Calling All Dentists (Calling All... Book 2), page 28
Chapter 26
4am on Sunday morning – what was she doing wide awake at this time? Rubbing her forehead, Emma stared hard into the mirror. Tousled hair rested upon her shoulders and the previous day’s make-up had smudged under her eyes giving her a look of someone that might have had a heavy night of alcohol or maybe even drugs. Her appearance was not at all appealing at such an early hour.
Emma shuffled silently in to the kitchen, wearing only a dressing gown and hesitated before filling the kettle with water. Would it be ok to help herself, she wondered as she turned the tap on to barely a dribble and held the spout underneath. She knew that coffee would just prolong her insomnia but she desperately needed a drink and a think – some time alone to ponder her next steps and get everything in to some sort of order.
Checking her mobile, Emma noted an unread message had been received around midnight. She opened it up and read it, in the comfort of the living room.
Glad to hear you’re not coming home (without meaning to sound horrible…hee hee!). I guess that everything has worked out fine then. Happy for you, love from Rue xxxx p.s. if you come home early, hope you don’t mind but Pete is going to stay here. Love from Rue (again…obviously!) xxxx.
Emma placed the phone on the arm rest and smiled, she couldn’t reply at twenty past four in the morning, it could wake Ruby and Pete. Emma was sure they would be none too pleased by that.
Emma’s thoughts wandered to the previous evening’s chain of events. There had been a very long discussion… and then sex, somehow a different kind of sex. She shook her head at the craziness of her carnal contemplation. She’d worried earlier in the evening that possibly their relationship had changed due to her revelations, but now she knew that everything was just the same as it had been when they’d met previously – a torrid affair of lascivious, wanton need. Their minds had conversed without language, their bodies had exuded intense passion, their spirits had shared a mutual pleasure – they were one and the same. Feeling warm and content, Emma curled up on the sofa with a mug of coffee and listened to the wind battering at the window pane.
Everything was going to be ok.
“Good morning, well, only just,” said Andrew, from the opposite end of the sofa, as Emma opened her eyes and adjusted to her blurred vision. “Couldn’t sleep?” he said, eyeing the cold cup of coffee on the table.
“Hmm,” replied Emma, dozily, “I woke up at about four.”
“We couldn’t have gone to sleep until two.” Andrew laughed. “I’ll make you another one.”
“Thanks.”
Making a quick escape to the bathroom, Emma checked her appearance in the mirror, splashed her face with warm water, dried it and then dragged her fingers through her hair, in an attempt to comb it. She looked a lot better. Brushing her teeth with toothpaste and a trusted finger, she felt ready to take on whatever might lay ahead. She had no plans for today so she would happily just go with the flow – whatever ‘the flow’ entailed.
Tip-toeing through to the bedroom, she dressed herself, tidied Andrew’s bed covers and plumped the pillows. “You don’t have to do that,” said a voice behind her. Emma jumped and turned around. “Where are you rushing off to?”
“Nowhere, I just thought I’d help,” Emma laughed.
“Do you fancy going to that café again, for breakfast?”
“Sure, why not,” replied Emma, as she thought about the last time they’d had breakfast together and then spent the rest of the day having sex. Her mind made an instant decision – yes, she was willing for that to happen again.
“You know…” Andrew paused and moved towards her, “Emma, I still don’t think that you realise…” Placing his big hand on the back of her head, he pulled her to him and brushed her lips with his. “You are so beautiful, inside and out – teeth or no teeth – it really wouldn’t make any difference to me.” Then he embraced her while Emma’s head swam around in a dizzy spin.
Maybe it didn’t matter anymore. Maybe dentists really were human beings with thoughts and emotions and empathy and sympathy…
Maybe Emma quite liked dentists, after all.
