“Oh, no, honey, no. Not too much. For Ollie, I mean. He...” There was a quiet chuckle on the other end. “You know, Sam, I think he probably did better than both of us. I’m guessing you didn’t sleep too much either, did you?”
“Barely at all,” Sam admitted. He reached up and rubbed his eyes again as Jaz tightened her arm around his shoulders.
“Me too,” Katherine said with another laugh.
“Mrs. E . . .”
“Sorry, Sam. He’s... he’s okay, really. He was worried last night, like I mentioned in my text, and he called me and asked me to come over. We stayed up late, talking. He told me he was feeling anxious, and that he—”
Sam heard a sniffle and a cough, and he pursed his lips and screwed his eyes shut tighter as he imagined his boyfriend, anxious and scared and—
“I know what you’re thinking, Sam, but it’s... it’s the opposite almost. He’s come so far. He said he recognized how his anxiety had been growing all week, but that when he was talking with you or me, he felt better. So he called me and asked to come over. Hewasworried about having something of a panic attack when no one would be here—you know, like what happened last year—so he... took steps to prevent that, and...”
“And everything he did—it helped?” Sam barely managed the words, his heart was so full, so hopeful.
“Yeah, honey, yeah,” Katherine said softly. “He’s fine. Went to sleep at maybe three in the morning though. That’s how late we were up. And you know—”
“—his anxiety is worse when he hasn’t slept enough. Yeah. So that’s why...”
“Yeah. And I did silence his phone. I’m sorry. I meant to call you earlier. You’ve been...”
Sam grimaced and rubbed his eyes. “Barry’s probably gonna make me spend the rest of the day repairing the rut I made in the floor from my pacing.”
A quiet laugh from behind him reminded Sam that he wasn’t alone. He opened his eyes and straightened up, and his sister smiled kindly at him as she dropped her arm from around his shoulders. Her hand set on his thigh briefly, and she gave him a light squeeze and then stood up and pointed to the kitchen. Sam nodded in acknowledgement and then shifted his attention back to his phone call.
“Are you, um, gonna stay there with him today?” he asked quietly, hoping he already knew the answer.
“Of course, honey, of course,” Katherine answered quickly. “He took the day off work, you know?”
“Y-yeah. Yeah, he told me.”
“So, yeah, I’ll... be here with him all day. Maybe tomorrow too. I think maybe I’ll see if I can convince him to go out on a walk. It’s... The weather is supposed to be nice enough today. It warmed back up a bit. And I’ll cook something for him.” Katherine paused for a second before adding, “He’s been eating, but maybe not quite enough.”
Sam nodded, although he knew she couldn’t see him, and he closed his eyes. “Th-thank you, Mrs. E.” The words weren’t quite enough to convey his gratitude and relief, but he was pretty sure she understood, just as she’d understood how worried he was.
“I’ll have him call you as soon as he wakes up,” Katherine said gently, and Sam nodded again.
“Good, yeah, thanks. Um, s-sorry I . . .”
He heard a soft laugh, and Katherine added, “I know, Sam. Believe me, honey, I know. But he’s really—he’s okay.”
Another huge rush of relief washed over him, and he tried to speak again, to thank her one more time, but his voice wouldn’t work. He reached up and wiped a tear from his cheek.
“I’m going to let him sleep as long as possible, so if you don’t hear from him or me for a few hours, don’t be worried, okay, honey?”
“Y-yeah, yeah. I’ll . . . I’ll try.”
“And Sam?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you,” Katherine said softly, her voice full of emotion. “Thank you for—for loving my son. For caring about him so much. For showing him every day how much you care, even when you’re on the other side of the country. I’m so, so, so grateful for you, Sam.”
He was crying now—really crying, his tears falling without abandon.
“I love him,” Sam managed after a moment, sniffling as he scrubbed the tears from his cheeks with his free hand. “And I’m so grateful for him. And for you.”
Katherine was silent for a moment, and then she said, “I love both of you so much. I’ll have him call you, okay?”
