she touches it, my hand flips out and slaps her again, this time on the shoulder.
‘Shit.’ What the hell is wrong with me?
‘WHAT did I just say?’ she snarls, her gaze enraged.
‘I’ll hold her,’ Clooney says, jumping up and stepping to my side. He grabs hold of my able hand. ‘Squeeze my hand instead of smacking the nurse, will ya?’
I smile weakly at him. Despite everything, I am grateful he’s here. ‘I’m just crap with pain, that’s all. Can I get some gas and air or something?’
The nurse sighs, but begrudgingly goes off to find some.
‘Hey, why didn’t she offer that to me in the first place if it was an option?’
He glares at me. ‘Maybe because most Irish folk wouldn’t be having a shit fit over a smashed thumb.’
My nostrils flare. He has no idea what kind of pain I’m in.
‘Oh, well I’m VERY sorry if my injury isn’t Irish enough for you! What would make you sympathetic? If I’d sprained my wrist drinking Guinness? Or been kicked while milking a cow?’
He lifts his eyes to the ceiling. ‘God, you’re a pain in the arse.’
I can’t help but suddenly feel emotional. He doesn’t even want to be here. I want Ella or Mum, and neither of them are here with me. The last thing I need is him making me feel shitter about myself. Garry’s cheating already did a number on my self confidence. I don’t need more men making me feel like crap.
‘Then just go.’ I throw his hand away. ‘I don’t need you here.’ I even sound defeated. Do not cry in front of him.
He snorts. ‘I beg to differ. You’ll beat the nurse black and blue if it’s not for me staying. That and you’ll get yourself put into a strait jacket by the guards.’
‘They wouldn’t put me in a strait jacket.’ Typical man, calling a hurt woman hysterical.
‘Trust me, the minute you’d start talking they’d be sure you were insane.’
I bite down a growl, knowing that I do actually need him. How annoying, having to rely on a man. I ignore the burning at my throat, push back the stinging in my eyes, and steel my jaw.
The nurse arrives back with the gas and air. ‘This should calm you down a bit.’ She has a hopeful look in her eyes before smirking quickly at Clooney.
I take a few deep breaths of it. It makes me feel a bit weird. My mouth feels tingly and almost numb. I feel a bit wasted, but a good wasted. Okay, let’s do this.
‘Right, make sure to hold her,’ the nurse instructs Clooney. He takes my hand again. ‘Here goes nothing.’
Three hours later we burst back into the pub to find Ella behind the bar.
‘Pheebs! Where have you been?’ she demands. Her forehead is puckered, as if she’s aged ten years.
‘In the hospital,’ I huff, holding my bandaged thumb up for her to see. ‘Didn’t Eoghan tell you?’
‘No?’ she shrugs. ‘I’ve been ringing you, but I found your phone in the back room. I thought you’d been kidnapped.’
‘She could have been,’ Clooney interjects, surprisingly hostile towards her. ‘Where the hell were you? I’ve just spent the last couple of hours holding her down, along with two other nurses, so she didn’t kick a doctor in the face while they cut her thumb nail off.’
Ugh, just remembering that scalpel is enough to make me vomit. My thumb throbs at the memory, my stomach wobbly as jelly.
‘They took your nail off?’ she asks, face recoiled in disgust. ‘God, why?’
I burst into tears at the memory. ‘There was too much swelling.’
She gags. ‘No wonder they had to hold you down. Didn’t you have any pain relief?’
‘That’s why I had to hold her down,’ he explains. ‘She kept saying the injections weren’t numbing her.’
‘So they kept piercing my fucking finger with that needle! God, it was agony.’
‘What a nightmare,’ she says, her face scrunched up in disgust.
Well she obviously wouldn’t have been any help anyway.
‘Whatever. I’m going to bed.’ I just want this day to be over.
‘You can’t,’ she says, her eyes panicked. ‘We still have the night shift. We need to lock up, do the tills and put everything in the safe.’
God, just for today I really wish I hadn’t got myself in this mess.
‘I could always help out.’ We both turn to face Clooney.
‘You?’ I can’t help but sound horrified. ‘Why would you help me?’
He scratches his neck. ‘That’s why I was in here earlier. I was wondering if you had a