Still Waters (Lover's Lake)

“No!” she said, raising her voice. Tears were streaming down her face and I realized my anger was making it worse.

“I’m sorry, baby,” I said. I fell to my knees and put my head in her lap. “I can’t lose you, Tatum. I can’t let anything bad happen to you.”

…

Ms. O’Geary admitted that she was old fashioned, but she gave us the choice of pulling out the sofa downstairs or squishing into Tatum’s twin bed in her old room. We chose the living room and after Madeline kissed her daughter goodnight, she pulled me into a hug and squeezed me tight.

“I thank God for sending you,” she said under her breath.

Fio had come around, and we were no longer in a stalemate. She agreed to let me manage her care when I used the analogy of how she felt about her mother’s illness. She reluctantly handed over her prescriptions and the notes from her last appointment at the clinic. I planned to call in the morning and make an appointment. If she needed them, I’d gladly let Tatum use all of my organs.

Under the covers, in the silvery glow of moonlight, I milked three earth-shattering orgasms from my love with my hands, my mouth, and my cock. I didn’t care if Tate’s moans were loud enough to wake the whole neighborhood. Her pleasure meant more to me than decorum or modestly.

When she was halfway asleep and snuggled into my chest she confessed, “I didn’t used to care if my kidneys failed, if I died or not didn’t seem to make a difference. But then I met you, fell in love with you, and now I want to stay here.”

“You’re staying, Fio. You’re not leaving this world, or the virtual world without me.”

Epilogue- Five Years Later

TATUM

Before Rafa, when I went to the doctor, I never even asked questions. I didn’t have enough interest in my own health to learn how to prolong my life or make the one I was living optimal. Rafa, on the other hand, asked so many freaking questions I was afraid the doctors would either begin to refuse service or they’d offer him a job.

He often called our sister-in-law Sophie to grill her on transplant recipients, post- transplant pregnancy and anything else he was obsessing about. But I was lucky to have him. And lucky to have Sophie too. She and Gabe had flown out and stayed with us when we underwent the surgery. Soph blew me away with her ability to care for us when she was partially blind herself. She even helped my mom in the last stages of her life. But we were family, and that’s what families do. I would have given an organ to any of them, or taken a bullet, or joined up in any disaster the Connor brothers had gotten themselves into.

Rafa used a pill splitter to reduce my immune-suppressant drugs by half. We were tapering down because we were trying to get pregnant.

“I think you’re obsessed with sticking things in me, Connor. For one, certain parts of your anatomy. I’ve already got your kidney in me and now you expect me to carry your baby?” I said between cups of coffee—of which my over-protective husband let me have one sacred measured cup in the mornings. “Do you just want me to slowly morph, atom by atom until I become you?”

“And what would you rather have me obsess about, Fio? The deck? The garden beds out by the garage? Finishing the basement? Scheduling time for the cabin? Saving the dot gov sites from the malware attack by the Russians?”

“Never mind. Point taken, you’re obsessed with everything.”

It didn’t take us long to get pregnant after my meds were tapered down as low as they could go. We were a year and half out from the transplant surgery and the doctors said we were in a good place to try. And Rafa liked to try. A lot.

The day I found out, he was at work. Rafa had a real office and brought home a real paycheck working cyber security for the feds. I was the one who made money under the table. I couldn’t hang up my white hat just yet, so continued to syphon information from traffickers and expose them to whoever was willing to listen—the media—the feds—their employers and families. I worked mostly from home and still tried to keep my identity hidden. Rags, our styling and shopping app was doing really well too. But we gave most of that money to charity, we didn’t need a ton for ourselves.

I peed on six tests from the drug store and they all came out positive. I guess Rafa’s obsessiveness was starting to rub off on me. I thought about calling him or driving over to see him, but then I decided to have a little fun—Connor style and notify him the old fashioned way.