Baring It All

"I think he swapped out of your class, probably had a work clash or something so you may have seen him- tall, muscular, blonde hair, blue eyes and freckles. His smile is something else too!"

"He kinda rings a bell," I lied knowing full well it was Ethan she was describing.

"I like him- he focusses on muscles and I can see he is trying to be anatomically correct."

"At least he's not tits and ass dude!" I retorted and we both laughed.

The next two years of uni flew by. Jeremiah and Betsy celebrated their engagement at The Roy in an upstairs room. I was scared of bumping into Ethan but I never saw him. I had told Martin I wanted to head up north for my grad year and experience nursing in a different area to the city. Katrina was pregnant with their first child and I insisted they stay in Mum's house. They were both going to focus on private lessons for university students and I knew the front room would be perfect for this.

Saying goodbye to Camilla was hard. She told me that I was welcome to come back at any time and suggested if ever I was in town she would put on a special class for the many students who had appreciated my body. Saying goodbye to Betsy and Jeremiah was harder. Betsy had a job at Mum's old hospital and had formed a friendship with Mandy. I promised I would still be her bridesmaid in twelve months' time.

Betsy convinced me to have farewell drinks at The Roy and I figured if I bumped into Ethan I might even hook up for the night despite it being midweek. I'd had a couple of one-night stands at end of semester parties I had been to, but never formed a serious relationship with anyone. It was a fun night but there was no sign of Ethan. I recognised a few of the doctors I had worked with on that fateful placement, but none came to speak with me. I ended up heading home alone, ready to drive north the following day.

"Now drive safely!" Marin hugged me as I packed the last of my belongings into my car.

"I will! And you look after Katrina- she needs rest!"

"He looks after me just fine!"

I was so glad to see my brother had found his soulmate and yearned for a similar experience.

"I know you've got 8 weeks to go, but I've spoken to my manager and she has already arranged the roster so I can have a 4 day weekend in 10 weeks so if you go any longer than that..."

"I won't and I can't wait for you to meet our little one, Auntie Bridge!"

The drive north was uneventful. I had been warned the wet season could mean some roads would be shut, but I was lucky. I had three four-month contracts and was told the doctors and nurses would rotate as a group. I started in a small mining town that everyone said was in the middle of nowhere. It was a three-day drive from Brisbane, and I knew that there would be two grad nurses and an intern and registrar rotating together. It was a difficult program to get into, but I knew I would develop skills that I could not dream of experiencing in the city. The fact that accommodation was also supplied was a plus.

"Hi, I'm Bridget Dickson, one of the new grad nurses." I introduced myself to the nurse on duty the Saturday afternoon I arrived.

"Bridget! Welcome! I'm Maria and I've been here for seven years now with my family- I warn you, we came here for one and stayed! You are the third to arrive! Dr Kim is the intern with you, and she arrived earlier, and Nathan is the other grad nurse who arrived yesterday. I'll show you over to the quarters. We are expecting the Registrar tomorrow."

I could see Maria was a talker. As we walked to the staff quarters, she told me about her migration from the Philippines as a child.

"I came here when I was four, but every so often, watch it, I start speaking like my mother! I've cooked you all dinner and it's in the kitchen. I hope you like noodles."

I already knew I was going to love Maria.

"Kim, Kim! Come here! This is Bridget, one of the new nurses. I hear she's good!"

"Thanks Maria!" I laughed, "But I'm brand new and I feel like I know nothing!"

"You and me both, sister!" Kim replied, "I feel like I was at graduation yesterday and now I can legally write prescriptions!"

Throughout the year wherever we went, well-meaning patients would ask Kim where she was from.

"Brisbane." She'd tell them.

"Nah, really doc, where were you born?"

"Brisbane!" She'd reply with a laugh!

"Yeah, but your parents?"

"Cairns! I think if you are asking about my ancestry, my very distant grandfather came over from China in the goldrush in the 1870s so I class myself as an Aussie!"

Maria also introduced me to Nathan. He was a proud Torres Strait Islander man, a true First Australian.

I learnt so much from Nathan about our nation's history. He was the first from his family to go to university and was only 21 but was so proud his brother had been drafted by an Aussie Rules Football club.

"So, who is the Reg going to be again?" Kim asked Maria.

"Samuel or something. He's coming up from Brisbane too."

