Silence fell when I’d finished explaining as best I could, and I took the time to continue eating my breakfast while I waited for the questioning to begin.
“So… you’re just friends?”
My brow furrowed as I looked at her over the top of my coffee cup. I didn’t think I could have made that point any clearer.
“Yes. We’re just friends.”
“Nothing has ever happened between you?”
My mum’s own brow was wrinkled, as if the idea of a man and a woman being friends was impossible.
“Nothing has ever happened,” I confirmed, placing my cup down an
d eating some more food. “We don’t touch each other… well, we hugged one time, but that’s it. Nothing beyond that.”
“And you’re both okay with that?”
“I don’t understand why this is so difficult for you to comprehend. I’ve known him for a matter of weeks, and in that entire time, he has had a girlfriend, so I was never looking at him any other way than as a friend, and the same for him. We’re just two people who get along.”
I swallowed hard as a piece of bacon lodged in my throat after my next mouthful. I was sure I sounded like I was protesting too much, but I wasn’t sure how else to explain it. I also didn’t get why my mum had even let the thought that I’d help someone cheat on their girlfriend cross her mind. Not after what happened with Jay.
“Okay,” Mum said eventually, then reached over and rested her hand on mine. “Evie, I only asked so many questions because you seemed really shaken when you got in. I just don’t like to see you upset.”
“You would have been upset too if you’d seen him. You don’t have to know someone very well to feel sad when something bad happens to them.”
Mum nodded, and I could tell she was remembering what I’d told her and Keely the night before about what Natalie had done to him. They had both welled up when I described all I’d heard and seen. Well, as much as I could bear to tell them. Some of it was so horrible, I didn’t even want to repeat it again, even though I couldn’t get the images my mind had conjured up out of my head.
“Do you know what’s going to happen to him now?” Mum asked. “It’s just…” she paused, her eyes softening. “I know you, Evangeline. I know you’ll want to help him as much as you can, but you’re only just getting back on your feet after everything. I don’t want to see you taking on too much.”
I let out a long sigh. One thing I’d tried hard not to do when I was recovering from my depression was think too far ahead. That had been one of my biggest sources of stress; panicking about what my future held. Sometimes, I still panicked about that, but for the most part, I’d learned to take one day at a time. That was how I intended to deal with the situation with Ash too.
“I don’t know what will happen to him,” I said. “I don’t know if he’ll be able to or even want to go back to his flat after this. But he’s in hospital for a few more days yet. If he needs some help when he gets out of hospital, I’m happy to do that. He doesn’t have anyone, Mum.”
“You said his mum was coming over to see him.”
And hopefully she’ll be here by now.
“Yeah,” I said. “She is as far as I know. But that doesn’t mean he won’t want to see anyone else.”
Or maybe it did. It would actually be interesting to meet Ash’s mum; the woman who didn’t seem to pay a whole lot of attention to her son. I wondered if she’d stay a while and help him get back on his feet.
I really hoped she would, as he was going to need all the support he could get.
As much as I loved my mum, I was sort of relieved to drop her off at her house after breakfast. I could tell she was doing her best to understand my friendship with Ash and be supportive, and I also knew she was worried that I might take on more responsibility for him than I needed to. Everything she said was out of concern, and it wasn’t like they weren’t valid. Keely often said I was an empath, because of how I was so good at sensing people’s emotions. The problem was, I often took on other people’s burdens so they wouldn’t feel alone. While some might call that a weakness, I tried to convince myself it was a strength to be so in tune with people. But the reality of a strong empath was that when people had taken all they could from me, they usually left, and it took me some time afterwards to mentally recover from all the emotions they had sucked out of me.
I didn’t want that to happen with Ash. Or with anyone, ever again. That was one of the reasons I hadn’t attempted to date, or even make new friends since my divorce. I wasn’t ready to get too close to anyone and risk my dented heart again. Ash, though. His heart was more dented than mine, and I wouldn’t allow it to take one more scratch. Not until it had healed and he was strong enough to brave getting his life back. The one Natalie had snatched away from him piece by piece.
As I walked down the hospital corridor, I was almost knocked down by a middle-aged woman with too much make-up and bleached blonde hair rushing by, her bag falling off her shoulder as she ran, leaving a trail of cheap-smelling perfume in her wake. I giggled. She reminded me of Mrs Wormwood from the movie Matilda.
Approaching Ash’s room, I peered through the little window in the door to see him sitting up a bit. I was relieved to see him not lying flat on his back as he had been the day before. From what I could see, he still looked pale and spaced out, but I wouldn’t be able to tell more until I got inside, so I knocked on the door gently and went inside.
He turned his head as I stepped in, and he smiled for a second when he saw it was me. “Hey.”
“Hey. How are you feeling?”
He shuffled over very slowly, still in a lot of pain, as I sat down on the bed beside him. He didn’t answer right away, seemingly lost in thought.
“Ash?”