Epilogue
The buzzing inside her head grew louder and then changed – turning in to the fuzzy, distant sound of a woman’s voice…
“Emma…”
“Um” Emma replied instinctively, from deep within her throat. Eyes closed tightly, she didn’t dare lift her heavy eyelids – she was too terrified to move in any way. Every inch of her body, every muscle, every nerve ending, tingled and twitched, she was returning to a conscious state slowly but surely.
“Emma.” The same voice again – close yet far away.
Emma felt something touch her gently on the shoulder, warmth penetrated her skin. The sensation of what Emma thought was a hand, nudged her and then lightly shook her.
“Emma… wake up Emma.”
Her mind wandered through the past and in to the present trying to make sense of the strange situation she was in. Peeling her eyelids open, she viewed her surroundings… blurred, jumbled, bright lights and a figure in blue, leaning over her. She closed them again and let the tears seal her safely inside.
“Emma,” the voice was louder and clearer, “I need you to wake up now… come on… open your eyes.”
The hand took her by the shoulder and rocked her from side to side very gently. Emma felt agitated through the jumbled mess of her drug-addled mind. She wanted to stay safe, stay behind closed eyelids, stay inside herself. Then she wouldn’t have to face what she had done.
Gagging, spluttering, dribbling and crying. Emma struggled as the suffocating feeling of being chocked by something large, stuffed into her mouth, consumed her.
“Deep breaths… take a few deep breaths Emma,” the nurse, in blue advised. She brushed Emma’s straggled, damp hair from her face, “Come on now calm down – breath through your nose. In… and out, there you go and again... in… and out.” The plump nurse took a glass from the side table and filled it with water, “I want you to take a sip and have a swill round,” she said, placing a cardboard dish in one of Emma’s hands and the glass in the other. Emma did as she was told and sipped the cold water through her swollen, slightly grazed lips. Gagging again, Emma dribbled the contents in to the dish and stared at the bloody mess of gloopy saliva. This was no dream or nightmare – this was real.
The taste of metal filled her mouth, the bloody saliva pooled underneath the plastic plate fitted to her lower-jaw and more oozed from the upper one. The plates supported a full set of false teeth. Her own had gone. Her mouth was filled with what felt like giant sized teeth fixed on to hard plastic plates. The plates seemed to reach down the back of her throat, causing her to retch as her tongue tried to find a place to rest in the alien surroundings.
She could almost control the gagging reflex now as long as she concentrated hard, she was coming round – the anaesthetic was wearing off. The panic meant that she couldn’t breathe easily, she couldn’t smile, she couldn’t speak… she couldn’t do anything. Oh God, what had she done? How could she live like this? What did she even look like? She’d waited for this for 3 months – had she made a terrible mistake?
“I’m going to sit you up Emma, that will help,” said the nurse as Emma began to gag once again. The bed slowly rose at one end and Emma moved to a half seated position. It did feel better… but oh, what had she done? She continued to worry, as she drifted in and out of consciousness.
Some forty five minutes later Emma was wheeled around on her bed, to a small ward where Andrew was waiting anxiously. “Hey, “he whispered, leaning over the bed and stroking her hair, “It’s all done now.” He kissed her gently on the forehead and gazed in to her sleepy eyes.
“Um,” she replied – too scared to speak.
Another nurse came trotting in to the room, carrying a tray, “Hello Emma, you will need to have a drink and eat something before we can let you go home,” she said, before placing the tray on the table beside the bed. “Here’s a cup of tea, a strawberry yogurt and some ice-cream and jelly – eat it up now and then you will be able to go home.” Emma stared at the little tubs of dessert and screwed her nose up at Andrew.
“Just eat a bit of it darling, then they’ll let you go.”
Emma sighed and reluctantly picked up the small cup of wishy-washy looking tea. She placed the rim on her lips (lips that felt like they belonged to someone else) and attempted to sip the tea. Instantly, the warm drink began to run down her chin and trickle further down her neck. She’d missed her mouth. “Can’t”, said Emma, from inside her closed mouth. She placed the tea cup back on the table despondently and looked desperately at Andrew.
