Chapter 7: See? You're Fine

My downstairs neighbor's niece collected me from the hospital in a borrowed car.

We stopped halfway up the stairs to my apartment so I could breathe.

"You should have called her," the niece said, meaning her aunt. "She's been knitting you something since Tuesday."

"I didn't want to be a burden."

"Honey. That's not a burden. That's a casserole."

She put me on the couch under three blankets and left a pot of soup on the stove.

Tristan had not called.

On the second day, I looked at his messages.

He had sent photographs.

A yacht in a harbor with white sails. Dark water under a pink sky. A deck table with a bottle of champagne.

In the corner of one picture, a woman's hand rested on his sleeve.

The diamond on it caught the sun.

Hugh had posted the rest.

It showed the group on the bow with their arms around each other, grinning.

The caption said: Whale season. Best trip of the year.

Margot was not smiling in any of them.

I looked at her face for a long time.

I did not feel angry at her.

She had said the true thing at the party, in front of all of them, and nobody had listened.

Then a text came in from Tristan.

I'll bring back those chocolates you like. Pick me up at the airport on the 28th?

I looked at the date.

I read the word airport.

He had taken a plane out of the country the morning after my operation, and he wanted a ride home.

On the third day, someone knocked at my door.

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