Bernadette shrugged.Today had been exhausting and she didn’t want to go into all the details in the valuable twenty minutes of her break.Besides, she hated gossip, and as much as Caleb and Stevie were friends as well as colleagues, her professionalism stopped her from sharing the details or her thoughts, especially in a public place like this.The staff canteen in the hospital had been closed thanks to cutbacks a few years ago, so now the staff shared a cafe with the general public.Thankfully, it was deserted right now, because they were right in the middle of visiting hours, so any family and friends would already be up on the wards.
‘All I’ll say is that he was a good friend of my ex-husband, so I know that the woman who is with him isn’t his wife.I wonder if that has exacerbated his agitation because he’s clearly been difficult with everyone today.Although, from what I’ve heard, he doesn’t have the sunniest disposition at the best of times.’
‘Honestly Bernie, you’re such a dark horse.So do you know his wife?Should we be making an anonymous call?’Caleb was teasing, but just the thought of that scenario made her squirm.
She chose her words carefully.‘I’ve met her once.Or, actually, twice.But the second time we didn’t speak – it was at Kenneth’s funeral, and I saw her across the room with Murray.’
She didn’t add that she knew Murray’s ex-wife, Diana, better.Again, the details of her friendship with Diana would open a whole can of worms that she didn’t need to share right now.Not the time or the place.And she didn’t want Caleb to splutter his green juice across the table.
There was a huge part of her that was wishing she’d stayed at home today.She could have read a book.Watched an old movie.Or – and this would have been the favoured option had she been given all the facts this morning – gone to the hairdressers with Val and undoubtedly had an absolute whale of a time.Another huge part of her was glad of all this drama, because at least it was a distraction from the fact that she’d checked her phone not long before she left the ward and Jack still hadn’t returned her calls or messages.What was going on with him?Was his affection waning just as hers was ramping up to potentially make this a more permanent arrangement?
When they’d met four years ago, she was the first woman he’d had a relationship with after the death of his much-loved wife a few years before.Her divorce was not far in the rear-view mirror, and she’d sworn off men for life, so their romance had been a delightful surprise for them both.Yes, it had always been long distance, but there had always been a vague notion that it wouldn’t be that way forever, that one of them would move to be with the other when the time was right.Now that she thought about it though, Jack hadn’t mentioned that in a while.Had their relationship fizzled out and she hadn’t been perceptive enough to notice?Or was she just worrying herself for nothing and he was waiting for her to be ready to suggest taking the next step to be together?
‘What’s up, Bernie?You’re frowning,’ Caleb observed.
‘Ah, nothing.’She wasn’t going to burden them with her problems, because as she’d pondered earlier, shouldn’t she have this stuff figured out by now?‘Right, time to get back,’ she announced, changing the subject.‘I don’t want to be leaving the others stretched already.And I’d better make sure Murray Atkins hasn’t started a riot yet, demanding attention.’
‘No worries, Bernie.I’ll send the final scan report round just as soon as I’ve got it,’ Stevie promised.
‘Ah, thank you – you’re a wonderful woman.Caleb, I’ll see you back there.Just want to nip to the loo first.’
Bernadette got up from the table and put her soup mug on the tray of dishes in the corner, then left the others to finish their lunches.
After a quick pitstop at the ladies’, she ended up getting back to the ED nursing station at exactly the same time as Caleb.She quickly opened the drawer to check her phone again and frowned.Only one missed call, but it was from lovely Marge.Kenneth’s former secretary was one of the people she met up with on the anniversary of his funeral every year, and Bernadette just hoped she wasn’t calling to cancel, because she always looked forward to seeing her.They’d never been close friends – Kenneth had always kept them apart, for what she later learned were very good reasons – but they’d had some very honest, heartbreaking conversations since he’d passed away, and Bernadette felt Marge was someone she could count on.Hopefully Marge felt the same.
‘Okay, let’s get cracking here,’ Caleb said, focusing on the whiteboard again, catching up with what he’d missed while they were in the canteen.Bernie popped her phone back in the drawer.Two of the other nurses were going off on their break, so she didn’t have time to call Marge back right now, but she’d buzz her as soon as her shift was over.If it were anything urgent, she was sure Marge would have left a message or texted.
‘Okay, I’ll take bays six and fourteen.They’ve been waiting longest,’ Caleb offered, grabbing the respective charts that had been left on the admissions rack by the triage nurse.
‘Okay, I’ll take…’ Bernadette was just checking the times on the board, when a click click click and a loud woman’s voice interrupted her focus.Without thinking, she turned to see the cause of the distraction and spotted a visitor to the ward, over at the entrance, having what looked like a very serious conversation with the triage nurse.Bernadette couldn’t hear, but she could guess exactly what was going on there and it involved demands to see one of the patients.‘Oh Jesus.Jesus.Jesus.’Bernadette exhaled, suddenly rediscovering the power of verbalising prayers, because only some kind of heavenly intervention was going to sort this one out.
Caleb had stopped what he was doing and was staring at her, perplexed.‘What is it?Don’t tell me the drug dealers are back, because I haven’t got the legs to chase them today.’
Bernadette shook her head.‘No, son, it’s much worse than that.’She popped the charts she was holding back onto the rack, her priorities suddenly changed.‘Caleb, see that woman over there, I need you to stall her, distract her, do whatever you need to do to buy me a couple of minutes.’
‘Why do I feel like I’m in an episode ofGrey’s Anatomy?I have always wanted someone to say something like that to me.’
‘Well, this is your moment,’ Bernadette told him, her gaze never leaving the door, where the woman was still remonstrating with the triage nurse.
Despite his enthusiasm, Caleb needed more information before accepting the task.‘Why, who is she, and is she dangerous?’
There was no way out of this.Bernadette didn’t have a clue if there really was a potential problem on the horizon.Perhaps her take on this situation was completely wrong and it was all a harmless misunderstanding.Although going by the furious expression on the woman’s face, Bernadette had her doubts.She also had no idea how the woman had got past security and the receptionist outside in the waiting area.But if there was anyone who could do that, Bernadette had absolutely no doubt it would be…
‘That,’ she said, with a long, slow sigh, ‘is Murray Atkins’ wife.’
14
MARGE
Marge felt like she was watching a film.An older movie.Set at the dawn of the nineties.There was a couple in the garden holding hands.It had been paused, and now someone must have pressed play again, because suddenly Marge wasn’t just watching it, she was the woman in the film.It was her who was sitting in the garden… The little patch of grass at the back of the cottage flat she’d lived in then… It was a sunny day.Ian was holding her hand.As a tear began to run down her cheek, she opened her mouth to speak.‘Ian, I need to tell you something.I’m pregnant.’
It was his confused expression that broke her heart first.He worked with numbers.He had a mathematician’s brain.The answer to the calculation was right in front of him and yet he couldn’t accept it.
‘But how…?’
It wasn’t that they hadn’t slept together, because after barely a month of dating, they had crossed that barrier a couple of weeks ago and it had been wonderful.Truly.The kind of experience that Marge read about in her favourite Danielle Steel books, where the physical side felt sexy, but every beat of her heart was with him too.Afterwards, they’d both squeezed into her bath, filled it with grapefruit bubble bath she’d bought from the Body Shop with some Christmas vouchers, and drank Asti Spumante from a bottle, passing it between them after each sip.It was so unlike her.So out of character.For a start, she had perfectly good wine glasses in the cupboard.Yet, this was the way Ian made her feel.Like herself, but much more fun.Carefree.That was what he brought out in her.
‘So I have a question for you,’ he’d begun on that heady day as he handed the bottle back to her.