“Try the ice-cream,” he said, passing the small tub and a plastic spoon to her. “You’ve got to eat something or they’ll keep you in overnight.” Emma took the tub and spoon and proceeded to pick up a small lump of very frozen ice-cream, still covered in ice crystals. Forcing herself to open her mouth, just slightly, Emma placed the tip of the spoon on her bottom lip and then used her top lip to pull the cold dessert in. Where did it go? Momentarily, Emma was unaware that she had anything in her mouth – she couldn’t feel anything – but then a cold burst of vanilla hit the back of her throat and she knew she had eaten it. She then understood. She had a long, long way to go.
***
1 Year Later
Time truly is a great healer in many ways – physically and mentally. Emma’s gums had healed from the extraction of 28 teeth and 4 wisdoms. She learned to live with wearing dentures – she was happier and confident – she learned to talk, eat (after losing over a stone in weight) and most importantly, she learned to sleep with them in. She never wanted Andrew to see her without them. Although he obviously knew about them, if he didn’t see, it was easier for him to forget, and he was forgetting.
Emma had slowly shifted from the soups and liquid stews and progressed to tackling mashed foods. It was a joyous day when she ate a single baked bean and she felt like telling the whole world, ‘I can eat a baked bean now!’
There were so many things they hadn’t told her about wearing dentures – like getting small pieces of food stuck underneath the plates in the middle of a restaurant and having to make excuses to go off to the toilets to remove and clean them and then end up getting herself in a sticky mess when she tried to fix them back in to place in a hurry.
In the early days soon after surgery and before she was allowed to wear a denture glue (before the stitches came out), no one told her that if she sneezed (and she was a horrendously big sneezer, but thankfully not often), she could fire her top plate across the room at a dangerously, fast speed. No one told her that if she laughed too much, her teeth would drop out into a mug of tea and splash everyone around her.
Emma had laughed her way through all of the mishaps and her famous last words were always, ‘Well, it comes to nearly all of us – just wait until you’ve got them!’ But Emma was happier; she didn’t have to worry about getting abscesses anymore, she didn’t stress over the fact that her teeth were getting wobblier by the day, she no longer obsessed over the bathroom mirror and the terrifying creatures of her nightmares had vanished back in to their own miserable existence completely.
***
For the sake of Emma’s dignity and their relationship, both Andrew and Emma had decided that she should find another dental practice for her routine check-ups in the future. That way, they could disconnect themselves from her old hang-up and his job. It worked. They were truly in love.
One year down the line and Ruby and Pete were still going strong as well. Ruby had changed from the book-loving geek she once used to be and now would much rather enact the storylines from her Mills & Boon novels – much to the terrifying anticipation of Pete.
Emma spent much less time at home and could often be found pottering around or cleaning Andrew’s flat when he was doing late shifts, while Pete spent more time at Ruby and Emma’s flat.
The staff of Webb’s DIY Store had been amazing. Emma had never realised just how sympathetic and supportive the men in the office could really be. They had helped her out wherever they could. They fetched, they carried and they would beg, borrow or steal if they had to. Most importantly – they really did care. The huge pile of paperwork on Emma’s desk shrank daily and almost disappeared as she regained her confidence and focus. She was almost on a par with Ruby for desk tidiness.
Pete was now looking to move up to head office for two reasons. 1 – He wanted the promotion and 2 – he felt that his and Ruby’s future would be even better if they worked in different offices. Emma and the others had to agree that a separation would do Pete the world of good as he often spent his hours in the office daydreaming in a very slushy way, whilst he gazed lovingly and lustfully at Ruby, who was still seated across the room from him. Everyone knew when he had partaken in sexual activity the previous night as the look on his face could only be described as that of a soppy, love-struck teenager.
“You’ll be sat at your desk, dribbling all over your paperwork in a minute Pete,” scoffed Dave, one day.
