Chapter 24
I opened the door, half-hoping Ethan would be on the other side of it. Instead, I was greeted by the sight of a stern-looking, red-faced man wearing a Christmas jumper and slippers.
‘I’m Mr Bone, the hotel manager; I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you all to leave.’
‘Mr Bone?!’ Anneka said with a snort, missing the essence of the manager’s message completely.
‘Anneka!’ I spoke through gritted teeth, shooting her a look.
‘I’m sorry, can you repeat that?’ I asked, turning back towards the manager, my eyes squinting as they tried to adjust to the bright light of the corridor.
‘Like I said, you need to leave. You’ve quite obviously breached our terms and conditions by over-occupying this room.
’ His gaze shifted to the bed, from which Mum and Anneka had the audacity to wave.
‘And I also understand a Mrs Jennifer Bell has yet to sign the waiver form related to the health and safety incident earlier?’ he added.
‘Hey, that’s my mum you’re talking about,’ I said, the firmness of my voice taking us all by surprise. ‘She was really sick.’
Mum coughed dramatically, as if to back me up.
‘With all due respect, it seems like she was in and out of hospital in record time,’ he said, twiddling one of his incredibly long eyebrows like he was a TV detective trying to intimidate a potential suspect.
‘Urgh, just give me the damn form; I’ll sign it,’ Mum said. I passed her the crumpled sheet of paper from the haphazard pile of medicine on the desk.
Mum squiggled her signature without bothering to lean on a firm surface, holding the signed document towards him without actually moving. Mr Bone stepped into the room cautiously, tiptoeing around all the mess on the floor, and retrieved the paperwork.
‘Thank you. And the over-occupancy situation?’ the manager asked, looking at each of us in turn, his distinctive eyebrows raised.
‘Oh, c’mon, we’re leaving in the morning; can’t you just let us stay for one more night?’ Anneka said.
The manager turned an even deeper shade of red to the point where I was worried something in his forehead might burst.
‘Absolutely not. At the very least, I need one of you to leave.’
I sighed. ‘It’s fine, I’ll go. I’m already dressed, after all,’ I said, gesturing to my now very sweaty fancy jumpsuit. ‘Can you give me half an hour to pack, Mr… Bone?’ I asked, attempting to inject sweetness into my voice.
‘No, I have already taken enough time out from my night off to deal with this. Please leave, immediately. My reception team will see you out.’
‘Okay, okay,’ I muttered, slipping on my now-threadbare Converse, pulling the first jumper I could find over my head and grabbing my coat and backpack, which at least had a few essentials in it – my passport and noise-cancelling headphones included.
‘Could you…?’ I turned to Mum and Anneka, still tucked up in bed, and gestured towards the jumbled array of items strewn around the room.
‘Yeah, we’ll pack your stuff, don’t worry,’ Anneka replied, glaring at the manager from under the covers.
The Flora of five days ago would have been horrified at the thought of Anneka chucking her possessions in a suitcase at random, but right now I couldn’t care less.
‘Thanks. I’ll just head straight to the airport and connect to the Wi-Fi when I’m there so we can figure out a plan. Anneka – make sure Mum takes another dose of charcoal first thing – that’s two capsules. And keep your fluids up, Mum.’
‘Yes, yes,’ Mum replied, before adding with genuine gratitude, ‘Thank you for sorting all this out, Flora.’
I flashed her a quick smile as Mr Bone saw me out of the room. He made sure I got in the lift before he headed back to wherever his office – or on-site dwelling – was. I emerged into the reception area in a state of shellshocked disarray, where I was greeted by the receptionist.
‘Hey, I’m sorry about all this,’ she said, her face flushed with embarrassment. ‘He wouldn’t get off my case about that disclaimer form.’
‘It’s okay, I get it. We have been extremely cheeky this week, so it’s probably me who should be apologising to you. Did you know there were three of us in there?’
‘Of course I did. But, hey, it’s an expensive city. Figured what my boss didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. Did your mom sign the form?’
‘Yeah.’
The receptionist mimicked wiping her brow in relief. ‘Where are you headed now?’
