I was doing my part to make sure she was as babied as I could make her. Bringing her another cup of soup was about all I could do that morning, aside from making sure she had a bucket and a pitcher with tons of ice and a glass for water. I sat at the foot of the bed and rubbed her legs over the blanket. She was curled up on one side, looking tired and sad and still, somehow, cute. I could mostly only see hair as her head was buried under a pillow, and the blankets were pulled up to her chin. Her eyes were barely visible in the shadow under the pillow from where I sat.
“I’m getting a little worried about you, Chloe,” I said.
“It’s fine,” she grumbled. “It hasn’t even been a whole twenty-four hours yet. I’ll get better.”
“Are you sure? You seem miserable.”
“I’m sure,” she said. “It’s probably one of those bugs that comes and goes. You should go on into work.”
“I don’t really want to leave you. What if you need help?”
“I’ll call you,” she said. “The bar is only a few minutes from here, and you can come to me if I need help. But I won’t. Because it’s fine.” A tired smile crossed her lips, and I frowned.
“You promise you’ll call if you need something?”
“Promise,” she said. “Pinky swear.”
One hand came out of the mound of blankets on the bed, sticking straight up in the air, pinky pointing up. I hooked it with my own and shook. Then the hand slowly descended back to the pit it came from. I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Okay,” I said. “I’m going to get out of here.”
As I stood up, the hand poked back out of the covers and waved, so I waved back. Then I turned off the main lamp, leaving the little soft yellow lamp on in the corner, and headed out to the living room. Chloe had made a bed on the couch for much of the day before, and I cleaned up the spot she had been in and made a new bed for her there in case she ventured into the living room.
When I got to work, Jordan waved from the bar when he saw me, and I waved back as I headed into the kitchen. My usual routine was to hang up my jacket, wash my hands and arms, grab my apron, and then open up my knife bag. I got as far as washing my hands before Jordan was poking his head in.
“Hey, man,” he said. He was grinning in a good-natured way, and I thanked my luck that at least I didn’t have to deal with Grumpy Jordan.
“Yo, what’s up?”
“Just checking in with you. You still feeling okay? How’s Chloe?” he asked.
“I’m good. Not feeling sick or running a fever or anything. Chloe feels like death, but getting a little better, I think. She’s all bundled up in bed,” I said. “Thanks for asking.”
“Before I go back to the bar,” Jordan said, pulling himself back into the room after initially starting to walk away, “Hannah had an idea. We were talking about how low-key your wedding was and how you guys deserved a reception if you wanted one. No pressure or anything, but I know all of us in the family want to celebrate you getting hitched since most of them weren’t there. We could do it at the bar in Astoria. Go home for a big party.”
“That sounds fun,” I said, finding myself to actually mean it. “You think Ava would do a theme for us?”
I laughed. Jordan did not.
“Yes,” he said, completely stone-faced. “Yes, she would. And it would be awesome.”
I laughed so hard I nearly doubled over, and Jordan joined me.
“Alright, I have to get dishes prepped for tonight, so unless you want to grab a knife and get to chopping, you had better leave me be,” I said.
“Just tell Chloe,” he said. “I’m sure she’d be down for it if she knew it was the Andersons throwing it at the old bar.”
“Maybe. I’ll run it by her.”
I got out of the bar a little early, thanks to a slower kitchen night and Jordan telling me to go ahead and bounce around midnight. I had prepped a bunch of the regular food, so all it needed was to be dropped in the fryer or heated in the stove or a pan for a few minutes before plating. The line cook was more than capable of running the kitchen for an hour or so. Besides, I had a sick wife to take care of.
It still felt super weird to think of her that way, but it was what it was. She was legally my wife. It just so happened to have started as a joke, but now it was feeling like so much more. I had lucked into the best relationship in my life.