Where Do Broken Hearts Go? | Unexpected Series Book One

Chapter 75: Fire-Engine Red & Fold-Out Beds

Beth's POV

Gemma and I walk through the automatic doors and straight away I'm hit with that familiar bleach smell of hospitals.

That and the sound of crying children, adults trying to placate them and the murmur of people talking to themselves while others stare mindlessly at the television on the wall.

We walk up to the reception desk and wait for the woman behind the counter to acknowledge us.

Her fire-engine red hair already annoys me for some unknown reason.

Or it could be the sudden look of surprise that crosses her face when she looks from me to Gemma and back to me.

"How may..." she begins to ask but I cut her off.

"My daughter Chloe Westlake is here," I interrupt.

"Oh you're...Harry is..." her eyes are like saucers as she puts two and two together and comes up with a huge fucking four.

"My daughter?" I repeat, this time more firmly.

"Oh...yes..." she says and starts typing, "one moment," she suddenly smirks up at us, "almost like their perfumes isn't it?"

Is she fucking serious?

I reach over the counter and grab her by her stupid red curls and bang her head repeatedly onto the keyboard until she's almost unconscious.

"Beth?  Beth?" Gemma says, giving me a nudge with her elbow.

"What?" I look at her as I snap out of my daydream and see Gemma nod her head towards fire-engine woman.

"If you'll just head over to those doors, I'll unlock it for you, follow the yellow lines and you'll end up at another reception desk, they'll be able to assist you," she says with a slight roll of her eyes, "don't forget to turn your mobile phones off please."

Fuck you.

I will not.

I almost want to poke my tongue out at her like a petulant child.

"Thank you," Gemma says as she loops her arm in mine.

"I'm a big fan!" fire-engine woman suddenly gushes to Gemma who gives her an incredulous look as we ignore her and walk over to the doors.

"Is she fucking serious?" I whisper to Gemma.

"Happens all the time like you wouldn't believe," she whispers back.

My eyes widen and her eyebrows raise as we look at each, waiting for a click from the doors.

We finally hear it and push open the doors, following the line through the maze of corridors coloured in a dull, white shade.

It still doesn't quite feel real.

I mean, I only just left her a few hours ago.

And I don't even know what's happened to her.

"It could just be a broken bone or something like that, right?" I say out loud.

Gemma squeezes my arm in reassurance.

"Whatever it is, you have us all here for you," she says, "especially Harry."

At the mention of his name I stiffen a little.

"Everything will work itself out," she says quietly as we walk.

The line soon stops a few metres in front of us at a nurse's station and to the left of us, a small waiting area emerges out of the solid wall and it's then that Gemma and I stop dead in our tracks.