Page 99 of Love on Her Terms

She sat on the edge of the couch.

“You started telling everyone she has HIV first. You’re angry because she has a bigger reach and so told more people. She took how they learned the news out of your hands.” Levi’s voice was strong and clear. “And if you’re going to keep yelling about it, it’s HIV. She has HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.”

“Technicality.”

“Not a technicality. I’ve asked you to learn something about the virus, and you haven’t. Instead, you’ve told everyone you know about a secret that’s not yours. Did you do the same with Kimmie’s depression?”

“Everyone knew how sick Kimmie was. She couldn’t hide it.”

“No.” Levi’s voice sounded so sad that Mina’s heart broke for him. “Especially at the end, she couldn’t hide it. Everything she did gave her away.”

“I saw how hard it was for you to take care of Kimmie.”

Mina put her elbows on her knee and leaned forward, into the conversation.

“And I don’t want you to have to go through that again. Her death wrecked you.” Brook sounded sincere, at least. She did care about her brother, and his wife’s death had been hard on all of them.

“At least I know where I get my over-caring from.” Brook’s sincerity sounded lost on Levi, whose voice was nothing but stabbing sarcasm.

“Mom. You get it from Mom. I get it from Mom.” Brook spit out the words, so much like a bossy older sister that Mina almost gave herself away by laughing, despite the seriousness of the conversation. “Don’t you remember her last words? ‘It’s too hard to care for you’?”

“I remember,” Levi said. “But worrying until it crushes everyone around you isn’t the only alternative.”

“I’ve seen Philadelphia. I know what AIDS will look like. And, honestly, you looked close to Tom Hanks at the end.”

“Brook,” he said, back to sounding tired and sad. “I came out from a mining accident to find that my wife had committed suicide. Of course I looked skeletal.”

“You looked skeletal before the accident.” Back up, Brook, Mina thought. You’re hurting him. “Sometimes I wondered if you were depressed yourself.”

“I wasn’t depressed. I was sad, and that’s different. Caring for Kimmie was hard, but you know what I’ve learned from dating Mina?”

Mina scooted forward a little on her seat, not wanting to miss what came next.

“No.” His voice waved Brook off. “Don’t answer that question. I don’t want to know.”

Mina sighed and sat back on the couch.

“Kimmie’s illness was not my responsibility. She was my wife, and I loved her, but she was her own person, and she was responsible for her own actions. I can love someone and care for them and even take care of them without taking responsibility for them. I took too much responsibility for Kimmie.”

Mina smiled as Levi repeated almost the exact same thing she’d told him. Maybe he wasn’t fully able to act on those words, but lecturing his sister was a close first step. She would have faith in him.

She would have faith in them.

“And you know what?” Apparently Levi wasn’t done. “You need to do the same with Dennis. God, we’re arguing about me and Mina, when the real problem is that you’re afraid something’s going to happen to Dennis. Rather than face your own troubles, you’re stirring up problems for someone else.”

“What’s going on between me and Dennis is none of your business.”

“You made it my business when you asked me to talk to him.”

“Watch Philadelphia, and tell me that future doesn’t scare you.” The abrupt change in topic made Mina’s head spin. And made her think Levi was spot-on. Brook was probably afraid and ignorant about HIV, but the meanness was coming from something deeper, uglier, and that had nothing to do with Mina or her illness.

“There are other AIDS movies, you know.”

“Like what?” Brook challenged.

“I don’t know. There have to be some.”

“Are there any with happy endings?”

Mina pushed off the couch cushions. She’d been hiding long enough. Besides, she had come over here wanting to see Levi. And since Levi could spend hours sanding a wall before painting it, and Brook didn’t seem like a person who gave up, either, the two of them could be here for a while.

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