Thursday Afternoons

by Tracey Richardson

  “What?”

  “If Ellis is basically recommending that the hospital be gutted, then buying us more time would be a good thing, right?”

  “Nah, I don’t think you have to worry about that.”

  “Why not?”

  “Hendy, you gotta promise me you won’t—”

  “Do you even have to ask? Ames, you know I’d walk on burning coals for you. Now tell me, I’m dying to know what the hell is going on.”

  Amy tells her about Ellis’s plan to add programs to the hospital that will bring in more funding, so that they can keep what they have. No guarantee the regional board will go for it, Amy cautions, but adds that the community will go nuts if the board doesn’t go for it and chooses to make cuts instead. “It’s a solid plan, a spectacular plan,” Amy says. “If I need to, I’ll leak her report to the media. Isn’t Erin’s twin sister married to a newspaper editor?”

  “She is, and that’s a masterful idea. Jesus, I’m so damned relieved. I don’t want to leave this hospital, especially since Erin plans to set up her own practice in town by spring.”

  “I don’t think anybody’s going anywhere.”

  “This calls for a celebration. An epic one.”

  “It does, but not until everything’s official. I’m not doing anything to jinx it, you know?”

  “Boy, do I ever.”

  They’re about to rejoin the party when Amy notices Erin and Ellis chatting amiably. She halts Kate in her tracks, points to their girlfriends. “Goddamn, will you look at those two beauties?”

  Kate’s shaking her head, but she’s grinning. “How the hell did we get so lucky?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m not going to question it. I’m going to hold on like hell.”

  “I’ll second that, my friend.”

  Amy’s eyes take in the crowd: her parents, her friends, her girlfriend, Mia. This is her life now, these people. The hospital, her patients, they’re her life too, but they pale in comparison to this—her family. She knows without question that she’ll follow these people anywhere, whether the hospital continues to exist or not. Because when it comes down to it, the hospital is just bricks and mortar. It’s the people, the community, that make everything worthwhile.

  “You know what?” she says to Kate. “No matter what happens, we’re going to be okay.”

  “You’re right, we are. We’re survivors.”

  Being a survivor has never felt so promising. Or so damned good.

  Epilogue

  Three consecutive Christmas songs are usually enough to put Amy out of the holiday mood—too much syrupy cheer—but tonight she hums along to every tune, twirls Ellis around Kate’s living room to “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.” Even Mia and Susie have chosen not to make fun of the music; they’re too busy holding hands and gazing into each other’s eyes, oblivious to those chatting and laughing and dancing around them the way only two people newly in love can be. Kate and Erin have cooked up a storm. There’s butter chicken, samosas, spanakopita, beef sliders, and an entire table of salads and desserts.

  Kate and Erin are incredibly cute together, and with Eliana, they look like a real family. The kind of family Amy knows her friend has always wanted. Kate and Erin have also become stand-in aunts to Mia, who’s made no secret of the fact that she wants to stay living here until she finishes high school at least, but forever if that’s possible. Ellis has been coy, assuring Mia their stay is indefinite for now, but Amy wants more, so much more. She wants Ellis and Mia to move in with her. She wants them to create a family together, to make this town their lifelong home, but it’s too soon to ask. Ellis has completed her hospital review, but it will be early February before the regional board decides what to do with her report. They could act on all of her recommendations and quickly. Or they might send it back to a committee for further study, prolonging any decisions. Worst-case scenario, they’ll reject Ellis’s recommendations and decide on something entirely different, something out of the blue. No matter what happens, Amy’s going to ask Ellis and Mia to be with her. To be her future.

  Kate sidles up to Amy, refills her glass with the bottle of chilled Prosecco she’s carrying around like a trophy. Ellis steps next to Amy and holds out her glass.

  “So,” Kate says, glancing between them, “you never did tell me when you two first knew you were attracted to one another.”

  Amy shares a glance with Ellis, notices the barest trace of a smile at the corners of Ellis’s mouth. She’s trying not to giggle.

  “I mean,” Kate continues playfully, “did you see each other in the hallway one day at the hospital and like, that was it? Or was it at that first board meeting, when you stared into each other’s eyes for the first time and thought, ‘Wow, I want that woman.’ Hmm?”

  “Um…” Amy stalls. She and Ellis have decided to keep the true source of their coming together their own little secret. Well, Natalie has an idea, since she was out with Amy for dinner when Ellis and Mia and her former in-laws walked into the restaurant. Amy knows there’s no fooling her sister, that she won’t buy the lie that the first time they met was at the hospital. Luckily, Natalie’s too scattered and preoccupied to give it much thought.

  “Well?” Kate persists. “This is one romance story I don’t want to miss out on.”

  In the last week, they’ve quietly told their friends and family about their relationship, editing out most of the details.

  Amy can’t resist a little fun at her lover’s expense. She bites her bottom lip to hold back from smiling. “Um, I’ll let Ellis tell that story. You tell it so well, honey.”

