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“No comment,” I told her with a smile. “How was shopping?”
“Great,” she said, a little too brightly, and I knew something was up.
“What’s up, Megs?”
“Nothing,” she sighed. “Well, not nothing, it’s just a flat tire. I tried to change it myself but it’s so dang wet out here that I couldn’t get a proper grip on anything.” She sounded so put out about not being able to change her own tire, I had to smile.
“That’s why we pay for roadside assistance,” I reminded her.
“I know, and I called them when it became clear I couldn’t do it myself. But the rain has caused all kinds of trouble on the interstate,” she emphasized the word to head off any comments I might make about her being on the interstate. “They said I’d be stuck out here for two hours. Two hours, Case!”
“It’s just two hours, not a lifetime, Megs.” I hoped she wouldn’t do something foolish, like get out there again on a poorly lit road and try changing the tire herself. Again.
“Oh, wait, someone is stopping. Looks like a good Samaritan is going to save my tail today.”
“Megs, wait! Don’t just walk up to a stranger.” Other than a few years of culinary training, my wife had lived her whole life in our small town. She was a bit naïve about the world at large.
She grunted. “If someone is kind enough to stop and offer help, Casey, I’m not going to turn them away and accuse them of being a psycho killer.”
Light laughter sounded in the OR at her words, and I sighed as I tried to keep my frustration at a minimum. “I’m not saying to accuse anyone of anything, just exercise some caution.”
“Sure,” she said, her voice a mixture of impatience and excitement. “I’ll call you when I get home. Love you to bits, babe.”
“Love you, too,” I muttered as the pounding rain the background stopped abruptly. She ended the call.
“Call her back in sixty minutes, please.”
She would be home by then, I was sure. And it was better to be safe than sorry.
I turned back to the patient on the table and severed the last of the clot with ease. The surgery was a success without any early complications. I would stick around for another hour or two just to keep an eye on him, and then I could go home to my wife.
At a decent hour, for once.
Yeah, things were definitely looking up.
Megan
After an exhausting day of shopping, I zipped down the county road as the sky above me shifted from blue skies and fat white cottony clouds to feathery grey ones. The sky took on a more ominous look and I pushed the gas a little harder, hoping to make it home before the rain turned the roads slick and visibility to crap. Still, the imminent bad weather did nothing to dampen my excitement.
I wasn’t one of those women who got giddy over shopping. I spent most days in jeans or leggings and T-shirts, covered by an apron, my hair in a bun to stave off the heat of four ovens working at once. But the chance to head into the city for a little bit of shopping was always a little exciting. And today’s trip hadn’t just been successful, it was fun.
Which reminded me—I needed to make a call. “Hey, Gus. I picked up that package you asked about,” I teased. “Can I guess what it is?”
The sound I received in return was an annoyed grunt and I laughed because if you couldn’t annoy your closest friends, who could you annoy?
“It’s no big deal, Megan.”
“Then why do you sound so shy all of a sudden?”
“Because,” she groaned, “they’re toys I want to surprise Antonio with, okay?”
The smile on my face grew even wider. “I bought some, too. Great minds think alike.” A small laugh exploded out of me, and I wondered how Casey would respond to some of the toys. He was no prude, not by any stretch of the imagination, but so far we hadn’t experimented much in our five years of marriage.
“I assumed you and Casey had an entire room filled with sex toys.”
“I wish. Things have been so busy lately we barely have time to insert Tab A into Slot B, never mind have fun or experiment. I’m hoping to change that for our anniversary.”
“With the way Casey looks at you, I have no doubt your kinky lovefest will end with you knocked up.”
I hoped so. “Is that your official medical term?”
“It is,” she said haughtily, and we shared another laugh. “The news is talking about thunderstorms all evening. Where are you?”
A crack of thunder sounded a moment later, startling a gasp out of me. “Tell me something I don’t know. I’m about an hour away from town now, so I’m hoping to beat the rain. Oh, crap.”
