smile, he could see, that wasnât comfortable every time her eyes settled on him. âWhy donât you share with everyone what the specific problems are for your department? We could do a brainstorm and set something in motion. It could be a true test of the skills youâre learning here on the course.â
Marjorie, the ward clerk from ward three, nodded in agreement, her gaze homing in on Matteo. âOkay, big-shot bottom, tell us what you need.â
He smothered a grin. That photo had certainlybeen one way of getting attention, unwanted but neverthelessâpeople certainly knew him now. âI need, in simple terms, a new dialysis machine, or funds to buy one.â
âBall park?â Ivy again.
âAround thirty thousand.â
âThatâs a lot of calendars youâd have to sell, Mr Finelli. How about you approach a fund starter website? That would be a great place to start. Some people are seeing amazing resultsâ¦â Ivy certainly got impassioned and enthusiastic about some things. âSet up an account and get people to pledge money. Those kinds of forums work because itâs a little more personal than just donating. You could have giveaways with each level of pledgeâsay, a plaque for a platinum sponsor. Plus a brochure and a personalised photograph or somethingâ¦â
âWeâve already got a perfect picture for that, eh, Matteo?â It was Marjorie again. His backside had certainly gone viral.
Ivy rolled her eyes. âThatâs enough about that picture, please. I am so over it. Really. As Iâve already explained to Mr Finelli, thatâs not the sort of image we want associated with St Carmenâsâas we can clearly see it distracts us from our purpose. Still, great work. Brainstorming certainly helps.â
One of the other doctors chipped in, âHowabout a charity run or a bike ride? A run might work betterâaround one of the parks? Hyde Park would be good. I know they allow a certain number of small events like that. Or Regentâs? Or a skydive?â
Ivy beamed and shot an I told you so look at Matteo. âAll of these things can catch the publicâs eyeâgiven enough warning, they would embrace it. We could get the message out via our usual social media outletsâcontact radio stations directly, and get their followers to get involvedâitâs a chain reaction. A personal message in a public forum often gets huge hits and a better positive response. Something like Want to fly high for St Carmenâs? Charity fundraising skydiving eventâhave fun and do some good! DM us back for details ⦠Or something. Thatâs off the top of my head, and youâd need to do it in conjunction with marketing.â
Matteo nodded, impressed with the enthusiasm, although daunted by the amount of time it would need to do all this. âIt sounds like a lot of work.â
âAnd weâre not afraid of that.â Ivy tapped her marker pen against her mouth as she thought. âIt would be a team effort, anyway. Small amounts of time and energy spent efficiently, in the right ways.â
He preferred it, he mused to himself, whenthat mouth was not talking. When it was kissing him. Who would have thought that was how the evening would pan out? It had been a surprise even to him. More so, the way sheâd kissed him back with such hunger had stoked a fierce heat inside him, one that had him wanting more from her in a way that he hadnât wanted someone in a very long time.
Which was warning enough. No more kissing.
The afternoon crawled along and eventually the workshops came to a close, and he wasnât sure whether it was such a coincidence that he was, once again, the last person to be leaving the room. His feet seemed to have started a revolution and were taking their time in walking towards the door.
âMr Finelli. May I, please, have a word?â She sounded like a schoolteacher.