Maria's food was better than good, it was amazing. Nathan commented that it was like a Torres Strait Islander dish his mother made. I was twenty-eight and took Nathan under my wing like a little brother. When I first heard his name, my mind wandered back to that Chicago hotel room, but this Nathan was nothing like Nate.

Over dinner Kim talked of her girlfriend, Simone who was also a doctor and was doing the same rotations as us, but in a different order.

"Won't you miss each other?" I asked.

"Yeah, but there's always skype or a phone call and we get a week off at the end of each four months so we'll have that time together. We both agreed it was an amazing start to our careers. How about you? Left a fella at home?"

"Not exactly. It's been years since I've been in a relationship and that was a bit of a disaster. I've, um, well never been confident with my body to really open up to anyone."

"What do you mean? I mean I think you're gorgeous!"

"I used to be a lot bigger than this. I ate my way through the grief of my father dying and then when my mum died I didn't want to die early like she did."

"So, you're worried about someone seeing you naked then?" Kim hugged me.

"Not exactly. I worked as a life model through uni, but that wasn't sexual or anything. I mean, I've had a few flings, but I'm scared to let anyone get close to me. I still don't trust myself and think I'm going to end up being humongous again. There was this guy that I did really like, but I just couldn't trust myself to say yes."

"Torres Strait women are usually curvy ladies and us men find them sexy as all fuck!"

It was strange hearing Nathan talk like that.

"What about you? Got a friend of either gender?" Kim asked him.

"Nah, no one special. I mean, I do like this girl back home, but I went to college to do business or something and we lost touch. I dated a girl at uni for a few months, but her folks didn't like her being with a black man and apparently I didn't live up to the porn star image of black men!"

We had been chatting for an hour or so and I already knew I was going to be lifelong friends with these two colleagues.

"Gee, I hope Samuel's an ok kinda bloke, I mean, I suppose he can always be on the outer of us three amigos!" Nathan said and we all laughed.

"Ah here they are!" Maria was back and my jaw dropped.

"Kim, Nathan, Bridget, meet Ethan Samuels, the other doctor with you this year. The fool drove through the night last night to get here a day early. I have already told him off. He's lucky he dodged the kangaroos!"

"Um, I'm exhausted. I've had a long drive and I'm going to go to bed." I said looking at Kim and Nathan.

"Bea," Ethan started, "Wait."

I was racing to my room and I could hear Maria, Kim and Nathan talking about Ethan and me. I could also hear Ethan's footsteps behind me.

"Bea," Ethan placed his hand on my shoulder, and I turned to face him, "I came out here for two reasons. The first, I have a genuine interest in rural medicine and one day hope to work in a rural area. The second, I met this girl a couple of years ago that I have not been able to forget. No one has lived up to her kind and caring nature, or her beautiful, sexy body. If you are still taken and seeing someone, I will arrange a transfer like that, because I will not be able to cope being with you for the next twelve months knowing I can't have you."

I stood there with tears streaming down my face. Kim had poked her head around the corner and retreated when she heard Ethan's declaration. I guessed she, Nathan and probably Maria were still listening.

"I was never taken; I was just scared. I mean, look at you, you're gorgeous. You could have any woman you want, and I couldn't see why you'd want me."

Ethan tilted my chin and leant in and kissed me. It was soft. It was tender.

"For the benefit of those in the cheap seats around the corner," Ethan started as Kim, Nathan and Maria poked their heads around, "Bridget and I go back and have a bit of a history, but fate or kismet or sheer chance has brought us here and, well, I just thought you should know that. Now Kim and Nathan, tomorrow we can get to know each other more, but I need, no I want to catch up with Bridget tonight if that's ok."

"I thought I smelt love!" exclaimed Maria, "Now you two- down the back there is a path that leads to a dry creek. There's a bit of water in it now so take a torch, but it is private if you want to talk. Oh, and put on mozzie repellent and watch out for snakes!"

I laughed and tried to make sense of what was happening in my head. Four days previously I had told myself I'd have a fling with Ethan if I saw him at my going away. Now he was here and declaring he really liked me.

We sprayed ourselves with the insect repellent and Ethan grabbed a large torch in one hand and my hand in his other. Neither of us talked as we focussed on the worn path. Reaching a clearing we knew why Maria had sent us here. Yes, it was on the way to the creek, but above us we could see the night sky.

