Page 47 of Pas de Don't
“Oh, sorry,” Marcus said hastily, more to himself than to either woman. “Heather, this is my mum, Leanne. Mum, this is my friend—”
“Heather Hays,” his mum finished, sounding surprised. “From New York. I recognise you from the paper.”
Heather stepped forward, fidgeting with the sleeve of her sweater. “Hi, Mrs. Campbell. It’s nice to meet you. I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Leanne, please, and come make yourself comfortable. Well, as comfortable as you can be in these chairs.”
Heather nodded and sat in a seat next to his mum.
“So, Heather, what brings you to the emergency department this fine Saturday morning?”
Heather hesitated for a fraction of a second, then gave her a pleasant smile. “Marcus has been showing me around the city, and we were about to set off when he got the call.”
His mum looked Heather up and down, taking in her messy hair, then looked at Marcus, who looked even more rumpled. “Where were you planning to go?” she asked, sounding sceptical.
“The zoo,” Marcus said quickly, hoping he sounded more relaxed than he felt. He’d never been good at lying to his mum. He had a useless poker face, and she had a finely tuned bullshit detector. It was not a good combination. “Heather’s keen to see a real live koala.”
“I know it’s touristy,” Heather said, with a self-effacing eye roll, “but...I am a tourist.”
“And Peter asked me to be a tour guide,” Marcus added. He chanced a quick smile in Heather’s direction. The first test of their rules and they were doing fine. A little sweaty, but fine.
Leanne looked over at the sliding glass doors, which revealed a grey sky threatening more rain, then back at Marcus.
“Might not be the best day for the zoo,” she said. As if to emphasize her point, a thunderclap rolled overhead, and the rain began to pour.
“We can go some other day,” Heather jumped in. “And Alice has told me I should try to get out of Sydney if I can. She mentioned the Blue Mountains?”
“She’s right, it’s beautiful up there, even this time of year.” Leanne shifted in her seat and winced.
“Mum, are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’mfine,” she said adamantly, and turned back to Heather. “And I don’t want to talk about Sydney. I want to hear all about New York. I’ve never been, and I’ve always wanted to. What’s it like?”
Marcus watched as Heather raised her eyebrows in surprise, and then thought for a moment. “It’s a lot. It feels like you’re on all the time, like you’re going at full speed every second of the day. Which means you never get bored, but you also never get a moment to rest. And it’s a huge city, obviously, but sometimes it can feel very small.” She fidgeted with her sleeve again. “Sometimes it can feel like you don’t have enough room to move properly. Like you’re trapped.”
“Did you grow up there?”
“Kind of. My mom worked in Manhattan, but we lived just outside the city, in Yonkers, which some New Yorkers will tell you isnotNew York City. But then I moved to Manhattan when I was fourteen, into the dorms at the company school.”
No wonder she talked about her friend Carly like a sister, Marcus thought. They must have lived together during their teens, in addition to taking classes together all day at the school. They’d grown up together. They were basically family.
“And do you like dancing with your company? It must be hard bloody work.” Leanne looked at Heather with kind, interested eyes, and seemed to have no idea what a complicated question she’d just asked.
Heather bit her lip and paused for a moment before answering. “I did like it,” she said carefully. “But it’s really nice to have a break from it all. I like the pace of life here, and I like what Peter’s trying to do with ANB. But it’s hard bloody work wherever you are in the world,” she added, and Marcus couldn’t resist smiling.The stereotypically Australian phrase sounded sweet and strange in her American accent.
Thank God she’d insisted on coming with him. Awkward questions from his mum aside, her presence made sitting here a lot easier. With their conversation to focus on, he didn’t have to think about his last visit to an emergency room, or about all the time his father had spent in the oncology wing of this very hospital. Marcus caught Heather’s eye across the aisle, and she gave him a tiny, reassuring smile. It sent fragile spirals of warmth and calm through him, the same ones he’d felt when she’d reached across the back seat of the car and given his hand a brief, gentle squeeze.
“Mum, are you okay?” a breathless voice said from a few metres away. Marcus looked up to see his brother walking towards them, his clothes splattered with rain and his face clouded with anxiety. Marcus felt his smile falter and fade.
Leanne smiled at her eldest son cheerfully. “Everything is just fine, thank you, David. It’s just a cut and some bruises. You really didn’t need to come all the way over the Bridge or call your brother out.”
Davo sighed heavily and looked up at the ceiling, and Marcus could tell from the slump and ease of his shoulders that he was relieved.
“Christ, I was so worried. You said something about blood everywhere. You’re sure you’re all right?”
“Yes, though I’m afraid the living room looks a bit like a crime scene. I might need some help cleaning it once they stitch me back up. Come sit down, I’ve just been hearing all about life in the Big Apple from your brother’s new friend.”
Davo saw Heather for the first time, and Marcus watched as his brother stood a little taller and pulled his hands from his pockets.
