‘I’m still here.’
‘Okay. Listen, you need to know something. I’m in love with Tress. I needed to tell you that because you need to let the guilt go. And the regret. And the idea that if we got back together then it would all work out. It won’t, Anya. Not because I’m still angry, or resentful, or because I hate you, because none of that’s true. It could never work with us again because I love Tress. It’s just taken me a long time and a really fucking crazy day to realise it. So let all the guilt and regret go and be happy, Anya. I really mean that.’
Closure. Everything on the table. The final line in the chapter. The last goodbye.
He heard a sigh, then a sadness in her words. ‘You know, in a strange way I think I knew that already. When did you get together?’
‘We haven’t. I’m on my way to tell her now. Some things happened today that made me realise how I feel. I was never great at this stuff.’
‘You were. You just didn’t know it. And I was too stupid to see it.’ At the other end of the line, a sad laugh. ‘Good luck, Noah.And, for what it’s worth, I think she might feel the same way too. You deserve each other – and I mean that in only good ways.’
After they hung up, he turned the music back up as the song on the radio switched to another one he recognised. Nancy and Val had belted this one out too last night.
He tuned it out, his thoughts consuming him again. He could do this. And if it didn’t work out, if Tress didn’t want the same things, then he would just have to find a way to figure that out too. They’d been through worse.
That thought kicked off some subconscious plea to get the ghost of their past on side and he murmured, ‘Come on, Max, let me do this. Let me make her happy.’
At that second, two things happened. A bang. And then a jolt so violent he lurched to the side.
The last thing he heard as the car began to spin was the voice of Shania Twain.
32
KELI
The second Keli clapped eyes on Odette Devine, she knew she was still alive, but she was definitely unresponsive. Instinctively, she and Yvie dived to the floor. One on either side of her, they immediately snapped into the diagnostic protocols that they used on an all too frequent basis at work. Pulse. Pupils. Rule out heart attack. Choking. It was all done in rapid succession and Keli had a provisional diagnosis in seconds.
‘Call an ambulance,’ she instructed the man who had screamed for their attention. ‘Tell them you need it now. Two nurses on scene. Probable stroke.’
‘Oh God. Oh God. Oh God,’ he kept repeating, furiously stabbing at his phone, his hands shaking, before launching into, ‘She’s had a terrible day. So much stress. She’s been on the go for hours. I should have taken her home…’
‘I’ve got it, Calvin. You sit down. Take a breath. I’ve got it.’ That was Tress and Keli saw her pull out her phone and knew she’d get it done.
Keli made eye contact with the manager, who’d come running into the room behind them. ‘I need you to wait at the front door and show the paramedics in as soon as they get here.’
As he left, she glanced at her watch, noting the time: 11.05p.m. on a Friday night in the city centre. There would be a few ambulances on the busiest streets, getting ready for the usual weekend medical emergencies, so they might just get lucky. The pubs hadn’t begun to empty yet and the nightclubs hadn’t begun to fill up, so hopefully one of the paramedic teams could get to them quickly.
She heard Tress speaking slowly and precisely, giving out all the required information. Woman. Sixty-nine years old. She told them everything Keli had asked her to say, then gave them the name and address of their location.
‘The ambulance is on its way,’ Tress told them, then Keli saw her put her arm around the distraught man, talk to him, try to calm him. ‘They’re both nurses, Calvin. She’s getting the best care she can get right now and the ambulance will be here soon. And it’s Odette. You know how strong she is.’
‘She’s coming round,’ Yvie said, strong and calm, and Keli thought, as always, that there was no one she would rather be in this situation with. They’d worked on so many patients together, that they had almost an intuitive knowledge of their roles in every emergency.
Odette began to mumble, but the words were incoherent. That and the slight droop at the left side of her mouth told Keli that her diagnosis was almost certainly correct. Odette didn’t open her eyes, but she began to make sounds that were escalating in distress.
Keli had her fingers on Odette’s wrist, monitoring her pulse. ‘Odette, my name is Keli and my friend holding your other hand is Yvie. We’re both nurses and we’re going to take really good care of you. I know this is frightening, but the ambulance is on its way and we’re going to stay with you and look after you until it gets here.’ Keli had no idea how much, if anything, the womancould understand, but she kept speaking in the hope of calming her.
Eyes still closed, Odette made some more incoherent sounds, so Yvie took over the conversation, trying to reassure her.
‘Odette, don’t try to talk. Your friends are here with you too. Tress is here and…’
‘Calvin,’ Tress interjected with an answer to the unasked question.
‘And Calvin is here too. You’re going to be okay, Odette. We’re just…’
As Yvie carried on with soothing words, Keli turned to Calvin and Tress. She needed as much information as possible for the paramedics. After the first symptoms of a stroke, they only had a window of a few hours to halt or reverse the damage, so it was crucial that they find out everything they needed to know. ‘Did she show any signs of being unwell today?’
Calvin shook his head. ‘She was tired, but I just thought she was overwhelmed with the emotion of it all. In the car on the way here, she said she had a headache and she took a couple of paracetamol. She wanted to go home, but I talked her into coming here, because it was all arranged and… Oh God, I caused this. I caused all of this.’
