Chapter 22
Elle explained that the venue had taken a phone call from a hospital called NYU Langone, with Anneka asking to get an urgent message to a British guest called Flora because her cell phone wasn’t connecting.
The member of staff had overheard Elle’s accent and assumed she was the correct recipient, and Elle had then made it her mission to find me and pass the message on.
‘Did they say what happened?’
‘No, just that they were both at the hospital and you should head straight there.’
‘Fuck, fuck, fuck. Okay, how do I get there?’
‘I’ll sort a car,’ Ethan said, unlocking his phone.
‘Elle, can I use your phone? I never got around to sorting a roaming plan that works over here,’ I said. ‘I want to call the hospital and see what else I can find out before I get there.’
‘Yeah, here you go,’ Elle said, unlocking her device and passing it to me.
‘And could you try and find my coat for me, please?’ I asked. ‘It’s extremely long and very pink.’
‘On it,’ she replied, heading straight back inside.
I looked up the hospital and pressed ‘call’.
‘NYU Langone?’ a voice quickly answered.
‘Hi, umm, I’ve just been told my mum has been brought in by ambulance. I’m on my way there but can you give me any more details? Her name’s Jennifer Bell. She’s British.’
Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay.
‘Hold please.’
I locked eyes with Ethan as he repocketed his phone.
‘Will the car be here soon?’ I asked, placing my hand over the phone speaker while I was on hold.
‘It’ll be here in three minutes. And it’s a twenty-seven-minute journey.’
‘Okay, thanks.’
‘This is Langone ER?’ The voice on the phone sounded harangued.
‘Oh, hi. I’m trying to find out more information about a British patient who’s been brought in by ambulance. Jennifer Bell? I’m her daughter.’
‘Sure. Gimme two secs… okay. Yep, she arrived here in the ER about forty-five minutes ago and is still waiting to be seen.’
‘Is she conscious?’
‘Yes, very much so.’
‘Oh, thank God. Please tell her I’m on my way.’
‘I’ll try. But if she isn’t in the waiting area when you arrive, give her name at the front desk and they’ll show you where to go.’
They hung up before I could thank them again. I turned to Ethan. ‘Okay. She’s conscious, and is waiting to be seen.’
‘Oh, thank fuck. But… I’m so confused, Flora. I thought your family lived in the UK?’
‘They do, but me, my mum and my sister came to New York together,’ I blurted out, alongside a series of sobs.
‘And your dad?’
‘Yeah, I… don’t have one of those.’
‘Flora, I… have so many questions.’
‘I’m sorry,’ I whispered, looking at the ground and wishing I could dissolve into it.
‘You don’t have anything to be sorry for, okay? You’re like the most interesting, most unpredictable person I’ve ever met. But now I’m seeing how little I actually know about you and… it just makes me want to know it all. I hope one day I get to learn every single detail.’
I didn’t have the mental capacity to reply to what was probably the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to me. Instead, I quietly took his hand and traced an infinity loop on his palm.
‘Your family has really been here this whole time?’ He asked, his fingers now squeezing mine.
I nodded, tears in freefall. ‘I didn’t think there was any point in telling you, but when we started to get closer I knew I needed to – but it never felt like the right moment to bring it up. I… just need to get to the hospital, Ethan.’
‘Yeah, of course, of course.’ He checked his phone. ‘Just one minute away now. Let me run inside and let them know where I’m going.’
‘What? No. You should stay here.’
‘But—’
‘It’s nice of you to offer, Ethan. But I need to focus on my mum and I’m way too mortified to explain everything to you.’
‘You don’t have to explain anything, Flora. Not tonight, anyway. Let me help you – please.’
‘You have helped me, by sorting the car – thank you. But it’s your brother’s wedding day, and this is where you need to be.’ I removed his jacket from my shoulders and handed it back to him, just as the car pulled up. Elle emerged from the building, clutching Anneka’s coat, which she passed to me.
‘Thanks, Elle.’ I opened the rear door of the car and climbed inside.
‘I’ll… leave you guys to it,’ Elle said, heading back indoors.
‘Please let me come with you, Flora,’ Ethan said.
I shook my head as I fastened my seatbelt. ‘You need to stay here. I’ve made such an idiot of myself. Everything’s got way too complicated – and you showing up at the hospital will only tangle things up even more. I’m… really sorry for ruining your night.’
He sighed, and rubbed his hair vigorously, all evidence of hair wax now gone. ‘You’ve not ruined anything. I hope you can see that eventually.’
I didn’t reply, just stared straight ahead as the driver waited patiently for the passenger door next to me to close.
‘Can you at least let me know how your mum’s doing when you can?’ he asked, leaning towards me, resting his fingers on the top of the open car door.
‘I will.’
