someone?” Curt asked. “How far does it have to go?”
“That’s not fair,” she said.
“What’s not fair is that I’m in another country and I can’t even check on you,” Curt said. “I can’t even see what you look like. I have no idea each day if you’ve gotten up and gone to school or if you’re lying in bed with sudden worsening symptoms. I don’t find out until we talk in the evenings.”
Annalise was struck by the concern in his voice. Even though he had expressed his worries to her, she’d had no idea he was so stressed out about it.
And knowing that was enough of a motivating factor to get her to do what she hadn’t done so far.
“I’ll go to a doctor,” she told him.
“You will?”
“I’ll go tomorrow,” she said. “There’s still time to get a sub, I think. I’ll call around and find someone, and I’ll go see my doctor in the morning. Will that make you feel better?”
“Much.” She could actually hear the relief in his voice. “And will you promise to call me afterward and let me know what the doctor says?”
“I promise I’ll call you if it’s anything serious,” she said. “But if it’s not, I don’t want to interrupt your day. I’d rather wait until our evening call and talk then.”
“You don’t have the best measure of what’s serious and what isn’t,” Curt said.
“You have to trust me a little bit, Curt,” she said, unable to suppress a smile. It felt good that he cared for her so much.
“All right,” he said, a grumble in his voice. “I trust you. But you’ll let me know what’s going on tomorrow night.”
“I’ll let you know,” she promised.
Annalise had half hoped that she wouldn’t be able to get a doctor’s appointment on short notice, but the very next day, she found herself sitting on the examination table and trying not to wring her hands while the doctor examined his chart.
Doctor’s appointments always made her feel anxious, and this one had been worse than most. After describing her symptoms to the doctor, she had been put through a spate of testing that had surprised her. She’d assumed the doctor would tell her she had eaten something bad on her trip and send her on her way, perhaps with an admonishment to drink more fluids or perhaps a prescription for something to settle her stomach.
Instead, there had been multiple vials of blood drawn. There had been urine tests. And now she waited anxiously for the results, wondering what he could be seeing. Wondering if Curt had been right all along to be worried.
I kind of wish he was here.
At least she had been allowed to change out of her paper exam robe and back into her regular clothes. That gave these proceedings a measure of normalcy. She picked at the sleeve of her sweater.
Dr. Hannigan looked up. “You said you’ve been feeling sick for how long?”
“Not long,” she said.
This was the same trap she always fell into when she was at the doctor’s office—downplaying her symptoms. It felt as if, were she to make a big deal out of what she was feeling, she would somehow manifest a worse outcome. It felt safer to act as if it was nothing.
Fortunately, she had a doctor who never allowed her to get away with that kind of thing.
“How long is not long?” he asked. “Do you remember the first day you noticed symptoms? Try to be specific.”
There was no dodging that one. “It was the day I flew back from Costa Rica,” she said. “Five days ago.”
“Why didn’t you come in sooner?”
“I thought it was airsickness,” she said.
“And when it didn’t subside?”
“I figured I’d eaten something that didn’t agree with me.”
“Food poisoning can be serious, Annalise,” her doctor said.
“But it didn’t seem like food poisoning,” she said. “I wasn’t that sick. So I thought it was probably just an unfamiliar food.”
“Do you usually have a sensitive stomach?”
“No,” Annalise admitted.
“Have you eaten things in the past that have caused you to feel sick?”
“One time I got sick after eating too many white chocolate candy bars.”
He looked at her sternly and shook his head. “Your body is trying to tell you something when it reacts like this, Annalise. You need to take these things seriously.”
She felt a twinge of nervousness. “Do you think something’s seriously wrong?”
“When was your last period?” he asked.
“What?” It was a question she hadn’t been expecting. “I’m not sure.”
“Before Costa Rica?”
“Definitely before that.” She thought back. “I guess