Page 25 of One Midnight With You
‘You’re not actually going to check up on him, are you?’ Yvie asked, and Emmy felt real gratitude for the concern that was written all over her friend’s face. However, she still had to do this because the suspicion was eating away at her. This was the first time in her life she’d ever felt this kind of emotion and she was hating every second of it.
‘I am. I need to, Yvie. And I know that makes me a terrible person, but there it is. If I’m wrong, then I’ll eat humble pie…’
‘And if you’re right?’ Keli asked her, clearly just as concerned.
‘Then I’ll cry. For a long time. And maybe slash his tyres, but it depends if there’s witnesses.’
Her attempt to make a joke was fooling neither of them.
‘Look, I’ll come with you,’ Yvie offered. ‘I don’t want you to do this on your own and if I stay here, I’ll only eat the rest of that yule log, so you’re saving me from myself.’
Emmy appreciated the offer more than she could say. ‘Really? You don’t mind? Okay, well…’ She was about to say ‘Let’s go,’ when the phone sprang to life in her pocket. For a split second, she hoped it was a message from Cormac, saying something that would set her mind at ease, quell all her fears and put her back into a bubble of bliss and security about their relationship.
But no, it wasn’t Cormac.
‘Oh bollocks,’ she murmured. ‘It’s a text from my dad.’ Her first instinct was to ignore it, but she couldn’t bring herself to blank him.
‘Honest to God, this day…’ she said, as she clicked to open it.
HEY LOVE IM DOWNSTAIRS IN THE CANTEEN IF YOU GET A MINUTE CAN YOU POP DOWN VERY URGENT LOVE DAD
He had obviously taken to using the caps button these days. Quite a surprise that his thirty-four-year-old mistress hadn’t taken a moment to point out to him that CAPS were the equivalent of shouting. Or maybe she had, and that was the point.
‘We’re going to have to hold off on the boyfriend check,’ she told Yvie. ‘My dad’s downstairs and wants to talk to me. The man has spent the last two years avoiding any kind of meaningful conversation with me and now he wants to be my best friend and needs me to sort out his problems with his love life. When did my father become a needy teenager? I feel like I’m stuck in one of those movies where the kids and adults swap places.’ She tossed her car keys back into her locker and then, as she walked past them, kissed Yvie on the cheek and then did the same to Keli. ‘You’re both awesome and thanks for listening to me today. But if I don’t come back, it’s because I’m tired of all my fricking drama and you’ll find me in a beach hut in Hawaii.’
There was only a half joke in that. Emmy wasn’t predisposed to emotional turmoil. All her life, she’d had lovely, stable, sweet grandparents who’d made so much time for her. And she’d had happily married, maybe a little unexciting, parents who never made her feel anything but loved and secure until exactly two years ago today when it had all gone to shit. All this crazinesstoday was making her want to run for the hills. Or some beach hut by the ocean.
The elevator doors on her floor were just about to close when she stuck her hand in, reopened them and jumped in, much to the annoyance of an elderly gent, who rolled his eyes and sighed. Emmy wanted to point out to him that if the worst thing that happened to him today was his lift getting held up by two and a half seconds, he had hee-haw to moan about. Instead, she clamped her mouth shut and said nothing, her stomach churning with the anxiety of it all.
When she reached the canteen on the ground floor, it wasn’t too busy, because it was between the lunchtime rush, the dinner rush and the pre-afternoon visiting rush, so she spotted her dad at a corner table straight away.
On the way to him, she stopped at the counter, where Joanie, the lovely canteen supervisor was placing a Victoria sponge under a glass dome.
‘Joanie, can I have a cappuccino, please?’ Emmy asked. ‘And a tuna sandwich, please.’ The realisation that she hadn’t eaten since breakfast had just reached her stomach and it was rumbling.
Joanie was already on the case, and it was only a couple of minutes before she handed over Emmy’s order. ‘There you go, pet. Just tap your card on the machine there. And Happy New Year when it comes. Anything nice planned?’
It was the same conversation that half of the country would be having today and Emmy appreciated the normality of it. ‘Nothing exciting. Just… family stuff. What about you, Joanie?’
‘We’ve got the karaoke machine set up at my sister’s house and she’s been making sandwiches and sausage rolls since dawn. If the whole street doesn’t turn up, she’ll be gutted.’
That made Emmy laugh. ‘Well, if they don’t, it’ll be their loss.’
‘Aye, that’s what I said because her and I are like Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus when we get started on that thing.’
‘I bet you are. Have a brilliant night, Joanie, and thanks for this.’
Heart rate reduced a little by Joanie’s chat, she took her coffee and sandwich over to her dad’s table. He had his back to her, so he didn’t spot her until she came up beside him and then pulled out the chair opposite him.
‘Dad, what are you doing here? You know I don’t want to get in the middle of this situation with Mum.’
‘I know, but, Emmy, you’re the only person whose opinions mean something here and I need help on what to do. Clearly, I’ve messed up so much and I don’t want to do the wrong thing again.’
The sight of him made her feel a twinge of compassion. He was still undeniably rocking the silver-fox thing – as witnessed by the fact that Joanie’s gaze had been fixed on him since Emmy left the counter, and now she was out on the floor, on the pretext of wiping tables, trying to get a better gauge of what was going on. This whole hospital ran on care, compassion and gossip and Joanie excelled in all three.
However, dashing looks aside, she couldn’t help notice that her dad’s forehead was etched with deep lines, he was still unshaven and the stress was almost seeping out of his pores.
Emmy immediately slid several notches down the irritated scale. ‘Okay, well, I’ve only got another half an hour on my break, Dad, so I don’t have long.’
