by Harper Bliss
The main street was nearly deserted. To her right she had a view of the town square, where two stooped-over ladies shuffled around the perimeter of one of the oldest parks in Massachusetts. It was possibly one of the smallest as well.
The front door creaked open. “Ellie?” her sister called out.
“Kitchen,” Eileen answered, straightening in her seat.
“Please tell me you have coffee on.” The bags under Julia’s eyes had a life of their own. “We had to entertain a couple of James’ clients last night and I’d forgotten how much finance people like to drink.”
“Help yourself.” Eileen nodded to the coffeemaker on the metal cart next to the sink. Her temporary housing had limited counter space. Not that Eileen had the abilities or patience to cook with only one arm.
Julia set her bulging mom bag on the stove top, promptly fixing a cup. She took a lustful chug of the hot liquid before she slipped into the blue and white striped upholstered chair opposite Eileen. “So, tell me about your date?”
Eileen shook her head. “It wasn’t a date. I already told you that. And the event was a week ago. Done and dusted.”
Julia scrunched her brow. “That sounds so very British. Are you doing your best to keep calm and drink coffee?”
“Please. You’re insinuating last Friday rattled me or something. I assure you, nothing happened. I went to the exhibit, if you can call something featuring a doll named Bitsy that. Then I left. End of story.” She waved her left hand dismissively in the air.
“You’re neglecting to mention a key detail. You left with Naomi and the two of you walked in the direction of her car.”
Eileen flinched. “How do you know that?”
“London may have more cameras recording people than any other city, but Derby has the best type of intel: people with nothing more to do than gossip.”
“And these gossips include my baby sister.” Eileen feigned a yawn.
“If you’re trying to shame me into silence, it won’t work. What happened?” Julia’s eyes were wide with anticipation.
“Nothing,” Eileen said through gritted teeth. “She’s twenty-seven, Jules. Would you let something happen with someone that young?”
Julia nodded. “If I wasn’t married, I absolutely would.”
“Some of us aren’t so impetuous.” Eileen sipped her coffee.
Julia examined her face. “Something happened.”
“According to whom?” Had Naomi spilled her guts? Would that be something someone so young and inexperienced with the way the real world operated would do?
Julia circled a finger in the air. “According to you. The darkness in your eyes gives you away.” She leaned her forearms on the table. “Talk to me, Ellie. It’s been so long since we had sisterly chats. It’d do you some good to let me in because from the way you’re grinding your teeth, you’re about to explode.”
Eileen massaged her eyes. “When did we ever have sisterly chats? And, I don’t explode. Or talk. What did you tell me last week? I’m different from other women?”
“Ah, I get it. She shot you down.” Julia placed a supportive hand on Eileen’s arm. “It happens to the best of us.”
“She didn’t shoot me down.” Eileen pulled her left arm away. “I shot her down.”
“And now you regret it?” Julia pushed, seemingly thrilled she’d found the right button to get Eileen to admit something she normally wouldn’t.
“Why in the world would I regret not sleeping with Naomi? She’s… she’s… twenty-seven.”
“Is that the only reason you didn’t?”
“Oh my God!” Eileen stressed each word. “Is this all people in Derby have to do? Talk about sex. I for one have… lots to do.”
Julia made a show of checking out her sister’s bathrobe. “Tell you what. I’m going to make a proper pot of coffee because this”—she hoisted her cup in the air—“is crap. And then you and I are going to talk. Or…” she left the rest unsaid.
“Or what?”
Julia rose. “I’ll tell Mom you slept with Melissa.”
“That makes zero sense!”
“Would you rather I told her you slept with Naomi?” Julia dumped the used coffee filter and grounds into the trash.
“I didn’t sleep with either last week. I haven’t slept with anyone in years!” Eileen banged her left palm onto the table.
Julia, with a heaping scoop of coffee grounds hovering in the air, said, “Oh, Ellie. You really do need to talk. Get whatever it is you’re dealing with out. Because that isn’t right. Not at all. Jesus, I was joking earlier that you were about to explode, but now I know. You’re one step away from kaboom!”
The church bells started to toll and Eileen glanced at the wall clock over the oven. “Shit, I’m going to be late for my appointment.”
“Look at that. It’s one minute after noon. For someone who claimed she didn’t need to talk, you’ve been spilling your guts for hours.”
“Whatever! Are you going to help me so I don’t miss my appointment?”
After hastily tossing on clothes with Julia’s assistance, Eileen dashed out of her apartment.
As she approached the hospital elevator, two nurses engrossed in a conversation exited from it, allowing Eileen to slip in and press the button for the fifth floor. There was still a small chance she’d make the appointment in the nick of time.
Just as the doors were about to shut, a hand impeded their progress, and they started to reopen. Begrudgingly, going by the grinding sounds.
Eileen swore under her breath and then turned her wrath onto the intruder. “Who do you think you are? This is a hospital. People have emergen—Oh, it’s you,” Eileen said when she saw it was Naomi.
“I’m sorry. Are you in the midst of an emergency?” Naomi looked her up and down, and then glanced around the massive space.
“What? No? I wasn’t expecting it to be you.”
