Page 61 of Hating the Boss

We crossed the street toward the main entrance of the park and strode under a stone bridge. Runners jogged by, along with people on bikes, and dog walkers managing a handful of dogs on tangled leashes.

“Do you come here a lot?” asked Sarah, looking around as we walked out from under the shade of the bridge, continuing down the paved pathway.

“Central Park?” I asked, raising a brow.

“Yeah.” She shrugged.

“I do, actually. If I need a little time to quiet my mind, it’s the spot I come to.” I thought back on my days after the break-up with Angela. I was here almost every day. Or after some corporate blowout with my father, when all I wanted was for him to act like a dad and not a business partner.

I looked down at Sarah, whose brown hair was striking in the sunlight with strands of gold catching on the light. “I take it you don’t come here often?”

“No.” She shook her head. “Manhattan is the place I work. It’s not a place of leisure.”

“You seem busy…” I said, thinking back to the night before when she was eager to get out of the office after we had had sex against my desk.

“I have a lot to juggle with work…and my sister,” she said, her voice softening on those last few words.

“You mentioned you take care of her,” I said, more as a question than a statement. I felt like I was prying into some part of her life that had been closed off, except for to a select few. I wanted to be one of those select few.

Sarah let out a long sigh, one that was heavy from life.

“We don’t have to talk about it,” I said quickly, afraid to push her away.

She shook her head and a weak smile crossed her lips as she kept her eyes on the path ahead.

“My sister, Jessica, had cancer as a child. None of us saw it coming. She kept getting sick. So sick…” she said weakly. “My parents kept chalking it up to her being young and having a weak immune system. But one day, she couldn’t get up from the couch. I remember it. We were watching Saturday morning cartoons, and I had asked her to get me orange juice. More like demanded. You know, the typical older sister business.” She laughed softly.

Part of me wished I knew what she meant. That I had someone to lean on or talk to. I could see how much she loved her sister in the way she talked about her, soft and cautious and reminiscent.

“But she couldn’t get up,” Sarah continued. “I thought she was messing with me. Pretending her legs weren’t working so she didn’t have to go to the fridge.” She grimaced ever so slightly, her eyes closing at the memory.

“But she wasn’t lying. When she tried to get up, her legs collapsed out from under her. She passed out from the pain. I cried out for my parents and we rushed her to the emergency room.”

“That must have been awful…” I said with a solemn shake of my head.

“It was. The days that followed. The months, really, my parents were desperate for answers. Jessica went through so many tests. So many pokes and prods. She was a champion about it, but I could see that it was all starting to wear on her. They found a rare form of cancer. Bone cancer. It had eaten away at her bones, slowly and savagely.”

“I’m so sorry…” I said, gently squeezing her forearm with my hand.

“She’s in remission now. Again. She seems stronger than ever. Bossy and independent and stubborn.” Sarah laughed softly. “But her legs are quite weak.”

“That has to be so hard for her. For you.”

Sarah nodded slightly. “Some days it’s hard, especially when she tries to push me away due to her pride. But it’s nothing in comparison to what she’s been through.”

“And your parents? Are they nearby to help?” I asked curiously.

Sarah grew quiet, adjusting her arm locked with mine and looking off in the distance toward a small pond we were approaching.

“My mother passed away from cancer a few years ago,” she said. “And my father passed away from a car accident a few months later.”

“Jesus…” I whispered, stopping on the paved path and looking at Sarah sadly. I was suddenly seeing her through new eyes. She had lived a life that I would never wish on anyone, and was so strong about it. I couldn’t fathom that strength.

“It’s just been the two of us. I don’t know what I would do without Jessica. Maybe that’s why I feel the need to care for her so intently. Is that selfish?”

I shook my head. “Not at all.”

“Of course, I want to take care of her. I threw everything I had into helping her when her cancer came back a few years ago, before she entered remission again. I put everything on hold…my life…my dreams.” She bit her lip slightly before looking up at me sternly. “I would do it all again.”