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“Now you can never move,” she said, patting his back. “I hope you’re comfortable.”
“You’ve said that before.”
“But this time I really mean it.”
Winston located the base of the condom and pulled out while Allie smacked him, wincing. “Asshat.”
“Back in a moment, love.”
He flushed it and used the toilet, splashing water on his face, examining himself in the mirror to see whether he looked different.
He fancied he did, at least a bit.
She’d curled onto her side when he returned, the bumpy chain of her spine the first thing he saw when he came back into the room. He curved around her back, peering over to see what she was doing with her hands.
She was on her phone.
“It’s May. I guess they can’t get the sofa bed to work. It broke when they tried to set it up.”
His stomach balled itself tight.
Allie sat up against the headboard, crossed her legs, and blew out a long breath. “I think I should go. I think I should pick up my dad and take him to a hotel.”
“Surely your sister can take care of it.”
“She’s asking me to.”
He sat across from her, took her phone from her hand and placed it on the bed, held her fingers between his. “Then what?”
She looked away. “I don’t know.”
“You take him home?”
“If that’s what he wants.”
“What about us?”
She glanced at his face, but she couldn’t hold his gaze. “I don’t know.”
“You make it sound as though it’s not up to you, up to us, but it is. It’s entirely in our power to decide.”
“I’m going back to Manitowoc.”
“It’s not the moon. It’s Wisconsin.”
“You’ve never been there.”
“I’d be on the first plane if you invited me.”
She took her hands back, folding her legs up, wrapping her arms around herself. “Winston, I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, or Saturday morning, or afterward. I don’t know what’s going to happen at all. But I think…I think I’ve got to go through it myself, and not keep using you as a…this mailman thing was supposed to be temporary, but I think I’ve turned it into a crutch. If I keep running to you to solve all my problems, and take you home with me, then how am I going to feel about myself when this is all over?”
“Love isn’t a crutch.”
She blinked.
“Allie, I—”
She covered his mouth with her hand. “Don’t, okay? I know. I mean, you’ve already as good as said, but just…don’t.”
