Page 110 of I’m Dreaming of a New York Christmas

‘No, it isn’t. You can’t keep stuff like this from me, okay?’ I looked between them with as hard a stare as I could muster. ‘And I’m talking to both of you. I know you probably think you’re protecting me, but if you keep sheltering me from this kind of thing it’s going to end really badly – for all of us. Understood?’

They both nodded, like two wide-eyed schoolchildren who’d been caught forging their parents’ signatures in their homework diaries.

After a few beats of loaded silence, during which I focused on making sure as much oxygen as possible was entering my bloodstream, a nurse arrived. He detached Mum from the drip and removed the IV from her arm.

‘What’s going on? Surely she’s not been discharged already?’ Anneka asked.

‘She is. It’s fine.’

‘But—’

‘Let’s talk about it in a second, okay?’ I angled my head towards the nurse, who was running through the discharge form with Mum, which she signed.

‘Well?’ Anneka said, after the nurse had left.

‘Right. The doctor quickly got to the bottom of Mum’s symptoms when you weren’t here, and she has something called’ – I checked the discharge notes – ‘cytisine poisoning, which is totally unrelated to cancer and is easily treatable.’

‘What the fuck is… sittizine?’ Anneka asked, frowning.

‘It’s the toxin in Kentucky coffeetree pods, which Mum has been eating ever since she found them in Central Park.’

‘What?!’ Anneka glared at Mum, who was blushing furiously, some colour finally returning to her face.

‘We’ll be laughing about this soon…’ Mum said, but I could tell her heart wasn’t in it.

‘Listen, you two, we can talk more about this – and everything else – back at the hotel. But we need to get going,’ I said, authoritatively.

‘Already?!’ Anneka asked.

‘Mum has no insurance, Anneka. And I’m assuming you don’t, either?’

‘Ummm…’

‘That’s a no, then. I’ve got annual multi-trip cover through my bank account, but it only covers me, so that’s not helpful. The doctor told us what medicines to buy and the paperwork is all signed. We need to head back to the hotel and free up this hospital bed. That’s if you’re feeling up to it, Mum?’

‘I am feeling a bit better – I think those IV fluids have helped.’

‘Yeah, and you’ve probably vomited a lot of the poison up,’ Anneka offered.

‘That’s exactly what the doctor said. Okay, so here’s the plan: we’ll slowly get you upright and decent, Mum. Anneka – you go ahead and flag down a cab so it’s ready and waiting. I can jump out of the car when we’re close to the hotel to pick up the medicine. Anneka, which pharmacy did you go to the other day?’

‘It was just one block behind the hotel – really easy to find.’

‘Perfect. Right, shall we do this?’ I asked, looking between them.

Mum and Anneka looked at each other, and then back to me. They nodded, and we got to work.

Chapter 23

Walking faster than I’d ever walked before, I pushed the hotel revolving door so hard that it nearly swept me off my feet from behind. I made a beeline for the lifts, but a voice stopped me in my tracks.

‘Excuse me, Ms Bell?’

It was the receptionist who’d given me the coffee shop tip on my very first morning here, which meant she also happened to be the person who’d inadvertently set me on the path towards romantic devastation. If she was going to challenge me about why three adults were sharing a room for two, I wasn’t in the frame of mind to sweet-talk my way out of it.

I paused, turning on my heel to face her, trying but failing to muster a grin – I needed to get the medication into Mum’s system as quickly as possible. ‘Yes?’

‘Your mom – is she okay? We called an ambulance for her a few hours ago, but it looks like she’s back already? We got housekeeping to fix up the room, too.’