including both her and Chi in that comment.

      With sudden clarity Ellie understood how much she’d missed that grin and the man behind it. Missed their conversations about everything from how to put a dislocated shoulder back into its socket to which brand of beer was the best. They’d argued, and laughed, and fought over whose turn it was to clean the house. They’d cheered each other on in exams while secretly hoping they did better than the other.

      She ran to throw her arms around him. ‘I’m glad I’ve found you again.’

      ‘I’m glad, too, because tomorrow’s your turn to do the washing.’ He laughed against the top of her head.

      His hands were spread across her back, his warmth seeping into her bones and thawing some of the chill that had taken up residence on the morning she came home from work to find Freddy and Caitlin in her marital bed, doing what only she should’ve been doing with her husband. She breathed deep, drawing in the scent that was Luca, her closest friend ever, and relaxed. Friends were safer than husbands and sisters, the damage they wrought less destructive.

      ‘I have missed you so much.’ I just hadn’t realised it. How dumb was that? Who forgot someone important in their lives because they’d fallen out about a man? Not any man, but Freddy. Luca had been right about him, but she wasn’t going to acknowledge that. She couldn’t bear to see the ‘I told you so’ sign flick on in his eyes again. Not yet anyway. Even if she could laugh because he’d won that argument there was too much pain behind it for her to be ready to make light of what had happened. That day would probably never come. ‘We should never have stopped texting or emailing even when we were in different cities, no matter what we thought about what the other was doing.’

      Luca swung her around in a circle, her feet nearly taking out the bed and then the chair with Chi sitting on it. ‘I do solemnly swear never to stop annoying the hell out of my best buddy, Ellie, ever again.’

      ‘Look out.’ Chi leaped on top of the chair out of the way of Ellie’s legs. ‘Ellie makes you crazy, Luca.’

      Ellie was put back on her feet and then Luca grabbed Chi and swung her in a circle. ‘You’re right, she does. I’d forgotten how to be crazy until today.’

      Chi giggled and squirmed to be put down. ‘Ellie, can I be your friend, too? I want to be crazy.’

      ‘Absolutely. We’ll be the three crazies.’ Ellie reached for the girl and hugged her tight, trying hard not to let the lurking tears spill. What a day. What a damned amazing day. She’d found Luca, gained a new friend and was starting to feel a little bit like her old self. A teeny-weeny bit, but that was a start.

      ‘Okay, crazies, time Ellie got ready to go out. Chi, I’m sorry but you’re too young to go to a bar, but I’m sure we’ll find somewhere else to take you while Ellie’s here.’ Luca cleared his throat and when Ellie looked up she’d swear there was moisture at the corners of his eyes, too.

      It was all too much to cope with. Seeing Luca get all emotional wasn’t helping her stay in control. ‘Go on, shoo, both of you. I’m going to take another shower and get spruced up.’

      ‘It’s a bar in Vientiane, no need for glad rags.’ Luca grinned. Then slapped his forehead. ‘Oh, I forgot. Lady El won’t be seen anywhere in less than the best outfit.’

      She picked up her pillow and threw it at him. ‘Get out of here.’

      She hadn’t arrived in the best-looking outfit, even if she’d started out looking swanky back in Bangkok after a shower at the airport. But hey, in the interest of her self-esteem she wasn’t going out in a sack, either. Though maybe here where the temperatures were so hot and the humidity high and everything definitely casual she could let go some of the debilitating need to be perfect. After all, there was no one here that she desperately had to please. Not even her friend. Luca had always accepted her for who she was, even if he did tease the hell out of her at times.

      Suddenly she realised she was only dressed in a T-shirt and knickers; her bra lay on top of her discarded trousers. This might be Luca, but she had some pride. Glancing at him, she was dismayed to see his gaze was cruising down her body, hesitating on her breasts. She couldn’t read the look in his eyes, but it was different from how he’d ever looked at her before.

      Ellie shivered—with heat and apprehension. What was going on? ‘Get out of here. I’ll see you shortly.’ She needed a shower, a very cold one.

      * * *

      ‘Like your dress,’ Luca told her an hour later as she perched her backside on top of a high stool and leaned her elbow on the bar. ‘When did you start wearing red?’ His eyes held the same expression they had back in her room.

      She chose to ignore it. ‘Since I found the most amazing saleswoman in a very exclusive boutique.’ It was true. That lady was very skilled at her job and her shop was Ellie’s favourite, though lately there hadn’t been any call for beautiful dresses.

      The one she’d slipped into tonight was a simple sheath that was casual yet elegant. Her new look, she decided there and then. No more going for the tailored, exquisite clothes her husband had demanded she wear even to cook dinner. She’d miss the amazing clothes because she had loved them but hated the criticism rained down on her for not looking perfect enough. But, hey, she wasn’t in that place anymore. She was with Luca in Vientiane. Ellie grinned. A real, deep all-or-nothing grin. Life was looking up. Strange glances from Luca or not.

      ‘What’s up? You look as if you won the lottery,’ Luca pushed a glass of Beer Lao towards her.

      The condensation on the glass made her mouth water and that was before she’d tasted the contents. ‘As good as, I reckon. I’m starting to unwind and enjoy myself.’

      ‘Things haven’t been so great for you recently?’ There was a guarded look in his eyes as though he was afraid of overstepping the mark. Something they’d never had to worry about in the past.

      A deep gulp of beer and then, ‘You were right. Freddy was an a-hole. I left him and now I’m trying to decide what it is I really want from my life.’

      ‘I’m sorry to hear that.’

      No gloating, thank goodness, or she’d have tipped her beer over his head. And that would’ve been such a waste. It was delicious. ‘You know what? I’m not sorry.’ It had only just occurred to her but, no, she was not sorry that episode of her life was

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