One Day in Winter by Shari Low

Author:Shari Low [Low, Shari]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786699008
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 2017-07-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Bernadette

Bernadette’s pulse was racing as she opened the door, even though she knew he wouldn’t be home yet. Marge had said seven o’clock, but experience told her that meant nothing. The simplest operation could take double the usual time if they hit complications, while the most complex of surgeries could go smoothly and finish in less time than estimated. Seven was a guideline, not a fact.

‘So what’s first?’ Sarah asked. ‘After switching on the kettle, making tea and finding some kind of high carbohydrate snack in your cupboards. I swear your life is making me gain ten pounds a week.’

‘Nothing to do with the cake you were shovelling down your gob earlier then?’ Bernadette asked.

‘Nope, absolutely not,’ Sarah said with an act of pure innocence while she set about grabbing cups, teabags, getting the milk from the fridge.

Bernadette paused, slipping back into that sentimentality that kept creeping up on her today. ‘You know, Sarah, I’m so grateful you’re here. I’d be a blubbering mess if I was doing this on my own.’

Sarah stopped, sugar spoon in air. ‘No you wouldn’t, Bernie. You’ve lived with that man for thirty years. That takes balls of steel.’

‘Or cowardice.’

‘We both know it wasn’t, and don’t say that again,’ Sarah chided. ‘If I wasn’t here you’d have got on with this, you’d have done it all yourself and you’d have walked out that door. This is your time now, Bernie. You know that.’

Bernadette sniffed. ‘Don’t make me cry. I don’t think I’d be able to stop.’

Sarah could see how vulnerable she was, how close to melting, and deployed diversionary tactics. ‘You know what has been clinically proven to help with that,’ she asked.

‘Prozac?’ Bernadette joked.

‘Nope, cake. Why do you think I’ve got an arse the size of a small island? When Drew left me I cried for a decade.’

Sarah’s ex-husband, Drew, had just divorced his third wife, each one going down a decade in age. Consistency or middle-aged women obviously weren’t his strong points.

‘But you? You’ve got this, Bernie. And now you know the kids are fine, it’ll give you the strength to stand up to him. Anyway, when you’re standing in front of him, just lead with the fact that Stuart has quit medicine – nothing you say after that will register.’ Laughing, Sarah put the cups down on the coasters on the table.

Bernadette lifted them one after the other, took the coaster from underneath and flicked them, frisbee-style, into the sink. ‘I fucking hate coasters,’ she said, swearing coming naturally to her for perhaps the first time in her life. She did. She fucking hated them. Almost as much as she fucking hated him. She could do this. She could.

But first, a check… She made a quick call to Marge. ‘Hi Marge, twice in one day! I know – just like buses. I just wondered if you had an update on how the surgery is going and when Kenneth would be done? Right. Yes, of course. Okay thanks.’

Sarah waited expectantly.

‘She doesn’t have an update.

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