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“You say it like it’s a bad thing?”
“It’s a lot of butter, cream, meat, you know? Not top of the health list.”
“But it tastes good, right?” Zoë said.
“I guess it’s for special occasions,” I conceded.
The atmosphere around the table was friendly and light-hearted. Zoë told us about her day in school, Will mentioned he’d had a good meeting at work, and I reported that the kittens had shredded Will’s tech magazine that he had left lying on the floor.
Afterwards, while we were cleaning up and Zoë scarpered off to watch TV, I asked him if he’d gotten my text.
“Yup.” He turned around to face me, his face neutral.
“You want to leave.”
“I don’t want to, I really don’t. But this is the job I really wanted and if it is back on the table…”
“I know… I know…” Will said. He sighed, “We’ll be sad to see you go, but I get it. You want to get started on your life.”
“Oh, good.” I felt a bit surprised that he was letting me go that easy.
What had I expected; that he’d fight me on this?
He turned back to stack the dishwasher.
“Is there a specific date when you have to be there?”
“Why?”
“It’s just… Zoë has to go for a small op. Tonsillectomy. The doctors had it scheduled for next week. It would be nice if you could be around for that?”
“What? Zoë needs an operation?”
I was shocked to hear it. She had seemed completely healthy to me.
“It’s no big deal. But she kept getting sick last year and the doctor suggested we have the tonsils taken out, that way she won’t keep getting the throat infection,” Will said.
“Isn’t that serious?”
“Apparently not,” Will said. He glanced over his shoulder at me.
“What do you think? Could you stay for that? Shouldn’t be more than a week?”
How could I say no to that?
I couldn’t leave the two of them to deal with this alone.
“I’m sure I could work something out,” I said.
“What about your cat allergy?”
I almost asked him what cat allergy and then I remembered having put that in my resignation email earlier in the day.
“I’ll just take antihistamines, and steer clear of the kitties.”
“So, did you know you were allergic to cats?”
“No, but we never had cats at home, I just always wanted them. But this morning, after I was looking for them and touching all the bedding and stuff, I really started itching and my eyes got all red and swollen. I realized it had to be that.”
