really haven’t eaten much. Feels more like a fast-moving bug.”
A bug invited in a new alarm, and Nina bristled at the thought she could still catch something. Maggie, too, might have gotten it, though Nina had less concern for Connor, who’d been at his friend Luke’s house most of the day.
Simon rolled over, exposing his back to Nina. She tried to caress him, but he shirked away. No surprise there. Glen never wanted to be touched whenever he took ill. Man-flu, she called it, a debilitating ailment that women somehow quickly overcame to resume their duties of wife, mother, cook, driver, coach, mediator, shopper, and so much more, despite suffering the exact same symptoms. But tonight, Nina made no jokes, and gave Simon her full attention.
“I’m so sorry. Do you need the bucket?”
“The bucket” was family shorthand for a wastebasket to puke in, and now Simon was part of that shorthand.
People get sick, Nina told herself, sensing her evening plans were now in jeopardy. This is what sharing your life with someone is all about. You get the good times and the bad. You share the laughs, the hugs, and the bucket.
“I think I’m all right for now,” said Simon, rolling over onto his back. A great rush of sympathy welled inside Nina as she peered into those beautiful brown eyes of his. The way he looked up at her, helpless, with searing gratitude, thankful to the core for her care, opened Nina’s heart another crack, making it possible to love Simon a bit more in this moment than she had the moment before.
“What can I do to help?”
Nina stole a glance at the time on her phone, realizing that if she did not leave soon, she would be late to meet her friends at Cucina Toscana, a new Italian place everyone in town had been raving about. Simon groaned in agony.
“Nothing, you should go—”
Nina sensed the “but” coming.
“But I’m worried, if I get sicker—you know, I don’t want to be a burden to Maggie,” he said.
Nina got it right away. She felt all sorts of guilt for leaving her daughter home alone with Simon, and now illness added more complications to the already tricky dynamics.
Simon’s point was a good one. What if he needed Maggie’s help with something? What if he got really sick? What if Maggie got what Simon had? How could she eat, drink, and laugh with her friends with all that worry knocking about? Would she have left Glen alone in a similar state? Maybe, yes—probably, in fact. But Glen was Maggie’s father. It was different.
“I should stay,” said Nina, thinking it through. “It feels strange for you to be sick, alone with Maggie, and—”
Nina did not finish her sentence because, with the speed of a sprinter responding to a starting gun, Simon bolted from the bed and dashed into the bathroom, where more retching and splashing took place. He emerged minutes later looking utterly bloodless, wobbly as a top about to tumble. Nina gently led him back to bed, guiding him with a hand on his wrist, helping him onto the mattress, where he collapsed with a groan.
“That’s it. I’m canceling,” she said.
“No, don’t,” Simon protested without much conviction. Nina guessed he probably did not want to be home alone with Maggie, just as Maggie didn’t want to be alone with him.
There was some back-and-forth debating, but in the end Nina got her phone and made the call, disappointing her friends, who had not seen her since their last workout together.
“We’ll reschedule,” Nina said.
“I’ve heard that before,” Ginny said.
Nina had forgotten that it was the second time she had canceled plans with them recently. The other occasion was last week, when Simon’s car had broken down on the highway as he was coming home from grocery shopping. She and her girls were going to meet up for a movie night, maybe dinner after, but Simon needed rescuing twenty minutes in the opposite direction, with two hundred dollars’ worth of groceries in a hot car.
“Lately, it seems like there’s always something coming up with you,” Ginny said, sounding a bit sour. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
Nina held her tongue. She knew Ginny was dredging up old concerns that Simon had some weird character defect because of how quickly he had moved in on her after Glen was out of the picture. But it takes two to tango and Nina didn’t appreciate the insinuation that she was somehow being duped.