They Called Me Selfish. My Kidney Saved Her Life. novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Said Aloud

Reed was waiting on the bench outside my building on Friday evening, with his hands hanging between his knees.

He stood up when I came down the walk.

He looked like a man who had not eaten in two days.

"Five minutes," he said. "You gave me five last time."

"Not inside."

"Out here is fine."

I sat at the far end of the bench, and he stayed on his feet.

"I asked Cora for the date," he said. "The day she begged you to get tested."

"What did she say?"

"That it was a text. That she deleted it, because it was too painful to keep." His mouth twisted. "Then she cried for an hour. She said I was interrogating a sick girl."

"Were you?"

"I asked her one question, Cosima."

"That's all it takes."

He nodded slowly.

"Then I asked her how she knew about the blood draw," he said. "She went white. She said I must have told her. I said I never knew until she said it."

"What did she say to that?"

"She said she was tired, and could I please get her water."

He laughed, and it came out wrong.

"I got her the water," Reed said. "I stood there with the glass in my hand and thought, I'd have fetched it for anyone."

I watched a man walk his dog along the far curb.

I had waited eleven months for Reed to look at me like this, and now that he did, I felt nothing but tired.

"Why are you here?" I asked.

"To say I was wrong."

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