Downshire Diary – (34) Moonlighting

 

Sharon Black was a pretty nurse with straw coloured hair, and despite the fact that she was almost six feet tall, she looked like a breadth of wind might blow her away.

But she was a very strong character and full of self-confidence, but it hadn’t always been that way because when she was a young girl she lived in the village of Bracefield in the Finchbottom Vale and she was painfully shy.

But that was a long time ago and now at the age of 33 she was comfortable in her own skin.

She hadn’t lived in Bracefield for many years and she lived alone in her own two bedroom house on a new development in the south of the town.

She had tried living with someone else and almost became engaged to him but after two months she realised two things, first that she didn’t love him and secondly that she preferred living alone. 

Sharon was an oncology nurse by profession and worked at the Winston Churchill Hospital but in order to pay for her to live alone in her own house, which she loved, she had to supplement her income with some private work.

So she started moonlighting for a private nursing agency and did a wide variety of roles, evenings and weekends, the only thing she refused to do was to work at the Churchill Hospital where she worked out of, as she thought that was taking liberties.

 

So that was why every other weekend Sharon made her way up to a private house on the outskirts of the Village of Tipton in the north of the county.

It was a big Art Deco house built in the thirties, very elegant and very stylish but for its owner Michael Booth it had become like a prison because even a gilded cage was still a cage.

He was a good looking man in his late thirties slim and even elegant and he always smelt gorgeous but the reason for his imprisonment was his wife’s illness.

Sharon’s role in regard to Nuria Booth was palliative care.

 

Normally when Sharon was on the night shift all she had to do, apart from managing the patients medication was to just sit with them.

So it enabled her to nap quite a lot so as not to impact on her day job, and she was fortunate in one respect that she had never slept for more than 6 hours a night in her whole life.

But with the Booths she stayed for the whole weekend and by the beginning of June, Nuria was very far along and barely conscious.

 

It was about three o’clock in the morning when Sharon woke from a restful dose, so she checked the patient and then decided to go and get herself a hot drink.

She crept slowly and quietly down the stairs so as not to disturb Mr Booth.

Sharon tip toed her way down until she was startled by a sound, which made her stop and then after listening intently for a full minute she then carried on.

As she approached the kitchen she noticed a light under the door of his Study.

 

Sharon Black crept slowly and quietly down the stairs from her patient Nuria Booth’s room so as not to disturb Mr Booth.

She tip toed her way down the staircase until she was startled by a sound, which made her stop and then after listening intently for a full minute she then carried on.

As she approached the kitchen she noticed a light under the door of his Study.

 

She made herself a drink and then went to investigate the light in the study and when she got closer she noticed the door was slightly ajar and she could see Michael Booth seated at his desk.

“Hello Mr Booth” Sharon said pushing the door open

“Is everything alright?” he said startled

“Yes I was just getting a drink” she replied

“Are you ok?” she asked and entered the room and approached him.

“If you’re having trouble sleeping I can give you something” she said

“I’m fine really” he said

“I don’t think you are” Sharon said and sat herself on the corner of his desk “So come on out with it”

He didn’t say anything immediately but Sharon noticed he was staring at her legs, and then he realised she had noticed and looked away.

“Well I’m ashamed to say it but…. I’m bored”

He admitted

“I can’t go out of the house and leave her but I can’t have people over here either”

“It’s not just that though is it?” she said as she noticed his eyes on her legs again.

“No” he agreed “I feel guilty because I resent her and her illness keeping me here”

“I see” she said

“Does that make me a terrible person?”

“Of course it doesn’t make you a terrible person Mr Booth”

“Please call me Michael”

“Of course it doesn’t make you a terrible person Michael” she said

“You love Nuria very much and it hurts like hell to watch her slipping away”

“She isn’t slipping away though is she? She’s dying by inches”

Michael said “and its torture”

Michael Booth was a very wealthy man with business interests all over Downshire but even with all his wealth he was helpless to help his wife.

“I know” she said “And all you can do is be there for her, hold her hand and talk to her, read to her, and let her hear your voice”

Michael nodded

“Any way I should get back” she said “Good night”

“Good night” Michael said and he watched her leave the room and as he had shown such an interest in her legs during their conversation she thought she would give him something more tantalizing to look at and walked out very slowly, and her boldness surprised her even though she was very self-confident.

Her brazenness of course was due to the fact that she had grown very fond of him over the months she had been nursing his wife.

But that night was the first time she realised that he was attracted to her.

“He really likes my legs” she thought as she climbed the stairs

 

Although Sharon Black had grown very fond of Michael Booth in the months that she had been nursing his terminally ill wife, and flattered though she was when she caught him ogling her legs, she had far too much professional integrity to act on her feelings.

But he had undoubtedly awoken feelings in her that she thought had gone forever.

 

Michael Booth was a good looking man in his late thirties slim and even elegant and he always smelt gorgeous.

But despite his great wealth he was sad, lonely and guilty, sad because the woman he loved was dying, lonely because of his self-imposed imprisonment in his home and guilty because of his growing feelings for Nurse Black.

 

Sharon Black was not the only nurse that looked after Nuria, he had twenty four hour a day, and seven day a week cover but she was the only nurse he looked at with a lustful gaze was Sharon and not because she was the only attractive one among them, which was why he felt so guilty.

Because if he’s lusted over every woman that stepped over his threshold he could have written it off as simple objectifying.

But instead he was only attracted to Sharon so that was a horse of a different colour.

 

He loved his wife Nuria, and he had done for all of the 15 years they had been married and the two years they were together before that, but it was breaking his heart watching her decaying before his very eyes.