"We used to go camping at Byron Bay in Summer and Dad would take my brother Martin and I stargazing." I said as we both lay on our backs side by side looking up at the Milky Way.

"I really only recognise the Southern Cross!" Ethan laughed, but I feel like I'm looking to forever. Bridget, I know you freaked when you realised I was one of the students drawing you, but please remember, for the week before I had been attempting to flirt with you ever since you came to me with that insulin chart. I knew I recognised you from somewhere, but I also recognised I was bloody attracted to you."

I turned to look at Ethan, his face illuminated by the moonlight.

"I come from a line of medicos. My mum's a psychiatrist and my dad's a psych nurse. My older sister is a physiotherapist and my younger brother is studying dentistry. We don't ask where that came from! I always said I wasn't going to marry a doctor or a nurse and then I met you." Ethan looked over at me. "Tell me about your parents, they must be a bit special to have a daughter as kind, caring and beautiful as you."

"Well, my Dad was killed in an accident the day before my sixteenth birthday and my Mum died eight years later from a stroke. Mum was a nurse. Dad was a programmer. I always wanted to be a programmer like dad, but when he died it lost its appeal. I was always Daddy's girl and when he died, I ate. I then ate some more and for good measure ate even more."

"Here," I said showing Ethan a photo on my phone, "This is me just after Mum's funeral almost 4 years ago. This is what I might become again."

"And?" Ethan asked rising to an elbow to look into my eyes and away from my phone.

"And I doubt you'd like me like that."

Ethan swiftly took his t-shirt over his head and started unbuckling his belt.

"What are you doing?"

"See here," Ethan shone the torch on his chest, "I have a third nipple, a supernumerary that sits below my left one. I could have had it removed and if my mother had been a surgeon, I might have, but she is all into mind tricks and decided that it was character building. Try saying that to the fifteen-year-old boys in the changerooms at school."

"And now," Ethan lowered his shorts and stood in front of me naked, "I show you that I am a grower, not a shower. But again, not many teenage boys understand that, and they teased me and thought my two inches flaccid would be two inches erect. It's not by the way."

I started laughing.

"I'm sorry," I said trying to control myself, "But you are a fucking Adonis! Look at those muscles! Look at those veins and look at those legs."

"Trust a fucking nurse to notice the veins!" Ethan laughed. "So now, you've seen me naked. I've got a body just like most men. I've got bits that I like and bits that I don't like. My Dad's round and who knows, I might end up like him one day! Bridget, I didn't fall for the life drawing model. I fell for the nurse who is lying in front of me."

"I had a farewell Wednesday night at The Roy. I told myself that if you were there, I was going to take you home with me. I've thought about you a lot over the last couple of years."

Ethan laughed as he told me his farewell was on the Thursday night at The Roy.

"You must have had girls throwing themselves at you, I mean, look at you!"

"See, you see the things I don't! Yes, my longest relationship was with a girl when I was in medical school and she was studying to be a teacher, but it was never going to be forever. I've dated a few girls here and there, but no one struck me until I met you. And I promise, it wasn't until you asked me to fill in that bloody insulin chart. At life drawing on the previous Mondays you are been a body, a figure to draw. I drew all through high school and took some life drawing classes at med school, but I wanted an outlet for creativity which is why I signed up."

"But you switched from my class to Betsy's."

"I did, and I stopped after a term because of the memories of you."

"Do you want me to model for you again?" I asked as I slipped my tank top over my head and swiftly removed my bra.

"I don't have an easel, or charcoal, or pencils, or paper!"

"Then perhaps we might need to find something else to do with our bodies!" I said as I rolled my shorts and undies down my leg stepping out of them.

"You really are the most beautiful woman, Bea." Ethan said as our lips met with more ferocity than previously.

"You really are a grower, not a shower, aren't you!" I said feeling Ethan's cock rising against my stomach."

"It was cold!"

"It's the middle of Summer!"

"It was scared!"

"I'm not complaining!"

"This isn't a once off for me. I can't do this tonight and then work with you for the next twelve months."

"I think I'm over the one-night stands and ready to commit wholly and fully to someone."

"Got anyone in mind?"

I pressed my mouth to Ethan's as we both opened them and let our tongues explore each other.

