They say that revenge only hurts
the one who administers it… well, sometimes that might be true. But when you
mix revenge and romance, there are no rules. Nothing is as simple as it looks.
*~*~*
Anita glared down at the piece
of paper in her hand. Stupid, stupid thing! Why had she ever become a
psychologist? Damn people and their problems. Why couldn’t they just sort their
own troubles out? It was Friday afternoon and she had to stay on because
someone was running late. She glanced down at the page. What was his name? ALEX
ADAMS. Well, she hoped that he was just slightly screwed-up. She couldn’t be
bothered to deal with anything more.
The plus side of being a
psychologist, she thought, was that she was never expected to talk. She just
had to listen. And listening was quite easy… it just got monotonous. It had got
to the stage where she didn’t really care any more. Everyone had problems. No one seemed happy any more. No one in Holby,
anyhow.
Oh wait. There were two happy
people in Holby. Tom Campbell-Gore and Diane Lloyd. Anita would have given
anything for those two not to be happy. Tom was old enough to be Diane’s
father, for Christ’s sake, Anita thought, conveniently ignoring the fact that
Diane was more-or-less her own age. In Anita’s mind, there was one woman that
Tom should be with, and her name was not Diane. Tom was just doing it to get at
her, she tried to convince herself. He was just trying to aggravate her. He was
obviously crazy about her.
When she realised that she was
shredding her patients’ notes, Anita stopped wallowing in self-pity, and
started looking for Sellotape. She swore under her breath as she dropped it,
and, as she bent under the desk to pick it up, hit her head.
“Are you alright?” asked a
voice.
“Fine,” she replied,
straightening up and rubbing the bump on her head. Stupid, stupid metal-edged
desk! And what a way to meet a new patient. Shows great things about the
therapist, if she can’t even pick up a roll of Sellotape properly. And when she
drops the Sellotape the moment she sees her patient… Well, she told herself, it
wasn’t like she did that whenever she saw any patient. Just the cute ones… and
he was gorgeous! She’d seen him before, of course – she’d used him to try and
split up Tom and Diane. But she’d never seen him close to. Wow…
“Are you Dr Forbes?” Alex asked,
looking shocked.
Anita just stared at him for a
moment, before realising that he’d asked her a question. “Sorry, what?”
“Are you Dr Forbes?”
“Yeah. Anita Forbes.” She sighed
and sat down. “You thought I’d be an old man, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t say that.” Alex looked
embarrassed. How did she know?
“It’s happened before. Sit
down.” She gestured to the chair. “So… why are you here?”
He looked uncomfortable, and,
gorgeous or not, Anita had to restrain herself from shouting at him. “I…” he
began. “I have Parkinson’s. My neurologist doesn’t think I’m coping too well…
he thought I should see a therapist.”
“And do you think you should see
a therapist?” she probed. Suddenly she didn’t care that it was Friday afternoon
and she’d wanted to get home quickly. She was perfectly content to stay in a
room with Alex Adams for an hour or so.
The session went quickly. Anita
was shocked when she looked at the clock and saw that it read seven o’clock.
“Time’s up,” she announced. “It was nice meeting you,” she added, as Alex got
up.
“Yeah, you too,” Alex replied.
As Anita went to open the door, he noticed the red mark on her head, where
she’d bumped it. “That looks painful.”
“It is.” She rubbed it and
turned away, conscious of the fact that Alex was staring at her.
“So, have you got any plans for
the evening?” Alex asked, casually.
Sure, a Marks and Spencer
microwave-able ready meal for one, eating my body weight in chocolate, slumping
in front of the TV, perfecting my voodoo skills with my niece’s Barbie doll
that I’ve named Diane, going to bed at the oh-so respectable hour of ten… Anita
didn’t think any of those were suitable answers. She settled for a simple,
“Nah. You?”
“No… was planning on going out,
drinking myself into a stupor,” he replied. She laughed politely. “Wanna join
me?” he added.
Anita was glad that she wasn’t
facing him. She could go as red as she liked. Was he asking her out? As his
therapist, or as a date? Was she allowed to do this? It would be the best
opportunity to make Diane jealous, of course, but still… But as she turned
around and saw his face, she didn’t have any answer other than, “Sure. Sounds
great. I enjoy drinking myself into a stupor…”
“Okay… you got any more
patients, or can you come now?” Alex queried.
“I’m free as a bird,” she
replied, cursing herself for the silly giggle that slipped out. Stupid…
“Let’s go, then,” Alex said, as
Anita picked up her bag. “Nice shoes,” he added, catching sight of the scarlet
heels she was wearing.
“These old things?” she asked,
glancing down at them. “They’re ancient.”
“They’re nice… very, erm, red,”
he replied, smiling at the stupidity of his comment.
“Thanks.” She enjoyed the looks
that they were getting as they walked through the hospital. And when they
arrived at the bar, she was almost walking on air as she caught sight of
Diane’s jealous look. Seemed as though Diane wasn’t satisfied with Tom, she
thought jubilantly.
“What do you want to drink?”
Alex inquired.
“Oh, ah, white wine,” Anita
replied, flustered. She’d been distracted by thinking about Diane and Tom. As
Alex handed her a drink, she stuck her tongue out at Diane. And then… Tom
appeared. He kissed Diane on the cheek, and sat down. When he wasn’t looking,
Diane stuck her tongue out at Anita.
“Do you know Diane?” Alex
queried.
Anita didn’t notice that Alex
had been looking. “Not really.”
“Why did she stick her tongue
out at you?” he persisted.
“Oh, I don’t know. Just joking,
I suppose,” Anita lied.
“She looked pretty serious.”
“Do we have to talk about Diane
Lloyd?” Anita asked, realising the moment that the words were out of her mouth
that she’d been too snappy. “Sorry.”
“No, it’s okay… So, tell me
about yourself,” Alex suggested. They spent a few hours discussing each other –
Anita tried not to be too therapist-ish – and, after a few hours (and a few
drinks), it felt perfectly natural that they were sitting very close together –
so close together that their heads were almost touching. Anita, on glancing up
a few times, almost choked on her drink as she saw Diane’s expression. Ahh…
revenge was sweet!
But when Diane leant in to kiss
Tom – all the while making sure that Anita was watching – it was perfectly
clear that she was thinking the same thing. Anita could cheerfully have killed
Diane at that moment – it was so unfair! Anita had a fleeting thought that it
was ridiculous, it would have been so much easier just to swap partners there and
then, but the thought quickly disappeared as Alex kissed her. That neatly swept
all thoughts of Tom from her mind.
As Diane got up to go to the
bar, she shot Anita a glare – that did it. How dare Diane firstly take the man
that Anita wanted, and then try and judge her for dating another man? Who was
she to say whom Anita could or couldn’t see? Taking a deep breath, for it
wasn’t the thing she normally did, Anita spoke. “Fancy coming back to mine?”
she asked Alex, as Diane passed them. Diane paused to listen.
Alex was surprised – Anita
didn’t seem to be that sort. But he barely hesitated before saying yes.
*~*~*
And somewhere along the line,
Anita found that Tom mattered less and less. When she’d planned to get revenge,
she hadn’t planned on falling in love with Alex. But she had. It hadn’t all
gone to plan, but still… revenge was sweet. Revenge had given her Alex. If it
hadn’t been for Diane, she’d never have found the man of her dreams. She told
Diane that, one day. Diane’s only response was to turn around and walk off in
the other direction. Anita found out the next day that Tom had found someone
else.
Revenge was truly sweet.