Page 55 of Housekeeping

“Fine,” I muttered. “I’ll take your advice. But…”

“I’ll assume you came here to ask for time off,” he said, cutting me off. “Usually, I wouldn’t. And you shouldn’t be asking either, but we can't have you distracted or that could just cause a disaster later. You can go, and I’ll pick up the slack for you, as long as you know you’ll be making up the work later.”

I snorted. “Why do you make it sound like homework?”

Still, I sent him a grateful smile as I left the office. I knew he wasn’t kidding, and later I’d be annoyed with myself for it, but the most important thing was to find Laura. I’d been to her apartment already, and she hadn't been there both times I stopped by, so I went back to my room to call the cleaning department and ask about her.

“Hello, Margaret?” I spoke before she could say anything. “I’d like you to look into one of the maids for me. Laura? Is she around? Could you ask her to come to my room, please?”

I was being a little bold. I didn’t even make the pretense that I was calling her up to come clean, and the other end of the call was silent for a long minute. But then I cleared my throat, and she seemed to come back to herself.

“Uh, Laura. I know her. I’m afraid she’s not in today. She hasn’t been in for some time, and I had someone else assigned to your room already.”

I frowned, suddenly feeling worried. It was one thing for her not to be in her apartment or picking up her calls. I’d told myself she was either just not there when I went—though one time I’d waited in front of her door for an hour, and another time I went earlier than she usually left, in case I was just missing her—or she was staying with a friend. But if she wasn’t coming into work, then I didn’t even have a way to check in on her to see how she was doing.

“Why hasn’t she been coming into work?” I asked.

She hesitated, but in the end, told me what I needed to know.

“The last time I spoke to her, she asked to take some time off. She didn’t give me a straight reason why just said it was for health reasons. I didn’t pry into what it was though, and I don’t have anything more to tell you on the matter.”

Health reasons… no way.

“Thank you for the information,” I said distractedly, then set the phone down.

Slowly, I walked over to the couch and sat down in a daze. There was this uncomfortable feeling in my stomach like I’d just been gutted.

Health reasons… I knew, though she hadn't said it outright, that she’d had cancer before. With the little info I knew about cancer patients, I knew it was a possibility for them to relapse. If she had gone off the grid and even taken time out of work… Had it come back?

“Don’t think that way,” I muttered to myself, trying to push back the worry and fear wanting to overtake me. “It could be something else.”

I didn’t believe that though, and as I pulled my phone from my pocket to dial my sister, my hands trembled so much it took me a few tries before I managed. I held the phone up, the sound of my heart beating so loudly in my ears making me wonder if I would even hear her.

She answered on the second ring and I felt as if my heart skipped a fucking beat. Shit, I really was being a bit too sensitive these days. I’d gone from being angry all the time to a lovesick teenager and I thought about the saying, ‘Love makes you do crazy things’ and I started to believe it was true.

“What’s up, Mason?” she chirped. “Do you want me to give you more pointers about your girlfriend?”

That had me squeezing my eyes shut. That pretty much meant she didn’t know anything about Laura, right? But I decided to ask anyway.

“You said the two of you were friends,” I mumbled, my voice sounding very far away. “Emily, have you heard from Laura? She isn’t picking up any of my calls. She’s not home and I just heard she took time off work for health reasons. If you know anything, please, I need to talk to her.”

My heart beat anxiously as I waited for her answer, even though I already guessed what it would be and that I would be disappointed.

After a long moment of silence, she answered, and I felt strangely relieved.

“I… don’t know. I’m sorry, Mason. I told you, I don’t speak to her as often as I speak to Jessi. She’s always busy, so I try not to bother her too often.”

I sighed and leaned back, tilting my head against the back of the couch as I let my eyes slide closed. Fuck. If even Emily had no idea, then how could I find her?

“If she is sick and ignoring you right now, you know you can't use that as an excuse to leave her, right?”

“I don’t need you to tell me that,” I retorted.

“I think you do,” she said. “If she’s pushing you away right now, it’s not because she doesn’t want to see you. If it’s so important that she had to take time off work, she’s probably scared right now, and she’s only doing this to protect you. So don’t abandon her, okay?”

I winced, squeezing my eyes closed and felt like something pierced my chest. I’d meant it when I said I didn’t need her to tell me. I wasn’t about to just leave Laura. The only way that would happen is if she told me to my face she wanted me gone, and she hadn't done that yet.

“I don’t plan on it,” I promised. “So don’t worry about that.”

“Keep waiting, and you’ll hear from her at some point,” she said. “This is going to be the decider of your relationship, to see just how serious you are. If she is sick, do you think you can love her, and be there for her for what she needs? This is probably the thought going through her mind, and why she’s avoiding you. Can you be her caretaker, her friend, and her lover at a time like this?”