Ruby, on the other hand, had always remained calm and demure with her nose buried in her work – as was the norm for her.
Darren had split up with Amanda after just 11 weeks and had spent the next 8 months, working his way through the rest of the ‘giggle-girls’. Emma felt somewhat relieved that she hadn’t managed to hitch up with him at the work’s party, two Christmases ago, as she now saw him in a completely new light. He was Webb’s very own lothario. The girls on the shop floor all wanted and lusted after him and would actually pay to take him out for the night if they had to. Darren had them at his beck and call but Emma felt that the time would come when he would slip up and his ego would fall.
Emma’s grandma was slowly learning to live without her beloved Charlie (Grandad), but everyone in the family kept a close and watchful eye over her. Emma’s mum raced around from her home to her shop to Grandma’s house and back again, in a never ending loop – throwing in a bit of cleaning, shopping and organising, here and there as well. As for Emma’s dad… well, he just remained the same old dad, living on the outside edge of the eternal ‘loop’.
***
It was a freezing cold February evening and Emma really didn’t feel like going out with the group of girls from the shop floor and Ruby, but Amanda was having her 29th birthday bash in the city centre and everyone, who was anyone, just ‘absolutely had to come!’ Emma really couldn’t understand why everyone had to go on about Amanda’s birthday so much – it wasn’t exactly a big one like one of the big 0’s. But Amanda was like that – she had to have everything big and it always had to be about her.
“Well I consider this to be my best birthday yet – it’s my last twenty-something birthday and I need to celebrate its passing,” she said, adamantly.
However, Emma would much rather have stayed indoors at Andrew’s place and curled up on the sofa with a Chinese take-away and a bottle of white wine.
What time are you all going out tonight? Andy xx
About 8pm, they’re all meeting here at 7pm.We’ve got a mini bus hired, can you believe it?! lol xxx Why?
Oh, I just wondered, hope you have a nice time. Love you xx
Love you more. Em xxx
Ruby and Emma tottered around the flat getting ready. Hair done, nails done, make-up done – Ruby was now an expert in turning herself in to a hot diva at every available opportunity and seemed to have a part-time personality to match her glamourous evening wear. She had grown her naturally platinum blonde hair to her shoulders and had it cut in to a beautiful looking, inverted Bob.
“The girls are here,” Ruby squealed from the front door, as five young women piled in to the flat, reeking of too much perfume and heavy lipstick.
Emma downed a large glass of Baileys and adjusted her hair in the mirror. By the raucous sounds coming from the living room, Emma guessed that Amanda and the ‘giggle-girls’ were probably drunk already. She glanced in the mirror again. She looked great with her new teeth and the slinky little red dress that Andrew had persuaded her to buy for the last Christmas party.
Missing you. Andy xxx
Ditto but more xx
Have a good night baby. Love you xx
Love you too. See you tomorrow. Em xxx
“Em…” shrieked Ruby, already half drunk on one large glass of Baileys, “Someone’s at the door for you…”
“What?” replied Emma, curious as to who would be here to see her at this time on a Saturday evening? Taking one last look in the mirror, she smiled and left the bathroom.
“In the living room Em.” called Ruby.
Emma could hear a lot of noise and babble coming from their living room as she slowly pushed the door open.
Emma froze on the spot and gawped.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she muttered. Perplexed and motionless, she stared hard.
“I just thought I would pop round to make sure that you were dressed properly, before you go out,” said Andrew, smiling beautifully at her.
Unusually for a Saturday, he was dressed in a smart pair of black trousers and she could just see a lilac shirt and purple tie underneath his jacket.
“What? I don’t get it. What do you mean? Where are you going, all dressed up? I’ve just been texting you – I don’t get it Andy.” Emma felt extremely puzzled and slightly embarrassed by Andrew’s unexpected appearance and his strange words.
The ‘giggle-girls’ looked in bewilderment from Andrew to Emma and back again.