  Ellis is going to kill her; her eyes are promising it. “Well, um, let’s see. I, ah, well….” Her eyes have gone from threatening to pleading, and Amy takes pity on her.

  “All right, I’ll tell the story,” she says to Ellis. “But, honey, you have to promise me something.”

  Ellis grins and whispers, “Anything you want, lover.”

  Kate rolls her eyes, but she doesn’t mean it. She and Erin are every bit as goofy around one another.

  Amy cups Ellis’s chin, stares into her eyes. “Anything I want, huh? All right, how about that report of yours. I hope you put in there that we need to hire a replacement for Dr. Atkinson. So I’m not on call every other weekend. Oh, and I want a kiss.”

  Ellis rises on her toes and kisses Amy. “Done and done.”

  “Whew. Thank you. Are you always a step ahead of me?”

  “Yes.”

  Amy laughs, kisses Ellis again and almost spills their refilled glasses of sparkling white wine.

  “Hey,” Kate interjects. “I’m still here, and still waiting for my answer.”

  “Fine,” Amy replies, affecting a bored tone. “It was in Collinsworth, during that working trip.” Not totally a lie, because it was in Collinsworth that they came to realize they didn’t want to be apart.

  “I knew it,” Kate says triumphantly. “A little hanky-panky on the company dime, eh?”

  Ellis’s face is as red as Amy’s feels, but they don’t deny the accusation. Amy adds, “Oh, don’t worry, we worked hard. Very hard.”

  Kate shakes her head, laughs as she says, “I’m sure you did,” before resuming her mission of filling more glasses.

  * * *

  Valentine’s Day is a week away when Ellis’s report is accepted and voted on by the Essex County Regional Hospital Services board. She attends the meeting to be on hand for any questions, nervously holds her breath as the board goes around the table and votes unanimously to accept every one of her recommendations. It takes a moment for her to remember how to breathe again, and when she does, she smiles like someone who’s been pardoned from a death sentence. For once, she knows she’s earned every penny they’re paying her for the review, because Erie Shores Hospital will continue to exist now. More than that, it will thrive and serve more people, become even more of an integral part of the community in the years to come.

  Amy has been texting her every ten minutes,
asking for updates. The minute the meeting is over, Ellis texts that she’s on her way back to town and will be at Amy’s house in an hour. She ignores the pleas, the begging, to tell Amy what the board has decided, because she wants to tell her in person. In the car, she takes pity on Amy and texts her a smiling emoji.

  When she pulls her car into Amy’s driveway, Amy is on the porch waiting impatiently for her, hugging herself against the cold.

  “Dammit, you’re killing me,” Amy says, her teeth chattering. “That smiling emoji you sent me better mean good news.”

  Ellis leaps onto the porch and hugs Amy fiercely. “Come on, let’s get you inside. You’re freezing.”

  “I don’t care about that, I want to know what the hell happened.”

  Ellis leads them inside, tugging Amy by the hand. As soon as they’re in the door, she says, “They voted to implement every single recommendation. Not even a moment’s hesitation. What’s more, they think Erie Shores could be a model for small hospitals. They think this hospital can set the bar for other hospitals struggling to make ends meet.”

  Amy yelps, pumps her fist, and hugs Ellis so hard her insides feel like they’re oozing out of her.

  “I knew they’d love it. How could they not? That report is perfection personified!”

  “Hmm, if you were so sure, how come you were standing outside waiting for me, nearly catching your death of cold?”

  “Um…well, I might have been a little worried.” Amy laughs because she knows she’s been busted. She’s been a ball of worry lately, but only in Ellis’s presence. To everyone else, she’s been the picture of confidence because she’s wanted to set the tone for her colleagues. Kate’s been insufferable, pestering Amy constantly for updates.

  Ellis hands Amy her coat, lets Amy get her a glass of wine from the kitchen. When she returns, she’s holding a bottle of expensive champagne and two glasses.

  “Ooh, so it wasn’t an act, you really were confident the board would pass my recommendations.”

  “Not exactly. If it had gone the other way, I’ve got a bottle of whiskey in the cupboard.”

  Amy pops the cork, pours them each a generous glass. They clink glasses.

  “Oh my, this is good,” Ellis says.

  “Only the best for the best.” Amy’s eyes are twinkling, and Ellis swears it’s the happiest she’s ever seen her. “Oh, sweetheart, I can’t tell you what this means to me. This is the best news I’ve ever heard. And all because of you.”

  “No, not all because of me. It’s you, too, darling. All of you…Mia, Kate, and Erin, too. You all kept chipping away at my defenses until I finally listened, until I found another way. And it’s the right way. I feel like I finally did something good, you know? I feel like I’m helping to build something, not tear it down.”

  Nothing this rewarding has happened in her work life before. Usually her recommendations involve downsizing, cutbacks, amalgamations, trimming, forcing things to work in the face of enormous opposition. But this, this is making a sustainable future for the hospital. For herself, too. This is building something, and Amy makes her want to build a life and grow roots. For too long she’s ignored her own happiness. For too long she’s put things ahead of people, put her own fears ahead of progress. Not any more.