"Hey Bea," Ethan mumbled between kisses, "If I told you you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?"

"I already am, dickhead!"

"I don't have a condom on me."

"I had my IUD replaced 6 weeks ago and bloodwork to show I'm clean."

"I've never had sex without a condom." Ethan looked serious.

"Wanna try?"

Ethan lay on the dry ground and I straddled his hips. His cock knew where it wanted to be. I was amazed that something so small flaccid, could grow to such a girth! It may not have been as long as Nate's in Chicago, but it was so wide. Our moans cut through the night air. Ethan squeezed and rubbed my breasts, focussing gently on my sensitive nipples. He drew one to his mouth and I groaned in delight. There was something about the angle we achieved, but we were both soon climaxing.

"I'm sorry I couldn't last." Ethan panted as I rested my chest upon his and our lips met again.

"That was amazing, and you lasted as long as I did!"

"Mm..." Ethan stroked my sides, "I'm thinking I'll need to spend some time drawing this bend, it's my favourite."

"I'm not sure if you like hiking, but I hear there are a few good ones near here."

"Are you kidding? Jase, my brother and I used to hike all the time. His favourite was on World Nude Day where he would insist we climb a mountain, disrobe and show ourselves to all below! Fortunately, it was in July in the cooler months and we would head up late morning after the early hikers and make sure we were the only ones on the summit. I think you'll like Jase and Cass!, my sister."

"You'll like Martin and his wife, Katrina. Their first baby is due in 8 weeks."

"Orchestra, right?"

"Yeah, they're taking a break and doing some private lessons for a bit. I've already booked a long weekend in 10 weeks, reckon Dr Khatri will give you time off too?"

"I can ask!"

Ethan handed me his t-shirt and told me to put it on with my knickers. He put his shorts on and I held the rest of my clothes as we walked back to the quarters.

Kim was standing outside finishing off a cigarette.

"You know that's bad for you, I mean, you're now a doctor!" Ethan joked.

"Yeah, and it was my last one. I'm not buying anymore. I promised Simone anyway!"

"You two look, um, dirty!"

I smiled as Ethan leant in and kissed me. We showered together and spent the night in his single bed. Neither of us slept a lot.

The four of us were finishing breakfast the following morning in our kitchen area when Maria and Dr Khatri walked in.

"Here they are, love, all here!" She said as she placed another basket of food on the table.

"I know you've met my wife, but I'm Aadrik Khatri, but most people call me Rik. I, um, usually would meet with the four of you tomorrow. It's a special program we have developed integrating training of doctors and nurses. I, um, usually start the year by reminding you all that you will be working together, and romances can turn sour."

Aadrik was looking at Ethan and me.

"Sir, if I may," Ethan spoke up, "Bridget and I have a history and come as a couple already."

"Maria did mention something, but usually the couple makes it known before they arrive then we give them the married quarters down the hall. I'm sorry you were kept apart last night."

"Oh, they weren't!" piped up Nathan, "But if you can keep the moans down the hall a bit further, I might get some more sleep!"

I went bright red, but Ethan simply placed his arm around my shoulders.

The four months in that town flew. Ethan and I did several hikes and he often got his sketch pad out. He really is an amazing artist. Baby Zeke arrived three days before Ethan and I flew into Brisbane for our long weekend. Although Ethan visited his parents briefly to collect a few things he wanted to take back with him, we decided that we would spend our week between rotations in Brisbane getting to know his family and Nathan, Katrina and Zeke better.

For Nude Day we were in an area next to the Wet Tropics Rainforest. As we climbed to the top of a large hill, we were glad we were the only ones present and started to disrobe. Ethan threw his arms above his head and roared like a lion. I followed suit and soon our echoes were heard all around us. I was laughing and smiling and thinking back to my insecurities of the past.

I didn't notice Ethan lean down and reach into the pockets of his hiking pants. I did notice him get down on one knee though and ask me to marry him. I remember shrieking as I stood and threw my arms around my fiancé! Ethan slipped the ring on as I heard a voice behind us,

"Beryl, you better come over this way, I think if you take a photo that way it will be overexposed!"

Ethan and I laughed as we quickly dressed.

"I'm sorry," I started as we came across the older couple taking photos around the other side of the peak.

"Nah, don't worry lass! Hey, you're that doctor who cut my wart off, aren't you?"