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His head jerked up to look at her.
“Ya’ look more relaxed,” Mary said. “Love will do that to you.”
And he had just been about to comment that it felt good to have Dennis back for the weekend. That it felt like old times.
“What the hell was that about?” he asked, turning his attention away from Mary to his friend.
Dennis pressed his lips together, and suddenly this Friday night at the bar felt more like old times than was comfortable. “We sold our house,” his friend said, the fake chipper tone to his voice ringing uncomfortably in Levi’s ears.
“Brook told me,” Levi said. Then he waited, letting the silence fill the space between them. Silence was a neat thing. It started small, invisible. If fed, it expanded like a balloon, engulfing everyone and everything in its path.
With the right person and in the right mood, the silence was reassuring. It was soft and warm.
Dennis was not in the right mood. As the silence started to touch against his skin, it must have grown spikes, because his friend started to shift in his seat, like a thorn was poking him in the back.
“Brook told the real-estate agent about Mina’s HIV,” Dennis said, finally.
The pop of the balloon rang in Levi’s ears. “What? Why would she do that?”
“That’s not the only person she told.” Dennis shifted uncomfortably in his seat. The silence had apparently left the thorn in his back, and it was growing bigger. “From what I can tell, anytime someone asked about the move, she launched into a story about giving you space to deal with your girlfriend’s illness and not have to worry about me, too.” The last sentence sliced through the air in the bar, leaving a sour smell in the air.
“What the hell is wrong with her?” Brook was his sister, and he loved her, but he couldn’t think of a justification for spreading Mina’s health information all over town. Or making her husband feel like a burden, particularly considering the move put them in a better financial position.
“Never mind,” he said as Dennis started to open his mouth to answer. Levi sympathized with how nervous she was about moving and about being in a new place without a support system. They’d always been there for each other.
Brook was killing that support in a way distance never could.
“The more important question is, who all knows?” Even as the words left his mouth, he wondered if that mattered. What was he going to do? Go to each and every person and make sure they understood...that they understood what? Understood that they shouldn’t say anything to anyone else? Understood that Mina was an amazing person, and that they shouldn’t let whatever misconceptions they had about HIV cloud their impression of her? Threaten them with physical violence if they said something unkind to her or about her?
If he did those things, he wouldn’t be supporting his girlfriend; he’d be trying to protect his sick girlfriend, and their relationship would turn into everything she was afraid of.
He couldn’t do anything except be there for her. Which didn’t feel like it would be enough, but he didn’t know what else to do.
He pushed his beer away. “I’ve got to go.”
“Brook’s not at the house. She’s out with a friend.”
Levi slid out of the booth and looked at his friend with disbelief as he rose to his feet. “Brook? I don’t give a shit about Brook.”
He must have looked angry, because his friend jumped back like he’d been struck. Levi didn’t care. “I’m going to Mina’s house. You and Brook need to work out whatever problems you’ve got. It was bad enough when her fears and your silence were affecting me, and she was being a bitch privately, but this isn’t acceptable. Not if you want to be my friend and she wants to be my sister.”
“I had nothing to do with Brook’s big mouth.”
“You don’t have anything to do with the fact that my sister is scared and feels like she’s not getting information and support from her husband? You’re totally innocent in that?” His words dripped with sarcasm, burning the inside of his mouth before sizzling on the floor as they fell. “I’m leaving before I say something I regret. But you and Brook need to deal with each other before she kills every relationship she has and you drink until your liver is in worse shape than your lungs.”
