It’s Mum. Hair scraped back from her face, no make-up, wearing a hoodie, leggings, with fluffy socks and slippers on her feet. She’d have found out about Dad and not cared about anything else; she’d have run out of that house to be with her Johnny. I throw my arms around her and sob on her shoulder.
‘Calm down, he’s OK. He’s all right,’ she says gently.
‘Where is he? What happened?’
‘They think he overdid it. He had his flu jab yesterday and then went to play tennis today and his body was just trying to tell him to stop.’
‘So not his heart?’
‘They’ve wired him up to a machine to monitor him, given him some drugs… and… I’m sorry, is there a problem?’ she says all of a sudden, looking over my shoulder. ‘I know I spoke to your colleague. I’m parked terribly, I am so sorry.’
I turn around to see Cameron standing there. Mum thinks he’s hospital security? I laugh through tears of relief and ridiculousness.
‘No, I’m Cameron. I’m with…’
As soon as he introduces himself, my mum stops in her tracks. This is the hotel sex man. You can tell she doesn’t know what to do with her eyes.
‘Oh my… I called you away when you were—’
‘Mid-date,’ I intervene a little too loudly. ‘We were at a sci-fi convention…’
‘I’m so sorry,’ she says, cupping her hands to her mouth, looking immensely confused.
I try to signal that she shouldn’t delve any more.
‘Don’t be sorry… this is important,’ Cameron says. ‘It’s nice to meet you. Sorry, what is your name?’
‘Susie.’
Mum being Mum grabs him and goes in for the hug and you can tell the physical proximity is something he’s not entirely used to.
‘Well, it’s very sweet of you to be here, Cameron.’
Mum, again being Mum, mouths the word ‘CUTE’ over his shoulder, recent drama doing nothing to quell her need to matchmake her daughter.
‘Itwassweet. I’m sorry I am such a mess,’ I explain, trying to re-correct my eye make-up by swiping my fingers over the curve of my cheeks.
‘You know what, it just showed me how close you are to your parents, that’s a nice thing.’
He comes over and gives me a hug and I feel my body relent against his, warm and comforting, still smelling like sweet buttered popcorn. My mum grins. I also now realise how ridiculous we both must look to those in the waiting room. A man who seems to have put a nail through his hand keeps eyeing my boots.
‘You don’t have to stay, you know?’ I tell him. ‘You’ve gone out of your way already. I can pay you back for the taxi.’
‘Oh god, don’t be stupid. Look, I’m here. Let me be useful. I can move your car, get you vending-machine hot drinks. Let me be here.’
My mum watches him curiously. This is more than a sex date, this is a nice kid, Josie. She reaches in her handbag and gets her keys out. ‘It’s a black Mini Cooper. I literally parked it in front of other cars, car park 1. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was so panicked,’ she says, flustered.
‘I’ll have a walk around and find it. Go be with your dad, Josie.’
He touches my arm and leaves as Mum links her hand into mine.
‘You’re into policemen? That’s some specific kink,’ she whispers.
‘Shush now. Take me to Dad.’
‘Josie. Christ alive, that’s a get-up.’
I run over to my dad, sitting upright in his hospital bed, chuckling at me. I approach the bed and punch him in the arm.
