I sit back and stare at her as I remember Rosie’s reactions to the bubble bath I made her, her beaming smile whenever I add something to her desk fridge, Tabi’s glow stick, and the way Rosie gets teary when I read Tabi bedtime stories. She loves me despite, or in addition to, my problems. She told me as much.
“I’m such a knob.”
“Yes, you are, and I want to flick you so hard on the forehead right now. I still love you,though.”
“Love you too, Sen.” I check my phone. “But if I’m the guy she wants, why hasn’t she called or messaged me since she left the park Sunday night?”
I recount the conversation to Senna, who bangs her head on my desk. “You remind me of Connor when you do stupid shit like this. She wants you to have a future and doesn’t want to get in your way.”
“But she is my future.”
Senna leans her head back. “I know that. Why didn’t you?”
“Oh. Yeah. I fucked up.”
At my sister’s slow hand clap, I grunt. “The only reason I’m not planning a prank on you right now is because Rosie is ten minutes late. She’s never late for work.”
Senna’s brow furrows as my phone vibrates against my desk. “Is that her?”
“No. It’s Sasha.”
“Answer it then,” Senna snaps.
Sasha’s retching twists my stomach.
“Sasha, are you okay?”
“No.” Sasha gulps and groans. “Rosie and I got Tabi’s bug. Tabi’s better, but it hit Rosie last night, and mine started three hours ago. She’s already out of it. I’m meant to sit Tabi for her, but I can’t like this. Someone needs to care for Tabi and Rosie.”
Ice cold chills sliver down my back. “And Rosie’s parents went on holiday yesterday.”
“My mum only has room for me, and honestly, she’s crap with kids. That’s probably why I’m a preschool teacher, to make sure no one ends up as fucked up as me.” She retches, and the colour drains from my cheeks.
I flip my cap backwards. “Can’t Scott look after them?” I need to step up, but I don’t want to get in the way, and I’m not Tabi’s dad.
Senna stares with her eyebrows raised.
“Are you a fucking knob?”
“Well, yeah, I just called myself that, so?—”
“Scott gave a bit of sperm in the most unfulfilling sexual experience of Rosie’s life. That doesn’t qualify him to care for Tabi and Rosie. Maybe he and Tabi will have a relationship one day, but he spent half an hour at a park with her. He’s already back in Australia.”
“Oh.” I suck in a breath. Rosie is sick, and I must show up even if that means hiring a hazmat suit. “I’m coming around.”
“You could ask your parents to do it. I know about your anxieties.”
“I’ll make it work.”
“If it helps, my auntie’s a doctor, and she said Rosie shouldn’t be contagious anymore. How soon can someone be here?”
I need to grab my stuff and Graham and collect all the cleaning supplies and PPE I own. I try not to fixate on the fact that I’ll be stepping into a sick house.
“An hour.”
“Text me when they’re outside, and I’ll leave so we don’t meet, just in case. Tabi should be okay for the sixty seconds it takes me to get out and for someone else to go in.”
Sasha really doesn’t think it’ll be me. That makes me certain it will be.
