The Seven Steps to Closure (6 page)

‘Yes Elaine, I do have to work you know.’

Wow. We all stopped and looked at Nat who never, ever uttered a snarky word. She squirmed in her seat, still managing to look beautiful as her red face contrasted against her blonde hair.

‘Sorry,’ she apologised to Elaine, who was looking thoughtful and surprisingly not at all offended. ‘This case is stressing me out.’

‘Oh,’ said Elaine, ‘what’s it about?’

‘Oh nothing important or interesting,’ Nat said evasively, waving one hand in the air. ‘Now what did I miss? Have you ordered yet?’

‘Just entrees. We got you the Oysters Kilpatrick.’

‘Yummy. By the way Tara, you look great. I really love your hair. When are you doing step number two?’

‘Next Saturday, but I was thinking of going to the movies on Thursday night. Anyone interested?’

‘Oooh, yeah. I’d love to. I haven’t been to the movies in ages,’ said Nat eagerly.

‘Do you want to meet at mine at about 6.30pm? We can get a cab and do dinner after.’

Elaine pulled out her diary, her green eyes thoughtful. ‘I have a marketing meeting that afternoon but we should be done by then,’ she finally said. She made a note before flicking to the next page. ‘Yep can do Saturday as well,’ she said smiling.

‘I can do Thursday night, but I’ll be working Saturday,’ said Dinah apologetically, ruffling her short hair with one hand. ‘Maybe we could do dinner again to showcase your new wardrobe.’

‘That’s a great idea,’ Elaine said, making another note in her diary. ‘I’ll book a restaurant.’

When I got home that night the first thing I noticed was a foul smell coming from somewhere in my flat. Princess was fast asleep looking innocent in her bed. I looked at her suspiciously.

‘All right, what have you done, and where did you do it?’ I asked her.

She opened one eye and stretched luxuriously, before jumping lightly to her feet and strolling over to me to wind herself through my legs. The smell was coming from my bedroom.

‘Oh crap,’ I said when I looked into my room, and I meant it quite literally.

There was cat poo right in the middle of my bed. And I mean right in the middle. It was almost like she had measured the bed up. I had a mental image of her pacing off my bed, before stopping right in the middle to do her steaming dump. I stepped a bit closer. Oh no, she had peed as well.

‘Yes that’s right Mum,’ I said 5 minutes later, ‘right in the middle. I got my tape measure and checked it.’

(That’s true. I really had got my tape measure out and checked it. It was a little bit freaky how accurate she was.)

‘And I think I’m going to have to buy a new mattress,’ I whined.

‘No Tara – take it onto the deck, rinse it and put heaps of white vinegar through it. Then layer it with bi-carb soda.’

‘What will that do?’

‘It will pull the scent out.’

‘Wow Mum, where did you learn that?’

‘Actually dear, it’s a technique I used quite a lot when you were a little girl.’

Twenty minutes later I had managed to wrestle the mattress onto the balcony and, using my watering can, had liberally applied water and then white vinegar. I was sprinkling on the bi-carb soda when I heard it.

‘Nice tits, shame about the ass.’

I knew that voice. I searched the sky but couldn’t see anything in the dark. Maybe I had imagined it.

‘Polly was a slut, Polly was a slut.’

Shit
. I hadn’t imagined it. That was Cocky’s voice.

I searched high and low but couldn’t find the little bastard. In the end I went off to bed perturbed by the behaviour of the animals in my life. I dreamt that I was in the hairdressers getting my haircut, but half way through the dream, Tristan turned into a gigantic yellow cockatiel and when he finally turned me around to look at my hair I was totally bald. I woke up in a sweat, clutching my head, wondering where the hell I was before I remembered the mattress incident and that I was in the spare bedroom. I spent a few moments calming myself before I finally managed to drift off into a thankfully, dreamless sleep.

* * *

Dinah’s nurse, Tina, had called in sick on Tuesday morning. I had my suspicions about the origin of Tina’s illness as I had overheard her the day before talking on the phone about a birthday party she was going to that night. My suspicions were not enough to actually accuse her of having written herself off on a work night. Maybe she had made out with some guy at the party, and picked up a really virulent bug.

I was working in surgery, filling in for Tina, and was guessing by the fact that Dinah wasn’t talking that all had not gone well at the ADA meeting the night before. It wasn’t until we brought through old Mrs Smith from the nursing home that she finally took a huge sigh and I knew she was ready to talk.

