“Nick, just breathe. I’m on my way.”
I arrive at the hospital and locate the maternity wing. The midwives are not keen to let a random man on his own into the ward – probably a good thing – but Nick sticks his head out of a private room and practically shouts my name.
“Oh, are you the best friend?” One of the midwives gives me an appraising look. “That one’s been pacing for hours. Maybe you can calm him down. He might be in for a long night.”
“I’ll do my best.” I give them nod and head over to the room. I do a little knock and Nick yanks the door open and pulls me inside.
“Get in here,” he hisses, as I practically stumble into the room.
Priya’s bouncing on a yoga ball looking calm and serene but Nick is as agitated as I’ve ever seen him.
“The service here isappalling, Luke. Honestly. They check on us every 15 minutes. Anything could happen in 15 minutes! I knew we should have gone private. No wonder the bloody NHS is on its knees!”
He doesn’t stop pacing and I glance over at Priya who’s stopped bouncing and is breathing harshly through her nose. Nick looks over and suddenly rushes to her side, dropping dramatically to his knees.
“Just breathe, babe, you’re doing amazingly. You’re a goddess, Pri. A goddess. Keep counting your breaths.”
Priya looks over Nick’s shoulder at me with a pleading look in her eyes. I bite my cheek so I don’t laugh. The contraction passes and Nick leaps up again to resume his fractious pacing.
“She’s at five centimetres,” he tells me, waving his phone like it’s an official report. “Google says?—”
“Google says a lot of things,” Priya cuts in, voice flat, one hand resting on her belly. Her facial expression is caught somewhere between saintly patience and murderous intent. “What I say is that you either sit down or leave the room before I throw a bedpan at you.”
Nick freezes and grimaces. “Right. Sitting. I can do sitting.”
“Good lad,” I murmur, steering him gently into the chair beside me. His knee bounces like a piston.
“You’ve got this,” I tell him quietly. “She’s fine, the baby’s fine. Your only job is to be here and not drive her insane with your own anxiety. That’s it.”
He blows out a breath, shoulders dropping half an inch. “You’re annoyingly calm, you know that?”
“Someone has to be.”
A pause. Then, softer, he says, “I’m glad you’re here.” He glances over, and there’s no heat, no lingering edge from the row. Just my oldest friend looking at me like we’ve survived something. “I meant what I said on the phone. I’m sorry… for everything. For the way I came at you, for not trusting you. For thinking the worst of you.”
I nod, accepting the apology without ceremony. “Water under the bridge.”
We sit in companionable silence for a while, the sound of Priya’s steady breathing filling the space. Another contraction begins and Nick holds her hand through it with gentle encouragements. Eventually, it passes and she resumes her gentle bouncing. She points to the door.
“Either of you know if the hospital café’s open? I need a cup of tea that doesn’t taste like it’s been filtered through a shoe.”
“I’ll check,” I start to rise?—
“Don’t you dare leave me,” Nick says quickly, eyes darting between me and his wife.
At that precise moment, the door swings open and Emmy slips in, her hair wind-tousled, cheeks pink. She’s carrying two takeaway trays loaded with coffee cups, a paper bag tucked under one arm.
“I come bearing caffeine and sugar,” she announces, and the air in the room seems to shift. It feels lighter. Warmer.
Nick all but leaps up to relieve her of the coffees, muttering his thanks. Priya’s face brightens at the sight of her. And me? I feel like I’ve been struck by fucking lightning.
I can’t stop staring at her. I’m Dorothy waking up in Oz to find everything in technicolour. My chest pulls tight, like my ribs are too small to hold the rush of wanting her.
It’s the first time I’ve seen her in the flesh in eight weeks and the heat between us is immediate. Electric.
Our eyes meet for half a second too long. Neither of us says anything. But she bites her lip and my cock stirs in my pants.
For the first time in a long while, my world is back in orbit.
