Chapter 18
18
EMMY
Emmy tossed her phone on the desk of the nursing station, then stretched back in her chair and groaned.
‘I swear on all that is fricking holy, I. Am. Having. The. Worst. Day. Ever.’
‘Not as bad as Mrs Leckie in bed number six,’ Yvie deadpanned. ‘She’s just discovered that her dog bit her neighbour’s arse when he went in to feed it because she’s stuck in here. The poor man is down in casualty waiting for a tetanus.’
‘And Mr Catterson in bed 14 has just got the results of his tests back,’ Keli said, not even glancing up from the chart she was writing on. ‘Syphilis. Apparently, there’s been a four-way romance situation going on over at the care home and he had no idea. Poor man is distraught.’
In the middle, Emmy looked from one of them to the other. ‘You know, you two are really taking the jam right out of the middle of my doughnut today. Couldn’t you just have let me have my moment? I’m trying to be seriously pathetic here, and you keep snapping me out of it. You’re terrible friends.’
That pulled Keli from her chart, and she looked up, smiling. ‘We are. Forgive us. Carry on, please. Tell us all the reasons your problems are worse than syphilis.’
Sometimes it was hard to keep a straight face around these two, but Emmy appreciated that they at least tried to make her laugh in times of high-level irritation. It was just as well that the nursing station was out of earshot of the rooms on the ward and all the patients, because there was very little that didn’t get discussed there.
‘Fine. Maybe not exactly worse than syphilis, but everyone who’s still in here is beginning to feel a bit sad because they’re not going to be with their loved ones tonight, we almost misplaced a patient, my dad’s lost the plot and may be contemplating stalking my mother, my mum has finally got off the couch and appears to have decided it’s time to party, I’m deeply suspicious that my boyfriend is having an affair as he’s now hiding his location from me and I nearly rear-ended my car this morning because I thought I saw him somewhere he shouldn’t be, and now I’ve been trying to call my granny, the one sane person left in my universe, and she’s not picking up her phone. The world hates me.’
‘But at least…’ Keli began, and Emmy immediately put her hand up to stop her.
‘I know. I don’t have syphilis.’
Keli grinned. ‘Exactly!’
Yvie stretched over her to reach the stapler. ‘Are you worried about your gran? Does she usually answer?’
Emmy shook her head. ‘No more than usual. She’s terrible for not picking up the phone if she’s busy, and if she goes upstairs for an afternoon nap, she can’t hear it. She refuses to have a phone upstairs because she says it’ll just interfere with her relaxation if it rings and disturbs her.’
Keli was back on chart-writing again but still engaged in the conversation. ‘I love your gran. We should all be more like Minnie. Bugger the world – if we don’t want to be disturbed, then we won’t be.’
‘Exactly. Although she does also think that the Rolling Stones should make another comeback, that you should wear a natty knitted scarf at all times and that all ailments can be cured by a sausage roll.’
‘That’s me won over too,’ Yvie concurred. ‘I’m for making Minnie Prime Minister.’
‘I’ll try her again in a few minutes. If she’s sleeping, then I really don’t want to wake her. In the meantime, I’ll select one of my other issues at random and ruminate over that for the next half an hour.’
The buzzer to Emmy’s left suddenly went off, making her jump, and all three of them swung their heads to the security screen.
Keli got there first. ‘Em, I think one of your issues may be standing at the door.’
By this time, Emmy had spotted it too, but she wondered if she was hallucinating. Cormac. There. Waiting to be let in. She reached for the button to open the door, mind whirring. What was happening? What was wrong? She could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times he’d popped into to the ward. There was the first time they’d met, when he’d visit one of her patients, and once when he’d been brought into A&E downstairs, to be checked out after a smoke-inhalation situation. He’d come up after he’d been cleared just to let her know about it and tell her he was fine. The only other occasions were when she’d forgotten to bring something in and asked him if he could drop it off. None of which applied here, so it was with some trepidation that she buzzed him in.
It only took him a few seconds to cover the distance from the door to the nursing station, by which time, Emmy was on her feet and got in first with, ‘Hi. Is everything okay?’
Cormac gave her the smile that had won her over the very first time that she’d met him. ‘Yeah. I was literally just passing and thought I’d say hello since I won’t see you until tomorrow morning. How you doing, Keli? Yvie, all good?’
He was always so lovely to her friends, who returned the greeting, then moved discreetly to a desk a few feet away and carried on with their work.
Emmy’s brain took that very moment to start working overtime. This was odd. Out of character. Why was he doing this? And why was she completely terrified to just take him somewhere private and ask him straight out what was going on?
