Wish I Were Here

Chapter 26

M elanie didn’t text me.

And now it’s Sunday afternoon, and I’m sitting in the lobby of the DeGreco, staring at my phone. I’d wandered downstairs hoping to find a distraction from the outline of the research paper I’d sent off to Dr. Gupta earlier today. After our phone call on Friday, I’d spent my entire Saturday and most of Sunday working on it to show him that I am committed to my job.

Maybe I was hoping to find a distraction from my mother’s silence, too.

“Maybe she lost your number,” Mrs. Goodwin suggests. She came by earlier to practice the Carolina shag with Luca, but when she caught a look at my face, she shimmied her way onto the bench next to me. And Luca isn’t here yet anyway.

“I called her when we were exchanging numbers to make sure she entered it correctly.” My shoulders slump. “I watched her add me to her contacts.”

“Maybe she lost her phone,” Mrs. Goodwin counters.

I shake my head. “Melanie isn’t the kind of person who loses things.”

“Maybe she got attacked by a murder of crows,” Mrs. Goodwin offers. “Maybe she went looking for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and fell in. Maybe she ate Magic Chewing Gum, turned into a giant blueberry, and was rolled away by Oompa-Loompas.”

I press my lips together trying not to smile. “She doesn’t strike me as a gum chewer.”

“Well, did you try calling her?”

“I texted yesterday.” I stare down at my phone again, willing it to light up. “But I didn’t want to appear too eager. She didn’t reply.”

“Well, honey.” Mrs. Goodwin gives my shoulder a firm shake. “You’re not playing hard to get. She’s your mother. Give her a call.”

Before I can decide what to do, the elevator door opens, and Luca strolls off. “Hey,” he says when he spots me on the bench. “What time is the big date with Melanie?”

I stare down at my silent phone again. “I don’t know yet.”

“Her mother hasn’t called her,” Mrs. Goodwin murmurs.

Luca’s eyebrows rise, just a fraction, before he assumes an impassive expression. “I’m sorry, Catherine.”

I know what he’s thinking. He warned me to be careful. I steal another glance in Luca’s direction. He looks like he wants to say something I’m not going to like.

“You know…” I lift my phone. “I think I’ll call her.”

Melanie’s phone rings four times, and then I hear a second of silence before a faint, vaguely distracted “Hello?” comes through the speaker.

I guess a little part of me expected to go to voicemail, and my panicked gaze swings around the room. I didn’t plan out what I was going to say first. I always plan out what I’m going to say on important phone calls. And this call is the most important of my life. I give Mrs. Goodwin a bug-eyed look, and she waves a hand at me like, You’ve got this .

I click the phone to speaker and set it on my lap. “Hi. Melanie? It’s Catherine. I was calling because we discussed getting coffee today.”

“Did we?” Melanie sounds preoccupied, and my heart sinks. Did she forget? But then it rises like the tides when she follows that up with “I’m so sorry. I got called in to work last night and it was a busy night in the ER.”

Mrs. Goodwin lifts her hands, palms up, like, See? I told you there was a reason. She did. But in my defense, a murder of crows wasn’t involved.

“Oh, it’s no problem!” I say too loudly, hearing the little girl who just wants her mother’s approval. I drop my voice to a normal volume. “Maybe we could still meet today. Whatever time works for you.”

Melanie hesitates. “Well, I’m at the hospital again.” And there goes my heart back into the sea. “But…” she continues, and my heart grabs for a life raft. “But I’m about to head over to my office at the university to get some paperwork out of the way. I also teach at the medical school.”

“Oh. I didn’t know.” My mother works for the university? Has she ever seen Dad juggling on the lawn? Did she ever see me when I was younger and used to go with him?

How is it possible that we’ve been moving in the same plane for thirty years, and we’ve never met?

But I don’t have time to dwell on it because the next thing Melanie says is, “I suppose you could meet me at the café on Craig Street. Do you know where that is?”

I clear my throat. “Yes, of course.” That’s the café where I met with Dr. Gupta. It was only a few weeks ago, but it seems like a lifetime since I lost my identity, met my mother, or…

I glance up at Luca, whose face is twisted into an expression I can’t quite decipher. I focus on my mother at the other end of the phone. “I’ll be there.”

We hang up, and Mrs. Goodwin leans over and gives my shoulder a squeeze. “Oh, honey. That’s wonderful. She’s just busy. She sounds very important.”

“Yep,” Luca agrees, back to his monosyllables. He gives me a smile, but for all the hundreds of wide, charming grins I’ve seen this guy flash at people, he really can’t fake it when he’s not sincere.

I take in the tight lines around his eyes. “Why do you look so disapproving?”

Luca makes his way around the front desk and pulls out a spray bottle. He spritzes the counter and starts wiping it down with a rag, not looking at me. I know he hasn’t suddenly developed the urge to clean, especially on his day off.

“Luca?”

He sets the spray bottle on the counter, and the liquid sloshes inside. “I just don’t like that she forgot.”

“She got called in to work. Maybe…” I march over to the counter. “Maybe she had her hand in someone’s chest and couldn’t reach her phone. Maybe she was literally keeping their heart beating.”

“And after?” He stares at me. “She was heading to the university.”

“She takes her work seriously.”

He opens his mouth to say something and then snaps it shut. Finally, he takes a deep breath and blows it out slowly. “I’m worried that she didn’t think of you.”

I shake my head. Why do I feel like there’s more to this? After all, Luca is late all the time. He forgets things all the time . And he seems fine with buddying up to Dad, the most irresponsible person I know. Yet, when my mother is busy literally saving lives , he has a problem with it. “She got distracted. It happens. You, of all people, should know about how that goes.”

Luca’s cheeks turn red. “I don’t forget people. Ever.”

With a huff, I spin away from him. “You and Mrs. Goodwin need to practice your dance, and I have to get to my coffee date.”

Luca sighs and rounds the front desk to follow me. “Catherine. We’ll drive you.”

I give a firm shake of my head. “No, thank you. I’ll take the bus.”