‘Okay then, I guess this is it?’
I squeezed his fingers gently.
‘I have to go.’ My voice-box was now perilously close to closing up entirely.
He nodded once, and removed his hand, flexing his fingers a couple of times while I pulled the door shut, the car accelerating into the New York night.
‘Wait!’ I heard Ethan’s muffled cry a second or so later.
I swallowed before speaking to the driver. ‘Sorry, could you just pull over quickly?’
The driver sighed but obliged, bringing the car to a juddering halt. Ethan caught up to us, breathless as I rolled down my window.
‘You forgot your shoe!’
I looked down at my feet – I was still only wearing one of my new Converse.
‘Oh.’
He pushed the abandoned shoe through the window gap, my fingers briefly brushing his as I pulled it in.
‘Thanks, Ethan.’
For everything.
I flicked the window switch to close the gap.
‘Flora, I—’
But the window sealed itself before I could hear what he wanted to say.
‘Let’s go,’ I said to the driver, the simplicity of my instruction betraying the complexity of my feelings.
I didn’t look back as the car drove away. What was the point? The best thing I could do right now was to draw a line under this admittedly intense holiday romance and focus on getting to Mum and Anneka as quickly as possible. I just wished we hadn’t had to end it in such dramatic circumstances.
‘Flora! Oh thank God you’re here.’ Anneka collapsed into my arms and, for the first time in my life, I witnessed her body shake with sobs and anguish, her tears wetting the shoulder of her own coat.
I had a flashback to all the countless times in my life these roles had been reversed, and Anneka had comforted me as I’d sobbed or moaned about whatever had been bothering me on that particular day.
I rubbed her back and peered over her shoulder to get a look at Mum, who was lying in the hospital bed.
‘Mum? Are you awake?’ I asked, as Anneka stood upright and attempted to regain her composure.
‘I’m fine.’ Mum’s croaky voice was only just audible from her horizontal position, her copper hair the only hue of her that wasn’t pale or grey. ‘Please don’t make a fuss, girls. This is all very dramatic.’
‘Mum, I found you unconscious in a puddle of vomit, you are now attached to a drip in hospital and you can barely speak. I am not being dramatic,’ Anneka said, wiping her nose on her sleeve.
For once, Mum didn’t answer back.
‘Tell me what happened,’ I said.
Anneka nodded, the words streaming out of her.
‘We got a cab back to the hotel right after you left for the wedding because Mum was starting to get bad stomach cramps. She went straight to the bathroom when we got there and after a few minutes I heard a massive thud, which I knew straight away was Mum collapsing to the floor,’
Anneka’s voice wavered again, and I took a step towards her, gripping her hand in mine. She smiled weakly at me before adding quietly, ‘I thought she’d died.’
‘I just lost my footing,’ Mum said, although her words were negated somewhat by a dramatic vomit into a blue plastic sick bag, which looked like a shrunken-down version of Jason’s IKEA shelter.
‘Mum!’ Anneka held Mum’s hair back and I stuck my head out of the curtain, catching the eye of a nurse.
‘Hey, can we get another sick bag?’ She nodded and went to fetch one.
Mum lay back on the bed once she was done and Anneka looked at me, terrified and exhausted.
‘Were you the one who called the ambulance?’ I asked gently.
Anneka shook her head. ‘I put her in the recovery position and called down to reception, who sorted it all out. The ambulance took about ten minutes to arrive and they brought us straight here. Then I tried to call you and… you know the rest of the story,’ she said, squeezing her eyes shut tightly as if trying to make everything disappear.
‘Tell you what,’ I said to her, as Mum shuffled herself into a comfier position in the bed. ‘Why don’t you go and find a vending machine for something sugary and stretch your legs. I’ll stay here with Mum.’
Anneka sniffed. ‘You’re sure?’
‘Absolutely, you’ve done more than your fair share of caring duties this week.’
‘Okay. Thanks, Flora. I won’t be long.’
Anneka wandered away and I turned my attention back to Mum.
She looks so vulnerable. She looks so… old.
‘It’s okay, Mum. I’m here,’ I said, stroking her forehead.
She mumbled something in response, which definitely included the word ‘sorry’, but before I had the chance to ask her to repeat herself, the curtain was whipped open and a white-jacketed woman clutching a fresh sick bag entered.
‘Hello, I’m Doctor Shaw,’ she announced in a surprising English accent, consulting her digital tablet. ‘Mrs… Bell, is it?’
Mum grunted, trying – and failing – to sit upright.
‘Just stay still, Mum,’ I instructed. ‘Yes, this is Jennifer Bell; I’m her daughter, Flora.’
‘Right. So, stomach pains, vomiting, loss of consciousness…’ She inspected the drip and tapped her tablet a few times.