“Yoss, please don’t go to sleep again. We need to get you to the hospital. Now!”
Yoss opened his eyes again, squinting at me. He frowned. “Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be…?” His voice trailed off.
“At work. I was at work. But I wanted to come home to check on you. To see how you were doing. I brought you lunch.”
“I love you,” he whispered, closing his eyes again. He made a strange strangled noise in the back of his throat.
I froze. He hadn’t said those words. Not in fifteen years. It terrified me that he was saying themnow.
“I love you,” he said again, his voice sounding as though he were choking on glass.
“Come on, Yoss! If you don’t want me to call an ambulance, we’re going to the hospital right now!” I pulled on his arm, making him sit up.
“Call an ambulance? Why? They’re only a block away. Bug told me.” He wasn’t making any sense. He seemed confused. Out of sorts.
And the blood was still dripping onto his shirt. I grabbed a handful of tissues and pressed it against his nose to staunch the flow. “Hold this against your nose. Can you get to your feet?”
“I’m not sure why we need to go to the store,” Yoss murmured, slumping down.
“Yoss! Come on now, I can’t carry you. I need you to try to stand up.”
His hands fell limply to his side, his chin hitting his chest.
“Yoss!”
He didn’t wake up.
So I called nine-one-one.
One day soon we’ll dance on the sand…
Not all happy stories have happy endings.
Fifteen Years Ago
It was after ten o’clock when we woke up. Happy. Relaxed.
Before the real world crashed into our blissful bubble.
“We have to leave soon. We should have another shower and get dressed,” Yoss suggested, kissing my shoulder. Neither of us moved. Not in a rush to leave this momentary sanctuary.
I was sore. My muscles ached but I didn’t mind. It was a pain that I welcomed.
“I wish we could stay here forever,” I sighed.
Yoss rolled me onto my back and ran his hands through my hair. “I can think of better places to stay forever than a cheap motel room with scratchy sheets,” he laughed. He kissed the side of my neck. “Now come on, before Mae barges in here.”
I sat up, covering my bare chest with the sheet and watched as he gathered his clothes. “How do you know Mae?” I asked him, having forgotten about the strange greeting she had given him the night before in the heat of things that came afterwards.
Yoss paused before going into the bathroom. “Oh you know, just around,” he replied dismissively.
“Yoss.”
He looked at me, dark hair falling into his eyes. “Stop hiding things you think I shouldn’t know. If I ask you a question, I want an answer. Don’t evade me.”
Yoss mouth thinned and there was a noticeably tick in his jaw. “I’ve known Mae for a long time.”
“Really? How is that?” I pressed. I too often let things drop when I shouldn’t. I instinctively shied away from information I was scared to know or Yoss didn’t want to give me.
