Picking Up the Pieces

When Alice walked out, she looked even more pale and nauseous than she had before we left for the doctor’s office. I grabbed her hand but she pulled it away and quickly slipped into the passenger seat of my black SUV. I looked at her nervously, but she was staring out the window. I didn’t say anything the entirety of the twenty minute drive back to our apartment, and when we got back she just rushed out to the pharmacy to fill some prescription the doctor had given her. She returned about an hour and a half later with a few groceries, and the prescription bag. She was quick to throw it into her room, which made me worry. She was never secretive with me, but everything about her screamed that she was hiding something from me.

“So what did the doctor say?” I asked quietly as we ate dinner. She looked up at me with this alien look on her face before clearing her throat and taking a sip of water.

“The flu, like you said,” she replied quickly before stuffing a piece of chicken into her mouth. After dinner I tried to kiss her, but she simply slipped away from me and said that she was too tired to do anything else. I returned to my own room confused and dejected, and decided to call Zach Parise. Zach and I had become pretty close as the season continued.

“Hey Zach, can I talk to you for a second about something?” I asked once he picked up the phone.

“Sure man, what’s up?” he asked.

“So you know what’s going on between me and Alice, right?” I asked. I had told him slowly but surely about everything that had developed between Alice and I over the past few months, and he was essentially the only person that didn’t live in the apartment that knew about how serious and un-serious things were.

“Yeah,” Zach replied.

“Well she’s been really sick lately, so I made her go to the doctor’s office. Well it turns out she has the flu, but she’s been acting really weird ever since we got back and won’t talk to me or kiss me or anything. It’s just…weird,” I said quietly. There was a long pause before I heard Zach cough.

“Did you ever consider the fact that maybe she’s pregnant?” Zach asked.

“WHAT?!” I screamed into the phone.

“Well if she’s acting all weird, maybe you knocked her up. I mean, the flu isn’t any reason to be weird with someone,” Zach said.

“But why would she lie to me?” I asked.

A few minutes later I knocked on Alice’s bedroom door.

“Come in,” she said quietly, and I opened the door.

“Hey…why are you acting weird?” I asked, deciding that a direct approach would be best. She straightened out her shirt and bit her lip before looking up at me.

“I’m sick Marc. I don’t want you to catch it,” she smiled, and I shook my head, a small smile forming on my own lips. I knew Zach was wrong. She just doesn’t want me getting sick. I sat down next to her and picked up her hand in mine.

“I don’t care if I get sick. Besides, I got the flu shot, I should be fine,” I said before kissing her on the cheek. She stiffened slightly, but kissed me back, and squeezed my hand gently.

“Well I care if you get sick, and I don’t want to risk it. I’m getting really tired Marc, so I’m going to go to sleep, okay?” she asked. I nodded and slipped out of the bed.

“Good night Alice,” I said before walking out of the room.

“Good night Marc,” she said quietly.

>>>December 14th<<<

It took a few days for Alice to let me kiss her again, although as soon as that barrier was broken, we were back to cuddling, kissing, and sleeping in the same bed. She wasn’t feeling up to sex at all, so I let her be when it came to that, but everything else was slowly but surely getting back to normal. I was rather disappointed with the lack of snow in Newark though. In Pittsburgh, the snow would already be coming down heavily, but here it was light and barely stuck to anything.

“So much for a white Christmas,” I grumbled as I stared out the window. Alice laughed and shook her head.

“Marc, you’ll be surprised how quickly the weather changes around here. Just wait. In a few days, I bet there will be at least two feet of snow on the ground,” she smiled before returning to her card writing. She was writing out piles and piles of Christmas cards, and I was afraid we were going to run out of stamps. She had gone on a Christmas tirade, banning all music but Christmas music from now until Christmas. Alice had been cleaning the apartment furiously, and suddenly I had an idea.

“Alice, let’s get a Christmas tree,” I said. Alice looked up at me, and then her face broke into a huge grin.

“Really?” she asked. I nodded.

“Sure. I mean, it’ll be a bitch to get into the apartment, but it’ll be worth it,” I said.

“It won’t be too hard. We can use the maintenance elevator. Those people in the apartment above us got a piano into their apartment. A tree shouldn’t be too hard,” Alice smiled before jumping out of her seat.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“I’m getting ready to go tree shopping, duh! Bundle up, its cold out,” she said before disappearing into her bedroom.

“Alice I’m Canadian, I don’t know the meaning of cold!” I teased as I walked into my own bedroom to get changed.

Alice walked out in a gorgeous, loosely fitting green sweater, black skinny jeans, black snow boots, and carried her coat, hat, and scarf draped over her arm. She smiled and tugged the sleeve of my gray sweater gently.

“I like this on you,” she said.

“You look gorgeous,” I replied, causing her to blush. I sat on the couch to lace up my brown boots, which were technically work boots, but they kept the snow out and they had good grip on the ice, so I wasn’t about to trade them in. We both buttoned up our coats, and I couldn’t help but laugh as Alice wrapped her Devils scarf around her neck and tugged her Devils hat onto her head. I draped my plain black scarf over my shoulders, not really needing it but taking it just in case. I pulled my black and gray ski cap on, and Alice rolled her eyes when she saw it.

“It has flowers on it Marc,” she muttered.

“They’re not flowers,” I replied quickly.

“Yes they are. You’ll go for anything that is slightly manly and flower print just because of your nickname. Don’t lie to yourself,” Alice smirked before grabbing the keys to her Saturn off of the key hook next to the door.