door from the kitchen to the garage opened, and she literally jumped off the top step into his arms.
“What is all this?” he asked, pointing.
“It was Dr. Pointer’s idea. If I’m stocking up on sperm, I might as well stock up on other stuff we might need if the end of the world comes.”
“How many trips to the store did this take?”
“If I wasn’t on call, I shopped this week. I bought a freezer, too. It’s in the laundry room.”
“Alison…”
“It’s fine, Rich. I bought enough for Kathy and Mike, too.”
“That’s not my concern. The world isn’t going to end, honey.”
“It might. And if I die, you won’t have to shop again for a long time. I know how much you hate it.”
“Come give me a kiss,” he said, reaching out with his available arm.
“Come in. I already have a fire going.”
“No way. I have dirty clothes. Just like coming home from college.”
“You know how to use the washer,” she said, laughing, her arms around his shoulders.
“I ran into someone you know today.”
She waited by the back of the car while he rummaged in the trunk. “I don’t know anyone in LA but you.”
“Eddie Kovac. I didn’t recognize him at first because, well, I just didn’t. Doctor clothes, you know how it is, everyone looks the same in a lab coat.”
“I forgot you met Ed.”
“Yep, at the wedding. You were a little preoccupied.”
She held the door open so he could get through with a duffel bag of stinky laundry.
“Don’t let it build up like this again, okay?” she said with her nose wrinkled. “Bring it home every week.”
She didn’t really want to hear about Ed. They’d shared too many confidences. He knew the deepest, gut-wrenching stuff, the talk she never had with Rich even, about what it would mean to her to live like a man someday. How it might separate her from her friends and family. The stigma attached to it. And how she was willing to lose everything if she could live the way she wanted. Everything but her ability to have kids.
“You didn’t say anything to him, did you? I mean about the cancer.”
“Of course not.” Rich leaned over and kissed her. “That’s your personal business. I don’t know him from Adam.”
“So how did it come about?”
“He has an elderly patient who came in for a major surgery, and Eddie accompanied him.”
“That’s so Ed. Loving his old patients.”
“I’m pretty sure he must be dating the man’s daughter.”
“Did he tell you that?”
“No, but the body language. They were holding hands.”
“Okay, yes, that would be a giveaway. Well, I’m glad he has someone. It makes me feel a little less guilty.”
“Why should you feel guilty?”
“We lived together for almost eight years, Rich. He said he was in love with me, and I loved him as a friend. He believed we’d be together, but I finally got through to him on the trip across country that I wasn’t going to continue our relationship. I sort of dumped him.”
“Yikes, I guess I didn’t know that.”
“I told you, but you were too busy trying to get into my pants.”
“I was doing that, for sure,” Rich said, sorting through laundry and stuffing the washer.
“I wonder why he didn’t bring her to the wedding.”
“Not sure. Maybe it’s a new relationship.”
“Did he recognize you or the other way around?”
“I walked into the holding area to say hi to the patient, and he was there with the daughter. He actually said he hoped I was going to do the surgery.”
“I wonder how he knew you were up there. My mother or Mrs. Greenway must have talked to him at the reception. I don’t remember telling him anything about us.”
“I have no idea. And I could be a butcher for all he knows. I thought maybe you had said something to him about my surgical prowess.”
“Not a word. As a matter of fact, the less I have to think of Ed, the better. I feel bad enough as it is, having used the guy.”
“I’m sure he benefitted,” Rich said, adding laundry detergent to the washer. “Anyway, he said to say hello.”
“Tell him I said hi if you see him again. I sent him a thank-you for the wedding gift. That was the last communication.”
“Can I ask why you even invited him?”
“I sort of had to because he keeps in touch with the girls. It would have been mean to exclude him, do you know?”
“What did he get us for a gift?”
“Two one-hundred-dollar Starbucks gift certificates,” she said, laughing.
“Ha!