‘Oh, I’m just gonna go to the airport a few – well, about twenty – hours early.’
She grimaced. ‘Want me to sort a cab for you? I know a guy who can do a discounted price if you can pay in cash?’
‘Yes please. Oh, and can you arrange a wake-up call for my mum and sister at nine a.m. tomorrow? Knowing them, they’ll forget to set an alarm.’
She smiled and nodded as she picked up her mobile phone and made a call.
I collapsed into an armchair and checked my WhatsApp messages for the first time since I’d left the wedding. There was a message from Ethan from just over an hour ago.
Ethan:
Is your mom ok?
Flora:
Hey, sorry, things have been hectic. Yes, she’s fine. We left the hospital a couple of hours ago.
Ethan:
Thank God for that. I was so worried. What happened?
I decided I might as well tell him the truth, now.
Flora:
Remember I said I went foraging?
Ethan:
sure
Flora:
Well, my mum found some seed things and she’s been eating them. She poisoned herself, basically.
Ethan:
wtf
Flora:
Pretty much my exact words when I found out.
There was a pause in the flow of messages, although I could see he was typing. After a minute or so, the message arrived.
Ethan:
You’re still flying back tomorrow?
Flora:
Yes.
‘Hey, Ms Bell, your cab’s here,’ the receptionist called.
Ethan:
JFK?
I picked up my bag and typed as I made my way to the exit, turning to catch a final glimpse of what was undoubtedly my favourite hotel on the planet, despite all the farcical drama that had unfolded within its walls.
Flora:
Yes. Yet another long story, but I’m actually heading there now.
What was I hoping to achieve by sharing this information? Some kind of classic airport scene where he dashed through the departure lounge to ask me to stay? As if something like that would ever happen to me.
Ethan:
ok
I paused before the revolving doors, keen to cling on to the internet connection so I could keep typing for as long as possible.
Flora:
I really hope I didn’t spoil your day. Please apologise to Rick and Sinead for running out like that.
Ethan:
There’s no need to apologize. They send their love.
Flora:
You can tell them everything is fine, and that it was nice to meet them. And your parents.
But, most of all, you.
I left that part unwritten.
Ethan:
I will. I can’t believe your mom and sister were here all this time.
Flora:
I should have told you. And I realise it’s v weird that I didn’t. But my family is a… complex entity.
Ethan:
Aren’t they all?
I didn’t have the time – or the brainpower – to reply to the last message.
It was too big a question for a quick response – especially after everything I’d learned about Mum’s past in the last couple of hours.
I’d lived my whole life assuming my upbringing had been way shitter than average, but perhaps I’d been so hung up on the idiosyncrasies of my own immediate relatives that I’d never stopped to consider that there’s no such thing as a ‘perfect’ family.
I pocketed my phone, waving farewell to the receptionist as I took my final spin around the hotel’s revolving doors. She grinned and waved in return.
‘JFK Terminal 8, please,’ I said to the driver, climbing into the back of the vehicle.
‘Cash, yeah?’
‘Yup, all good.’
I buckled myself in, contemplating the last three words that had left my mouth. Everything wasn’t ‘good’, but perhaps most things were, in fact, better than they had been when I’d first arrived in this city just under a week ago. The only exception was how I’d left things with Ethan.
For a split second, I wondered whether I should get the cab to take me to Brooklyn rather than JFK. Ethan and I could pretend the last few hours had never happened, switch off our damn brains for once and let ourselves give in to the connection we were both craving.
But, as tempting as it was to divert the cab, I knew heading to the airport was the most sensible and mature thing to do.
It wouldn’t be fair on Ethan to show up unannounced on his doorstep, overshadowing his brother’s wedding day yet again.
The poor guy had already been forced to manage more than his fair share of my emotional baggage in the short time he’d known me.
And, even though I longed to be with him one last time, at least the actual ‘last time’ hadn’t come with a mandatory serving of emotional devastation.
It’s time to go home, and leave Ethan in peace.
The thing was, I didn’t want to leave him – or New York – at all.