Page 52 of Never Too Late to Date

The tea seemed very sweet – she’d forgotten to tell the girl she took her tea and coffee sketo, horis zachari, without sugar, as she’d learnt to say in cafés – but it was welcome anyway.

‘Thank you.’

‘No problem.’

Maeve dragged a chair up to sit beside her and turned to the young woman hovering next to her.

‘Aoife, you can go now. I’ll sit with Vicky a while.’

‘If you’re sure.’

Vicky could hear the relief in the young volunteer’s voice, excused from listening to the rantings of a middle-aged woman talking about dead dogs.

As soon as the door closed, Maeve reached for her hand.

‘It’s my turn to listen to you today. You’ve had a big shock. And I slipped a tonne of sugar into your tea by the way, so finish it all up. It’ll help.’

‘Thank you.’

Maeve glanced across at the dog on the table.

‘She’s a beauty, isn’t she?’

Vicky followed her gaze.

‘Yes. She’s called Dolly, you know, and I’m going to look after her.’

Maeve’s little squeeze of her hand made her look up and into the older woman’s eyes, which were full of compassion.

‘Are you really sure you want to take on the extra work that looking after Dolly will entail? You know we can always put her up for adoption if she makes it through.’

The thought of Dolly with someone else, maybe even living in a different country, just wasn’t an option. The tears rushed into her eyes, and Vicky swallowed hard.

‘I’m sure. Please don’t take her away from me.’

Maeve took both of her hands.

‘No one’s going to take her away, I promise. Tell you what, when you’ve finished your tea, we’ll move her together, and then I’ll take the first shift watching over her while you have a little sleep. You’ll need it if you’re going to be up most of the night.’

Vicky opened her mouth to speak. It was like her body had decided to do everything in slow motion. Maeve spoke again before she did.

‘Don’t worry. I know what to do. I’ve sat with a fair few post-op animals in my time. I’m sure Alex has noted down what medicines she needs and the doses.’

Vicky got up and passed her the sheet of paper with the details. Alex had only had a few moments to write the prescription, but his writing was incredibly neat and controlled. Rather like the man himself.

What Maeve was saying couldn’t be refuted. Vicky could barely keep her eyes open. Plus, she’d half forgotten she’d been up since before dawn. The patrolling of the perimeter and the few moments of peace watching the sunrise seemed like days ago, not mere hours.

A gentle shake of her arm brought her back to the room.

‘I’ll wake you up in four hours. Do we have a deal?’

Vicky smiled.

‘Deal. And of course I’ll pay for everything, like I told Alex.’

Maeve waved her hand in the air as if batting away a fly.

‘We don’t have to worry about that now.’