Eloise glanced down at her arm. ‘It's nothing. Just a bit of colour to liven things up.’ Eloise’s attempt at humour fell flat.
‘Doesn’t look like nothing to me. You’re black and blue on your arm there.’
‘It could have been a lot worse.’
‘Thank goodness it wasn’t.’
‘When I close my eyes, and I'm back in that moment, it’s quite scary. There was such a screech of tyres and then a crunch of metal. I can't shake it. I can’t believe I swerved like that.’ Eloise closed her eyes for a second.
‘Sounds traumatic.’
‘I'm mostly unharmed. I’m grateful.’
‘Yeah, it’ll take you a lot to get over it. A traumatic thing like that…’
Eloise wrinkled her nose. ‘You think? I’ll be right as rain tomorrow.’
‘You won’t. You just need to take it easy. Rest up and let your body heal.’ Cally instructed.
‘Sorry, are you now the wise one?’ Eloise joked. ‘I thought that was my role in this friendship.’
‘Looks like I’m telling you what to do for once.’
Eloise smiled. ‘When did you get so wise?’
‘I learned from the best,’ Cally bantered.
‘It’s weird. Last night, even though I’m okay overall, I felt so overwhelmed.’
‘Yep. When I was caring for my grandma, there were days when I felt as if I couldn't breathe. Sort of anxious or something.’
‘Yeah. This has really given me a bit of a reality check.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘Well, what if the van had been going faster? I might be telling a different story or not telling a story at all.’
‘Gosh, don’t say that.’
‘I’m not being dramatic, but all it takes is one silly little thing for your whole world to change.’
Cally nodded. She’d been thinking about Eloise’s accident a lot. It had made her reassess the situation with Logan. She’d thought about calling him and asking him if they could talk. The accident, even though, overall, it had been minor, had served as a wake-up call. ‘It made me think that, too. It's funny, isn't it?How it takes something like this to make us realise what's really important.’
Eloise leaned forward, wincing slightly as she reached for her tea. ‘What do you mean? Has my little mishap got you thinking about Logan?’
Cally nodded, her fingers tracing the rim of her mug. ‘Yeah, it has. Something like this can put things into perspective, you know?’
‘So, what are you thinking?’
Cally took a deep breath. ‘Well, I've been wondering if I've been too harsh on him. I mean, yes, he should have told me about his previous marriage. But life's too short to hold onto grudges, isn't it?’
‘It certainly is.’
‘I've been thinking about it for the last few days. The accident just pushed it to the forefront, I guess.’
Eloise nodded, taking a sip of her tea. ‘Okay, so talk me through it. What's changed?’
Cally leaned back. ‘It's like... when you called, my first thought was, “I need to tell Logan”. And then I remembered that I couldn't. And it just hit me, you know? How much I miss him, how much I want him to be part of my life.’
