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My mouth opens but no sounds comes out.
‘Your T-shirt says,We Were On A Break.’He points at it.
‘Oh. Right. Yeah.’ I blush, remembering the old T-shirt Gavin gave me last night when I confessed I’d been so busy packing for Kayla I’d forgotten to pack for myself.
‘Kayla and I argue about this all the time.’ I smile, reminiscing.
‘What do you think?’ he asks.
‘AboutFriends?’
‘Yeah.’
‘They really were on a break.’ I shrug. ‘Rachel said so herself. I’m team Ross.’
‘Team Ross.’ He shakes his head.
‘Yes, Ross,’ I say, my eyes narrowing. ‘Why? Whose side are you on?’
‘Rachel’s,’ he says as confident as if the characters are real people we know personally.
‘Ha,’ I snort. ‘Kayla will love you for taking her side.’
‘It’s not sides.’ He smiles. ‘Just my honest opinion. I’m with Kayla on this. You’re wrong.’
I try not to giggle as I fold my arms, but I fail miserably and begin to laugh. And for a moment, just a fleeting moment, I feel lighter; floating above the nightmare the last twenty-four hours have been.
‘You still haven’t answered my question. Not honestly,’ he says, the moment over as I plummet back to reality with a painful bang. ‘How are you doing?’
Shit! I’m doing shit, I want to confess. But instead I smile and act brave and he shakes his head knowingly. I wonder if he’s this good at reading all his patients’ parents, or if I have any right to feel special because he’s damn well reading me like a book.
I meet his eyes and I shake my head. He’s giving me time.
Exhausted and broken and thinking,In another life and another set of circumstances we might actually be friends,I let my guard down.
‘I’m not really doing great,’ I hear myself say, somewhat subconsciously.
‘Kayla worries about you, you know?’ he says, placing his hand back on my knee.
‘Me? No. Kayla is the one who’s sick. Not me.’
‘She knows this is hard for you too,’ he says. ‘Like I said, they know stuff we don’t give them credit for. It’s always better to be honest with them. And yourself.’
‘Kayla is my whole world,’ I say.
He smiles. ‘She’s a great kid.’
‘I have a job I hate, a house I can barely afford, and I’m single at thirty-three, but it’s all okay because I have Kayla,’ I say. The words are spilling off my tongue and I can’t seem to stop them.
We sit opposite each other in silence and it’s not as awkward as it should be and I think he’s really good at this friends thing. And not just knowing the names of the characters from the show.
‘Work said I could have as much time off as I need while Kayla is sick,’ I say.
‘That’s great,’ he says.
‘Unpaid,’ I add.
‘Oh.’