  “I’m so tired,” Ellis says, and Amy gives her shoulders a massage before guiding her to the sofa. “Thank you, love, but that’s not entirely what I meant.”

  Amy sits next to her. Their bodies touch, because they can’t be this close and not touch. It’s been that way almost since their first Thursday afternoon.

  “I mean,” Ellis continues, “that I’m tired of running.”

  “So don’t run.”

  She loves Amy’s directness, her way of simplifying things. “It used to be a thrill when I ended one project, when it was time to move on to another. A fresh start. A chance to reinvent myself, choose another future.” She reaches for Amy’s hand because she needs her steadiness. “I don’t want to do that anymore. I don’t want to run ever again.”

  “So don’t. Stay here. With me. With Mia. Make a life, a family, the three of us.”

  Amy’s looking at her with such passion, such conviction, that Ellis lets herself fall headlong into it. And it feels, for the first time in years, like she’s truly free. “I think I would like that. A lot.”

  She hadn’t noticed the fear in Amy’s eyes until it was gone, wiped away with her words. Amy lifts their joined hands, kisses Ellis’s fingers one by one. “Move in with me as soon as possible. You and Mia. Or we’ll sell my place and buy something together.”

  “Wait. Sell this place? Are you nuts?”

  “All right, then we’ll keep it. Will you? Move in with me?”

  “Oh, sweetheart.” Ellis can no longer hold back the tide; tears course down her cheeks. She’s laughing, she’s crying. She doesn’t know what she’s feeling, other than incredibly happy. And grateful. “How can reversing the course of your life feel so freaking good?”

  “Easy. Because you’re home now.”

  “You’re right. I am. But we need to talk to Mia.”

  “Right. Do you think she’ll say yes?”

  “Are you kidding? She’ll be booking the movers as soon as I tell her.” Ellis tilts her chin, waits for Amy to kiss her. It’s a soft kiss, like the falling of a gentle, warm rain.

  “I love you,” Amy says.

  “I love you too, darling. Can you handle having a housewife?”

  “I would love nothing better, if that’s what you want.”

  “Well, I’m unemployed now.”

  “I think somehow we’ll manage.”

  Ellis laughs. Of course they’ll manage, with her fat bank account and Amy’s high six-figure salary. “I do want to work again, at some point.”

  “I might be able to help with that.”

  “The hospital needs to add to their cleaning staff?” Ellis isn’t entirely joking.

  “Very funny. You remember Donna, our chief financial officer?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “She’s pregnant. She’ll be going on maternity leave in about four months. That sounds about the time you’ll start climbing the walls around here, itching to get back to work.”

  “You think so?”

  “I know so. Besides, that brilliant mind of yours is too, well, brilliant to stay unemployed for long.”

  “Why do I get the feeling you’ve got everything figured out?”

  “Because I do.”

  “I see. And did you have something to do with Donna getting pregnant, too?”

  Amy’s face reddens for a fraction of a second, and then she’s laughing and pulling Ellis onto her lap. “There’s one more thing I want you to say yes to.”

  Ellis feels her heart slow until it’s almost not beating at all. She knows she’ll say yes to anything Amy asks her.

  “Next Thursday,” Amy says around a grin, “happens to be Valentine’s Day.”

  “Well, isn’t that a coincidence that it falls on a Thursday.” She’s pretty sure she knows where this is going.

  “I’ve booked the day off. And I’ve booked our hotel. Do you happen to be free?”

  Ellis feels her heart lifting, soaring like a kite. The hotel. In the city. Where they first met nine months ago. “I happen to be free as a bird.”

  A look of horror flashes across Amy’s face. “Not that free, I hope. As in, you’re taken.”

  Ellis laughs, kisses the frown off Amy’s forehead. “Yes, I’m taken, and happily so. But my day is wide open. My life, too.”

  “Ooh, I love the sound of that. I hope there’s lots of room for me in your big old life.”

  “Darling.” Ellis looks into those liquid gray eyes, wants nothing more than to dive into them. She’d do it too, but then she wouldn’t get to look at them. “You are my life.”

  Amy kisses her, trails her fingers up and down Ellis’s back, leaving warm tingles along their trail. Ellis deepens the kiss, her impatience growing because sh
e needs Amy in bed. She needs them both naked; she needs them touching one another, loving one another, consummating their new plans.

  “I think,” she says when she comes up for air, “that we need to move this celebration to your bedroom.”

  Amy kisses the tip of her nose, gives her a hungry look. “Can you stay the night?”

  “Let me text Mia. I’m sure she won’t mind.”

  They get up from the sofa, Ellis to find her phone, Amy to retrieve the champagne and their glasses. Already it’s starting to feel like this is her home. Ellis corrects her thought. No. Already it’s starting to feel like it’s the beginning of the rest of her life.

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