To My Romeo, with Love novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Hank's Day

The hallway smelled like floor wax and hand sanitizer.

The oncologist opened the folder and did not look at it.

"I wanted to say this to both of you, standing up," she said. "Your counts are climbing, Laurel. Platelets are at ninety."

"The drop was the drug, not a sign that the cancer is winning."

My knees nearly went.

"You can go home tomorrow."

"The next cycle starts on schedule, a week from Tuesday, and I'll give you a shot to keep your counts up."

"So that's good news," Fraser said.

"It's very good news."

He nodded slowly, once, in the way he nods at a board that has come out straight.

Then he said, "I need to get the truck," and walked away down the corridor.

I watched him go.

He did not look back, and he was not walking.

Marge was beside me before I turned around.

Her face had gone quiet, and I had never seen that.

"What is the date?" she said to nobody.

"The twenty-eighth," Dad said.

"Oh, Lord."

"What?"

"It's Hank's day," she said. "Eight years today. He does this every year."

"He goes to the shop and shuts off the lights, and I don't call, because he won't answer."

She pressed her lips together.

"I'd forgotten. God forgive me. A month of this, and I forgot."

They discharged me the next afternoon, a day earlier than I had thought.

Fraser lifted me out of the car himself and carried me up the steps, and he did it all with a good smooth face.

He said the right things, and he ate his lasagna.

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