System Husband: One Divorce and I'm Gone novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Sofa

They let her out on Sunday afternoon, and by evening she was back on Millie's sofa with a blanket and a home monitor clipped to her finger.

Millie stood in the hallway in her uniform, pulling on her jacket.

"I swapped a night shift," she said. "I'll be gone till six."

"You didn't have to," I said.

"I know." She looked from me to Margot and back again. "Pulse check at ten and at two. Pills are labelled. The oxygen's in the closet if the number drops under ninety."

"Yes, boss," Margot said.

"And no sex on my sofa."

"Millie," I said.

"I'm serious. It's new."

She slammed the door behind her, loud enough to say what she thought.

The flat went quiet.

It was nine o'clock.

In fourteen hours and forty-two minutes I would be gone, and the thing I had to do before then was sit in an armchair and not touch her.

I looked at the window.

I looked at the monitor.

The number on it was ninety-three.

"You're hovering," Margot said.

"I'm sitting."

"You're sitting very straight." She patted the cushion next to her. "Come over here."

"I'm fine here."

"Nolan."

"You're supposed to rest."

"I've rested for four days. I've been in a bed so long I've forgotten what my own feet look like." She pulled the blanket off her knees. "Sit down, please. You're making me nervous."

I sat.

The sofa cushion dipped, and her shoulder came against mine.

I could smell the hospital soap, and under it, her skin.

For a minute neither of us spoke.

On the television, a muted cooking show played with the sound off.

"Do you remember our first date?" Margot said.

"The taco truck."

"You spilled salsa on your shirt."

"You said I looked like a man who'd lost a knife fight."

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