‘What’s he done now?’ I asked, referring to Creepy Doug.

‘Well you know how we had that dental association dinner last night?’ she said as she picked up a needle. I nodded while I held Mrs Smith’s hand. ‘I ended up giving him a lift,’ she continued, slowly injecting local anaesthetic into Mrs Smith’s gum, ‘but by the time I got my handbag out of the car he was gone.’

I held off mentioning that she had said they were going in separate cars – more for Mrs Smith’s sake than mine. ‘What he didn’t even wait for you?’

‘Nope. Straight in to mingle with all the other hoity-toity, stuffy nosed specialists.’

‘Bastard,’ I murmured in sympathy, placing the suction into Mrs Smith’s mouth to collect the pooling saliva. It was not the first time this sort of behaviour had occurred.

‘Then, when I finally located him by the bar, he’s talking to Tiffany, this new endodontist that’s just graduated.’ She removed the needle from Mrs Smith’s mouth and patted her gently on the cheek.

‘What’s so bad about that?’ I asked.

‘If you saw her, you’d know,’ she said, making huge-breast hand signals as she sat the dental chair up.

‘Have a rinse Mrs Smith.’ Dinah moved over to the computer to make notes. ‘Then the barman deposited two glasses of wine in front of Doug,’ she continued quietly, ‘and I thought at least he’s bought me a drink.’

‘Uhh ohh’

‘Yep, not for me.’ She banged on the keyboard angrily as she made the patient notes. Mrs Smith shot me a worried look over her shoulder.

I moved closer to Dinah and lowered my voice. ‘That stupid prick bought some other chick a drink and didn’t get you one?’

‘Yep. All part of his keeping things separate policy I guess.’

‘So what did you do?’

‘Bought my own and then stood there feeling like an idiot with a stupid smile on my face, waiting for him to introduce me.’

‘And?’

‘Nope. Then they called dinner and somehow he ends up sitting with her, and I end up at the end of the table next to a boring periodontist, who quite ironically enough had bad breath.’

Mrs Smith looked up at her and said, ‘What’s a periodontist lovey?’

‘Periodontists are dentists who specialise in cleaning teeth.’

‘Ohh,’ she said, nodding her head.

Dinah moved back to the dental chair and hit the button to lie it down.

‘It was terrible. I could hear Doug and Tiffany laughing down the table. Tee hee hee,’ she mimicked Tiffany – a high pitched girly giggle. ‘Dinner was awful; I spent the whole time trying not to cry. In the end I developed a massive headache and left before dessert.’

‘What about Doug?’

‘I figured the stupid bastard could find his own way home.’ She picked up the high-speed drill and deftly inserted a bur into its head. ‘Mrs Smith, does your lip feel fat?’ she asked.

‘What’s that lovey? Do I feel fat?’

‘No Mrs Smith – not you, your lip.’

Mrs Smith tapped her lip a few times before replying, ‘Yes love.’

Dinah placed a cotton roll under Mrs Smith’s lip and started to remove the old amalgam restoration that had been causing problems.

‘Did he ring you or anything to see if you were okay?’ I asked.

‘Nope nothing, nadda, zilch. Can you feel that at all Mrs Smith?’

‘No lovey, it’s all good.’

‘I didn’t get much sleep,’ she continued, ’cause I was lying there staring at my phone waiting for him to phone or text to see if I was all right. I even rang my phone with my mobile and my mobile with my phone to make sure they were both working.’

‘Bastard,’ I reiterated, sucking water from the back of Mrs Smith’s throat. ‘Dinah – how long are you going to put up with this?’

She sighed. ‘I don’t know. I think I’m better off without him, but then when it’s over all I can do is think about him. Matrix band and etch please.’

I handed them to her. ‘He treats you like shit. I don’t understand the attraction.’

‘Neither do I,’ she admitted, rinsing the tooth. ‘Bond please. Sometimes I wonder if it is more to do with the fact that my ego can’t handle not being good enough for him. Curing light.’

‘It has nothing to do with you not being good enough and more to do with him being a prick.’ I handed her the filling material.

‘You’re right, you’re right, I know you’re right. I have to finish this.’ She packed the restoration into the tooth.

‘It’s not healthy.’

‘I know it’s not. Light please.’

Right at that precise moment her mobile burbled acknowledgement of an incoming text. She flicked an interested look over her shoulder at her phone before proceeding to remove the band and shape the restoration into Mrs Smith’s bite. ‘There you go Mrs Smith.’ She sat her up. ‘Have a good rinse in the bowl. Lean right over,’ she advised as she got up to check her phone.