“It was bound to happen, us running into each other, since I work here and you have appointments. As the older and wiser one, I would have thought you would have been able to see this eventuality playing out during your stay at least once.” Naomi leaned on her hands which were gripping the edge of a cart. “If you don’t mind, since you aren’t dying or anything, I would like to come inside. I also have things to do today.”
Eileen moved out of the way. “Yes, of course. Let me help you.” With her good arm, she steered the cart into the elevator.
Naomi pressed the button for the fourth floor, initiating the doors to slide shut. Excruciatingly slowly.
The wheels and pulleys of the old elevator jerked to life, but apparently they were in no rush to reach their destination. What if someone truly had an emergency? They’d die before reaching the second floor.
Eileen eyed the contents of the cart. Wanting to drop the tension between the two of them down several notches, she attempted to be cordial. “What is all this… stuff?” Cordial, apparently, wasn’t her forte.
“Thanksgiving decorations. Usually I don’t take the elevator, preferring the stairs to reach my daily goal of fifteen thousand steps, but it wouldn’t be fun to lug all this upstairs. Hence why you’re stuck with me. The last person you wanted to bump into, probably.” Her shrug and crossed arms seemed to imply tough noogies.
“I never said that.” Eileen eyed the four-foot inflatable turkey wearing a black pilgrim’s hat and green vest.
Naomi followed her gaze. “What?”
“That you were the last person I wanted to see.”
“Oh, you made it clear when you stormed out of my apartment that I didn’t do it for you.” Naomi’s arms tightened around her chest, perhaps accidentally shoving her cleavage upward in an extremely hard-not-to-notice way.
Eileen forced her stare downward, letting out a sigh. “That’s not true.”
“So, I do do it for you.” Naomi stumbled over the repetition of the word do, a blush rising to her cheeks, her arms falling to her sides.
Exasperated, Eileen said
, “I can’t win with you.”
“Like you’ve even tried,” Naomi spat out.
“To think I’d considered apologizing to you. But you should be apologizing to me.”
Naomi’s head whipped back. “For what? Liking you? That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard all week. All year, maybe.”
Eileen had to dig deep for something believable. “F-for implying I’m not brave.”
Naomi stomped her boot on the floor. “I did no such thing! I do remember saying the kids I work with are the bravest people I know. I didn’t say you weren’t brave.”
Eileen countered, “Maybe I’ll find out on my own.”
Naomi raised both hands in the air. “What are you talking about?”
“Volunteering with the kids. What would you say to that?”
Naomi tapped her forehead with an index finger. “I don’t get you.”
“There’s nothing to get.”
“Clearly.”
“So, you don’t want me to volunteer?” Eileen asked.
“I encourage everyone to,” Naomi responded with bite.
“Is that the only reason you think I should?”
Naomi blinked.
Eileen poked the pilgrim hat on the ridiculous turkey, making it tilt to the side before popping back upright. “On Thanksgiving. I’m volunteering that day. In the morning.”
“I’m volunteering that morning!” Naomi exclaimed.
“Meaning no one else can?”
“Fine! We can volunteer together,” Naomi said.
Both of them stared at the other, breathing heavy.
The elevator doors opened on the fourth floor and Naomi started to maneuver the cart into the hallway.
Before exiting completely, Naomi released a slow breath, and said with sincerity, “It might do you a world of good to do something for someone else. Show you haven’t been beaten.”
Eileen stopped herself from her first sarcastic response, settling on, “I’ve heard the kids on the fourth floor can teach me a thing or two.”
“No doubt.” Naomi furrowed her brow as if taking extra time for the statement to sink in. “Wait… I said that to you.”
“You did.” Eileen peered into Naomi’s softening eyes.
Naomi’s expression transformed into the kindness Eileen had witnessed on their first meeting. “Is this your way of apologizing?”
“I have nothing to apologize for.”
Naomi groaned, but there was a hint of a smile. “You are so stubborn.”
“I don’t think we should continue to hold up the elevator. This is a hospital, you know.” Eileen had meant to sound like she was joking, but the words came across much harsher than she intended.
“So, I’ve been informed.” Naomi shoved the cart out of the elevator completely, but as the doors started to close, she looked over her shoulder, “I can be just as stubborn. And I expect to see you on Thanksgiving morning. No take backs.”
Eileen craned her neck to watch the twist of Naomi’s hips as she walked down the hallway, until the doors blocked the view.
Chapter Eight
Naomi arrived early at the children’s ward on Thanksgiving morning. She wasn’t only spurred on by wanting to make the kids forget where they were for a few hours. A different kind of excitement had taken hold of her. She might as well admit to herself that she was looking forward to seeing Eileen again.
She hadn’t been able to get Eileen out of her head after that evening in her apartment. Those brilliant green eyes turned out to be hard to forget.
Today was hardly a date—volunteering with kids too sick to be at home on Thanksgiving wasn’t the most romantic of circumstances—but a few stubborn butterflies held court in Naomi’s stomach regardless.
She had just donned a silly turkey hat when she heard rustling in the hallway. She peeked out and watched Eileen lug a heavy plastic bag with her good arm.
