Three Amazing Things About You(102)

A light warm drizzle was falling as Zander withdrew two hundred pounds from the cashpoint and climbed back into the car. At this time of night, it wouldn’t take him more than fifteen minutes to reach the address Lena had given him.

He headed out of Clifton across the Downs and through north Bristol. Along Cribbs Causeway, over the motorway junction and down the hill towards Easter Compton. The road was clear and the car was running like a dream. Zander switched on the CD player and smiled to himself as Flo’s choice of music burst out of the speakers. It would always remind him of her, he knew that. To look at Flo, who would guess that her all-time favourite track was David Guetta’s ‘Titanium’?

Needless to say, the moment Lena climbed into the passenger seat and heard it, she would recoil in horror and say, ‘What’s that godawful racket? Turn it off.’

But for now, it could be as loud as he liked. Zander upped the volume and let the track wash over him. If this business was all dealt with quickly, he could drop Lena off at her flat and be back in bed with Flo by one o’clock. And tomorrow, when the dust had settled, he would tell Lena that he was going to be moving in with Flo. With a bit of luck she’d realise—

The fox raced across the lane just as he rounded the bend, and Zander simultaneously jerked the steering wheel to the left and tried to slam on the brakes. The rain had made the road slippery, and there was an ear-splitting squeal of tyres on the tarmac. In the slowed-down microseconds before impact, three things went through Zander’s mind:

Shit, I was going too fast.

Lena’s going to be so mad when I don’t turn up.

And finally, because he knew it was going to be bad: Oh Flo, I love you, I’m sorry . . .

Then, like a high-speed tank, the car slammed head first into the dry-stone wall.

Flo was making tea and toast when the phone rang.

‘Right, what’s Zander playing at? Where the bloody hell is he? Because if he thinks it’s funny keeping me here, let me tell you it isn’t.’

‘What? He left ages ago.’ Flo put down the butter knife and checked her watch. ‘He should be there by now. Try his phone.’

‘Oh please, what do you think I’ve been doing? It’s ringing and ringing but he’s not picking up.’

‘Maybe because he’s driving the car,’ said Flo. ‘And he might have had trouble finding a cashpoint that works. He needed to get money out, remember.’

Two hundred pounds, in fact.

‘Well he needs to get a bloody move on,’ Lena declared, ‘because I’m telling you now, I’m sick of this pair of witches giving me grief.’

This was crazy. Flo’s fingers shook as she dialled Zander’s number yet again and heard it begin to ring. Yet again. Why wasn’t he answering? He couldn’t still be driving, surely? Should she call a taxi and see if she could find him, or would that be—

She jumped as the ringing abruptly stopped. At last he’d picked up. Awash with relief, Flo said, ‘Zander? Where are you? Oh God, I was really starting to get worried . . .’

But when she heard the male voice at the other end of the line, the fear came rushing back with a vengeance.

Because it didn’t belong to Zander.

The rain was heavier now, falling steadily from a slate-grey sky. Flo, staring out through the waiting-room window, heard two nurses in the corridor outside attempting to calm Lena down.

She closed her eyes for a second as the realisation of what had happened washed over her once more. There had been an accident and Zander was lying unconscious in the intensive care unit. The police had contacted Lena and driven over to Giles’s mother’s home to collect her and bring her to the hospital. Another officer had finally answered Zander’s phone when Flo had rung it for the twentieth time to find out where he was. She’d called a taxi and arrived here an hour after Lena.

Now it was seven o’clock on Monday morning and Lena appeared to be blaming the nurses for the fact that her brother was in a coma.

Luckily they were adept at coping with difficult relatives.

‘Right.’ Lena threw open the waiting-room door. ‘I’m tired, I’m going home to get some sleep. What are you doing?’

‘I’ll stay here a bit longer.’

‘Well obviously I would stay a bit longer but I’m exhausted.’

‘I know, it’s fine. I’ll speak to you later.’

Lena picked up her cream jacket. ‘Text me as soon as he wakes up, please. I asked the nurses when it was going to happen and they refused to tell me.’

‘That’s because they don’t know when he’s going to wake up,’ said Flo.