My Boyfriend Broke Up With Me IN THE HOSPITAL

After dropping Miranda and Eloise at the Heathrow Express, Nick returns. He has made a big hit with Eloise. That pleases me no end.

There’s a mid-morning lull in hospitals. Mr Hadjiminas has made his early morning visit. The nurses have finished making one’s bed, taking one’s temperature, checking one’s chest drains and all that well meaning prodding and poking that they do. The breakfast shift visitors have departed for work or the airport. The lunch shift visitors are still at home brushing their teeth.

Nick and I settle down together for a nice cup of tea. We chat about the lovely times we’ve shared. We chat about the craziness of the past ten days. About how wonderful it is that we have had so much fun because, hey, one’s life can change completely in any moment. Then, at last, we can no longer avoid the subject that is pulling on our coat sleeves, nagging at our consciousness like a nascent toothache. Nick is returning to Australia in a week’s time. We don’t know when we will see one another again. I had planned to go to Sydney this autumn. That won’t be possible now, if I’m to have a course of chemotherapy.

“How do you feel about that, baby?” I ask.

Nick looks at me and his face goes all weird, like he’s trying on different expressions, unsure of which one will be suitable for the occasion. He takes my hand in his.

Then Nick looks me in the face and says, “I think we should agree to see other people.” I stare at him. For a long time.

“So are you saying that you’d like me to go out with someone else?” I finally ask. “Because I can do that if you like. But just to be clear, if I do go out with someone else then I will be going out with him – not with you.”

Nick shakes his head and looks at the floor. “I don’t think I can be faithful to you Lily,” says Nick. My mind goes blank. Eventually I say the only thing that occurs to me, “Nick, you’re an idiot.”