Page 45 of Ask Another Day

Hope soared in Holly’s heart as the screen transitioned to show the words The Odds Are High. She desperately wanted to believe this, and as she drifted off to sleep on a makeshift bed in her office, there was a slither of belief that this wasn’t going to be as horrific as she assumed.

*

It only felt like she’d closed her eyes for a few seconds, but it must have been longer because when she opened her eyes, Natalie’s face was practically touching hers. Her blue eyes staring at Holly’s intently. Light was streaming in from the window, which meant it was morning at least. But Holly couldn’t see what had happened to her phone to check whether it was a reasonable hour for her daughter to be up and out of bed yet.

‘Does it hurt?’ Natalie asked as soon as she noticed she was awake.

‘It’s a bit sore, but it’s OK.’

‘Like when I cut my knee?’

It was nothing like that at all, but Holly nodded.

‘Can I draw on it?’ Natalie asked, pointing at Holly’s cast with one hand and lifting up her red bucket with the other. Holly could just make out, that today, it was full of felt tip pens.

‘It’s called a cast. C-a-s-t,’ Holly sounded out the word to Natalie, and smiled as her daughter played around with saying the word correctly.

‘Of course you can. But nice drawings please? Nothing scary.’

As Natalie got to work on her masterpiece, Holly heard the pub door open and Lucy’s voice called out, ‘Morning,’ a few seconds later.

‘In the office,’ Holly called back and pulled herself up, dragging her heavy leg up the bed with her hands.

Natalie protested loudly, as her pink pen went in the wrong direction. ‘Mummy,’ she admonished, ‘stay still.’

‘Sorry, darling. I’ll stay put now.’

Lucy’s face appeared at the door.

‘Oh, Holly. Rose got me up to speed this morning.’ She nodded to the cast.

‘Pretty, shit,’ Holly agreed.

Natalie giggled at Holly’s use of Danny’s favourite word.

‘I think I’ve got a plan that might make things easier,’ Lucy said, but her voice had an uncertain edge to it.

‘I’m all ears,’ Holly said as Natalie emptied her bucket of pens over the floor to find the one she wanted next.

Lucy tiptoed over them, and settled herself in a chair by the desk.

‘Working at the pub has given me the thinking space I’ve needed to get my head together about me and Tony. I’ve filed the divorce papers.’ At Holly’s attempt to say something, Lucy put a hand up, ‘No words needed. It’s definitely the right decision. And the space has helped Tony too, I think. Me not being around so much, has been good for him - whether he realises it or not. I think the next best thing for him would be for me to move out. I don’t suppose you’ve got a spare room here?’

At Lucy’s hopeful face, Holly couldn’t help but smile a little.

‘You want to move in here with us?’ she gestured to the cast and her Tasmanian devil of a daughter, who was now furiously drawing what Holly assumed was a unicorn on the dried plaster that encased her lower left leg and foot.

‘I would love to. If you’ll have me?’

‘If we’ll have you? You’re a knight in shining armour, Lucy. Of course we’ll have you.’

Chapter 14

The Forecast Is Bright

Holly’s July date came around much sooner than she had anticipated when she had agreed to Rose’s plan. For one thing, her lower left leg was still encased in what felt like a tonne of plaster. In the weeks after the accident, she attempted, once, to traverse the stairs to the rooms above the pub. She could still remember the exhaustion she felt after dragging herself backwards up the hard stairs, only to be faced with the crushing realisation she had to get herself downstairs too. Her ensuing breakdown afterwards, had been the catalyst for Luke to transform the office behind the bar into a decent downstairs bedroom.

Every other day, she made the exhausting walk across to The Book Nook to use Eleanor’s downstairs bathroom for a strip wash and an awkward shampoo courtesy of Rose. It had been a test for their friendship which they’d thankfully overcome relatively unscathed. She longed for the day when she’d be able to have a shower again.