“We’ll discuss this later, Nora. Your mother is hosting a dinner on Friday. You’ll be there.”
Without even looking at us again, he gets into his car and drives away.
I hear Nora exhale from behind me.
I turn around and stare into her face. She’s still pale, still shaky.
“Are you ok?”
She nods.
“Yeah. Thank you for… thank you.”
I nod. “I don’t like bullies.”
“Me either,” she murmurs. She stretches on her toes to get the house key and unlocks the door.
As we go in, she turns to me. “I think I have to go to my mother’s dinner. Will you go with me?”
Her voice is strained, her eyes empty.
I immediately agree. “Of course.”
“Thank you. I’m going to… take a shower. Are you ok out here for a while?”
“Of course.”
I watch her walk away, her back stiff, her hands fisted at her sides.
She’s in the shower for a long time.
The physical therapist comes and does his thirty minutes of PT with me before Nora finally emerges from the bathroom, steamy and clean.
“How did PT go?” she asks curiously as she steeps some tea in a china cup. I notice that her arms are red. She scrubbed them with force.
I shrug. “It’s ok. I know what to expect. This isn’t my first rodeo.”
Nora sits in the chair next to me by the window.
“Was your leg really shattered before?”
“Pretty much. I think I’ve got more metal and screws in it than bone. But it’s okay. I can walk, which is more than a lot of guys.”
Without meaning to, I think of Mad Dog, my old colleague and friend, whose legs were blown off in front of me. He hadn’t survived.
“This dinner,” I change the subject. “What’s it for?”
Nora shrugs. “I don’t know. My father makes my mother host dinner parties for his business associates. It’s hard to say who will be there or what this one is for.”
I eye her carefully. “Will William be there?”
Nora tenses up, her hands gripping her china cup. “Probably.”
I don’t answer, although I’m even more assured now that I need to go with her to the dinner.
After a moment, Nora speaks. “What my dad said… about you being a gimp… don’t listen to him. You’re amazing. Your little pinky is more of a man than my father will ever be.”
I have to smile at this. “It’s okay. I don’t usually let assholes influence the way I see myself.”