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Echo shrugged and went back to petting Noodle in a way that made the dog relax in her lap again. “In reality, probably not. In my fantasy world, yes. I was newly divorced and thought the solution to my problems was someone who would stick around. Levi always struck me as the kind of guy who sticks.”
“Yeah. He does seem that way, doesn’t he?” It was the jawline, Mina decided. And the broad shoulders. The handiness with tools and that stupid hodgepodge lawn mower of his. A man who would stick with that lawn mower had to be a man who would stick in a relationship.
That was the same kind of reasoning that made a known jerk seem like a nicer person because he got a chocolate Lab puppy. That kind of reasoning got women into relationships that went nowhere but in downward spirals.
Or out the front door.
“Do you know something about him that I don’t, Mina?” Echo was looking intently at her glass of wine, as if the light bouncing off the crystal held the secrets to the universe.
Mina wasn’t the only one who’d had too much to drink tonight. She was grateful that tomorrow was Saturday, and she could sleep off whatever headache she was sure to get.
Which didn’t stop her from reaching forward and pouring more wine in her glass. At Echo’s gesture, Mina topped off her glass, as well. She drank deeply out of the garnet courage, giving the buzz time to reach her brain and cloud her thinking. She wanted the edges of her mind to go fuzzy, to stop thinking, can I trust this person?
If she didn’t say anything to Echo, then she continued to be just-Mina. The friendship would develop as if Mina were another neighbor, and, depending on how close their friendship got, eventually Mina might tell her. Maybe Echo would be upset that she hadn’t been told until then, and maybe she wouldn’t be. The problem was you never knew. Rarely did the opportunity come up naturally for Mina to hear someone’s ignorance or otherwise on HIV, and, as she’d learned the hard way, people’s words and their actions could be diametrically opposed.
Mina took another sip. But alcohol never could dull her mind. All it ever did was make her riskier.
A lesson she’d also learned the hard way.
Or not learned, she reconsidered with another sip of her wine. She hadn’t become a teetotaler.
“He came over for dinner after we finished the garden,” Mina said. “And I thought something was between us.” She shook her head. “No,” the word slurred out. “There was definitely something between us. But I have a health problem, and I thought he should know before, well, before anything.”
She shrugged her heavy shoulders. “He thanked me for telling him and walked out. Though he put his dishes back in the sink. So that was nice.”
“That rat,” Echo said, plopping a heavy hand on her dog, who barked, either in sympathy or irritation, Mina couldn’t tell. “I didn’t think he was that kind of guy.”
“Better to know now.” Mina robotically repeated the words she’d been reassuring herself with for an entire week. They didn’t help any more now than they had on Monday morning. Any dulled pain was more likely to do with the second bottle of wine they were on.
“Did I tell you why my husband left me?”
Mina’s mind skipped over their conversation for the night. Though she was pretty sure she wasn’t remembering everything they’d talked about, she didn’t think she’d have forgotten hearing that. “No.”
“I had breast cancer. Young. We caught it early, and I was about as lucky as I could be for treatment.” Echo looked down at Noodle and scratched behind the dog’s ears. Noodle turned her black eyes up at her owner with more love and affection than Mina thought she had ever seen in another living animal.
“Jackson stayed with me through the treatment. After I got the all clear, things just didn’t seem to be right between us. He was distant and afraid to touch me. He’d never been afraid to touch me, even when I was sick and physically fragile.” Her petting on the dog sped up in tune with her emotion and the anger Mina could hear building in her voice. The dog grunted, then rearranged her head on Echo’s lap and settled in, like they’d done this before.
