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“Are you?”
“I tested negative last week, and I went again today. I’m okay.”
“You took a test last week? Layne, why? You’ve been staying at home, right? Not going out? Were you exposed? What the hell is going on? We talk every night.”
“I didn’t tell you because it was negative. The only reason I’m telling you right now is because my mom is positive, and I’ve been taking care of her for a little over a week, which is why I went to get tested the first time and again today. So far, so good. And we’re doing our best to stay away from each other, but–”
“Come here,” Shay interrupted. “We have plenty of room here.”
Layne tilted her head.
“Wait. Sorry. You wouldn’t leave her while she’s sick. Don’t mind me.”
Layne smiled a tired smile at her and said, “Thank you for the offer, but yeah, I can’t leave her.”
“How is she?”
“The coughing’s gotten worse today. She’s sleeping some, not eating much, though, and the fever is high, so I need to run her to a doctor in the morning. I made the appointment, and thankfully, we were able to get in. I thought that would be better than the hospital, but… I don’t know. I don’t know how to deal with all of this, Shay. Do I just take her to the ER now? Would that make her sicker because there are a bunch of sick people there already? I think she’ll be okay for the night. She says she will. But if something happens, and–”
“Hey. Babe, it’s okay,” Shay interrupted. “She’s going to be okay.”
“You don’t know that,” Layne replied with tears welling in her eyes.
“Not for sure, but I know you. I know you’re doing a great job taking care of her and that you’re both probably doing your best.”
“I guess. I just… I can’t lose her, too, Shay. I’ve lost one parent already.”
“God, I want to hold you right now. I want to be there, holding you and telling you everything is going to be all right.”
“I don’t want you to get this too.”
“I don’t want you to get it either, Layne. I can’t get to you.”
“I know,” Layne said. “But I wouldn’t let you come here even if I lived down the street.”
“You’ve got to let someone take care of you eventually.”
Layne looked behind her and said, “I need to go. I have to bring her something, but I didn’t want you to think I’d forgotten to call or that something was wrong.”
“Something is wrong, Layne.”
“I’ll be okay. I just might not be able to talk all the time like we have been. I need to make her my focus.”
“I understand. Just… Can you check in with me so I know that you’re okay whenever you can?”
“Okay. I will. I have to go. Bye, uh… babe, I guess.”
Shay’s eyes widened just as Layne smiled and hung up.
“So, she had heard that?”
CHAPTER 18
This internship wasn’t what she thought it would be, but it also wasn’t the exact circumstance that she’d expected, either. Layne was supposed to be taking a train into the city, stopping for coffee on the way from the train stop to the office, listening to music on her headphones as she did so, using a badge to scan in, and maybe saying hi to the security guard in the lobby. Then, she was supposed to take the packed elevator up, with some people staring down at their phones and others talking on them, inevitably dropping the call and ending up staring at the elevator door impatiently, waiting for it to open so they could call that person back. She was supposed to sit down at her cubicle, crack open her computer, check her email, do her tasks, have a cheap sack lunch in the breakroom with other people in her program while they gossiped a little about the people who worked there, and then, she’d do more work and take the jam-packed train home.
That was what she’d seen in all the movies, anyway. So far, she’d only checked emails and done her tasks, which, she supposed, meant that she had to also crack open her computer, but it had been three weeks of work so far, and Layne wasn’t loving it how she expected. She wasn’t naïve. She knew she was an intern and mainly there to do the grunt work and learn, but because the program had been built to be in-person, it wasn’t the same now that they were all working remotely. She didn’t get too many emails, but the messages from the program director and the few people in the department she’d been assigned to support started rolling in immediately upon the clock striking eight in the morning.
Most of the tasks were simple, but there were a lot of them, keeping her very busy from eight to five. She had a lunch break, but Layne didn’t really see it as a break. She’d been taking care of her mom every free minute of every day. They’d developed a bit of a routine, with Layne starting her morning in the bathroom and knocking on her mom’s bedroom door to see if her mom was awake after. If she was, Layne would tell her that the bathroom was hers. Her mom would take her turn. Layne would put on a mask and gloves. When her mom knocked on her own door, it meant that Layne was good to wipe down the bathroom, which she would do, and then prepare breakfast for them both, leave a plate by her mom’s door, knock, and walk off to eat her own food.
