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a matter of moments she was walking into the nursing home and towards her mother’s room.

      ‘Hi, Adele.’ Annie, one of the nurses, had just finished turning her mother and smiled at Adele as she came in.

      ‘I know that it’s late but I couldn’t get here this morning and...’

      Adele stopped herself. They always told her that she didn’t need to give a reason if she couldn’t come in. Tomorrow she wouldn’t be able to—she was on an early shift and, even though the nursing home was close by, she was going out on that date with Paul.

      The trouble was she wasn’t particularly looking forward to it.

      ‘Hi, Mum,’ Adele said, and took a seat and held one of her mother’s hands.

      Lorna’s nails were painted a lovely shade of coral.Adele did her mother’s finger-and toenails each week. Her once brown hair was now a silver grey. Adele had used to faithfully do her roots but in the end she had stopped that.

      Oh, she knew she had to get a life and yet it was so hard not to come in and visit.

      And people simply didn’t understand.

      Lorna had been so vibrant and outgoing. A single mum, she had juggled work and her daughter, along with an active social life. She’d had a large group of friends and at first they, along with relatives, had filled the ICU waiting rooms and then later they had come by to visit when Lorna had been on the ward.

      Over the years those visits had all but petered out.

      Now the occasional card or letter came and Adele would read it out then add it to the string on her mother’s wall. Lorna’s sister, Adele’s aunt, came and visited maybe once or twice a year. Another friend dropped in on occasion but apart from that it was just Adele.

      And so she brought her mother, who lay with her eyes closed, up to date on what was happening in her life.

      ‘I finally my got my lift from him,’ Adele told her mum. ‘It was very underwhelming.’ It really had been, she thought. ‘Anyway, I’m over Zahir. I really do mean it this time. I’m going out with Paul tomorrow night. He’s one of the paramedics,’ Adele explained to the silence. ‘He’s asked me out a few times and I decided maybe I should give him a chance after all. I guess I’m not going to like everyone in the same way I do Zahir.’

      It really was time to get a life.

      But then she told her mother the real reason she had stopped by after work.

      It wasn’t just that she might not be in tomorrow, there were bigger reasons than that for her being here tonight.

      If her mother would just squeeze her hand or blink or do one thing to acknowledge that she knew Adele was here, it would help.

      This was agony, it truly was, sitting here day in, day out, and yet she was all her mother had.

      But Adele made herself say it out loud.

      ‘Mum, I’ve got some annual leave that I need to take and I’m thinking of going on holiday.’

      It was a huge thing for her to say.

      Yet she knew she couldn’t live this life for ever.

      To pay for the nursing home and the legal fees when the other family involved in the accident had sued, the family home had been sold and Adele now shared a small flat with Helga and James.

      Adele had deferred her studies for two years, but they had been spent dealing with the aftermath of the accident. She hadn’t had a holiday in years. Any weekends or leave had always been taken up with other things, such as university, work, visiting her mother, getting the house ready for the market or dealing with lawyers, doctors and real estate agents.

      Finally, when her mum had been placed in this home and things had started to settle, Adele had started her role in Accident and Emergency.

      Now she felt as if she was coming up for air and she simply wanted to get away and maybe just grieve for her mother.

      Of course she would still visit, Adele thought as she walked the small distance home to her flat.

      But she had to work out some sort of balance.

      Helga was in the kitchen, making an enormous fry-up for herself and James, and she had her music up loud.

      Adele was so tired but she lay on her bed, trying not to think of what she had just told her mother and trying to consider where to go on holiday.

      Greece perhaps?

      She woke to that thought.

      Adele took out her laptop and looked at several destinations and then saw a wonderful package deal for the South of France.

      Oh!

      It was more expensive than she had planned for.

      Then again, she hadn’t really planned to be going away.

      Walking towards the bus stop, she saw that a one-bedroom flat nearby had just come up for rent.

      Perhaps the money would be better spent moving out than on two weeks overseas.

      Arriving at work, she smiled at Janet, who was waiting for the rest of the early-shift staff to arrive before they had handover, which wouldn’t take long, given that the place appeared dead.

      Zahir was sitting on hold on the phone and not looking in the sunniest of moods.

      ‘How’s the holiday planning going?’ Janet asked as Adele came over.

      ‘I’ve seen something nice for the South of France.’

      ‘Ooh, la la,’ Helene said as she joined the group. ‘Will you go topless?’

      ‘I might.’ Adele said. ‘And I might find myself a nice French man...’

      ‘What about Paul?’ Janet checked.

      ‘Oh, yes.’ Adele said, her voice a touch deflated.

      ‘You’ve got your hot date tonight!’ Janet reminded her, and Adele rolled her eyes. ‘Where’s he taking you?’

      ‘No idea.’ Adele shrugged.

      Zahir tried to ignore the conversation. Adele was going out on a date, well, of course she was.

      She was beautiful, seriously so, and it had nothing to do with him what she did in her free time.

      But this wasn’t her free time.

      ‘Is it appropriate,’ Zahir said tartly as he hung up the phone, ‘to be discussing topless bathing and dating in a corridor.’

      ‘Er, Zahir.’ Janet, who knew a thing or three, and had been enjoying winding him up, answered with her own version of tartness. ‘There are absolutely no patients around. I can handle my nursing staff, thank you.’

      She smiled as Zahir stalked off.

      Oh, yes.

      She knew full well that he liked Adele.

       CHAPTER FOUR

      IT WAS A busy morning and lunchtime soon came around. Adele made good on her promise to visit Leila.

      ‘You are looking so much better.’ Adele was delighted to see the other woman sitting up and that she had some colour in her cheeks. Her hair was up and, despite wearing a hospital gown, she looked amazing.

      ‘I am feeling it,’ Leila agreed. ‘Thank you for all your help yesterday. Honestly, I shudder to think what might have happened. We could have been at afternoon tea!’

      ‘Don’t think like that.’ Adele smiled.

      ‘It’s hard not to,’ Leila sighed. ‘There’s not much else to do here. It is so nice to have you come and see me. I am used to being

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