Page 127 of An Engagement for Erica

“I’ll get you some water,” he said.

“I drank some in the bathroom. Tap water isn’t my favorite thing, but it worked.”

“Other than a dry mouth, everything else is fine?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I’m hungry, but it’s only four. Too early to get up and eat anything.”

“You’ve been sleeping for almost ten hours,” he said.

“Yeah,” she said. “I just did the math in my head. I’m sorry about that.”

“Hey,” he said. “Don’t be. I’m glad you were able to sleep through it like that.”

She let out a sigh. “Me too. I mean I feel fine but still drained, if that makes sense. Could be that I’m hungry too. Not sure.”

He threw the covers back. “I’m going to get you a banana. It’s quick and will help.”

“You don’t need to,” she argued.

“I’m up and I’m going to. I’m glad your meds work like they should have. No reason for it to come back.”

He moved through the house in the dark, grabbed a banana on the counter, and then sliced it up on a plate for her and returned.

“Aren’t you fancy,” she said. “I could have eaten it like a normal person and held it.”

“I wasn’t sure how much you’d want and no reason to leave the peel in here.”

He could see through the moonlight she was popping pieces in her mouth like kids did candy on Halloween night.

“A banana has never tasted so good. Well, the one I had earlier before my headache was pretty good.”

“The fact you’re cracking jokes is a really good sign,” he said.

“I thought so,” she said. “Thanks for taking such good care of me. I’m not sure I would have realized what was happening until it was too late.”

“I’m glad we caught it together. Now you know you can have different symptoms. You’ll have to ask your doctor or your father if you can take those meds with symptoms even if you aren’t sure to just stop it from happening. Would it make a difference?”

“Good question,” she said. “I don’t want to get into that habit. I mean we all get headaches, I should be able to just take some aspirin too like I have been.”

“Questions for them. I want to say you’ll learn the signs of a migraine, but the other part of me hopes you don’t get them too often. Do you think you overdid things this week with work?”

“No,” she said. “There are a lot of things that could cause a migraine. I know that, but none of it is work or stress related. I love my job and I’ve got a good handle on the amount of time I’m doing it. It could be hormones too. I’m supposed to get my little friend in a few days.”

“Friend?” he asked, frowning.

“My period,” she said. “Next week. I used to get headaches all the time prior to getting it and then I’d get cramps. A lot of those things stopped when I went on birth control, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen again. I’d like to think it was something simple like that.”

“No reason to overthink it.”

“I’m not,” she said. “Or I’m trying not to. I just feel bad that you’ve had a rough week and here you are taking care of me when I was trying to take care of you. Guess I’m not very good at it.”

“You’re perfect at making me feel loved,” he said. “And that is all I care about.”

“Then I guess we can be perfect together,” she said. “Because that is how I felt last night and this morning.”

Who needed the words?

It was true what they said—actions spoke louder.

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