Page 54 - In Five Years

“It was pretty spontaneous. I know you. You once muscled through the full-
blown flu to fly to Tokyo.”
“That was work,” I say. I’m clutching my stomach. I’m actually going to
vomit. It’s all going to come out on her green suede shoes.

“I like him,” David says. He looks to me. “Dannie does, too. She had a fever
earlier. We just didn’t want to cancel.”

I feel a wave of affection for him, for this lie.
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” I tell her. “Go enjoy your dinner.”
Bella doesn’t budge from her place on the sidewalk, but our car comes and
David holds the door open for me. I dive inside. He walks around and then we’re

off down Mulberry, Bella disappearing behind us.
“Do you think it’s food poisoning? What did you eat?” David asks.

“Yeah, maybe.” I lean my head against the window, and David squeezes my
shoulder before taking out his phone. When we get home, I change into sweats
and crawl into bed.

He comes and perches on the edge. “Can I do anything?” he asks me. He
smoothes down the comforter, and I grab his hand before he lifts it off.
“Lay down with me,” I say.

“You’re probably contagious,” he says. He puts the back of his hand on my
cheek. “I’m going to make you some tea.”
I look at him. His brown eyes. The slight tufts of his hair. He never uses

product, no matter how many times I tell him everyone needs it.
“Go to sleep,” he says. “You’ll feel better in the morning.”
He’s wrong, I think. I won’t. But I fall asleep anyway. When I dream, I’m

back in that apartment. The one with the windows and the blue chairs. Aaron
isn’t there. Instead, it’s Bella. She finds his sweatpants in the top drawer of the
dresser. She holds them up and shakes them at me. What are these doing here?

she wants to know. I don’t have an answer. But she keeps demanding one. She
walks closer and closer to me. What are these doing here? Tell me, Dannie. Tell
me the truth. When I go to speak, I realize the entire apartment is filled with

water and I’m choking on everything I cannot say.