He gazed at me with those piercing blue eyes. ‘Maybe you’ve got a secret admirer.’
I felt as light as if I were filled with helium and might float away if someone didn’t pull me back to earth.
As if the universe was answering my imagination, a figure loomed at our table. Oliver? What was he doing here? It was almost two o’clock. He should have just been arriving at work.
‘Jess,’ he said, trying to catch his breath. ‘Seb and I have been trying to ring you. It’s Alice.’
14
Oliver’s car was waiting outside. He dismissed any suggestion that he go back to the bar – said he’d cleared his absence with Misty. Nik stayed behind to pay the bill and type up the copy we’d been working on, before emailing it to the editor.
‘Tell me again what happened,’ I asked, voice shaking. All I could picture was Gran covered in bruises.
‘Lynn tried to ring you and then the shop. Seb called me when you didn’t reply to him either. Alice was drinking coffee in the lounge. She got up to take a photo of Pan with her phone, to send to her sons, who’ve been more worried about her than usual. She muttered something about everything going black, before fainting.’
‘Is the doctor on his way?’
‘No, Lynn called an ambulance. Even though Alice collapsed backwards and the chair broke her fall, she still hit the floor with a thump and when she came around complained of a sore back. Wait, I’ve just felt a text come through.’ He rummaged in his duffle coat’s pocket and passed me his phone.
‘The ambulance is already there. Lynn says to meet them at them at Amblemarsh General. You need to turn around.’ My throat caught. ‘Hospital… that means it must be bad, right? What if…?’
Oliver glanced sideways at me, indicated and turned off the main road. He parked up, in an avenue under a horse chestnut tree and undid his seatbelt, and mine too.
One of the tree’s large leaves tumbled down past the front windshield. Gran was great at planning outings and used to take me conkering. What a thrill every time I opened one of the prickly casings. She was on a budget but always fitted in a yearly week’s holiday in Margate, and trips to the cinema would cost less because we’d smuggle in our own drinks and snacks.
‘Why have we stopped? We need to get going.’
Oliver pulled me towards him and placed his hands on my shoulders. ‘It’s going to be all right, Alice is made of tough stuff – and so are you. Because of her age, the paramedics probably just want the doctors to check her over. Let’s just sit here for five minutes, you’ve had a shock – we both have.’
‘I… need to hold everything together for Gran. I don’t know what I’d have done without her all this time.’
‘You’d have managed, somehow,’ he said and took his hands away.
I studied his serious face. ‘Did you love your nanny? Like you loved your parents?’
‘I used to ask myself that as a child,’ he said and grasped the steering wheel. ‘God knows I saw her much more than them. Weekends as well.’
‘Did she ever say anything about the way they were?’
‘Just that they were working so hard and travelling with their jobs to give me a great upbringing. It didn’t feel like that. When you’re a kid you don’t appreciate any benefits of private schooling, you just want mates and as little homework as possible. But you see – like everyone else – Nanny was in awe. Not everyone’s boss worked for the Foreign Office. It was as if she felt their status rubbed off onto her. I never felt like that. Their time mattered more to me than money. I wanted an everyday family life with a dog and messy cooking, with walks jumping in puddles and bedtimes stories with hugs.’ He gave a wry smile. ‘I guess some might say I was ungrateful, but the new toys, the latest top-of-the-range gadgets, honestly, they didn’t mean much.’
I was always surprised by our common ground, despite us growing up at opposite ends of the wealth spectrum. He switched on the engine and we fastened our seatbelts. Oliver turned back onto the main road. I thought about the bracelet Nik had made and I wondered what sort of charm could represent my flatmate. A cocktail would be the obvious one – if the craft kit were for adults. Or a car – he loved tinkling with the engine. I looked at his strong hands gripping the steering wheel, dependable, just like him. A rock – that’s would be the perfect charm because Oliver was always there.
Like the time I lost my purse and couldn’t get home from London. I’d gone shopping to buy an outfit for a friend’s wedding. I only had a little charge left on my phone and wouldn’t have enough battery to sort out things using my banking apps. For some reason Oliver was the person I felt like ringing. I’d missed the last train and was stranded at King’s Cross, in the dark, about to be turfed out by the station guard.
He rang through to book and pay for a room at a nearby Travelodge. The hotel was great and let me use their telephone to contact my bank’s helpline and get my cards cancelled. They looked up the number for me, online. I was due into work the next day so Oliver came in early on the train, met me for breakfast and then bought me a train ticket home. We travelled back to Amblemarsh for nine. Gran and I told him how amazing he was. He’d shrugged it off and said that’s what friends were for.
Oliver was one of those people who was hard to get to know, but once you broke down the barriers his loyalty knew no bounds. Me, Misty, Gran… and of course Buddy – it was as if, since moving to London, he’d created a new family of his own.
I felt a little shaky as we approached Amblemarsh General. I told Oliver to drop me off – that I’d get a taxi back, but he rolled his eyes and parked up. We hurried to the A&E reception and I gave Gran’s name. A nurse took us through to what she called the Clinical Decisions Area and we were taken to one of the bays, the curtain pulled halfway around it. I rushed forwards. She looked so small, propped up on huge white pillows, hair ruffled. I gave her a hug.
‘What are you doing here?’ she scolded. ‘There’s no need. It’s all a fuss over nothing. I want to go home.’
Lynn moved to the end of the bed. Oliver sat down by Gran and held her hand.
‘Thanks so much for staying with Gran,’ I said in a low voice. ‘What have the doctors decided?’
‘The doctor – a nice man, he really took his time – reckons the stress of the move might be taking its toll,’ said Lynn. ‘And that’s perfectly understandable. Just before she fell—’