 

Sharon was fully aware that she was on his radar and not just because he had shown such an interest in her legs.

And although she had dismissed it as a possibility for all manner of reasons, inappropriate and unprofessional being only two of them, she still found herself looking forward to her weekends in Tipton every other weekend.  

 

Michael was a lonely, soon to be widower, as his wife Nuria was dying.

Almost every waking moment he had thoughts of Sharon filling his head but he knew there would be no betrayal on his conscience.

He had far too much integrity to allow anything to happen like that and if he were to fall from grace the guilt would have lain heavy on him.

But he still felt guilty for having the thoughts in the first place, but it wasn’t just a physical thing, he really liked her and felt a connection to her.

 

Sharon was also conflicted having feelings for him whilst trying to remain loyal to her patient and so as she drove north from Abbottsford on Friday evening she promised herself that she wouldn’t do anything provocative or alluring but she promised herself that every time she set off but each time she failed.

 

Which was why when Sharon woke from a restful dose at three o’clock in the morning, after checking her patient, she decided to go downstairs because she knew that Michael would be sitting in his study.

She crept slowly and quietly down the stairs so as not to disturb him if he was asleep and so she tip toed her way down until she was startled by a sound and then she knew he was awake and when she got downstairs could see a light under the door of his Study.

 

“Hello Michael” Sharon said pushing the study door open “trouble sleeping again?”

“I’m afraid so” he said

“I was just getting a drink” she replied “Would you like one?”

“No I’m fine” he said

“I’m just going to read for a bit”

Sharon sat herself on the corner of his desk and he immediately began staring at her legs, she was unaware at that moment that he was  showing such an interest in her legs not that she was about to give him something even more tantalizing to look at.

She had seen in her peripheral vision that there was a book on the far corner of the desk so Sharon stood up and in one fluid movement turned around and reached across the desk to retrieve the book.

“So what are you reading?” she said without returning to the perpendicular.

“Dickens” he said in answer to her question while he stared at her wonderful figure as she was reaching over the desk but then his conscience got the better of him and he got up abruptly

“I think I’ll give it a miss after all” he said and left

 

As Sharon made herself a hot drink she reflected on the event that had occurred and thought that neither of them would be able to sleep any more that night.

 

After having her evening meal with Michael on Sunday, Sharon Said her goodbyes and headed home unbeknown to her that she would not be making the drive north for another weekend of moonlighting because three days later her patient Nuria finally ended her fight and slipped quietly away in the night.

 

So the next time she made the drive northward was to attend Nuria’s funeral, and she later found out that she was the only one of her nurses who bothered.

It was difficult when you were a palliative care nurse because all your patients died, and you couldn’t attend every funeral, so you just went to the ones where you had made a special connection, either with the patient of the family.

 

The funeral was held at St Hilda’s church in Tipton village and the wake was held at the Tipton Manor Hotel.

It was what Michael considered to be a proper funeral where everyone wore black, the men in black suits and ties and the women in the whole ensemble.

Which he always thought was nice, it was tradition, he liked tradition, and he also liked women in black and it would normally have been a source of titillation with all the women present dressed in black, but not of course on that day however as he was too emotionally drained to be interested in such things.

Even when he saw Sharon Black walking towards him, which was the first time he’d seen her out of uniform, he was unmoved.

But he was pleased to see her there nonetheless and he found her presence a great comfort and at the end of proceedings she held his hand and gave him her contact details.

“In case you want someone to talk to” she said and kissed his cheek.

 

Sharon continued in palliative care at the Winston Churchill Hospital as well as moonlighting for the agency but all the while Michael wasn’t far from her thoughts but it wasn’t until more than three months after the funeral that she heard from him again.

It was a Sunday morning just after 3 am, she was doing a weekend shift in Shallowfield and he knew with her habit of taking a hot drink in the wee small hours when she was on duty that there was a reasonable chance he would find her awake.

She opened the email and it began

“I’m sitting in my study reading Dickens and I thought of you”

 

Over the weeks and months that followed emails between them continued more often than not in the middle of the night and she found that even when she wasn’t working she would wake at 3 am just to check her mail.

 

The content of the mails varied considerably so were very informative, explaining that he was back at work and looking to the future, and some were quite candid such as when he told her that he didn’t want to contact her as a grieving widower looking for a sounding board or a shoulder to cry on, he wanted to wait until he could contact her as a friend with potential.

 

By the time the first anniversary of Nuria death had come and gone the correspondence had become romantic in nature and often quite intimate.

But once the anniversary had passed the email traffic stalled and each of them was waiting for the other to say or do something so when after she had awoken at 3 am one Sunday morning at the end of June to find no email, she showered and dressed and was in the car heading north by 5.30am.

 

She arrived at the house on the outskirts of the Village of Tipton in the north of Downshire.

It was a big Art Deco house built in the thirties, very elegant and very stylish just like its owner.

She hadn’t seen him for over a year but she had the picture of him in her head.

He was a good looking man in his late thirties slim an even elegant and he always smelt gorgeous and she was really looking forward to having the fragrance in her nostrils again.

But as she stood on his porch her head were full of doubts and she suddenly felt foolish.

And she thought about turning tail and returning home but then the door opened and a smiling Michael was standing there.

 

“Come in” he said and Sharon walked nervously in as invited.

It was not like her she was normally ultra-confident but she stepped into the hall she felt very timid, and having got there she had no idea what to do next.

But it was no more than a minute or so after she’d walked in and taken off her coat before he took the initiative and took her in his arms.