And because it was either that or start crying, Jasmine chose to laugh.
‘What’s so funny?’
‘You are,’ Jasmine said. ‘I thought tea came with sympathy.’
‘Not in this house.’ Her mum smiled. ‘Why don’t you go home?’
‘Simon’s asleep.’
‘I’ll have him for you tonight.’
And sometimes, and always when Jasmine was least expecting it, her mum could be terribly nice. ‘My evening appointment cancelled. I’m sure you could use a night to yourself.’
‘I’d love that.’ Jasmine hadn’t had a night to herself since Simon had been born. In the weeks when she’d first come home and had stayed with her mum, the only advantage she had taken had been a long walk on the beach each morning before Simon woke up. ‘Thanks, Mum.’
‘No problem. I guess I’d better get familiar with his routines.’
‘Can I go in and see him?’
‘And wake him up probably.’
She didn’t wake him up. Simon was lying on his front with his bottom in the air and his thumb in his mouth, and just the sight of him made everything worth it. He was in her old cot in her old bedroom and was absolutely the love of her life. She just didn’t understand how Lloyd could want nothing to do with him.
‘Do you think he’s missing out?’ Jasmine asked her mum. ‘Not having a dad?’
‘Better no dad than a useless one,’ Louise said, then gave a shrug. ‘I don’t know the answer to that, Jasmine. I used to feel the same about you.’ She gave her daughter a smile. ‘Our taste in men must be hereditary. No wonder Penny’s sworn off them.’
‘Did she ever tell you what happened?’ Jasmine asked, because one minute Penny had been engaged, the next the whole thing had been called off and she didn’t want to talk about it.
‘She just said they’d been having a few problems and decided that it was better to get out now than later.’
Before there were children to complicate things, Jasmine thought, but didn’t say anything. It was her mum who spoke.
‘I know it’s tough at the moment but I’m sure it will get easier.’
‘And if it doesn’t?’
‘Then you’d better get used to tough.’ Louise shrugged. ‘Have you told Penny you’re applying for a job at Peninsula?’
‘I saw her at my interview.’
‘And?’ Louise grimaced. They both knew only too well how Penny would react to the news.
‘She doesn’t want me there—especially not in Accident and Emergency,’ Jasmine admitted. ‘She wasn’t best pleased.’
‘Well, it’s her domain,’ Louise said. ‘You know how territorial she is. She used to put thread up on her bedroom door so she’d know if anyone had been in there while she was out. She’ll come round.’
And even though she smiled at the memory, Jasmine was worried that Penny wouldn’t be coming round to the idea of her little sister working in her hospital any time soon.
Jasmine was proven right a few hours later when, back at her own small house, adding another coat of paint in an attempt to transform the lounge from dull olive green to cool crisp white, there was a loud rap at the door.
‘Can you knock more quietly?’ Jasmine asked as she opened it. ‘If Simon was here—’
‘We need to talk,’ Penny said, and she brushed in and straight through to the lounge.
If Louise hadn’t exactly been brimming with understanding, then Penny was a desert.
Her blouse was still crisp and white, her hair still perfect and her eyes were just as angry as they had been when she had first laid them on Jasmine in the hospital corridor earlier on that day. ‘You said nothing about this when I saw you last week,’ Penny said accusingly. ‘Not a single word!’
‘I didn’t exactly get a chance.’
‘Meaning?’
She heard the confrontation in her sister’s voice, could almost see Pandora’s box on the floor between them. She was tempted just to open it, to have this out once and for all, to say how annoyed she still felt that Penny hadn’t been able to make it for Simon’s first birthday a couple of months earlier. In fact, she hadn’t even sent a card. Yet there had been no question that Jasmine herself would be there to join in celebrating her sister’s success.
Or rather celebrating her sister’s latest success.
But bitterness wasn’t going to help things here.
‘That dinner was to celebrate you getting your fellowship,’ Jasmine said calmly. ‘I knew you’d be upset if I told you that I had an interview coming up, and I didn’t want to spoil your night.’
‘You should have discussed it with me before you even applied!’ Penny said. ‘It’s my department.’
‘Hopefully it will be mine soon, too,’ Jasmine attempted, but her words fell on deaf ears.
‘Do you know how hard it is for me?’ Penny said. ‘All that nonsense about equal rights … I have to be twice as good as them, twice as tough as any of them—there’s a consultancy position coming up and I have no intention of letting it slip by.’
‘How could my working there possibly affect that?’ Jasmine asked reasonably.
‘Because I’m not supposed to have a personal life,’ was Penny’s swift retort. ‘You just don’t get it, Jasmine. I’ve worked hard to get where I am. The senior consultant, Mr Dean, he’s old school—he made a joke the other week about how you train them up and the next thing you know they’re pregnant and wanting part-time hours.’ She looked at her sister. ‘Yes, I could complain and make waves, but how is that going to help things? Jed is going after the same position. He’s a great doctor but he’s only been in the department six months and I am not going to lose it to him.’ She shook her head in frustration.
‘I’m not asking you to understand, you just have to believe that it is hard to get ahead sometimes, and the last thing I need right now is my personal life invading the department.’
‘I’m your sister—’
‘So are you going to be able to stay quiet when the nurses call me a hard witch?’ Penny challenged. ‘And when you are supposed to finish at four but can’t get off, are you going to expect me to drop everything and run to the crèche and get Simon?’
‘Of course not.’
‘And when I hear the other nurses moaning that you hardly ever do a late shift and are complaining about having to do nights, am I supposed to leap to your defence and explain that you’re a single mum?’
‘I can keep my work and personal life separate.’
‘Really!’
It was just one word, a single word, and the rise of Penny’s perfect eyebrows had tears spring to Jasmine’s eyes. ‘That was below the belt.’
‘The fact that you can’t keep your work and personal life separate is the very reason you can’t go back to Melbourne Central.’
‘It’s about the travel,’ Jasmine insisted. ‘And you’re wrong, I can keep things separate.’
‘Not if we’re in the same department.’