A week later, Anna is in hospital. I decide to go and see my homegirl Camilla. The walk to Camilla's house isn't long. Her house is newer then ours but still has a gorgeous, rustic look about it. The tiny pebbles crunched under my footsteps as I walked up to their front door. It's a big wooden door with their surname delicately carved into it. The door makes a good echoing noise as I knock my hand against it.
Camilla opens the door with a smile brighter then all the stars at night. Her vibe is pretty. Her hair is pushed back by a warm yellow headband with her straight hair cascading down her shoulders. "Tara!" she pulls me in tight and squeezes me like she hasn't seen me in years.
"Hey, Mills," I breathe her in. She smells like Camilla; like apples and sugar. Her dress swishes at her ankles.
"Want to go to the Crème de la Crêpe?" she asked, twisting her tongue into a french accent.
"Of Course I do." I miss doing things like this with her. Crème de la Crêpe is a cute little place downtown. It's an authentic cafe filled with macarons, eclairs and many more delicious french treats (and coffee, of course). It's our happy place. Camilla closed her door and then returned with a calico bag and denim jacket.
We walked for a while and reminded each other of what's been happening recently. She talked about her job at the Raw swimwear and how her uni course is going. Then we could see the cafe from a distance. When we approached, we instantly saw the decor, with its vine of flowers spreading joyfully across the window front, catching your eye as you walked closer.
The bells jingle and jangled as we entered. I breathed in the scent of hot coffee. This place just had such happy energy. We headed towards the counter. The glass display filled with all the treats from our childhood. Camilla ordered an oat milk latte and I took a chai. They were both our typical orders. I would've ordered a cake but mum was still on a baking frenzy.
"That waiter, I think he's into you," Camilla teased as we took our seats in a wood-pallet booth in the corner. It was surrounded with pot plants and beside the biggest window in the entire building.
"Oh no, I don't think so," Denying it. He had smiled when I ordered and I couldn't get that smile out of my head.
We got engulfed into conversation. Finally, the lingering cinnamon smell of chai came closer and there he was again. Standing there. He lowered the drinks off the tray and smiled.
"Enjoy girls," in a genuine, caring sort of way. He headed off just as my phone began to vibrate. Mum. I checked my phone to see multiple missed calls from Mum and Jayden.
I rang them back immediately.
"What's wrong?" I sounded so worried that the waiter turned back and looked at me.
"Tara, Anna's in labour! Where are you?" That's when the chai seemed to slip from my grip and go crashing down onto the floor. Immediately, cafe-boy leant down onto the ground and picked up a shard.
"I'm so sorry," I said to the waiter. I explained that my sister is in labour and I watched Camilla's face turn into shock.
''We have to get you there now." Camilla rose from her seat and pulled me along.
"But we can't leave here with this sort of..." I pulled away from her grip and turned to face the boy cleaning up my mess.
"It's ok, go," the waiter says.
"But you have to pay me back," he laughed. I wanted to see him again- win win.
I slip him a little piece of paper with my number on it as we get up to leave.
"We can take my car," Camilla runs like her life depends on it. We finally made it to her big, grey house. She unlocked the car, which was conveniently parked on the driveway. I took the passenger's seat. Her car smells brand new, perhaps because it is; all those shifts at the swimwear store paid off. Two reusable coffee cups were left in her front two cup holders.
Thankfully, she doesn't drive with as much speed and urgency as when she ran. I wondered if she knew where she was going. But then again, I had probably talked about it so much that she even knew which room Anna was in. We passed through the streets and city squares.
"Thanks, Mills," I grabbed her free hand and clutched it tight. She smiled a warm smile and kept her eyes fixated on the road.
"I'd do anything to help." We pulled up in the hospital, a few buildings away from where we needed to be, but I was not going to bother her and try to make her find a parking space elsewhere.
"Do you want me to stay with you?" she asked with the same, genuinely caring smile that Camilla always does.
"I would love it if you could." She squeezed my shoulders tight and we both hurried into the hospital.
Anna was in the same room she always was in on the fifth floor. We took the stairs. When we walked in I momentarily expected to see her giving birth or having a contraction but instead she was sitting up against the head of her bed, breathing calmly with mum and Jayden by her side, no doctors in sight.
"False Alarm," Anna shines a smile at the both of us. She was wearing a hospital gown, her forehead slightly sweaty.
"I'm sorry for bringing the both of you all the way here. It was just false labour. This little babe just cannot wait to see all of you guys," she rubbed her stomach in round circles.
"Yes, but doctor June says anytime now," Jayden finally teared her eyes away from Anna. Camilla and I exchange glances. We're both puffing like we ran a marathon; it was those stairs.
We spent the rest of that afternoon with Anna and helped ourselves to some of mum's vegan brownies, which I'm sure Camilla appreciated. Vegan or not, they were so darn delicious.
That night I spent at Camilla's house. Mum thought that it would be best if I stayed with Camilla since she had a car and mum would be staying with Anna at the hospital. Camilla's parent's were in Florence that week so we had the house to ourselves, which we definitely took advantage of. No wild parties or anything like that; I can only deal with one shocking event at a time. Instead we ate all of the food in the house and watched movies until our eyes couldn't take it anymore. I fell asleep on her couch opposite to her, who also slept in the lounge.