Instead, she was channelling some kind of rom com fake sweetness. ‘Aw, that’s really nice,’ she said, with the smile that he said had won him over the very first time he’d met her. She then tried a minor ambush with, ‘How come you’re out of uniform?’ He was still wearing the clothes he’d left in this morning. Usually, he changed as soon as he got to the station, and even if he was nipping out to Civvy Street, he’d normally keep on his uniform trousers and T-shirt, and just throw a jacket over them.
He obviously hadn’t been expecting the question because he looked a little startled. ‘Oh. We were out on a job and I got manky. Changed back at the station afterwards.’
‘Ah, that makes sense.’ The rom com sweetness was wearing off, so she let that sit there, wondering if anyone else was sensing a slight awkwardness, or if this was all in her mind?
‘Anyway,’ he went on, ‘I had to nip to Asda for supplies for the lads’ dinner…’
Fair enough. The supermarket was right opposite the hospital and that was perfectly plausible.
‘So just thought I’d swing by and bring you this.’ From the pocket of the black padded Barbour jacket she’d bought him for his birthday, he pulled out a little clear plastic tub and inside was a cupcake with a heart in the middle. ‘It’s the ones you like. The red velvet. I feel bad that I’m not going to be with you at the bells tonight, so I thought this could be the second best thing.’
That fired straight into her chest and tugged at a heart string. It was the kind of sweet, considerate thing he used to do when they started seeing each other. She’d fallen madly in love with all the contrasts in his personality. On the one hand, he was a real lads’ lad, who played football and basketball and liked a game of snooker with his mates. On the other hand, he loved lying on the couch with his head on her lap, watching old episodes of Friends because it was her favourite show.
On one side, he could be a party animal who loved a night out and a good time, and acted like he didn’t have a care in the world, but on the other, he would – quite literally – run into a burning building to save someone.
He was this big strong guy who wasn’t the best when it came to talking about emotions, but then… well, then he would bring her cupcakes to let her know he was thinking about her.
‘That’s the loveliest thing, thank you.’ She almost held it in. Almost. In the end, she dressed it up as a joke. ‘Unless you’re doing it to soften me up because you’ve done something terrible. In which case, I’ll need a bigger cake.’
Her suspicions took over, suddenly convincing her that she saw him flush a little and then commit the heinous crime of blinking too quickly.
‘Nope, not guilty,’ he acted as if he was in on the joke. ‘Anyway, did you decide what you’re doing tonight? Are you going out or staying in?’
Why did he need to know? To what purpose? Was he projecting something? Didn’t psychologists say that cheaters were the most paranoid about being cheated on? Or was that a line from a documentary about the Tinder Swindler?
‘I’m not sure yet. My mum got a better offer. Aunt Gwen got out of hospital and, believe it or not, they’ve decided to go to Gino’s. They’re at the hairdressers right now getting ready.’
He was as surprised as she’d been. ‘Gino’s? That’s the last place I thought she’d go.’
‘Yep, me too. And, in other news, my dad’s dumped Donna and wants Mum back, but that’s a story that’ll require a lie-down in a dark room, so I’ll tell you later. It’s been quite a day.’
‘Sounds like it.’
‘But as for tonight… I’m not sure. I’ve been trying to call Gran, because I wanted to see if she fancied some company, but I haven’t got her yet. I’ll probably do that though. Or, if she’s having an early night, I’ll just go home.’
He seemed pensive as he absorbed that. ‘Okay, well, drop me a text and let me know.’
Why text? she wondered. She would usually give him a call on his night shift, and if he was out on a job, he’d just phone her back when he was free. Why did he want to switch to texting all of a sudden?
After glancing around to check there were no patients in sight, he leaned over the desk and gave her a very quick, workplace-appropriate peck on the cheek. ‘I’d better get back. I’ll try to give you a call later, but it just depends how busy we are. I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be crazy.’
‘No worries at all. Thank you for the cupcake. First lovely thing that’s happened all day. I’ll see you in the morning…’
‘You will,’ he said, flashing that cute grin again as he backed away from the desk. ‘See you later, ladies,’ he raised his voice so Keli and Yvie would catch it, although Emmy was almost 100 per cent positive they’d listened to every word. ‘Happy New Year when it comes.’
The two of them snapped their heads up and chirped their goodbyes, returning the most used phrase in Scotland today.
Emmy watched his back as he went all the way down the corridor, then gave her a wave before going out the door.
Yvie came over to stand beside her. ‘Aw, that was lovely. He’s a catch, that one. Has that put your mind at ease and squashed all your worries?’
Emmy paused. Thought about it. Weighed it up. Looked at it from all sides.
‘Nope, I’m even more sure now that he’s up to something.’
And she was absolutely positive that she wanted to find out what it was.