The phone

I checked on my side table for my phone, never realizing it was switched to silent. In that time, between three in the afternoon, whenever I woke up, and now, Xavier called at least a dozen times.

I sensed panic in his voice when he answered.

“Didn’t Nora call when I woke up?” I asked.

“She did, but she said you were confused. I tried maybe two hours ago, then figured you needed rest. Should I come over?”

Right now, for some reason, he was the last person I wanted to be with. “No!” I blurted. Wow, that was weird. Normally, I wanted Xavier with me twenty-four-seven.

What was it with all this fucking paranoia? It was doing my head in. I needed to explain to Xavier why I didn’t want my boyfriend—soon-to-be live-in partner, future husband and father of my children—with me at this precise moment in time, when I was so vulnerable. I’d answered his concern for me with negativity, so much of it I just shouted through the phone at him. Why?

“Have you seen Nora lately?” I asked, changing the