‘Gabriel Romero,’ she mouthed in surprise as the world stopped.
He pulled up short in front of her. ‘Ana?’
Her old friend looked at her wide-eyed, and she took in the full extent of his dashing looks in a fraction of a second: the piercing yet warm brown eyes that had steadied her as a child and teenager into adulthood; the thick chocolate-brown hair that matched his beautiful dark skin; his sculpted face; and those adorable dimples that had always made him seem more boy than man. Now at thirty-two, as was she, he was just all man. Their locked gaze left her breathless, before any surprise at seeing him was quickly overshadowed by the severity of Mr Acosta’s condition.
His partner, Bruno Gomez—whom admittedly she hadn’t known as well as Gabriel had over the years—dropped to his knees beside the man. He swiftly assessed the situation. ‘Pulse is weak, respirations are shallow,’ he murmured to Gabriel, his gloved hand checking for signs of life. Mr Acosta wasn’t moving now and dread pooled in her stomach.
Gabriel looked up. ‘Possible myocardial infarction. Get the AED ready, Bruno.’
Bruno nodded and reached for the automated external defibrillator from their medical bag. ‘AED’s ready, Gabe.’
Bruno attached the AED pads to Mr Acosta’s chest as Gabriel continued monitoring his vital signs. ‘Analysing,’ the AED’s automated voice announced. They both stepped back as it assessed the situation. Ana held her breath. ‘Shock advised. Stand clear.’
A surge of anxiety gripped her, and she fought to stop herself gripping Gabriel’s arm. She had seen her share of medical emergencies, of course, but the urgency of this moment in her as yet unopened clinic seemed different for some reason. She glanced at Gabriel, who nodded, his face determined.
‘Clear,’ he declared as the AED administered the shock. The man’s body jolted briefly as the electric current coursed through him.
Bruno leaned in, listening to the man’s chest with a stethoscope. The man’s face made her want to cry suddenly. No! She could not have a man die here, not now, not ever! Her clinic would be a big failure before it even launched, and as for poor Mr Acosta...
‘We’ve got him!’ came Gabriel’s relieved announcement. ‘OK, we’re good, let’s get him to hospital.’
The two men talked coolly and calmly to Mr Acosta, and fixed him with the breathing apparatus. Ana remained calm and collected, making a call to Mr Acosta’s wife to tell her what was happening.
At the same time, she couldn’t help the way her mind was reeling, not just with the adrenaline of the moment, but with the rapid-fire memories coming at her the more she watched Gabriel in action. He had done a lot to help bring her to this point... Actually, did he even know this was now her clinic? He had always wanted more for her. He was the one who’d encouraged her to apply for medical school in the first place!
In minutes, they had Mr Acosta on the stretcher, breathing heavily but stable. Ana held the door open for the two paramedics, and grabbed her own car keys.
‘I’ll follow you,’ she said on the street, motioning to her wheelchair-adapted vehicle outside.
‘Are you sure? It’s getting pretty crazy out here already.’ Gabriel held her eyes for a second over the stretcher as he heaved it up into the back of the ambulance with Bruno. Her breath caught in her throat as he leaned out through the doorway, reached for her face and adjusted something in her hair. She had clean forgotten the marigold was still there, sticking out from behind her ear.
‘They were always your favourite flowers,’ he said, just before Bruno called to him, offering her an apologetic look over Gabriel’s shoulder. Ana fought the flush warming her cheeks.
‘I’ll meet you in A&E,’ she said quickly, sweeping past him, surprised and marginally annoyed by the fluttering in her belly at a time when she could have done with staying calm.
As she drove behind the ambulance in the blare of its siren, her cheek tingled with the lingering feeling of him rearranging flower in her hair after all this time. Of course, the city was big, but the medical scene was small, so it had always been just a matter of time before their paths crossed again.
Still, now she couldn’t stop thinking about their history together. Five years was a long time to go without seeing her friend, maybe even too long to pick up where they’d left off without it being a little weird, she thought, taking in a crowd of teens in feathers and sequins drinking soda by a pulsating speaker. Ana being in Bariloche for the last five years had cemented the divide, but they’d fallen out of touch even before that. She supposed he’d been too busy to check in as much, just as she had. He was a dad now; Dads were always busy. Or maybe those were just the excuses she’d been telling herself to trick her mind into falling out of love with him...
‘Mr Acosta is going to be fine; he’s stable, and his wife is on her way,’ Gabriel said later, closing the door to the treatment room and motioning Ana to accompany him down the hall. ‘Coffee?’
With the elderly man settled in recovery, Ana thought, what was another thirty minutes? Especially if it meant finding out what Gabriel Romero had been up to all this time.
Her heartbeat intensified yet again as she motored her chair alongside him through the labyrinth of corridors. Silly, she scorned herself. Once, maybe years ago, she’d had a hard crush on Gabriel, but that had been stomped out pretty fast once she’d realised he definitely did not feel the same way about her. The fact that he’d had a child with a relative stranger proved she’d hardly known him at all, really!
