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I pushed her hand away and asked quietly:
"You could drive halfway across the city for Elijah Gilbert. Why couldn't you stop one minute for me on your way?"
Charlene's hand went still.
"You're still hung up on that?"
"You're the one who said you didn't need a girlfriend picking you up and dropping you off."
"Now I've done exactly what you wanted, and somehow you're unhappy again?"
I looked up at her.
"Back then you'd just started your company. I didn't want to be a burden to you."
"So because I was considerate then, that's now proof I don't deserve to be looked after. Is that it?"
The patience drained from her face.
"Why do you always have to make yourself out to be so pitiful?"
"You can't say a man should stand on his own two feet and then expect your girlfriend to come running the second you call."
"It just makes you look fake."
I stared at her, dazed.
So the words I'd once said to protect her pride.
Had all turned into knives pointed at me now.
My throat started to itch.
I turned my head and coughed a few times, cold rolling through me in waves.
Charlene reached out and touched my forehead.
"You've got a bit of a fever."
She dug the fever pills out of the medicine box, set them on the table, then went to the bedroom and came back with a blanket.
"Take the medicine first."
She said it so naturally.
As if the argument just now had never happened.
I looked at that box of pills, and my chest, weak as ever, ached again.
Maybe she still had room for me in her heart.
Maybe we'd just been together so long she'd forgotten how to show it.
But before I could say anything, Charlene's phone rang.
Elijah's tight voice came through the speaker.
"Charlene, that strange car is parked downstairs again."
Charlene stood up at once.
"Lock your door. I'm coming over now."
She hung up and picked up the car keys she'd set down only moments before.
Wrapped in the blanket, I sat on the couch and asked softly:
"I'm running a fever. You're not going to stay and take care of me?"
Charlene's steps paused for an instant.
"The medicine's already on the table."
"You know how many to take, and you can look after yourself."
"Elijah's different. Someone might be watching him. It isn't safe for him to be there alone."
Before she went out, as if afraid I'd keep making a scene, she softened her tone.
"You've always been more independent than him."
"Don't hold it against him, not even at a time like this."
The door closed in front of me.
Leaving only the sound of the hurricane slamming against the glass.
I looked at the fever pills on the table, and suddenly I laughed.
Since when was I stronger than Elijah Gilbert.
It was only that after every plea for help got turned down, I'd forced myself to learn how to hold on.
My phone buzzed. The umbrella had shipped.
Right after it, the company sent the confirmation email for my overseas transfer.
I opened my inbox, completed the final confirmation, and the flight was booked for three days out.
Back then, when I said I could take care of myself, it was only because I couldn't bear to trouble Charlene.
From this day on.
I truly didn't need her anymore.
