The Two Week Wait Read Online Free Page A

talking to. ‘Excuse me, just want to have a quick word with these friends.’ They head through to the kitchen.
    ‘Pop your cycling stuff under the table if you like,’ says Karen.
    Lou and Sofia do as she suggests, one helmet atop the other.
    ‘Bubbly?’ offers Anna.
    They both nod, and Anna deftly pours them each a glass.
    ‘Anna tells me you’ve had a bit of a scare this week,’ says Karen.
    Lou is taken aback that they’ve plunged straight into the subject, but perhaps she shouldn’t be – the fact that she met these two women on the day Karen’s husband died
has fast-tracked their intimacy. They’ve shared so much, why not this?
    ‘Mm,’ she says. ‘I’ve found this lump in my lower abdomen, so I went to the doctor.’
    ‘What did he say?’
    ‘He couldn’t be that specific.’ Lou is about to elaborate when she recalls the occasion. ‘Anyway, it’s OK. I’ll be OK. I’ll tell you another day. You go
and mingle.’
    ‘No, no,’ says Karen. ‘I want to know.’
    Typical Karen, thinks Lou, always more interested in others than herself. Having started, Lou will have to finish. ‘It seems I have some sort of tumour in, er . . . ’ – she
checks no one else is listening – ‘my uterus.’
    Karen frowns. ‘Nothing serious, I hope?’
    ‘You told me the doctor said it was probably . . . what is the name . . . ? A fibroid,’ Sofia offers.
    ‘Or cyst,’ adds Lou. ‘But we don’t know yet.’
    Karen continues to look perturbed.
    Lou is still afraid it’s something worse but knows she mustn’t bring her private gloom into such a difficult occasion. ‘Don’t worry. Whatever it is, he said it’s
most unlikely to be malignant.’
    ‘Oh, that’s a relief.’
    ‘I’ve got to go for a scan on Monday.’
    ‘Your poor thing,’ says Karen. ‘That’s no fun.’
    ‘I’ll be all right.’
    ‘I had scans when I was pregnant and they can be a bit daunting.’
    ‘Really?’ says Lou.
    ‘Depends how you are with . . . um . . . hospitals.’ Karen gulps. We really ought to change the subject, Lou thinks. ‘I mean, usually doctors are fine, but sometimes, and
I’m sure they don’t mean to be, they can be a bit brusque. And, you know, it can be hard to take everything in.’
    ‘I must come with you,’ says Sofia.
    ‘But you’ve got work,’ says Lou.
    ‘Take her,’ urges Karen. ‘She can listen too, in case you miss something.’
    ‘If you insist.’ Lou relents. She’s used to counselling others, is not entirely comfortable with the notion of needing her own hand held, but it seems good advice.
‘Enough of me. Did you hear Sofia got promoted last week?’
    ‘No! Sofia, well done!’ says Anna. ‘So what does that make you now?’
    ‘I’m a partner,’ Sofia grins.
    ‘Wow.’ Anna stands back, impressed.
    ‘I will be doing less of the web design work and more consultancy,’ she says.
    As Sofia continues talking about her job, Lou takes a look around her. Karen’s place is such a contrast to their little attic and she wonders if she and Sofia will ever live in a proper
house like this, filled with Christmas decorations and cards from other families. Nevertheless, there are similarities. The kitchen walls bear witness to years of fingerprints and spillages. They
need painting as badly as hers and Sofia’s do. Outside the window, the patio garden looks badly in need of some TLC. But it’s just not possible to do it all with kids as young as
Karen’s; nor, in Lou’s opinion, should it really matter. Pristine homes be damned. Karen has had a hideous year, it’s incredible she’s not sunk under the strain, yet
she’s still here, smiling and welcoming guests.
    Even if it’s a front – and Lou has seen Karen weeping often enough to know that in many ways it is – it’s laudable. Fleetingly, she wonders what’s kept Karen going.
And then she remembers the way she was with Molly, the comfort she has gleaned from her daughter. Though Lou is not a mother, she