‘It’s him,’ she breathed in relief, as she stared at the screen.

‘What’s he want?’ I wiped Mrs Smith’s face clean with a wet towel.

‘Wants to know what happened to me last night?’

‘It takes him until the next day to ask you that?’

‘He’s very busy,’ she automatically defended as she texted rapidly. ‘I told him I had developed a headache.’ Her mobile very quickly blipped again. ‘He wants to know if I can meet him.’

‘Tell him to piss off,’ Mrs Smith said as she stood up.

We both looked at her, shocked.

‘Yes dearie, a nice girl like you, you can do better than that. Just you remember a leopard never changes his spots – they only get bigger.’ She patted Dinah on the head as she made her way out the door to the waiting room.

‘Well I’ll be,’ I muttered as I watched Dinah reply to the text. I started to wipe down the room getting ready for the next patient. ‘What did you say?’

‘Well I don’t want to appear too keen or eager.’

‘Excellent.’

‘So I told him I’d be over after dinner tonight.’

‘How is that not appearing too keen?’

‘Well I’m not rushing over after work.’

‘You’re serious aren’t you? You’re really going over there.’

‘Don’t start on me Tara,’ she warned me.

I put my hands in the air. ‘Fine, do what you want, but just for the record I think that he’s not good enough, and so does Mrs Smith. This will only end in tears. Again,’ I added.

‘We’ll see,’ she said in a coldly dismissive voice.

* * *

‘Listen to this,’ I said to Dinah and Elaine. It was Thursday night and we were waiting for Nat to turn up before heading off to the movies. I beckoned for them to follow me out onto the balcony. Straight away the abuse started.

‘Fucking sluts.’

‘Whoa,’ said Elaine. ‘Who the hell is that?’

‘It’s Cocky. He’s stalking me. I can hear him, but I can’t find him. The other day all my washing was covered in bird crap.’

‘So he’s loose?’

‘Polly is a tart, Polly is a tart.’

‘He’s loose. It’s getting to be a real pain.’

‘Maybe you should put a trap out for him.’

‘Hmmm. I hadn’t thought of that.’

‘Ring your Mum and ask if you could borrow some sort of trap. Surely they would have them at the shelter.’

‘Well therein lies the problem. Mum thinks Cocky’s dead.’

At that moment Princess strayed out onto the deck and, lifting her pretty little nose, sniffed the air. Her tail started to move from side to side in a flicking motion and she crouched into a hunting position.

‘Well he must be close because she can smell him. Look at her,’ said Dinah.

‘How is Princess going?’ asked Elaine, picking her up for a cuddle.

‘Jury’s still out on that one.’

‘Why?’

‘Well she started off well. But little things keep happening which make me think she’s just a little bit psycho.’

‘Like what?’ asked Dinah in concern.

‘First it was a cushion that she destroyed. Then she weed and crapped on my bed. I’ve only just got the stench out of it. Then last night I woke up and found her sitting on my chest with her face about an inch from mine. It scared the shit out of me.’

‘What did she do when you woke up?’ Dinah asked.

‘Started licking me.’

‘Well,’ said Elaine, scratching Princess under the chin, ‘that’s just telling you that she loves you.’

‘I wish she would work out a different way to tell me.’

‘So Dinah, how was last night?’ asked Elaine, changing the subject.

I made shushing hand motions at Elaine to shut her up. It had been apparent to me, even though Dinah had a smug,
I-got-laid-last-night-smile
all over her face when she turned up to work this morning, that she didn’t want to discuss Doug. Elaine saw my frantic hand motions and chose to ignore them. Sometimes she can be a little too confrontational.

‘Good thank you,’ said Dinah mildly. ‘Where the hell is Nat?’

‘Yeah where is she?’ I asked, genuinely perturbed. ‘We’re going to miss the movie if we don’t go soon.’

I picked up my phone and rang her mobile. It went straight to voice mail.

‘Try home,’ said Dinah

I rang Nat’s home – it went to her answering service.

‘I’ve ordered the cab,’ said Dinah, ‘we’re going to have to go or miss it.’

I flicked off a quick text to Nat and then locked Princess back in the apartment, giving her an array of toys to play with while I was gone. Grabbing my keys, I followed Dinah and Elaine down to wait for the cab.

‘I’m worried about Nat.’ I voiced my concerns out loud.