Page 13 of The Grand Rise

I eye the five files stacked under the one she’s working on. “Here, give me three.”

“Nope. Mia tried this crap, too. You have a whole shit show waiting for you at home if what you alluded to in the coffee line this morning is true. Go… I don’t know… fix it.” She waves me off.

After a moment, she pauses her writing and looks up at me.

I pop a brow and tilt my head.

“I’ll give you one,” she relents, handing me a folder.

“Two, and I’ll buy you lunch for a week.”

“That bad?”

“Bad enough I’d rather stay here and check over these than go home and answer questions I don’t have the answers to.”

She gives me a sympathetic grimace. “Alright. Two, and you’re done.”

“Deal.”

I take the folders and sit back on the chair.

We work in silence for a while, both of us lost to the words and numbers on the pages. It’s not until we’re finished and in the staff room collecting our belongings that Annie speaks.

“You can tell me about it if it will help.”

I think back to Lance standing on the driveway. His bike. The way I’ve not slept since seeing him again. I’ve been busy today and tried desperately to not think about him, but the more hours that have passed, the harder it’s been to shut him out of my mind. “I don’t think it would,” I reply with a smile, grateful that she cares enough to ask.

“That’s fine. If you need to take some time over the next few weeks or months, just tell me. We’ll figure something out. Don’t struggle alone if we can help.”

When I first met Annie, she was alone inside of a stock cupboard—in the dark—with tears brimming in her eyes.

I learnt two things about Annie that day.

One: she was a braver woman than me.

And two: she’d never let those tears fall. Even locked away in a store cupboard where no one could see, she’d never give into them.

She’d lost her husband the day before.

“I couldn’t be without this job, Annie. It’s the only thing that’s kept me sane.”

She eyes me sceptically, and I chuckle.

“It’s my escape.”

“I get that.”

We make our way through the hospital and head for the main exit. “God, I have so much to do when I get home,” she sighs, dropping her head to my shoulder as we walk. “This place doesn’t give you a moment to think sometimes. The second I leave through those doors, it’s like a floodgate opens to reality.”

I swallow, slightly missing a step as the knot in my gut pulls tighter. “Want to know a secret, Annie?”

“Hmm?”

“Sometimes I’ll go over paperwork I’ve already done, paperwork I know is right, just to stay a little longer.”

Annie sniggers, linking our arms as we approach the automatic doors. “Don’t tell anyone, but me too.”

FOUR

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