He looks beyond handsome in his uniform, though, she thought to herself as they made for the cafeteria. And Ana didn’t miss the way he kept shooting her sideways glances as he stopped briefly to discuss something with a tall, muscular man whose name tag read ‘Dr Carlos Cabrera’. She’d never seen Carlos before.
A&E was a hubbub of activity as usual. Nurses called out names, another ambulance arrived in a blare of sirens outside and Ana wheeled her chair alongside Gabriel, noting the acrid, astringent smell in the air and the lack of colour. Her clinic would always smell fresh, if she could help it, such as using flowers, she decided. It would always be a place of calm...at least, compared to this. It was more than a little strange just being here in the giant, hectic Hospital General de Buenos Aires, after all the time she’d spent in quieter, smaller establishments, let alone being with Gabriel.
‘You look really well,’ Gabriel said, holding open the cafeteria door for her. ‘I see you’re still as colourful as I remember. Nice shoes, by the way.’
‘Why, thank you!’ He was such a charmer. That hadn’t changed, then. Gabriel had always complimented her choice of clothing, unlike her mother, who’d suggested on more than one occasion that it was unprofessional. Ana disagreed, of course. Mama was always trying to help in ways Ana didn’t need her to; besides, she could do her job in any size, shape or colour of clothing, as long as she was always sitting down. Not everyone knew how to approach a GP in a wheelchair, so she’d learned over the years to hit them with the real her before they could imagine her as someone else in their own heads.
Gabriel sat her down in a quiet corner of the cafeteria, undisturbed. Soon they were sipping their coffees. His dark hair was still short, almost shaved to the scalp, which only intensified his liquid brown eyes as they talked.
Her stomach twisted with guilt as he talked about Javi. The little boy was already five—how had that even happened? Maybe he thought she was a terrible friend for not reaching out sooner...but he’d have been so busy, being a father to baby Javi, and she’d felt bad taking up his time. He had always wanted to be there for her, so maybe a part of her had felt that, if she wasn’t around, he wouldn’t be able to and she’d free him somehow. The distance had also been a pretty convenient way to get over her unrequited crush, seeing as never in a million years would he feel the same way about her.
‘How are your parents? I see Martina quite a lot in the grocery store; she always says you take ages to return her calls.’ He grinned even as Ana flinched.
‘Well, now, my mother can just walk down the street to me, like old times,’ she said with a wry smile. ‘Lucky me.’
He stifled a laugh and she felt her eye twitch. Gabriel knew how overbearing both Juan and Martina had always been. She’d been lucky, she supposed. Well, as lucky as a girl with a spinal cord injury could be, in that she’d never let other people’s impressions of her, or her condition, stand in her way. Not that people hadn’t tried. Her own parents, as well-meaning as they were, had never abandoned their tendency to try and wrap her up safe and tight in cotton wool. There’d been a decade when they’d barely let her leave the house alone. She’d had to battle every cousin, aunt, uncle and grandparent over the years to be able to do anything independently at all.
But Gabriel...he’d always been different. Consequently, her crush on him had grown and grown, until she’d almost been bursting with her secret feelings. Gabriel had been the ever-present friend, platonic, and completely oblivious to the fact that, upon reaching their teenage years, and with the two of them being pretty much inseparable, Ana had wanted more.
The cafeteria was filled with people, and the sound of voices talking filled the air, along with the strong smell of coffee. It should have been quite comfortable talking to him, despite her old feelings, which had probably started around the time she’d turned twelve or thirteen. They’d grown up together after, all, the two of them and their families. He’d been the first one to jump in front of her whenever one of the mean kids had tried to bully her because of her wheelchair—her hero! But he’d never known about her massive crush on him. How could he? She’d feared his rejection so much that she’d never told him. And, besides, how could she tell him that, hear him say, ‘Er, no thanks, Ana’ and then go back to being friends? There was just no way!
There had been one point when he’d asked to see her, all serious and nervous-looking, and she’d freaked out inside, thinking, finally, he was going to tell her he knew how she felt about him, and that he had feelings for her too. Her heart had swelled to the size of a balloon as she’d sat there opposite him in the park, watching him wringing his hands together.
Just kiss me, she’d willed him. Just do it before I burst!
Then of course he’d told her about Ines being pregnant and that they were going to make it work because she wanted to keep the baby. Talk about being blindsided.
‘So...tell me about this clinic,’ he said now, gesturing with his cup. ‘I saw the plaque on the wall, Ana. I know it’s what you always wanted. Look at you, taking over from the barrio’s favourite GP. Dr Az only ever had you in mind for that. When does it reopen?’
Ana breathed a harried sigh through her lips. ‘I know, crazy, right? It opens officially on Monday.’ She told him how she’d been so worried that things wouldn’t come together in time, but soon her usual excitement was shining through as she told him all about her plans—from hiring the staff and finding donations from local businesses for the toys and furnishings, to decorating the interior and selecting medical equipment—it felt as if no detail was too small for her to go into. He listened intently, as he always did.
‘It all sounds very impressive.’ He smiled warmly. There were those butterflies again, she thought. They flapped even harder in her chest as he added softly, ‘You were missed around here, you know.’