“Let me help you.” Naomi rushed over to her.
Eileen dropped the bag and took a breath. “Whew. I’m more out of shape than I thought.” She glanced down at the bag. “If I’m having trouble transporting a bunch of disposable cameras, I can’t imagine what it will be like carrying my actual equipment again.”
Naomi sneaked a peek into the plastic bag. Disposable cameras? What on earth was Eileen talking about?
She bent and took one out of the bag. She held it in front of her face to examine it further. Naomi guessed that it looked like a camera because it had a lens on one side and a tiny hole to look through on the other, but where was the screen?
“What’s this?” she asked.
Eileen brought her arm to her hip. “Please tell me you’re kidding?”
Naomi turned the camera around in her hands and gave it a good once-over. “This must be a relic from the very distant past.” She glanced up at Eileen with amusement in her eyes.
“Watch it, you.” Eileen stood smiling at her. She nodded at the hat on Naomi’s head. “This should make a good shot.” She took the camera from Naomi’s hands, brought it to her eye with her left hand, and pressed the button at the top. The camera made a clicking sound.
“That’s the first picture of the day taken.” She grinned at Naomi. “And no, you can’t see what it looks like on some magic screen. These are actual disposable cameras and you have no idea how hard it was to find two dozen of them in Derby.”
“Two dozen?”
“I should have asked you how many children are in the hospital,” Eileen said. “I wanted them all to have one.”
“That’s so sweet.” This was definitely the sweetest side to Eileen she had witnessed so far. Or maybe she had spotted this before, hidden beneath that thick shield of hers, below that guard that was always up.
Eileen shrugged. “I always used to take a couple of instant cameras with me on assignment. Trust me when I tell you that you aren’t the only one baffled by the sight of a non-digital camera.” She slanted her head. “Of course, the kids I gave them to are too young to have dated an amateur photographer.” She stood there grinning again.
“I truly doubt Jane would know what these are.” Naomi reached into the bag again and picked out another camera. “You have way too many so I can only assume you brought one for me as well.” She brought it to her eye and looked through the viewfinder. Through it, she saw Eileen’s face. Her wavy red-blond hair was tied into a high ponytail again. Naomi focused the center of the viewfinder on Eileen’s eyes and took a picture.
“Hey. I didn’t sign a release for that,” Eileen protested. She burst into the widest grin Naomi had seen on her, and she felt compelled to take another picture.
When she pushed the button, it wouldn’t go all the way down.
Eileen shook her head. “You, millennials,” she said. “You don’t know anything anymore.” She held up the camera she had in her own hand. “You have to turn this wheel here before you can take the next picture.” She tried to show Naomi how to do it, but clearly it wasn’t an easy feat to accomplish with only one fully functioning hand.
“Christ, what kind of an antiquated item have you brought in here?” Naomi said as she helped Eileen turn the wheel on the camera. “You can’t see the result of what you’re taking a picture of and then you have to fiddle with this thing before you can take the next one.”
“It’s part of the charm. Imagine going to pick up the prints? The thrill of the surprise.”
“Pick up the prints?” Naomi drew up her eyebrows. “Good luck finding a place in Derby that can develop these.”
“Don’t you worry about that.” Eileen collected the bag. “I believe some children are waiting to be introduced to the wonder of disposable cameras.”
Naomi thought better of helping Eileen with the bag and led the way to the ward. If this was Eileen’s true personality, she thought, she didn’t stand a chance against those butterflies in her stomach—they were already starting to cause a riot.
Eileen’s disposable cameras were a hit with the kids, althoug
h most of them, just like Naomi had done, inquired where they could see the instant result of their picture-taking efforts—unlike their parents, who looked at the cameras with nostalgia in their eyes.
Naomi decided not to put too much thought into what this said about the age difference between her and Eileen. Yes, they were from different generations, and when they were in Tyson’s room, a thirteen-year-old boy who would be leaving the hospital soon after Thanksgiving, Naomi felt much closer in age to him, than to his parents or Eileen. But what difference did it really make?
Tyson, in particular, was mesmerized by the camera. After Eileen showed him how to use it, he swiftly started giving instructions to his parents on where to stand, taking the light from the window into consideration, so he could take the best shot.
“I want to take one of you two as well,” Tyson said to Eileen and Naomi.
“It would be my honor to be photographed by you, young sir.” Eileen glanced at his parents. “That’s a future Pulitzer winner right there.” She held out her good arm to Naomi. “Come on then. Let’s freeze this moment in time.”
Naomi stepped into Eileen’s unexpected embrace. But it was Thanksgiving and Eileen volunteering had been a big hit—something Naomi hadn’t been so sure of beforehand—and she was just glad that Eileen seemed so happy to be spending time with her and the kids. So, Naomi took the opportunity to lean into Eileen’s side, pushing herself against Eileen and feeling the warmth of her again, the way she had done only ever so briefly last week.
To Naomi’s welcome surprise, Eileen responded by rubbing the side of her hip slightly against Naomi’s.
“You take your time to get the best shot, Tyson,” Eileen said. “Naomi and I are very comfortable here.”